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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Medieval music,
By
This review is from: Insula Feminarum - Resonances Médiévales de la Féminité Celte (Sounds of Medieval Celts) (Audio CD)
This cd has excellent notes, mythological and philological, tying the music to the feminine images of the Celtic people, comparing and contrasting those images to the Germanic images. The music performed with voice, lute, flutes, harps, bells and other percussion, violins etc. - some instrumentals but primarily accompanied voices. The music itself is from a variety of countries - English, Italian, French, Orkneys, etc. primarily 13th - 15th century. This provides an excellent variety of music - in selection and ordering this cd is well produced.The preformance is excellent but without any special sparkle. This cd belongs in the collection of anyone with a love of Medieval music but is simple one among several excellent albums available for the rest of us.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Work of Art,
By
This review is from: Insula Feminarum - Resonances Médiévales de la Féminité Celte (Sounds of Medieval Celts) (Audio CD)
Insula Feminarum. Medieval Echoes of Celtic Femininity. Performed by La Reverdie (Claudia Caffagni, lute and vocals; Livia Caffagni, vocals, recorders, vielle and symphony; Elisabetta de' Mircovich, vocals, vielle, rebec, symphony; Ella de' Mircovich, vocals, Gothic harp, Roman harp; Doron David Sherwin, vocals, cornet, percussion, bell; Claudia Pasetto, vielle). Recorded at Como di Rosazzo Abbey, Italy, in March 1997 by Charlotte Gilart de Kéranflec'h and Klaus L. Neumann. Published in 1997 as Arcana A 59. Total time: 64'15".With this disc, La Reverdie continue their exploration of rare medieval songs from England, France, Italy and the German-speaking countries. The long and very interesting essay by Ella de' Mircovich which accompanies the texts of the songs brings evidence that many of the symbols and attitudes apparent in medieval life and literature are "echoes" or reminiscences of pagan, pre-Christian traditions which can, in part at any rate, be traced back to the worship of the goddess Diana or Dana in Indo-Germanic times (her name is to be found in the names of many European rivers, such as the Danube and the Don, and it is anything but far-fetched to see this pagan tradition in the Roman Catholic development of Mariology in the Middle Ages). Both the Celts and the Romans knew of an old tradition of a Western isle where priestesses reigned, and based on this knowledge, La Reverdie have built up a fascinating program in four parts. There is no typically Irish music here (although you might be excused for thinking the second half of "Lamento di Tristano & Rotta" was Irish in origin); rather, the pieces are of mixed provenance, and perhaps it would be in order to say something briefly about every piece. The first part of the CD, entitled "Serca" or "Amores", contains two vocal pieces and three instrumental numbers, two of which have been prepared by members of La Reverdie on the basis of medieval originals. The CD begins, unusually, with a solo song by David Doron Sherwin: "Wyth ryght al my hert", a 15th century English love song that sets the tone for the whole album, the beloved "Annys" being obviously more a goddess than a human lover. "Tir na mBan" is an old Celtic melody about the "isle of women", here played on three vielles, a kind of primitive violin. There follows an anonymous French composition from the 13th century, "Se Geneive, Tristan", from Chantilly, sung by Elisabetta de' Mircovich: the melody is so melismatic that she needs a full three and half minutes to get through six short lines of text! This is followed by the "Lamento di Tristano" (anonymous Italian, 15th century), which turns out to be uncharacteristically merry, and by Doron David Sherwin's instrumentation of "Tre Fontane" for an assortment of medieval instruments. The second part of the CD is entitled "Banflaith" (Regalitas). It begins with two pieces of anonymous English polyphony from the 14th century, the second being found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The first, Deus tuorum militum, is performed by Ella and Elisabetta de' Mircovich and Doron David Sherwin without instruments, the second has lute, rebec and vielle as accompaniment. The texts are about the Anglo-Saxon king Edmund, the subject of La Reverdie's previous CD Historia Sancti Eadmundi - De la liturgie dramatique au drame liturgique (From dramatic liturgy to liturgical drama). These are followed by the hauntingly beautiful "Nobilis humilis Magne martir", an anonymous song for four voices from the Orkney Islands (12th century). This section closes with David Doron Sherwin's arrangement of Quene Note, a 15th century piece attributed with a question-mark to a certain "Frankes". "Echtrai" (Casus) is the title of the third section containing material which is perhaps slightly more familiar, at least to Reverdie fans. There are here two Italian songs (one by Jacopo da Bologna, one by Giovanni da Firenze), a French polyphonic piece, "S'on me regarde" (13th century), and an instrumental version of a piece by Donato da Firenze from the Panciatichi manuscript. "S'on me regarde" has also been recorded, many years ago, by David Munrow's Early Music Consort on the album "Music of the Gothic Era" (Deutsche Gramophon Archiv), but I found the La Reverdie version to be far easier on the ear - and it was an advantage to have the full original text plus translations into French, Italian, German and English. The last part of the CD is called "Físi" or "Visione" and contains five pieces of ostensibly Christian or Roman Catholic Mary-worship. "Ave Maris Stella" is from the 15th century Codex Faenza; then follow two famous pieces by Saint Godrich in medieval English (12th century). These have also been recorded by Benjamin Bagby's Sequentia ensemble for BMG's Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label, and I count myself fortunate to have both versions. "Prima cedit femina" is an anonymous 13th century piece for three voices and comes from the Rhein region, the song being found in the library at Bamberg in Bavaria. The CD closes with polyphony in medieval German and Latin by Oswald von Wolkenstein, here showing himself from his pious side - the song concludes with an appropriate "Amen". Listening carefully to this CD, I have come to the conclusion that although it would probably not be the best place to start if you have never heard La Reverdie before, in fact it is a highly mature product with a brilliant combination of musicology, history, literature and philosophy - a work of art worth its weight in gold. The brilliant engineering and the beautifully printed 44 page booklet add further to this impression; if you are a lover of somewhat esoteric medieval sounds, spare no effort to get this CD!
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