MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Classicsonline  AmazonUK   AmazonUS

 

Das Lochamer Liederbuch: German Popular Songs form the 15th Century
see end of review for track listing
Martin Hummel (baritone)*; Ensemble Dulce Melos: Marc Lewon (lute, gittern), Yukiko Yaita (recorder, double flute, chekker, pipe, string-drum), Elizabeth Rumsey (viola d’arco, recorder), Uri Smilansky (viola d’arco, recorder), Margit Übebellacker (dulcemelos, hackbrett) / Marc Lewon
rec. 26-28 September, 2005, Konzertsaal Reitstadl, Neumarkt, Germany
NAXOS 8.557803 [71:20]
Experience Classicsonline


Now in Berlin, the manuscript known as The Lochamer Liederbuch is one of the most important surviving collections of music from fifteenth-century Germany. Probably produced in Nuremberg it takes its name from that of its first owner, Wolfgang [Wolflein] von Lochamer. Though as many as eleven different scribal hands have been identified, much of the collection seems to have been drafted by a single hand, which was perhaps that of Frater Judocus von Windsheim, who added his name to the manuscript in 1460. 92 pages in length, the Lochamer Liederbuch contains 81 musical items plus the treatise Fundamentum organisandi by Magister Conrad Paumann. Of the 81 musical items, 47 are vocal or instrumental songs, 3 are sacred contrafacta and 31 are compositions for keyboard. Of the 47 songs all but one have German texts – the exception being a setting of a Flemish text. An edition of the manuscript by F.W. Arnold and A. Bellermann was published in 1867, and there has been much musicological discussion of it since. A facsimile, prepared by K. Ameln, was first published in 1925, and later studies of particular interest include Walter Salmen’s Das Lochamer Liederbuch. Eine musikgeschichtliche Studie (1972).
 
This selection, on Naxos, gives listeners a ready opportunity to get to know some of the intriguing music which this famous manuscript contains. Purists will perhaps feel that Marc Lewon and his companions take quite a few liberties with the letter of the manuscript, but most listeners will surely enjoy the results.
 
Paumann, an organist and lutenist of some fame, was an influential teacher and his Fundamentum organisandi certainly values improvisation alongside notated composition. It is in such a spirit that Marc Lewon has approached the music with, for example, the use of improvided accompaniments to some of the song melodies, as in ‘Czart lip wie suss dein anfanck ist’, or the borrowing of appropriate materials from the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, which also shows the influence of Paumann, as in ‘Ein vroueleen edel von naturen’. Marc Lewon, in the booklet note, observes that “Judging from the way the instrumental part of the Lochamer Liederbuch is written it is assumed that these versions were arranged for a keyboard instrument”, but argues that since Paumann certainly “had command” of a number of other instruments “it can be taken as a starting-point that in the tablature a style is reflected that could be used generally for instrumental music of this period. On the basis of the instrumental versions and of the Fundamentum organisandi the members of the ensemble have undertaken the arrangement of the pieces for their instruments and the provision of some diminutions in the style of the Lochamer Liederbuch”. If you object to such procedures – or to the development of what is reasonably described as “discrete counterpoint” for some of the monophonic songs (such as ‘All mein gedencken dy ich hab’) – you will find this collection too liberally interpretative for your tastes.

For myself, I find the resulting sound-world, with its use of such instruments as the dulemelos and the hackbrett, attractive and well capable of sustaining interest and Martin Hummel makes a generally persuasive soloist. While I wouldn’t place this disc amongst the most compelling or inspiring recordings of the music of this period, it makes for rewarding listening.
 
Glyn Pursglove

Track listing
Wach auf mein hort der leucht dort her [3:50] *
Der winter will hin weichen [1:59] *
Czart lip wie suss dein anfanck ist [1:01] *
Verlangen thut mich krencken [2:52] *
Mwein hercz in hohen frewden ist [2:19]
Möcht ich dein wegeren [2:48] *
Do mit ein gut Jare / Der Summer [2:18]
Ach meyden dw vil sene pein [4:31] *
Mit ganczem willen wünsch ich dir [3:03] *
Mein trawt geselle vnd mein liebster hort [1:41] *
Anauois [1:51]
Paumgartner [6:00]
Mein frewd möcht sich wol meren [2:38] *
All mein gedencken dy ich hab [2:55] *
Ich sach ein pild In plaber wat [1:35] *
Ich spring an dosem ringe [2:44] *
Es fur ein pawr gen holz [1:36] *
Mir ist mein pfërd vernagellt gar [2:10] *
Ein vrouleen edel von naturen [3:00] *
Wilhelmus Legrant [2:08]
Ellend dw hast [2:47]
Er wallt hat sich entlawbet [3:44] *
Ellend dw hast [1:46]
Des klaffers neyden [4:00] *
Benedicitie almechtiger got [2:50]
Ich bin pey Ir [3:18] *

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.