Voyage au coeur du Moyen Age Vol.2 : Emmanuel Bonnardot / Ensemble Obsidienne

In 2023, the Obsidienne ensemble, directed by Emmanuel Bonnardot, celebrates 30 years of musical activity. The public is never bored with the enthusiastic members of this formation who are as much singers, musicians (they play all kinds of medieval instruments) as comedians. To mark this jubilee, Obsidienne has chosen to spend this year in the company of Guillaume de Machaut, a great poet and composer of the 14th century, a pioneer in the development of Western polyphonic music.

This CD allows us to discover two of his great lyrical poems, the "lai de la Rose" and the "lai de la Fonteinne" that the great Reims artist wrote and set to music.

Composed around 1340, the "lai de la Fonteinne" ("Je ne cesse de prier…") is a praise to the Virgin and a meditation on the nature of the Trinity. The “lai de la Rose” (“Pour vivre joliment”…) is a courtly love poem. The instrumental sounds (psaltery, tympanon, citole, rebec, flutes…) of the musicians of Obsidienne offer a colorful accompaniment to the subtle voices of men and women who carry the poetry of the trouvère Machaut.