This CD is a sequel to
The Garden of Zephirus which Gothic Voices recorded a year
earlier. That collection was also recently reissued on Helios
(CDH55289),
and I have recently given it an enthusiastic welcome. Where the
earlier recording dealt with the courtly music of the early fifteenth-century,
this disc covers the latter part of that century, the only overlapping
composer being Guillaume Dufay, who is also the best-known composer
in either programme. Though there are other familiar names here,
they are interspersed with the less well-known and several pieces
by Anon.
Whereas the linking principle
of The Garden of Zephirus was youth, this programme concentrates
on the music which could have been heard in the courts of the
rich and great, especially the court of the Dukes of Burgundy,
whom Binchois and Morton both served. One of the pieces, ma
dame trop vous mesprenés, is attributed to Charles, Duke
of Burgundy, himself. As Christopher Page notes in the booklet,
the duke appears on this basis to have been no mean musician.
The Burgundians largely avoided the ravages of the Hundred Years
War between England and France and the Wars of the Roses,
which enabled them to prosper and to employ the services of
the best Francophone and English musicians, as well as affording
the aristocracy the leisure to compose and perform. Page cites
the example of the ‘chevalier vert’ in the fifteenth-century
romance Cleriadus et Meliadice, who celebrates a tournament
by performing a rondeau in the Great Hall. A better-known example
is Tristan who excels in harping as well as being the greatest
expert on the rules of hunting.
The title of the disc relates
to that most influential of medieval secular texts, Le Roman
de la Rose, where the poet is accompanied in the walled garden of Love by Bel Acceuil
or Fair Welcome. From a high-walled garden to a castle is a small
step and the attractive cover, from a 15th century
manuscript in the Bodleian, shows the lover being introduced by
Sweet Look to Fair Welcome outside just such a castle, albeit
an improbably small one. Christopher Page’s notes also link the
castle with that described in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
– slightly anachronistically, since that poem dates from the late
14th century.
Perhaps
aware that The Garden of Zephirus might have sounded
a little unvaried to modern ears, a number of instrumental pieces
are interspersed on this CD, played by Page himself on
the harp or by Christopher Wilson on the lute, or by both. The
vocal items are performed unaccompanied, in line with Page’s
own academic research: he does allow two accompanied vocal items
on The Garden of Zephirus.
All the music is attractive
and the performances first-rate. As far as highlights are concerned,
the Helios catalogue on the Hyperion website offers Real and mp3
samples of Morton’s Le souvenir and Dufay’s Je ne dors
and these would be good places to start (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/helios_page.asp). Listen to them and you
will get some idea of the quality of the performances; the recording,
of course, sounds much better than anything the web can offer
– clear and immediate without being too close. The Morton piece
opens the CD and makes an immediately favourable impression. Page’s
notes single out the Dufay and another Morton piece, Plus j’ay
le monde regardé, as adornments to any courtly scene. Binchois’s
Dueil angoisseux only just qualifies as ‘later 15th century’
but it was certainly well worth including.
I can offer no stronger
recommendation than to say that I have owned the original Hyperion
version of this CD since soon after its first appearance and
I have played it more frequently than anything of this period
in my collection. In contrast with normal practice for some
labels, the insert booklet expands on the original, adding the
composers’ dates and an illustration of a royal hall which,
I think, graced the original LP but not the CD. The font employed
in the booklet is more user-friendly than before. The playing
time is even shorter than on the Zephirus disc, but that
is my only criticism.
If you buy this CD and
fall under its charm, you will want to seek out as much as possible
by these composers. You will also probably wish to investigate
other Gothic Voices reissues on Helios: The Marriage of Heaven
and Hell (CDH55273) and The Spirits of England and
France (CDH55281) have also been reissued and I understand
that others will probably follow.
Brian
Wilson
