Le Miroir de Musique

Laus Polyphoniae – Polyphony of life

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Laus Polyphoniae – Polyphony of life
Antwerp
19-23 August 2022

After a three-year Covid-induced hiatus when Laus Polyphoniae ran a much-reduced series of live and online events, the 2022 Festival restored the postponed 2020 edition, under the title Polyphony of life. As usual, the festival was run by AMUZ (Flanders Festival Antwerp) in conjunction with the Alamire Foundation, the study centre for music in the Low Countries and part of KU (Katholieke Universiteit) Leuven. As the name implies, Laus Polyphoniae is devoted to the music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance when polyphony was paramount.

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Johannes de Lymburgia: Gaude Felix Padua

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Johannes de Lymburgia: Gaude Felix Padua
Le Miroir de Musique, Baptiste Romain
Ricercar RIC402. 65’39


Johannes de Limburgia was born around 1380 in the Duchy (or city) of Limburg. He seems to have worked in Liège between 1408–19, and then in Italy. Somebody of the same name was in Vicenza from 1431 to 1436. There was a canon with the same name in Liège in 1436. His music survives principally in the manuscript Bologna Q15, dating from the first half of the fifteenth century. It includes 46 of his pieces, all liturgical. An indication of his importance, at least to the compiler of the manuscript, is that only Dufay has more pieces than Limburgia. Despite that, he is very little known today, so this recording from the excellent Le Miroir de Musique and their director Baptiste Romain is very welcome. The four/five singers and three/four instrumentalists (one does both) perform a selection of liturgical pieces and Latin strophic songs in the manner of Italian Lauri.

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Baptiste Romain: In Seculum Viellatoris

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ Leave a comment

In Seculum Viellatoris
‘The Medieval Vielle’
Baptiste Romain, Le Miroir de Musique
Ricercar RIC 388. 67’00

Baptiste Romain devotes this recording to the different varieties of the medieval bowed fiddle, or vielle, with a selection of troubadour songs, dances and polyphonic compositions from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. The exploration opens with the haunting sound of soprano Grace Newcombe singing Ar ne kuthe ich sorghe non, the well-known tune here with an English text replacing the original Latin (a ‘contrafactum’), copied around 1274. The voice is accompanied by a crwth (or crowde), a Gaelic relative of the Nordic lyre that was popular in England and Wales in the Middle Ages, competing for popularity with the fiddle. There are five tracks with a singer, the remaining 11 are instrumental, with Baptiste Romain playing vielle, rubeba, crwth, or bagpipes, supported by well-judged accompaniments (often with just one or two instruments) from members of the ensemble Le Miroir de Musique. There are two pieces by Pedigon, a Provençal troubadour around 1200 who was famed for his playing of the fiddle (pictured below).

Perdigon.jpg

 

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