[Cover graphic]

Compact Disc CDA67634

£13.99

The pain of unrequited love, the pleasures of spring, foiled seductions and cruel husbands, and the chivalry of serving a liege-lady: in this recording Duo Trobairitz explore different aspects of love as depicted in the music and poetry of the 12th- and 13th-century troubadours and trouvères.

The concept of courtly love began in southern France during the twelfth century. Celebrating an idealized form of love or sexual passion, it developed into a sophisticated and aristocratic code of behaviour. The courtly love ethic spread rapidly through European court society and the music became extensively varied, developing different genres. Duo Trobairitz give examples of the canso (a song that speaks pleasingly of love), the alba (a dawn song, in which a lovers’ tryst is interrupted by the coming of dawn), the pastourelle (usually about the attempted seductions of a peasant girl by a knight) and other styles, by turns humorous and tragic.

Duo Trobairitz are Faye Newton (soprano) and Hazel Brooks (vielle) and The Language of Love is their debut CD. They interpret medieval music in a way that is true to its historical roots while being entertaining and meaningful for a modern-day audience. They take a melody and a text, and, through a combination of scholarship and imagination, bring the meaning and emotion of the text to life. This disc is a delightful introduction to this rich repertoire.

Recorded at St Andrew’s Church, Toddington, Gloucestershire, on 17 and 18 February 2005
Recording Producer and Engineer
ADRIAN HUNTER
Front Picture Research
RICHARD HOWARD
Booklet Editor
TIM PARRY
Executive Producer
SIMON PERRY
© Hyperion Records Ltd, London, MMVII

Duration: 64'55
DDD
Front illustration: Maids and Winged Hearts by the Master of Lyons (fl 1500)

The Language of Love

Songs of the troubadour and trouvères

DUO TROBAIRITZ
FAYE NEWTON soprano, symphonie 2 9
HAZEL BROOKS vielle

Contents:

  1. Por coi me bait mes maris? mal mariée ANONYMOUS, trouvère, 13th century   [2'23]
  2. Dansse Real ANONYMOUS, Manuscrit du Roi   [3'05]
  3. Lo rossinholet salvatge canso GAUCELM FAIDIT (c1150–c1220), troubadour, 12th century   [9'50]
  4. La Tierche Estampie Roial ANONYMOUS, Manuscrit du Roi   [3'08]
  5. En un vergier chanson de toile ANONYMOUS, trouvère, 13th century   [6'56]
  6. La Quarte Estampie Royal ANONYMOUS, Manuscrit du Roi   [2'50]
  7. En ma forest pastourelle ANONYMOUS, trouvère, 13th century   [3'12]
  8. Can l’erba fresch’ canso BERNART DE VENTADORN (c1130–c1190), troubadour, 12th century   [6'18]
  9. Volez oir la muse Muset? COLIN MUSET (fl c1200–1250), trouvère, 13th century   [6'50]
  10. Bele Doette chanson de toile ANONYMOUS, trouvère, 13th century   [9'04]
  11. [La Prime Estampie Royal] ANONYMOUS, Manuscrit du Roi   [3'40]
  12. Reis glorios alba GUIRAUT DE BORNELH (c1140–c1200), troubadour, 12th century   [7'32]
Sleeve Notes

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE CHOICE OF 2007

'An exemplary medieval disc from this young duo. The troubadour material is various … and the performers are beguiling. Faye Newton’s pure, vibrato-light soprano suggests Emma Kirkby with rouged cheeks; while Hazel Brooks’s accompaniments lift the vielle, a rustic lyre, to an instrument of enchantment … With these artists time stands still. A “chill-out” hit in the making' (The Times)

'Most of these songs from medieval France explore the infinite emotional complexities of hopeless love. Soprano Faye Newton characterises their wide-ranging, rhapsodic melodic lines so as to evoke both unbearable pain and despair and brief moments of joy. On the lighter side, she brings wry humour to tales of pastoral seduction, and of a spirited wife whose husband objects to her boyfriend. Hazel Brooks's piquant vielle provides atmospheric accompaniments that perfectly enhance all these moods, as well as some delightful dances' (The Daily Telegraph)

'Faye Newton and Hazel Brooks build compelling, eloquent performances around the evocative words of their repertoire' (Classic FM Magazine *****)

'Duo Trobairitz re-create the sound world and the artistic idiom with sufficient authority that, were the original creators of this music to come back and hear these performances … they would have stamped their feet in approval … The lovely anonymous Bele Doette in which Newton's disarmingly charming voice and Brook's sensitive playing on the vielle evoke a world which, while distant and remote from ours, clearly relished the same profound response to the kind of emotions which affect mankind, be it a twelfth-century knight or a twenty-first-century audiophile. On the subject of audiophiles, Hyperion has captured these delightful performances with ideal depth and intimacy' (International Record Review)

'This is among the best recordings of this repertoire … I will always enjoy being challenged to listen to these works in such fresh and sensitive interpretations as these' (American Record Guide)

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