Les Menestriers

 LES MENESTRIERS / THE MINSTRELS

Disques du Cavalier, 1970, BP 2001

This is the first album of this French band, one the major bands of Early music at the time founded by Julien Skowron and Yves Audard in 1969 . Among the five  members Julien Skowron on dessus de viole (viola da gamba) became the most known in the medieval and Renaissance circles; he took part in several bands notably La Maurache and had been a teacher at the Conservatoire de Gennevilliers near Paris for thirty years.  They recorded nine albums between 1970 and 1980.
Early music (in France anyway) was restricted to a small amount of performers and musicologists and was percieved as an extension of ''classical music'' hence an interpretation sometimes rigid. The band wanted to extract those early pieces from that classical conception and bring them to a large audience thanks to good arrangements, mastering of the instruments and a lively approach. They were quite successful. I discovered this kind of music withe their albums as well as with other bands like the Florilegium Musicum de Paris.
What was important as well was the fact that a new type of music had appeared at the end of the 60s : the folk revival; at that time early music and French folk were close enough.
So I would say that the Ménetriers paved the way to the numerous youngers musicians and groups who followed them in performing and studying this great repertoire.
Side A is about compositions dated from the 13th to the 15th century, side B dedicated to the 16th century with a good deal of pieces by Tielman Susato.

 

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Faramarz Payvar

 CITHARE EN IRAN . SANTUR

ZITHER IN IRAN . SANTUR

FARAMARZ PAYVAR

EMI PATHE-MARCONI, 1979, 2 S 062 53.233

Among the different albums of this excellent series ''Arabesques" this one is perhaps the best. Recorded in 1979 in Tehran by the founder of this collection Jean-Claude Chabrier, the artist is the outstanding santur player Faramarz Payvar (1933-2009). For this ''recital at Tehran'' Payvar chose to explore the mode nava during 40 minutes and 40 seconds as the cover says. Played in one go without any break (except for the change of side and the move of one bridge at 34' in order to modulate on other gushe-s) nor ''doctoring'' this album shows the great mastering of the classical Persian tradition by Payvar. The chaharmezrab on side A (at 4') is just wonderful both melodically and technically.

Besides the music the first quality of this series is the work done by Chabrier or other musicologists who analyzed and introduced these musics in their cultural context.

Here Chabrier wrote about music inside Islam, the history of music in Iran, the characteristics of the santur, Payvar's career. Other information are about the scales in Arabic-Persian and Turkish musics based on the ud fingering. The dastgah-e nava is also well presented with all the different parts so that we can enjoy even more this grand rendition. It is all in French only 

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Emilio Cao

 

LENDA DA PEDRA DO DESTIÑO

LEGEND OF THE STONE OF DESTINY

EMILIO CAO 

Guimbarda, 1979, GS-11.007

This is E. Cao's  second album after the first one in 1977. He was a pioneer of the revival movement in Galicia and is credited to be the first to have introduced the harp in Galician folk.

This album is about a legend about the Stone of Destiny which was at Scone in Scotland.

This legend dates back to biblical times and states that it is the same stone which Jacob used as a pillow at Bethel. Later, according to Jewish legend, it became the pedestal of the ark in the Temple. The stone was brought from Syria to Egypt by King Gathelus, who then fled to Spain following the defeat of the Egyptian army. A descendant of Gathelus brought the stone to Ireland, and was crowned on it as King of Ireland. And from Ireland, the stone moved with the invading Scots to Argyll.

E. Cao in addition to the harp also plays the citola, guitar, electric bass, keyboards, hurdy-gurdy and mandolin. He sings as well. He's joined by Xoan Silvar on gaita, flutes and percussions. They are joined on track B4 by Welsh musicians : Mary Jo Searle on fiddle, Rob Comley on bodhran and Tomy Jenkins on crumhorn.

Tracks B2 and B3 are one piece. The booklet is in Castilian with the lyrics in Galician and Castilian.

Cao liked to try different sound effects especially the slow rising of the music at the beginning of a track; so the background noise of my album  is at times at the forefront.

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Pérotin le Grand

 

PEROTIN LE GRAND / MUSIQUE A NOTRE -DAME / AN 1200

PEROTIN THE GREAT / MUSIC AT NOTRE-DAME / YEAR 1200

Collegium Aureum/Deller Consort
Choeur et ensemble instrumental -  direction, Alfred Deller

Harmonia Mundi, ?, HM 30 823

The beginning of the 13th century saw the rise of Paris as an European capital with the apparition of a new form of music : polyphony. Already the near completion of the cathedral Notre-Dame in 1182 was an event in itself. There in the cathedral a school of music was established with composers like Pérotin who died around 1230. From the  monodic Gregorian chanting, Perotin and other masters built a new way of celebrating Christian events like christmas with three-part singing set on three-beat vocalise. It is said that the singers were in a state of trance that distorted their faces thus frightening the audience...But this revolution spread out in the whole of Western Europe.

Here the four singers are backed by some instruments like the portable organ or the recorder. The result is great although I think there is too much reverberation. My copy being not very good I had to use another rip which is a bit better. But the three tracks on each side are together in one. Hope it's not too bothering for you.

A. Deller died in 1979 and put the contertenor voice back on the forefront.

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ᶜАLĪ ᶜАBDALLĀH AL-SIMAH

 

ᶜАLĪ ᶜАBDALLĀH AL-SIMAH

''YĀ JĀRIḤ AL-AKBĀD''

AG, ?, G.A.Z 42

Al-Simah is another great musicians from Sanaa; unfortunately I have no information about him.

All I can say is that he's a very good singer with a powerful 'ud playing. As usual he's backed by several percussions. If somebody can get translation of the titles or some information about him...

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