Machaut: The lion of nobility

Machaut The Lion of Nobility
The Orlando Consort
Hyperion CDA68318


The Orlando Consort’s latest album in their Machaut/Hyperion project features works from his ‘Prologue’, a fictional autobiography beginning his complete works manuscript. The selection features several famous works well-known from previous recordings, and illustrates—in the words of editors Anne Stone and Jacques Boogaart—‘the whole spectrum of Machaut’s poetic and musical art’[…]. As ever, the performing editions used here are from the forthcoming Complete Works of Guillaume de Machaut and just this Autumn The American Musicological Society awarded their prestigious Noah Greenberg Award to this Machaut project.

[...] Also of note is the solo voiced ballade Dame, se vous m’estes lonteinne (Lady, if you are distant from me) with its familiar theme of unobtainable longing which offers a moving moment of repose, beautifully sung by Matthew Venner whose mellow countertenor tone infuses this album with warmth. Another wonderful and fascinating instalment in this impressive series.


To read the full text of this article please visit www.gramophone.co.uk (Jan 2021)

Vocal Traditions in Conflict

Richard Bethell, Vocal Traditions in Conflict:
Descent From Sweet, Clear, Pure and Affecting Italian Singing to Grand Uproar
reviewed by Edward Breen
Early Music Performer, Issue 46, Spring 2020

‘Whatever we know or don’t know about 13th century singing and, God knows, there’s very little we can say for certain about it, we may be certain that it didn’t sound like 20th century singing.’ The words of Michael Morrow, director of Musica Reservata, one of the first early-music ensembles to experiment with vocal sound and style. He worked with many musicians who would go on to define early-music performance in the last quarter of the twentieth century: Andrew Parrott, Anthony Rooley, Christopher Page, and the sounds that he asked of singer Jantina Noorman would go on to influence many later performers such as Dominique Visse. 

The author of this new volume about vocal traditions, and vocal vibrato – Richard Bethell – is another Musica Reservata alumnus who, alongside a business career, has remained a recognisable figure within British early-music circles as Secretary of the National Early Music Association (NEMA). In 2009 he helped organise a conference at York University on ‘Singing music from 1500 to 1900’ at which he presented on vocal vibrato. In many ways this book is rooted in Morrow’s ideas: it seeks to look beyond modern performance norms.

[...]

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