The Spirits of England and France - 2: Songs of the Trouvères - Gothic Voices

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(5 stars) - Triumph of the Trouveres. Buy It!
'Songs of the Trouveres' in the 'The Spirits of England and France' series by the Gothic Voices, directed by Christopher Page is one of the better 'early music' recordings I have bought and heard.

The Trouveres were wandering performers in France who wrote and performed 'grand chant' songs in the vernacular. In contrast to liturgical and other devotional music, this was the 'soap opera' entertainment of the day, as this genre was all about 'a protracted meditation on the fortunes of loving'.

This group features one of the very few 'stars' of early music performances, the soprano Emma Kirkby who only appears on two tracks, accompanied by either percussion or medieval lute.

This recording does justice to this series, Gothic Voices, and Hyperion.

(5 stars) - Stunning (if imbalanced) performances
As far as the performances alone on this CD go, I can only quote a reviewer from the American Record Guide: 'This is quite simply the best recording ever of the Trouvere literature'. Both fans of and newcomers to Gothic Voices will be delighted by these interpretations, where 5 singers each take it in turns to perform examples of the various Trouvere genres (mostly unaccompanied). Particularly noteworthy are those of Rogers Covey-Crump (who is at his most sensuous on this disc) and Margaret Philpot (who ranges from the wistful to the declamatory). Similarly, you will be hard-pressed to find such intelligent and competent renderings of the estampies (MS du Roi), here played by Pavlo Beznosiuk (solo fiddle).

As always with Gothic Voices, the scholastic justification for these performances is strong. Yet whilst every performance decision here could be substantiated by evidence, it has to be said that the overall result is a bit dishonest. Whereas the sparsity of documents referring to 'singing and playing' in 'High Style' Troubadour repertory (chansons, planhs etc) allowed Christopher Page to offer the somewhat stiff 'discontinuity' disclaimer in his 1987 study 'Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages' [p.19, ie: is the 'playing' simultaneous with, or subsequent to, the 'singing'?], the larger frequency of such references to 'singing and playing' in Trouvere repertory forced him to accept that, in all probability, Trouvere 'High Style' chansons (grand chants) were sometimes accompanied [by vielle/fiddle, p.30ff]. So could we not have had just one 'High Style' chanson accompanied by Pavlo Beznosiuk...?
Similarly, the overwhelming majority of descriptions of the 'Lower Style' genres primarily as accompanied songs (by his own admission) leaves me wondering why he directed a cappella performances of a descort [track 12], a chanson de toile [track 18] and a pastourelle [track 15], especially as these first two [12, 18] are the only examples on this recording of these genres, and the pastourelle [15] performed a cappella not only mentions a flute ['frestel'] but also singing and playing ['chantoit et notoit'].

So in short, this recording must be warmly recommended, but with the proviso that the listener realises this is not the complete picture of Trouvere song. Alongside other equally engaging performances, however, (with Trouvere High Style songs sometimes accompanied by one harp or vielle, eg 'Lo Gai Saber' - Camerata Mediterranea / Joel Cohen [Erato 2292-45647-2] or 'The Unicorn' - Anne Azema [Erato 4509-94830-2]), it is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of how this repertory might have sounded.

(5 stars) - Gothic Voices are the best!!!!!!!!
I've got "The Medieval Romantics: French Songs and Motets 1340-1440" by Gothic Voices and it's great! It's on hyperion label and made in England if your interested.

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