Songs by Machaut

The Mirror of Narcissus
Songs by Machaut
Gothic Voices - Christopher Page
Hyperion A 66087 [LP]
Hyperion CDA 66087 [CD]

Contents:

  1. Ballade: Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient (4 voices)
  2. Virelai: Foy porter (voice)
  3. Motet: Dame, je sui cilz / Fins cuers doulz (3 voices)
  4. Virelai: Tuit mi penser (voice)
  5. Rondelet: Dame, mon cuer en vous remaint (3 voices)
  6. Virelai: Dame, a qui (voice)
  7. Ballade: Biauté qui toutes autres pere (3 voices)
  8. Virelai: Je vivroie liement (voice)
  9. Rondeau: Rose, liz, printemps, verdure (4 voices)
  10. Virelai: Dame, a vous sans retollir (voice)
  11. Ballade: Amours me fait desirer (3 voices)
  12. Virelai: Douce dame jolie (voice)
  13. Motet: Inviolata genitrix / Felix virgo / Ad te suspiramus (4 voices)

Performers: Emma Kirkby, Emily Van Evera, Margaret Philpot, Rogers Covey-Crump, Andrew King, Colin Scott Mason, Peter McCrae

Playing time: 51'

Recording date: April 1983;
rel.: 1983 [LP], 1987 [CD]

Reviewed in:
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.): 7/5-220 (May/June 1984, LP); 11/3- (January/February 1988, CD)

This is an all-vocal performance, alternating polyphonic with monophonic songs.

Two other major all-vocal renditions:

Dreams in the Pleasure Garden
Machaut: Chansons
Orlando Consort
DG Archiv 457 618
Machaut: Motets
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM "New Series" 1823

A later series by the present ensemble including a substantial number of Machaut songs:

The Medieval Romantics
French Songs and Motets, 1340-1440
Gothic Voices - Christopher Page
Hyperion 66463
Lancaster and Valois
French and English music, 1350-1420
Gothic Voices - Christopher Page
Hyperion 66588
The Study of Love
French Songs and Motets of the 14th Century
Gothic Voices - Christopher Page
Hyperion 66619

Note that the present selection is, in some ways, rather dated compared to the selections above. The approach to intonation and vocalization have been subsequently refined, with Gothic Voices as a major contributor to that refinement.

Gothic Voices' program from the 21st century, containing several Machaut songs:

The Unknown Lover
Songs by Solage and Machaut
Gothic Voices
Avie 2089

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Todd M. McComb