Catchy popular tunes are not a modern invention. Neither are poet-musicians with uniquely poignant pertinent comments about life and love. All these things were very much a move of life in 12th- and 13th-century France represented in the vast repertoire of the trouveres (northern provinces) and troubadours (southern provinces). This disc explores a tiny fraction of trouvere songs exemplified in the grand sing,a protracted meditation on the fortunes of loving the jeu parti,a consider concerning questions of like the chanson de toile,a song women sang as they embroidered the pastourelle the descort the balade and dansa. Each of these types of song had a particular poetic form and affect. Five different singers unaccompanied or variously joined by bagpipe percussion fiddle or medieval lute furnish engaging and musically solid interpretations that be serious attention by all lovers of early music and singing. –David Vernier Customer Review: Triumph of the Trouveres. Buy It! ‘Songs of the Trouveres’ in the ‘The Spirits of England and France’ series by the Gothic Voices directed by Christopher Page is one of the exceed ‘early music’ recordings I have bought and heard.
The Trouveres were wandering performers in France who wrote and performed ‘grand chant’ songs in the vernacular. In differentiate to liturgical and other devotional music this was the ’clean opera’ entertainment of the day as this genre was all about ‘a protracted meditation on the fortunes of loving’.
This recording does justice to this series. Gothic Voices and Hyperion. Customer analyse: Stunning (if imbalanced) performances As far as the performances alone on this CD go. I can only quote a reviewer from the American preserve command: ‘This is quite simply the beat recording ever of the Trouvere literature’. Both fans of and newcomers to Gothic Voices will be delighted by these interpretations where 5 singers each act it in turns to act examples of the various Trouvere genres (mostly unaccompanied). Particularly noteworthy are those of Rogers Covey-Crump (who is at his most sensuous on this disc) and Margaret Philpot (who ranges from the wistful to the declamatory). Similarly you will be hard-pressed to sight such intelligent and competent renderings of the estampies (MS du Roi) here played by Pavlo Beznosiuk (solo fiddle).
As always with Gothic Voices the scholastic justification for these performances is strong. Yet whilst every performance decision here could be substantiated by evidence it has to be said that the overall result is a bit dishonest. Whereas the sparsity of documents referring to ’singing and playing’ in ‘High Style’ Troubadour repertory (chansons planhs etc) allowed Christopher Page to furnish the somewhat stiff ‘discontinuity’ disclaimer in his 1987 chew over ‘Voices and Instruments of the lay Ages’ [p.19 ie: is the ‘playing’ simultaneous with or subsequent to the ’singing’?] the larger frequency of such references to ’singing and playing’ in Trouvere repertory forced him to accept that in all probability. Trouvere ‘High Style’ chansons (grand chants) were sometimes accompanied [by vielle/avoid p.30ff]. So could we not have had just one ‘High Style’ chanson accompanied by Pavlo Beznosiuk…? Similarly the overwhelming majority of descriptions of the ‘Lower Style’ genres primarily as accompanied songs (by his own admission) leaves me wondering why he directed a cappella performances of a descort [track 12] a chanson de toile [track 18] and a pastourelle [bring in 15] especially as these first two [12. 18] are the only examples on this recording of these genres and the pastourelle [15] performed a cappella not only mentions a crimp [’frestel’] but also singing and playing [’chantoit et notoit’].
So in short this recording must be warmly recommended but with the proviso that the listener realises this is not the complete picture of Trouvere song. Alongside other equally engaging performances however. (with Trouvere High call songs sometimes accompanied by one harp or vielle eg ‘Lo Gai cut’ - Camerata Mediterranea / Joel Cohen [Erato 2292-45647-2] or ‘The Unicorn’ - Anne Azema [Erato 4509-94830-2]) it is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of how this repertory might have sounded..
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Related article:
http://www.gothicsilk.com/2007/09/15/the-spirits-of-england-and-france-2-songs-of-the-trouveres-gothic-voices-3/
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