The World of Robin and Marion: Songs and Motets from the Time of Adam de la Halle [Import]

Claude Bernatchez (Performer), Mélanie Demers (Performer), Robert Huard (Performer), French Anonymous (Composer), Claude Bernatchez (Composer), Adam de la Halle (Composer), Ensemble Anonymus (Performer), Michèle Motard (Performer), Philippe Gagné (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Claude Bernatchez, Mélanie Demers, Robert Huard, Ensemble Anonymus, Michèle Motard, et al.
• Composer: French Anonymous, Claude Bernatchez, Adam de la Halle
• Audio CD (April 5, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Analekta
• ASIN: B0002VYES6
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,579 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Mout Me Fut Grief/Robin M'aime/Portare

2. Robins M'aime/Je Me Repairoie/He Robins Se Tu M'aimes

3. Lie Maus Amourous Me Tient/Dieus Par Quoi/Portare

4. Vous Perdez Vos Paine Sire Aubert/Ne Sai Que Je Die/Johanne

5. Bergeronnete Sui/Trairi Deluriau

6. He Robechon

7. Au Douz Tans/Biau Dous Amis/Manere

8. Vous L'ores Bien Dire/Saltarello

9. Bergeronnete/Robin Par L'ame Ten Pere

10. He Marotele Alons Au Bois/En La Praerie/Aptatur/Li Maus D'amer

11. L'Autre Jour/Au Tens Pascour/In Seculum

12. Par Un Matinet/Les Un Bosket/Portare

13. En Mai Quant Rosier/L'autre Jour/He Resveille Toi Robin

14. Encontre Le Tans De Pascour/Quant Fuellent/In Odorem

15. Quant Florist La Violete/El Mois De Mai/Et Gaudebit

16. En Non Diu/Quant Voi La Rose Espanie/Eius Oriente

17. Avoec Telle Compaignie/Quiconque Rira/Parodie (After Quant Voi Le Fleur/Et Tenuerunt)

18. Je Voi Douleur Avenir/Fauvel Nous A Fait Present/Autant M'est Sie Poise/Emi Emi Marotele N'ocies/Emi Emim Marotele Sage/Portare

19. Quant Froidure Trait A Fin/Domino Quoniam/Ronde: Le Sentelle

20. J'ai Encore Un Tel Paste

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Anonymus invites you to witness Robin and Marion’s love, in the best musical tradition of the Middle Ages. A program with a rural accent that brings alive through poetry and music this lively and marvellously naïve romance by Adam de la Halle, the great troubadour from Arras.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Le creuset du déchant produit l'ébauche de l'opéra profane, January 9, 2005

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World of Robin and Marion: Songs and Motets from the Time of Adam de la Halle (Audio CD)

Loin de tout ce que tous les livres classiques peuvent dire, la polyphonie pas plus que l'opéra n'ont commencé au 16ème siècle italien. Le plus ancien opéra biblique est du 13ème siècle français (Ludus Danielis). Et voilà que l'Ensemble Anonymus vient de sortir pour notre plus grand plaisir le Robin et Marion d'Adam de La Halle, lui aussi du 13ème siècle. C'est l'un des ancêtres de ce que l'on appellera plus tard l'opéra. Et en plus cette œuvre est géniale. Le choix des instruments est excellent et certains sont plus lointains qu'européen, remontant jusqu'à la Perse iranienne. Le jeu en est clair, délicat, dansant et vif, expressif et même imagé. Le style de musique qu'ils nous offrent est très populaire pour l'époque, avec cependant des intermèdes musicaux d'une autre source qui ont plus de poids, de grandeur, d'ampleur. Les voix opposent le couple ténor-soprano au couple mezzosoprano-baryton, et cela sur une base dramatique : les premiers sont les héros, les seconds sont les trouble-fête. Le chant est la vraie grande révolution d'Adam de La Halle. Les artistes chantent, pour l'essentiel, en vieux français, avec une prononciation parfaite. On voit bien leur origines québecoises qui aident : de telles prononciations seraient beaucoup plus difficiles en France vu que nous avons perdu les dialectes anciens. La partition mêle des solos, de vrais duos en alternance, des duos où les voix s'allient et se superposent. Adam de La Halle importe ainsi dans une pièce profane dont la musique est populaire et non grégorienne ce qui est en train de naître en France particulièrement, et ailleurs aussi partiellement, à savoir la polyphonie et c'est un plaisir de découvrir que certaines formes qui deviendront des classiques des siècles futurs sont déjà là en germe dans cette partition. Adam de La Halle avait étudié le déchant, première aventure polyphonique dans le cadre grégorien. Il le transfère ici dans le cadre profane avec le meilleur effet. L'histoire est simple mais bien ancrée dans son temps. Elle est aussi complète et donc bien une sorte de livret d'opéra. Robin et Marion s'aiment d'un amour tendre, mais le chevalier Aubert intervient et vole la belle, par des moyens pas très honnêtes : la force, les cadeaux qui semblent de luxe à cette bergère, et des mots doux qui ne sont qu'autant de pièges. Le tout se finira, après un petit épisode beaucoup plus courtois emprunté à Gervais de Bus et son Roman de Fauvel, sur une solution ambiguë, cette brave Marion n'arrivant pas à prendre une décision entre son bel amour Robin qui joue si bien de la cornemuse ou du flageolet, et son tout nouveau amoureux chevalier qui brille de tous les feux de sa cuirasse et de ses victoires au tournoi. Entre les deux bien sûr son cœur balance. On se demande pourquoi ces œuvres du patrimoine français qui révèlent que nous avons eu une période florissante dans les arts bien avant la Renaissance, doivent être découvertes et mises en avant par des Anglais comme pour le Ludus Danielis ou des Québecois comme ici. Que font donc les Français qui se gargarisent de la défense de leur langue et qui ne s'intéressent même pas à leur patrimoine culturel un peu ancien, raison de plus très ancien ? Heureusement que nous avons des étrangers, francophones ou non, cousins distants ou pas cousins du tout, pour faire notre travail.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Université Paris Dauphine

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At the root of the profane secular opera, January 9, 2005

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World of Robin and Marion: Songs and Motets from the Time of Adam de la Halle (Audio CD)

This recording is amazing. It is probably one of the ancestors of the secular opera, just like Ludus Danielis was the ancestor of the biblical opera, but both three centuries before the « official » birthdate of the genre, here the 13th century. What's more both works are French and not Italian as the legend wants it to be : opera was born in Italy during the Renaissance, they say. Another mystery is why these very fine and rich works are discovered and recorded not by French musicians and artists but by English and here French Canadian musicians and artists. What are the French doing ? Don't they go to their libraries and archives and check on those scores, and I could probably say scores of scores, that are sleeping in the boxes ? Apparently not. They blabber a lot about English menacing their French language with barbaric technical words, but they do not defend their own cultural heritage. Bizarre, isn't it ? But this recording reveals many things about this old century and this ancient composer. The instruments are authentic, even if at times a little bit exotic, Turkish or Irani. But they are light, brilliant, délicate, expressive and definitely lively. The score opposes the couple tenor-soprano of the two main characters to the couple mezzosoprano-barytone of the disturbing intruders. This is dramatically good. The singing is innovative. It uses solos, real duets with alternating voices or with superimposed voices, and many other forms, including of course the motet. Some singing forms that will become classical in a few centuries are already present here and quite lively and alive. Adam de La halle had learn the beginning of polyphony with the gregorian dechant and here he transposes it from the sacred field to the profane secular domain with the best results because it serves very well that music which is perfectly popular. The end of the tale, after an episode that is very courtly and borrowed from Gervais du Bus and his Roman de Fauvel, is ambiguous with Marion fluttering between her love for Robin who plays the bagpipe and the plain pipe so well, and her sudden love for the knight Aubert who conquered her with a little bit of force, a little bit of fine language, the promise of beautiful presents and the metallic shine of his armour and helmet and tournament weapons. Her heart is swinging and swaying between the two and the music is doing just the same, and yet announcing a future that must be in existence somewhere in some archives and has not yet been discovered, except the music, thanks to Paul McCreesh who never recorded it, of Pope Clement VI in Avignon whose favorite composer was the mathematician Vitry. But what is the French Ministry of Culture doing or thinking since they cannot bring all these gems out of oblivion ? The Minister should have a few pennies left at the bottom of a drawer somewhere to help this adventure ?

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That's where and when the profane opera started, January 9, 2005

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World of Robin and Marion: Songs and Motets from the Time of Adam de la Halle (Audio CD)

This recording is amazing. It is probably one of the ancestors of the secular opera, just like Ludus Danielis was the ancestor of the biblical opera, but both three centuries before the « official » birthdate of the genre, here the 13th century. What's more both works are French and not Italian as the legend wants it to be : opera was born in Italy during the Renaissance, they say. Another mystery is why these very fine and rich works are discovered and recorded not by French musicians and artists but by English and here French Canadian musicians and artists. What are the French doing ? Don't they go to their libraries and archives and check on those scores, and I could probably say scores of scores, that are sleeping in the boxes ? Apparently not. They blabber a lot about English menacing their French language with barbaric technical words, but they do not defend their own cultural heritage. Bizarre, isn't it ? But this recording reveals many things about this old century and this ancient composer. The instruments are authentic, even if at times a little bit exotic, Turkish or Irani. But they are light, brilliant, délicate, expressive and definitely lively. The score opposes the couple tenor-soprano of the two main characters to the couple mezzosoprano-barytone of the disturbing intruders. This is dramatically good. The singing is innovative. It uses solos, real duets with alternating voices or with superimposed voices, and many other forms, including of course the motet. Some singing forms that will become classical in a few centuries are already present here and quite lively and alive. Adam de La halle had learn the beginning of polyphony with the gregorian dechant and here he transposes it from the sacred field to the profane secular domain with the best results because it serves very well that music which is perfectly popular. The end of the tale, after an episode that is very courtly and borrowed from Gervais du Bus and his Roman de Fauvel, is ambiguous with Marion fluttering between her love for Robin who plays the bagpipe and the plain pipe so well, and her sudden love for the knight Aubert who conquered her with a little bit of force, a little bit of fine language, the promise of beautiful presents and the metallic shine of his armour and helmet and tournament weapons. Her heart is swinging and swaying between the two and the music is doing just the same, and yet announcing a future that must be in existence somewhere in some archives and has not yet been discovered, except the music, thanks to Paul McCreesh who never recorded it, of Pope Clement VI in Avignon whose favorite composer was the mathematician Vitry. But what is the French Ministry of Culture doing or thinking since they cannot bring all these gems out of oblivion ? The Minister should have a few pennies left at the bottom of a drawer somewhere to help this adventure ?

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU