Details

Field of Interest

Classical Music

Description

A stunning collection of love songs and instrumental dances from 12th to 15th century Europe. The album includes passionate Spanish ballads by the Troubadour Martin Codax about a woman who waits on the sea shore for her lover. There are mysterious magical songs which describe meetings with the Fairy Queen, songs of women who are spurned by untrue lovers by the female troubadour Comtessa de Dia, and an anonymous song of a woman who escapes the cruelties of the cloistered life for the outside world of earthly pleasures. There are also two courtly love songs by Jehan de Lescurel a priest from Notre Dame who was later hanged for debauchery.

The majority of the songs on this album come from monophonic melodic lines, sometimes accompanied by text, which the band have interpreted using a stunning array of early instruments which include gothic harp, hammered dulcimer, recorder, bass viol, bagpipes, hurdy gurdy, percussion, pipe and tabor with the beautiful voices of leading early music singers Jennie Cassidy and Sophia Brumfitt. The album concludes with 'Galdrbok' a Norse word meaning 'book of sung spells' which is an original compostition by director and bagpipe player Katy Marchant and hurdy-gurdy player Steve Tyler - so linking the medieval past with our lives in the modern age.

Content Type

Music recording

Duration

1 hour 7 mins

Ensemble

Daughters of Elvin

Format

Audio

Sub Genre

Piece, Folk

Label

Daughters of Elvin

Date Recorded

2007

Release Date

2010-01-08

Subject

Classical Music, Music & Performing Arts