Quest for the Middle Ages - Part 1: Travels, Songs & Tales

Quest for the Middle Ages - Part 1: Travels, Songs & Tales
The San Francisco Consort - Todd Wetherwax
Privately released (no number) [VHS copy]

Contents:

This performance, filmed before a live audience, consists of readings of excerpts from various medieval writings, such as the Decameron (Bocaccio), the Canterbury Tales (Chaucer), Eric & Enide (Crestien de Troyes), Piers Plowman (Langland), the Llivre Vermell, the Romance of Tristan & Ysolt, the Romance of the Rose, among others, which are thematically interspersed with the following musical selections:

  1. Prenez i garde (Guillaume d'Amiens)
  2. S'on me regarde (Montpellier MS, 13th cent.)
  3. Can vei la lauzeta mover (Bernart de Ventadorn)
  4. Angelus ad virgimum (Arundel MS 248)
  5. Gabriel from evene king (Arundel MS 248)
  6. Je muir (Adam de la Halle)
  7. Sumer is icomen in (England, 14th cent.)
  8. O virgo splendens (Llibre Vermell, 14th cent.)
  9. Veris ad imperia (Florence MS)
  10. Gran piant agli ochi (Francesco Landini)
  11. Lamento di Tristano & Rota (Italy, 14th cent.)
  12. Biauté qu fautes autres (Guillaume de Machaut)
  13. Quand je vois yver reorner (Colin Muset)
  14. O rosa bella (John Dunstable)
  15. Estampie (England, 14th cent.)
  16. Vergine bella che di sol vestita (Guillaume Dufay)
  17. Nova vobis gaudia (Nicholas Grenon)
  18. Pars maintes foys (Jean Vaillant)

Playing time: 54'

Performers:
The San Francisco Consort - Todd Wetherwax, dir.
Judy Frankel (voice, percussion), Lee McRae ( vielle, hurdy-gurdy, citole, organetto, voice), Todd Wetherwax (vielle, recorder, voice, organetto, tuned bells, percussion)

Recording site and date:
Oakland Public Library Main Branch, Oakland, CA [03/1987]

Comments:
This is the first of a four part production undertaken by KTOP-TV, Oakland, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Oakland Public Library, among others. The series is "intended as an introduction to the visual, aural, technical and educational achievements of the Middle Ages." Part 1 is described as "a program combining poetry and music in a manner as might have been done in many a great hall during the Middle Ages."
The other parts of this project are lectures on various related topics:
Part 2 - Early Manuscripts and the Beginning of Printing
Part 3 - Legends and Popular Romances
Part 4 - Medieval Melody from Sound to Script
Information from owned VHS copy.

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Jorge Salazar