Tracking down a 70's LP
padmavyuha
Back in the mid-70's when I was a teenager, I had an LP of 'medieval
music' which I'd really like to get hold of again. All I can remember
about it is the following:
* a colour cover with a number of instruments on it, including a harp
and a large shawm (no, it's not the b&w David Monrow LP, which I also
had)
* the names on the cover were either a French couple or a French
brother and sister, as they had the same surname
* the penultimate track was an incredibly beautiful rendition of
"C'est La Fin" for tenor voice and shawm (which is what I'd really
love to hear again).
Does anyone here know which album I'm talking about, and who the
performers were?
Thanks in advance for your time.
Paul Magnussen
> On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:40:30 +1100, padmavyuha wrote
> (in article
> <a49de665-dafd-41b3...@r19g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>):
> The instrumentalists were the Jaye consort, who downed their viols and took
> up mediaeval instruments for this recording. You can see the cover here:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/y8gvjc7
Apparently not quite the same album, but I thought it worth drawing your
attention to this:
Paul Magnussen
Paul Magnussen
> On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:13:08 +1100, Paul Magnussen wrote
> (in article <zN2dnbUBGdMpEMHW...@earthlink.com>):
> referred is a much closer match to the description given by the original
> poster than is yours. Also, I know ￜc'est la finￜ is there, as specified. But
> of course it's up to the original poster to decide which of these is the one
> he/she is asking about.
>
You misunderstood (my ambiguous syntax, sorry): I meant the one I
pointed out was not the same.
Paul Magnussen
Margo Schulter
> Hello there
>
> Back in the mid-70's when I was a teenager, I had an LP of 'medieval
> music' which I'd really like to get hold of again. All I can remember
> about it is the following:
Dear padmavyuha,
Please let me add to what others have said that I believe I now
have this LP at hand, and thank you for the opportunity again
to appreciate this favorite of mine from the era of around 1970.
> * a colour cover with a number of instruments on it, including a harp
> and a large shawm (no, it's not the b&w David Monrow LP, which I also
> had)
The harp and large shawm are indeed there, and this is likely the
album already mentioned: _The Jolly Minstrels: Minstrel tunes, songs,
and dances of the Middle Ages on authentic instruments_, Gerald English,
tenor, with the Jaye Consort of Medieval Instruments, Cardinal VCS 10049
stereo (a division of Vanguard Records).
One detail is that on the back cover of the album, there is a kind of
diagram which shows the outlined forms of the instruments in the
front cover photograph with a number assigned to each, and a key
identifying each instrument (e.g. 3, medieval trumpet).
> * the names on the cover were either a French couple or a French
> brother and sister, as they had the same surname
This is the part that doesn't fit. Possibly there is another
album which might fit this point plus the rest of the description.
I checked a couple of other albums that came to mind for generally
similar focuses (performances of medieval pieces with lots of
varied instruments), but they didn't fit either.
I do remember an ensemble from France with at least some members
from the same family, if I'm correct, which specialized a lot
in the troubador repertory as well as some early instrumental
music, sometime around 1972 or 1973. They came to the east coast
of the USA, where I saw them, and they were most gracious. They
had an organ on which was performed a piece by a composer named
Adam (not de la Halle) from around the 15th century or so; and
as part of their performance, they joked about one of their
singers, a countertenor, was also a father.
If I'm right, this singer took a scholarly role in editing and
publishing songs from Languedoc. Whether there's any relation
to the album being described, I'm not sure.
> * the penultimate track was an incredibly beautiful rendition of
> "C'est La Fin" for tenor voice and shawm (which is what I'd really
> love to hear again).
On the Jaye Consort album, that song is the antepenultimate piece
on Side One, if the jacket information is correct.
> Does anyone here know which album I'm talking about, and who the
> performers were?
The French couple or brother and sister is what I'm having lots
of trouble matching: might someone else know of such a group?
There's one evident slip in the cover notes on the Jaye Consort
album, by the way: _Moulin de Paris_, a polyphonic instrumental
piece quite popular in medieval collections from this era of
the 1960's or early 1970's, is dated to the 13th century, when
a date of somewhere in the 14th century (or early 15th century?)
is more usually given and seems right to me.
> Thanks in advance for your time.
And thank you for giving me an opportunity both to look again
at an old favorite, and to wonder about the "French couple
or brother and sister" album, which I suspect I'd enjoy
hearing. Does anyone know of ensembles which did this
kind of repertoire and would fit that description?
Best,
Margo Schulter
mschulter at calweb dot com
padmavyuha
Thanks for the comprehensive responses. The album cover is definitely
the Jay Consort one. I have no idea where I got the mysterious French
couple from; perhaps they'll float up out of my memory at some point
and distinguish themselves. It won't be the first time this has
happened - I spent 20 years trying to find a suite by Bartók that
turned out to be by Stravinsky.
As for the LP that's on Amazon, I suspect that it's the same album
with a different cover on it, since the Blogonomicon entry that shows
the original LP cover quotes liner notes that match the Amazon
description:
"The Jaye Consort play medieval music on reconstructed medieval
instruments. The result is a heterophony, not unlike an Arabian night-
club band, but nothing has been added to the music apart from drones,
divisions, and a variety of percussion."
So everybody is right :).
Now to see if I can't find that LP somewhere... I'm in England, so
that's a head start!
padmavyuha
I'll be able to digitise it for posterity. Many thanks, all.
- Padmavyuha
jerom...@comcast.net
> padmavyuha <goldryblus...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Hello there
>
> > Back in the mid-70's when I was a teenager, I had an LP of 'medieval
> > music' which I'd really like to get hold of again. All I can remember
> > about it is the following:
>
> Dear padmavyuha,
>
> Please let me add to what others have said that I believe I now
> have this LP at hand, and thank you for the opportunity again
> to appreciate this favorite of mine from the era of around 1970.
>
> > * a colour cover with a number of instruments on it, including a harp
> > and a large shawm (no, it's not the b&w David Monrow LP, which I also
> > had)
>
> The harp and large shawm are indeed there, and this is likely the
> album already mentioned: _The Jolly Minstrels: Minstrel tunes, songs,
> and dances of the Middle Ages on authentic instruments_, Gerald English,
> tenor, with the Jaye Consort of Medieval Instruments, Cardinal VCS 10049
> stereo (a division of Vanguard Records).
> There's one evident slip in the cover notes on the Jaye Consort
> album, by the way: _Moulin de Paris_, a polyphonic instrumental
> piece quite popular in medieval collections from this era of
> the 1960's or early 1970's, is dated to the 13th century, when
> a date of somewhere in the 14th century (or early 15th century?)
> is more usually given and seems right to me.
Indeed, this is the composer's name, misspelled and rendered as a
title!. IIRC, this error is the result of a copyist's error in an
organ-tablature manuscript now in Prague, but of Low German or
Netherlandish origin. It was meant to read "Pierre des Molins van
Paris" (or something similar--and not to be confused with the trouvère
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Molins> who lived 100 years or
so earlier), and the title of the (originally vocal) piece is "De ce
que fol pensé". There is an article of possible interest here:
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/music/dlw/MOLINS.HTM>
This record has one other quirk that ought to be noted. A track oddly
labeled "Anon, Basse dance: Alta" is performed at a truly lugubrious
tempo by what sound like three rather wobbly double basses. In fact, I
believe the session tape must have been made at a recording speed of
30 (or 15) ips, and was mistakenly played back at 15 (or 7.5) ips
during mastering. If memory serves (and I have not listened to this
recording in over 20 years) this is in fact the well-known "Alta
Danza" by Francisco de la Torre, a saltarello almost universally
performed in a rapid tempo.
--
Jerry Kohl
"Légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal."
john.b...@ntlworld.com
> >
> > * the names on the cover were either a French couple or a French
> > brother and sister, as they had the same surname
>
> This is the part that doesn't fit.
The Jaye Consort was led by Francis Baines, and included his wife Elisabeth. Neither was French, but the Continental spelling of Elisabeth Baines's name might have given that impression.
John Briggs
Margo Schulter
> I'll be damned, found one on eBay for ?6! Let joy be unconfined...
Congratulations! It's a pleasure that we of rec.music.early
could help in your fruitful quest.
> I'll be able to digitise it for posterity. Many thanks, all.
>
> - Padmavyuha
With many thanks,
Margo Schulter
msch...@calweb.com
padmavyuha
> ---- Margo Schulter <mschul...@wopr.bestii.com> wrote:
>
> > padmavyuha <goldryblus...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > > * the names on the cover were either a French couple or a French
> > > brother and sister, as they had the same surname
>
> > This is the part that doesn't fit.
>
> The Jaye Consort was led by Francis Baines, and included his wife Elisabeth. Neither was French, but the Continental spelling of Elisabeth Baines's name might have given that impression.
>
> John Briggs
The names my brain remembers were something much more obviously
French, along the lines of Claude & Marie Thiboudeau (those aren't the
names - but the surname was that multisyllabic). I have no idea where
that certainty came from, or to what LP those French folk actually
belong.
It's good to keep some mystery in one's life.
Meanwhile, the LP sits at the post office, waiting for me to collect
it on Monday. C'est La Fin, vraiment.
- Padmavyuha