Live at St Paul's / The Bleecker Consort
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The Bleecker Consort
2018
[39:00]
1. Stella splendens
LV 2 /
Tempus est iocundum
CB 179 [5:29]
2. Bonum est confidere [2:33]
CB 27
3. Bache bene venies [2:39]
CB 200
4. De la gloriouse Fenix [2:39]
5. Como poden per sas culpas [1:22]
CSM 166
6. Santa Maria strela do dia [2:52]
CSM 100
7. Non é gran cousa [2:02]
CSM 26
8. Dum pater familias [2:36]
CC 117
9. Nachtanz [2:10]
10. Hoy comamos y bebamos / Si habrá en este baldrés [3:50]
Juan del ENCINA
11. Una sañosa porfía [4:05]
Juan del ENCINA
12. Lamento di Tristano / Rotta [3:23]
13. Stella splendens [3:57]
LV 2
Album Notes
The Bleecker Consort specializes in performing the exotic sounds of
Medieval music as well as the lush polyphony of the Renaissance. Most
of our arrangements are “broken consort” combinations of
string, wind, and percussion instruments, and vocals. A few
“whole consort” pieces are played on instruments of the
same family, such as recorders. Our instruments are modern
reproductions of recorders, strings (bandurria, mandola, mandolin,
lute, laud, harp, hurdy-gurdy, vielle, and viol), reeds (cornamuse,
kelhorn, dulcian, crumhorn, rauschpfife, shawm), brass (sackbut), and
percussion (doumbek, tambourine, castanets, frame drum). Our
group’s linguist holds a doctorate in Spanish and has expertise
in early Romance languages.
The Bleecker Consort formed in 1988 in Albany, NY. Past performances
have occurred at the nationally famous Troy Music Hall, the Albany
Medieval Fair, and venues throughout the region, with the very
occasional gig in Boston or Italy.
Though members of The Bleecker Consort come from a variety of
professional backgrounds including medicine, music, astronomy, library
sciences, biology, and romance languages, we have been fortunate to
have studied with genuine masters in the field of early music, such as
John Tyson, Tina Chancey, Judy Linsenberg, Laura Hagen, Eric Von Huene,
Susan Iodone, Dan Stillman, Eric Haas, and Sheila Beardslee.
This CD was recorded during two “Music at Noon” concerts at
St. Paul’s Church in Troy, NY.
Most of the works are from our
2015 performance, “Music of the Iberian Kingdoms”. Stella
Splendens (Shining Star) is a hauntingly beautiful piece found in the
Llibre Vermell (Scarlet Book) from the Benedictine monastery of
Montserrat in the mountains of Catalonia. The bawdy and irreverent
music from the Carmina Burana manuscript was mostly 11th and 12th
century, compiled in the 13th century, and played throughout Europe,
including the Iberian Peninsula, by minstrels and troubadours. The
Cantigas de Santa Maria (Canticles of Holy Mary) contains 420 poems
with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese, a language whose
modern form is still spoken in northwest Spain, during the reign of
Alfonso el Sabio (1221–1284). He was an important benefactor and
patron of the arts, and many of the songs are often attributed to him.
The 12th century manuscript Codex Calixtinus provides detailed
information a pilgrim would need to complete the Way of St. James, or
Camino de Santiago pilgrimage to the Cathedral at Santiago de la
Compostela in Galicia. The villancicos of Juan del Encina (1468-1529)
can be found in one of the most important manuscripts of the
Renaissance: Cancionero Musical de Palacio.
Two pieces were recorded at
our 2013 concert: the sacred French Troubadour piece De la gloriouse
Fenix, and the Italian dance Lamento di Tristano.
Recorded and mastered by Dan Czernecki, Classical Recording Service
© 2018
Photo courtesy of Jim Schwab, Cover design by Gretchen Schwab