Aux Marches du Palais - Romances & complaintes de la France d'autrefois - Poeme Harmonique / Vincet Dumestre - 2001.

Aux Marches du Palais - Romances & complaintes de la France d'autrefois - Poeme Harmonique / Vincet Dumestre - 2001.

By Request

“Diapason d’Or” in Diapason

“Choc” in Le Monde de la Musique

Recommended by Répertoire

* * * * * in Goldberg

5 in Classica

* * * * * in Amadeus (Italy)

Claire Lefilliatre : Chant

Serge Goubiod : Chant

Marco Horvat : Chant & Vielle a Archet

Sylvie Moquet : Dessus de Viole

Friederike Heumann : Basse de Viole

Françoise Enock : Basse de Viole

William Dongois : Cornet a Bouquin &Cornet Muet

Pierre Hamon : Ccornemuse, Flute, Tambour & Flute a Trois Trous

Christophe Tellart : Vielle a Roue

Joel Grare : Tambour & Tambourin

Vincent Dumestre : Citole, Guitare Baroque, Théorbe

Participation de Bruno Bonhoure pour Sarremilhòque

Enregistré en décembre 2000 à Paris à la chapelle de l'hôpital Notre-Dame de Bon Secours

Total Time : 63min 19sec

Year : 2001

More infos about Vincnet Dumestre and Poeme Harmonique :Here

Reviews :

Fanfare magazine : Barry Brenesal

The emphasis in this collection, we are told in a lengthy, attractive but somewhat disorganized essay, is on music derived from the oral tradition in France. But as this spans the 16th through 19th centuries without highlighting any region, style, or function, it’s hardly a focus, at all; and what we really have here is a program designed to show off the skills of a specific performing group, in a genre that remains impossible to define, yet too attractive to resist.

Some of these songs will be familiar to devotees of French vocalists from an earlier age, when great artists such as Vanni Marcoux and Yvonne Printemps would record their concert souvenirs blithely marked as composed by “Traditional.” (In fact, another album by the same performers, Alpha 513, is named after and includes one of Vanni Marcoux’s signature themes, the once ubiquitous Plaisir d’amour.) The sense of what was popular, folk, and classical in musical genres was not always so clearly defined in the 18th century or preceding eras, so an early 20th-century operatic recital might well contain suitably classicized versions of far older hits with piano accompaniment.

In this recording, however, the style has decidedly moved a few notches closer towards folk origins, and away from classical redactions. No orchestra or piano is deployed. Only a few voices and (usually) instruments may be heard at any given time, the latter drawn from the folk and Renaissance classical traditions of France: the theorbo, recorder, hurdy-gurdy, tambourin, mute cornet, etc. The accompaniments are pure, in the sense that they eschew both Baroque counterpoint and modern harmonic coloration. The only departure from current accepted practice in reproducing music assigned to Western European oral traditions is the occasional short instrumental bridge, and an increasing complexity of accompaniment in a few songs’ successive verses. Accurate or not, some additions to texture would seem warranted when singing a piece such as La Pernette se lève, with its nine musically unvaried verses containing a single melodic refrain, heard twice.

I find myself responding very positively to both the program and these performances. The former is wide-ranging in emotional tone, complexity, and instrumentation. The infectious La molièra qu’a nau escus, the rhythmic zest and mellow harmonies of the largely homophonic Le 31 du mois d’août, the pastoral delicacy of Réveillez-vous, belle endormie, are only a few of the standouts that required frequent use of the repeat button on my CD player. As for the 11 musicians who make up Le Poème Harmonique, they are vastly skilled, rhythmically disciplined, and theatrically vivid where required, as in the galvanizing a capella tarantelle, Sarremilhòque. (The music may be from France, but various patois are employed, as well.) This group is far from the “churchly” type that usually brings great delicacy and little passion to such music. One hopes we’ll hear more from them in the future.

My only complaints are that the liner notes, referred to above, touch on a very few selections, and those out of order, while the translations are supplied in a different section of the booklet from the texts in original language. That aside, with close but reverberant sound, this album hits its mark. Repeatedly, and with gusto.

More infos about this album and to listen to the samples : Here

Tracklist :

CD: Aux Marches du Palais - Romances & complaintes de la France d'autrefois - Poeme Harmonique / Vincet Dumestre - 2001.

01. J'Ai Vu Le Loup, Le Renard Chanter [0:04:43.17]

(a partir du XVe siecle, parodie du Dies Irae liturgique)

02. Le Roi Renaud [0:08:41.22]

(anonyme, milieu du Xve siecle)

03. La Pernette [0:06:02.60]

(copiee dans le manuscript de Bayeux entre 1490 et 1500)

04. L'Amour De Moy [0:02:45.30]

(harmonisee par Richafort dans le 1ere moitie du XVI siecle)

05. En Passant Par La Lorraine [0:02:58.42]

( harmonisee par Arcadelt, editee par Leroy & Ballard en 1555)

06. Une Jeune Fillette [0:06:44.50]

(publiee par Chardavoine en 1576)

07. La Fille Au Roi Louis [0:06:50.56]

(concordance dans Ballard, airs de cour, 1607)

08. Le 31 Du Mois D'Aoϋt [0:04:55.34]

(chanson de marin, milieu XVIIIe siecle)

09. Aux Marches Du Palais [0:03:56.08]

(apparait dans les chansonniers & livrets de colportage a partir du XVIIIe siecle)

10. Rιveillez-Vous, Belle Endormie [0:02:10.36]

(editee par Ballard, Clef des chansonniers, 1717)

11. Le Roi A Fait Battre Tambour [0:06:08.42]

(anonyme milieu du XVIIIe siecle)

12. La Moliera Qu'A Nau Escus [0:02:06.23]

(chanson recueillie par Arnaudin fin XIXe siecle)

13. La Complainte De Mandrin [0:03:38.30]

(de traditionorale depuis le XiVe, notee dans les Pyrenees)

14. Sarremilhoque [0:01:33.64]

(tradition orale, recuillie de nos jour dans le Bearn)