It’s almost always interesting to see how a competent, reliably informed (historically and stylistically) ensemble with imaginations and colorful voices and instruments choose to perform songs for which performance directions, melodies, rhythms, and instrumentation are either missing, partly missing, or (as in nearly all cases) only moderately decipherable. We’re talking specifically about secular songs of the middle ages, an irresistibly rich repertoire that more often than not existed as poetic text whose melody was either understood or, more likely, was open to variation according to local convention or to the whim or inventive capacity of a given performer/composer. It’s safe to say that no two recordings of music focusing on songs from, say, the 12th through 14th centuries, are in any way similar, precisely due to the wide-open performance options and the huge number of available songs–compare discs from the Martin Best Ensemble (Nimbus), Clemencic Consort (Harmonia Mundi), New London Consort (L’Oiseau Lyre), Boston Camerata (Erato), or Gothic Voices (Hyperion). But imagining and applying tunes to rhythmic texts has been a basic human activity since, who knows, the beginning of written language, so with a decent musicological knowledge, vocal/instrumental ability, and stylistic savvy a modern ensemble can make a fair enough representation of even the most ancient song repertoire.
The program offered here actually is a compilation from several previously released Christophorus CDs that focus on music of the Minnesänger, medieval songs of women, and troubadour and trouvère songs and dances of the middle ages. Various groups are involved, but in every case, the emphasis on simplicity of form, melodic interest, and fundamental rhythmic vitality is consistently maintained, along with a concern for appropriate representations regarding accompaniment–all performed on traditional period instruments. Obviously, the focus is on the songs and thus, the singers–and from the opening track, “Ich was ein chint so wolgetan” from Carmina Burana, it’s clear that the quality of performance is going to be high. No detailed list of performers or instruments is given–and texts are provided only in German–but listeners familiar with this kind of music will be comfortably at home with the slightly strident vocal style and with the plucked-instrument/wooden flute sound world. Highlights include the exotic, ornamented mannerisms and bent-note inflections in the Song of the Lark and the enchanting settings of several songs from the Carmina Burana. Most annoying, however, are the confusing track listings that appear only in German on the disc’s back cover and the abovementioned lack of performer information (and, while we’re on the subject, I hate it when labels don’t include a straight track listing inside the front cover of the liner notes!). The sound is appropriately intimate, decently balanced, a realistic representation of the voices and true to the instrumental timbres.
