Guillaume de Machaut: Ballades
Ensemble Musica Nova / Lucien Kandel, direction
The work of Guillaume de Machaut dominates the whole French 14th Century. It was bequeathed to us thanks to 6 illuminated manuscripts of the end of the 14th Century and the beginning of the 15th, kept in the French National Library in Paris. Those manuscripts assemble the full poetical and musical works of the composer, structured as a very precisely organised entity. The musical part is composed of motets, virelais, ballads, lais, rondeaux and the famous Messe de Notre Dame.
Thanks to the research of 20th century musicologists, we can now assess the full importance of this work. The knowledge now acquired allows today's performers to read his music directly on the manuscript sources and make us more and more familiar with this ancient media. This proximity with Guillaume de Machaut is an essential component of our work as a polyphonic ensemble. It introduces us in the universe of the motets, a real labyrinth of initiation into the multiple paths we never cease to explore. In this new recording devoted to the canon of Reims, we invite you to follow our poet-musician in the fantastic and experimental world of his ballads.
Lucien Kandel ( aeon )
1. De Fortune me doi pleindre et loer (B23) [07:59]
2. Dame, se vous m'estes lointeinne (B37) [03:57]
3. Esperance qui m'asseure (B13) [06:41]
4. Phyton, le mervilleus serpent (B38) [08:02]
5. Se quanque amours puet donner a amy (B21) [07:41]
6. De triste cuer / Quant vrais amans / Certes, je di (B29) [05:37]
7. Il m'est avis qu'il n'est dons de Nature (B22) [06:12]
8. Sans cuer m'en vois / Amis, dolens / Dame, par vous (B17) [04:48]
9. Hoquetus David (Instrumental) [03:17]
10. Amours me fait desirer (B19) [07:28]
11. Quant Theseus / Ne quier veoir (B34) [07:33]
12. Je ne cuit pas qu'oncques a creature (B14) [06:00]
13. Pour vous revoir (Instrumental) - Sois tard tempre [03:06]
Recorded 2009
