Early Music - The Best 1,000 Years of My Life

Discussion in 'Music and Recordings' started by MoatsArt, Oct 26, 2015.

  1. Deep Funk

    Deep Funk Deep thoughts - Friend

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    Okay, I now feel obliged to finish listening to this. Harmonia Mundi released this set.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2015
  2. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    Another version of the Tallis "If ye love me" with minimum number of singers per part!

     
  3. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    True. We throw around dates all the time for when an era starts and ends, but it's rarely that clean a boundary.
     
  4. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    That's a nice performance by Dickey!

    The sound of the cornett (or zink, as I've heard it called) does gives a fluid and melodious sound, doesn't it? And with a mouthpiece about the size of an acorn, I would not be surprised if it is difficult to play. Yet, I've also read this piece (by a performing group at Iowa State University in the USA) which mentions:

    Very little breath is used in playing the zink. Mersenne mentions a French court musician, M. Sourin of Avignon, who could play one hundred measures in one breath!!

    Regardless, it would be fun to try out some of these ancient designs. I'm sure your family can understand that the $500 you'd pay is an investment. Well that, plus the fare for the trip to London. And add in just a bit extra for the shops your wife may wish to visit while in the big city. :)
     
  5. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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  6. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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    Just picked up this:

    pretty good, so far

    [​IMG]
     
  7. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    Ah, man! More by Lassus that I've not heard of. And another early music group as well!
    I've got to stop fiddling with headphone gear and pick up my game.
     
  8. Claritas

    Claritas Friend

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    Yes, thank you (and FTFY).
     
  9. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    Definitely yes. I appreciate that you have the time, knowledge and disposition to share.
     
  10. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    I hear this one rather rarely, and the only time I've seen it in performance is precisely on the Praetorius Dances. There it seems obligatoire, but I can't think of any other case when I've seen it used. I'll try to flip though some of my LPs tonight and see what I might find.

    I had no idea how these things were made. Very clever!
     
  11. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    I've searched through my music collection and there are a half dozen titles that mention rackett. All but two are listed in Praetorius' Dances.
    So perhaps the instrumentation is clearly called out for this suite.

    I have a big glossy booklet by David Munrow and he says that the instrument was first documented in 1576 in Wurttemberg. And he mentions a (to him) well known
    painting of the Munich court band in the time of Lassus which depicts the rackett as part of a mixed consort. So I think I'll do another pass of
    my Lassus disks with closer inspection.

    I have another Lp with the Early Music consort of London and The Morley Consort directed by Munrow. There's a set of dances by Susato
    in which Munrow includes the rackett in the Danse du Roy, Ronde, and the Pavane La Bataille. However, Munrow says that Susato made
    "no indication of the instrumentation beyond the suggestion: pleasing and appropriate to be played on musical instruments of all kinds."

    Well surely there are other compositions where it is used, but I think I'd actually have to do some work to ferret them out.:eek:
     
  12. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    Here's the booklet: http://www.amazon.com/Instruments-Middle-Renaissance-David-Munrow/dp/0193213214 which is fairly easy to come by from used book sellers.
    It came together in an LP set, also somewhat available and later released on CD as mentioned here: http://www.discogs.com/David-Munrow...e-Middle-Ages-And-Renaissance/release/2899397

    The recording with the Susato Dances seem to have been remixed and combined into this edition: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Renaissance-Dance-Bands-Contemporaries/dp/B000003XJL
     
  13. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    Beautiful demonstration/explication of the hurdy gurdy. If the legendary Sphinx ever tests you with this riddle,
    "It sounds like people singing and horns blowing and a host of fiddles playing and makes folk dance... what is it?"
    Well now the answer is known.

    Some decades back, there was a lovely little pub near my workplace and we would sometimes adjourn on
    Friday nights to level out the week. And if you stayed and had a few more, then the Friday night musicians
    would show up and pretty often this included a stout hurdy gurdy player and lovely lass. The lass did sing
    and played on several other instruments. What a great evening.... "Sir, one more please!"
     
  14. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    Well, I'm still back up at the Pilgrimage to Santiago. What a wonderful idea for a program.

    I think thIs "Ex illustri nata prosapia" is from the Codex Las Huelgas -- anyway, leaping about from one
    Youtube video to another makes me think so. If so, then that manuscript contains 45 monophonic pieces and 141 polyphonic compositions
    from the 13th century.

    I love music of this type -- it feels like the composer and his peers are speaking directly to me. I hear the chord structures and these voices
    as though it is a broadcast directly from the 1200s. It locks me onto a non-mundane wavelength. Rather
    that communicating about the daily activity of life, this music reaches above and beyond to the frequencies above all profane
    preoccupations. Really, it is from an radio station transmitting the sounds of transcendent bliss.
     
  15. dubiousmike

    dubiousmike Friend

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    Enjoying the Choir of Trinity College's recording of this right now. Just lovely!
     
  16. Jeb

    Jeb Friend

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    I really know nothing of this genre and I'm not a musician so will likely say something inane ....but last year a friend said they had tickets to go and see something called the Tallis Scolars at the church just around the corner. I really had no idea what to expect but it turned out to be one of the most memorable live music experiences I've ever had.

    I don't know the names of any of the pieces they performed but looking through this thread I immediately recognised the above Miserere video posted previously by MoatsArt and mentioned today by dubiousmike. I remember they performed it similarly to in the video with some positioned in the centre stage, some all the way at the back of the church and some up on the balcony. I'm not religious at all but that beautiful sound in that setting was incredible and I will never forget it.

    So thanks for posting all this great music... I've been meaning to look into this more but didn't really know where to begin.
     
  17. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    +1 What a great introduction to early music.

    On a separate topic. For those who may be interested, a DVD of the Monteverdi L'Orfeo performance is available at reasonable discount from Arkiv Music.
     
  18. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    I watched your youtube posting of the L'Orfeo yesterday and found myself sitting through the entire performance.
    Savall is magnetic, pulling in great performers and getting the most out of them.
     
  19. dubiousmike

    dubiousmike Friend

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    In addition to the more sophisticated forms of early music, I confess I have a great love for standout recordings and performances of traditional satb hymns (many of which I believe were composed during the early music period). Just can't entirely escape that Anglican upbringing I suppose, but for me, it was always the music gave meaning to the religion, not the other way around. There is just something transcendent about singing simple harmonies in a choir with great intonation. I dearly miss that but find some of the same in listening to others through a good system.

    Two wonderful, but little known, recordings I have really been enjoying lately:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  20. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    @dubiousmike , what is satb? Or is this one of those auto-correct creations?
     

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