The Early Music Club (EMC)

[Vinbrulé]

I have bought for a little money this box produced by ORF ( Austrian TV ) :  2 CDs plus 1 DVD
In the DVD there is a 60' movie, where all the Eberhard Kummer videos you find on YouTube are taken from. Here is the list :
a) H. von Montfort  "Ich frow mich gen"
b) H. von Montfort  "Ich fragt ain wachter"
c) Nibelungenlied "Uns ist in alten maeren"
d) Anonym/von der Vogelweide  "En mai / Under der linden"
e) Anonym  "Es hat ein biderman ein weib"
f) Kaspar von der Roen  "Zwerg Laurin"
g) O. von Wolkenstein "Es nahet gen der uasenacht"

A Tyrolean Homer 

[Mandryka]

I have bought for a little money this box produced by ORF ( Austrian TV ) :  2 CDs plus 1 DVD
In the DVD there is a 60' movie, where all the Eberhard Kummer videos you find on YouTube are taken from. Here is the list :
a) H. von Montfort  "Ich frow mich gen"
b) H. von Montfort  "Ich fragt ain wachter"
c) Nibelungenlied "Uns ist in alten maeren"
d) Anonym/von der Vogelweide  "En mai / Under der linden"
e) Anonym  "Es hat ein biderman ein weib"
f) Kaspar von der Roen  "Zwerg Laurin"
g) O. von Wolkenstein "Es nahet gen der uasenacht"

A Tyrolean Homer 

Let me know if you see this for sale anywhere again, I wouldn't mind hearing it.

[Vinbrulé]

I found it in a shop of used books, together with Graindelavoix "Motets" .  A lucky strike !

[Vinbrulé]

I was rather biased towards this CD .  On the contrary , I've liked it immediately, at first listening.  But....are we sure that these are not Arvo Part's compositions ?   

[San Antone]

I was rather biased towards this CD (Motets/Graindelavoix] . 

I used to be somewhat biased against Schmelzer's approach but have come to respect what he does quite a bit.  My entire orientation towards the performance of early music has done an almost 180 degree rotation.  It is in response to a combination of reading Richard Taruskin and discussions with Elizabeth Eva Leech on the subject of "authenticity" in performance of early music.  Also a brief colloquy with Schmelzer regarding his recording of the Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame.

Early music as done by Graindelavoix, for me, is a creative and imaginative and very enjoyable experience to hear.

[Mandryka]

I'm very tempted to go and hear them have a go at Gesualdo in Paris (Louvre) in April.

By the way Sollazzo Ensemble have a new programme, Firenze circa 1350, which they'll do in Cambridge in May, I'll try to get there.

Huelgas Ensemble are doing a three day total immersion event in a little inaccessible place near Dijon, Eglise Notre-Dame de Talant,  am I mad enough to go?

[San Antone]

I'm very tempted to go and hear them have a go at Gesualdo in Paris (Louvre) in April.

By the way Sollazzo Ensemble have a new programme, Firenze circa 1350, which they'll do in Cambridge in May, I'll try to get there.

Huelgas Ensemble are doing a three day total immersion event in a little inaccessible place near Dijon, Eglise Notre-Dame de Talant,  am I mad enough to go?

Is this it?



I like this recording, but like it even more if it did not use women.

[Mandryka]

Is this it?



I like this recording, but like it even more if it did not use women.

I'm not sure. If that is it then I'll make a real effort to go.

[JBS]

.

Huelgas Ensemble are doing a three day total immersion event in a little inaccessible place near Dijon, Eglise Notre-Dame de Talant,  am I mad enough to go?

I would say if logistics allow, you would be mad not to go...

[Vinbrulé]

I used to be somewhat biased against Schmelzer's approach but have come to respect what he does quite a bit.  My entire orientation towards the performance of early music has done an almost 180 degree rotation.  It is in response to a combination of reading Richard Taruskin and discussions with Elizabeth Eva Leech on the subject of "authenticity" in performance of early music.  Also a brief colloquy with Schmelzer regarding his recording of the Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame.

Early music as done by Graindelavoix, for me, is a creative and imaginative and very enjoyable experience to hear.

Repeated listening of "Motets" by Graindelavoix have wiped out all the reserves I had on first listening :  this is a great CD !!!

[Vinbrulé]

Troubadours and trouvères. Some pieces are purely instrumental.  The vocal pieces show the fresh, girlish voice of Mara Kiek , a new entry for me.
She is clearly at ease in songs like " Kalenda Maia " ( Vaqueiras ) and " L'on dit q'amors est dolce chose " ( anon. )  and well manages to characterize the two protagonists ( the poet Giraut de Bornehl and the young maid Alamanda ) of the 'tenso' at track 10 .
Immediately in search of other performances of this Australian-born singer !!!

[Mandryka]

Christopher Page says

The performances gathered here are based upon the assumption that the cancionero repertory was primarily intended for unaccompanied voices, rather than for the ensembles of mixed voices and instruments so widely used for this music today. This change in performance practice has the potential to modify our perception of these pieces. The declamation of a text often becomes more iterative and urgent once all the voices participate in it (as in Harto de tanta porfía E1, for example), while the harmony can become thicker and more dramatic, especially in homophonic pieces such as Juan del Encina's Mi libertad 1 where the texture establishes a rapid succession of unanimous changes of vowel colour. This generates the brightness familiar to those who know the poly - phonic conducti of earlier centuries. An a cappella approach also sidesteps some of the recurrent problems associated with this music in modern performance: the tendency to use consorts of viols—an anachronism (unfortunately) in the music of Encina and his contemporaries—or to employ percussion, so often used today to give some pieces a rumbustious or theatrical character when it might be argued that they require neither.

The justification is not given historically, it's given in performance terms. The justification consists in the drama, the textures, the way it avoids things he doesn't like like theatricality. He's not saying that people sang it a cappella in the day; he's saying he's assuming they did to see what happens.

It may be that what's happening is that a small and limited historical argument about a cappella has inspired performances in areas like Spanish music, not for HIP reasons, but because it's fun to experiment.

[Mandryka]

Troubadours and trouvères. Some pieces are purely instrumental.  The vocal pieces show the fresh, girlish voice of Mara Kiek , a new entry for me.
She is clearly at ease in songs like " Kalenda Maia " ( Vaqueiras ) and " L'on dit q'amors est dolce chose " ( anon. )  and well manages to characterize the two protagonists ( the poet Giraut de Bornehl and the young maid Alamanda ) of the 'tenso' at track 10 .
Immediately in search of other performances of this Australian-born singer !!!

A very penetrating sound, and quite a music theatre way of singing I think.

it's interesting that performance of Kalenda Maia because I'm used to hearing it as a jaunty dance.

[JBS]

Crosspost from WAYLT

CD 2 Vespers of St Joseph
[asin]B07NB946S6[/asin]


Live recordings from 2005. You can tell this was recorded in a church from the sound.
The Selva are, for this set, arranged in three programs: Vespers of St Gabriele, Vespers of St. Joseph, and a Missa Solemnis. To do this, five non-liturgical pieces, two hymns, and a motet were omitted, so this is not a truly complete recording. But otherwise it seems exemplary.

[San Antone]

Do you like early fiddle music?



Dietmar Berger

[Mandryka]

Do you like early fiddle music?



Dietmar Berger

Love this, I play it quite often, once I start to listen to it I find it hard to pull myself away,  I like also his Manchester Viol Book recording.

[San Antone]

Love this, I play it quite often, once I start to listen to it I find it hard to pull myself away,  I like also his Manchester Viol Book recording.

Did we have a discussion about these recordings before?  I seem to remember discussing this music now that you mention the Manchester recording - which made me also think of the Berlin viol gamba album. 

[Mandryka]

Did we have a discussion about these recordings before?  I seem to remember discussing this music now that you mention the Manchester recording - which made me also think of the Berlin viol gamba album.

I don't know, though I've known about him for years. The one I've never got into is the Berlin Gamba Book, maybe I should try it again. In the Manchester Gamba Book there's a fabulous thing, a pavan by Gervise Gerrarde. While I appreciate Dietmar Berger for having made this music accessible there's a recording on Spotify of the Gerrarde pavan by Jonathan Dunford which shows up Dietmar's limitations as a musician a bit.

[Vinbrulé]

Sabine Lutzenberger has a consolidated place in my personal pantheon, Mara Kiek is pushing to enter in it !!
Mara's reading of the seven Canciones de amigo by Martin Codax is heartfelt, full of pathos , her singing points toward the 'viscera' (the 3 lower chakras) and then reaches the 'heart' (the 3 middle chakras) .   Sabine's singing (expecially in this marvellous CD) goes directly to the heart .... aiming to the Heaven (the 3 upper chakras, and beyond...... )     

[Mandryka]

Just found this: unknown composer, passionate music, passionate performance (love the woman's voice)

https://www.youtube.com/v/7bHXaF40Tmg