The Medieval Romantics: French Songs & Motets, 1340-1440

Christopher Page, Gothic Voices

Released on 10/1/91 by Hyperion
Main artists: Gothic Voices Christopher Page
Genre: Classical

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One could not be blamed for thinking the title of this Gothic Voices collection of late fourteenth and early fifteenth century French chansons and motets -- The Medieval Romantics -- as a little oxymoronic. After all, didn't the Romantics live some four centuries later? Yes, they did, but there's no shortage of examples of late medieval music that bear more than a passing resemblance to "romanticism" in regard to certain kinds of harmonic and textural preferences. This is partly coincidental; what sounded tonal to Guillaume de Machaut was a little different from what was, say, tonal to Palestrina or Johann Sebastian Bach. Superficially, the medieval notion of tonality is a little closer to what Wagner represents with a great concern for textural fluidity and use of variable degrees of harmonic audacity. In late fourteenth century French Court music there is a definite trend toward an expressive style, particularly as witnessed in sources such the Chantilly Codex, containing music written for the Papal court in exile based in Avignon; though only one piece by Machaut appears in the Codex itself, his influence can be felt in the whole volume.
The Medieval Romantics does not focus on the Chantilly Codex exclusively, though certain stalwart pieces included within its pages are found here, such as the anonymous motet "Degentis vita" and Solage's virelai "Joieux de cuer en seumellant estoye." Several pieces included here are known in three or four manuscripts, attesting to their popularity, alongside what would seem more usual kinds of fourteenth century settings. One example of these is included by way of illustration, the anonymous virelai "Mais qu'il vous viengne a plaisance," itself a relative rarity as it is only known from one source. Likewise, Gilet Velut's "Je voel server plus c'onques mais" is a rather conservative piece by the standards of the whole, stylistically stretching back almost to twelfth century attitudes toward setting two-voice polyphony, whereas Johannes de Lymburgia's "Tota pulcra es" looks ahead to the Renaissance with its close voicings in thirds and sixths.
For those seeking the harmonic bitterness found in sources like the Old Hall Manuscript, Gothic Voices' The Medieval Romantics is not the place to look; the emphasis here is more on voluptuousness of harmony rather than manneristic, dissonant, and "modernistic" works like Solage's "Fumeux fume par fumée." Part of the idea behind this seems to be to create a distinction between these two areas of medieval composition, pseudo-romantic and pseudo-modern, which doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not so much using the present to judge the past as to use two different, more recent, past eras to help sort out music from the very distant past that isn't understood as well. While one could guess what might have stood for "convention" in the fourteenth century, it's unknown if that's even the right interpretation anyway. While this doesn't say very much about the quality of the music here and how well, or how badly it is performed, it's a central consideration as this is the reason why this particular combination of works is put together.
Apart from that, Gothic Voices' performances are certainly worth enjoying. Although historically such music was sung by men, it makes a difference when alto Margaret Philpot joins in, conspicuously so in the exceptional performance of J. de Porta's motet "Alma polis religio." The overall program, however, is uneven and lacks true sense of continuity, and perhaps the concept behind The Medieval Romantics is part of the problem.

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The Medieval Romantics: French Songs & Motets, 1340-1440

Gothic Voices

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Quiconques veut d'amors joïr

Christopher Page

00:04:35

Leigh Nixon, Tenor, AssociatedPerformer - Anonymous, ComposerLyricist - Rogers Covey-Crump, Tenor, AssociatedPerformer - Andrew Tusa, Tenor, AssociatedPerformer - Gothic Voices, Choir, MainArtist - Christopher Page, Conductor, MainArtist - Margaret Philpot, Alto, AssociatedPerformer