Le Cris de Paris: Chansons de Janequin & Sermisy [Import]

Janequin (Artist), Ensemble Clement Janequin (Artist), Visse (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 17, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
• ASIN: B0000007I4
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,819 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Voulez Ouyr Les Cris De Paris - Ens Clement Janequin/Dominique Visse

2. Languir Me Fais

3. Je N'ay Point Plus D'Affection

4. Je N'ay Point Plus D'Affection

5. La, La, Maistre Pierre

6. Ung Mari Se Voulant Coucher

7. Secourez Moy

8. Du Beau Tetin

9. Or Vein Ca

10. La Bataille

11. La Meusniere De Vernon

12. Dont Vient Cela

13. L'amour, La Mort Et La Vie

14. Martin Menoit Son Pourceau

15. Las, Je M'y Plains

16. Au Joly Jeu

17. Joyssance Vous Donneray

18. Au Joly Boys

19. Tu Disoys Que J'en Mourroys

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reissued Now on Musique d'Abord!, September 25, 2008

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Le Cris de Paris: Chansons de Janequin & Sermisy (Audio CD)

If you have a mental image of the Renaissance as a rollicking time of bawdy humor in rowdy taverns, and yet you are constantly surprised by music of exquisite refinement and intellectuality - Ockeghem, Josquin, Lassus, Palestrina inter alia - then this performance of Parisian chansons from the first half of the 16th Century will rescue you from your disillusionment. Several of these texts are raunchy enough to be sung at any lowlife tavern in Amsterdam then or now, though a few are still delicate enough for public radio.

Clement Janequin and Claudin de Sermisy were extremely well known in their time because of the printing and publication of these and hundreds more of their chansons by Pierre Attaingnant, whose collections reached all corners of Europe. Thus it's obvious that the chanson repertoire was intended for recreational amateur singers, urban middle class people chiefly, the 'new rich' who bought printed music while the aristocracy still preferred exquisite illuminated manuscripts. Both the humor and the sentiment in these would have resonated with such an audience. Make no mistake about the musical sophistication, however; though the demands on the singers are not virtuosic, these chansons are extremely well-composed and imaginative as well as novel in rhythm and counterpoint.

The title chanson - Voulez ouyr les cris de Paris, by Janequin - is one of the earliest pieces of "program" music in European history; it sets in sober polyphony all the shouts and hoots of the peddlers and hawkers in a Parisian street market: Herring! Pickled herring! Peaches! Turnips! Look at my berries, my fine wild berries! Etc. Janequin also gets credit for the first "battle" chanson, celebrating the French victory at Maregnano, with the sounds of battle - the fanfares, the drums, marching steps, clashing lances - all imitated in vocal ployphony.

Ensemble Clement Janequin! You can spot the respect for the composer in the name they've chosen for themselves. They - in this case five singers led by Dominique Visse - perform this music with gusto and creativity, and make it work as a concert for modern ears. At times nasal and comical, at times langorous and sweet, their voices are always spot perfect in ensemble. Both composers, by the way, had "day jobs" - Sermisy was a priest and Janequin was the King's Private Composer - but their musical hearts were with the people in the taverns; their chansons far outnumber their liturgical and devotional compositions.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sermisy is one of the special ones, September 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Le Cris de Paris: Chansons de Janequin & Sermisy (Audio CD)

Steer clear of Jannequin. Sermisy is one of the great melodists. His pieces are emotional testaments. The performance is also wonderful.