Love's Illusion: Music from the Montpellier Codex 13th Century [Import]

Anonymous 4 (Artist), Marsha Genensky (Artist), Ruth Cunningham (Performer), Susan Hellauer (Performer), Johanna Rose (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Ruth Cunningham, Susan Hellauer, Johanna Rose
• Audio CD (August 23, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Harmonia Mundi
• ASIN: B0000007E5
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,341 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #51 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Featured Performers, A-Z > A to B
  • #73 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Early Music > Vocal & Song > General AAS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Rendition of Early Music. Buy It., October 28, 2005

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love's Illusion: Music from the Montpellier Codex 13th Century (Audio CD)

`Love's Illusion' is the third album done by the medieval vocal quartet, `Anonymous 4' and the first recording for them of secular motets, although it is important to note that to my relatively uneducated ear, I find it hard to discern the difference between these French love songs and their renditions of medieval church music.

This is not to say I have a totally tin ear but rather to indicate that there is as strong or stronger connection between these secular songs and the liturgical music of the day as there is between Aretha Franklin's soul singing and Southern Baptist church songs. One would be foolish to think that church music influenced secular music for the first time in 1956.

The text for these songs is based on the Montpellier Codex from the 13th century and, as I said, are all in what I believe is an early version of French. The accompanying booklet gives all the French lyrics, plus translations of these lyrics into English and German (since the record company, harmonia mundi, is, I believe, headquartered in Germany and the recording is manufactured in Germany.

While this is the first album I have reviewed by this group (named after an anonymous 13th century English writer on music who lived and worked in Paris and wrote about the music done) I have been listening to their recordings for several years now and I decided to start with this one and leave some of the liturgical works for later, closer to the Christmas season.

On a purely visceral level, I like this recording very much. On an intellectual level, I believe this is as good or better than any other medieval pieces, and most other Renaissance vocal pieces I have heard, except for some works with larger choruses such as Guillaume Du Fay's Mass for St. Anthony of Padua and Ensemble Gilles Binchois recording of eleventh century French Polyphony.

For those who are new to Anonymous 4 recordings, they are generally done not in a studio but in the nave of a large church, so there is a distinct sense of their singing in a great open space, with little or no sense of electronic enhancement. I really like this effect for this music and find it just one more reason to recommend this and other Anonymous 4 recordings. I think my highest recommendation comes from the fact that I can listen to this recording many times over and not become tired of it. There are other unusual types of music such as Russian chants, tangos, and even jazz which I can take for an hour or so and then must change. This material I can listen to for hours on end.

Highly recommended for fans of early music or for people who want something different.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunningly beautiful collection of music, February 24, 1999

By 

A. Altman "Art" (San Carlos, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love's Illusion: Music from the Montpellier Codex 13th Century (Audio CD)

This one belongs on your short "desert island" list. It is extremely well recorded (you could mistake it for an LP, it is so liquid and sweet), and just hauntingly beautiful.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and full of love, October 12, 2005

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love's Illusion: Music from the Montpellier Codex 13th Century (Audio CD)

This is a wonderful collection of chansons, or songs, from medieval France. It is different from many Anonymous 4 collections in that this is a piece of secular songs, primarily dealing with courtly love; the songs are particularly influenced by the Arthurian romances, very much in vogue at that time. This is a collection of motets - a musical style that came out of polyphony and is an important bridge between chant and modern song styling.

The Montpellier Codex has over 300 different motets (not including duplications), including many double motets, where the tenor piece is based on a plainchant, and different voices have their own texts. These 'fin amours' songs were most likely performed mostly in private entertainment settings, and song have argued that certain parts should be done by instruments rather than voices. Of course, the Anonymous 4 is an a capella group, so that idea does not come into practice here.

This is a playful and fun recording, full of lovely songs that reach the heart in strong ways.

-- Liner Notes --
This text accompaniment to this disc is very full, so much so that the booklet is not contained within the jewel case, but rather within a slipcover in which both the CD/jewel case and the booklet reside. The liner notes include a description of the work, a brief piece about the quartet, and the lyrics of the songs both in original language and in translation - all repeated in English, German, and French sections (however, the French lyrics are in the older French language; a modern translation would be helpful). The cover art is a section of the lovely Tapestry, Lady and the Unicorn, Atelier of the Loire Valley, 'mille fleurs', fifteen century in the Museum of Cluny, France.

-- Anonymous 4 --
Contrary to the implication of their name, the Anonymous 4 are not anonymous. This is a vocal quartet made up of Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, and Johanna Rose at the time of this recording (Ruth Cunningham will later go on to a solo career early, and another member will join - Jacqueline Horner). They came together as a formal group in 1986, and have been ensemble-in-residence at St. Michael's Church in New York City, giving concert series in New York as well as throughout North America. They have been featured a number of times on national media in North America as well as Germany. They then went on to yet more success, eventually performing more that 1000 concerts worldwide.

Their specialty is working with chant, monophonic and polyphonic music, and working with medieval texts. According to one source, 'The group takes its name from an anonymous music theorist of the late 13th century, Anonymous IV, who is the principal source on the two famous composers of the Notre Dame school, Léonin and Pérotin.'

The group ended a touring career of nearly two decades in 2004.