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Les Menestrels works by 1 CD, DDD, 73 minutes, |
Play and pleasure are necessary to the sustenance of human life. However, all services useful to human sustenance must be regarded as permissible. Therefore, the services of menestrels, which are intended to provide cheer, are not a forbidden thing, provided that they are not in a state of sin, and they exercise moderation in their playing - namely that they use no hateful words and do not begin playing during work or at forbidden times. And those who support the menestrels are not committing sin! Rather, they deal justly when they give them for their services that which is their due. "As stated above..." |
Texts and music from the spiritual world of the European Middle Ages form the subject matter of this programme, which the Les Menestrels Ensemble has put together specially for this performance held in the monastery church at Maulbronn. One is astonished by the abundant variety of language and subject matter on offer here. Yet perhaps even more astonishing is the widespread, cross-border dissemination of a body of religious and cultural thought that flourished outside church walls. In todays monotonous popular culture, shaped as it is by the dogma that what sells is what matters, cultural and human values no longer enjoy pride of place. Linguistic standardisation is pursued aggressively, and dialects, expressions and cultural resonances travel beyond regional borders in only the rarest of cases. In the song as cultivated in the Middle Ages, however, we find a linguistically multifaceted culture; one that is, in this sense, truly more European. Modern media have wrought little improvement. On the contrary, inquisitorial surveillance has found its match in the uniformity-enforcing filter of a profit-oriented business management "culture." The Church may well have imposed strict guidelines, as Klaus Walter describes in the notes below, but at least the themes that were the focus of artistic creation were those by which human beings are moved, and wit and subtlety challenged the human intellect. Josef-Stefan Kindler |
Numbers offered a means by which to establish order and, in the process, reclaim for oneself a bit of paradise. It is therefore no accident that many scholasticists engaged in study of the Kabala, the doctrine of the significance of number combinations. By imposing order on ones conductor on a compositionone was able to create in miniature an image of heaven. The particular order imposed did not have to be readily discernible. A de facto order sufficed.
It may be that Kabalistic number symbolism occasionally played a role in the isorhythmic motet, similar to the role it was recently demonstrated to have played in the compositions of J.S. Bach. This method of composition declined in importance towards the end of the 14th century; however, the motet principle, whereby a strictly defined role is assigned to each voice, continued to find expression in the cantus firmus technique, in which form it long retained its influence.
Klaus Walter |
Concerts and radio and television recording sessions have taken the ensemble to nearly every European country and to the USA, Canada and Japan. The ensemble has made recordings on the Westminster, Amadeo, Belvedere and Mirror Music labels. Les Menestrels have performed at festivals including the Vienna International Festival (Wiener Festwochen), the Salzburg Festival, the Festivales dEspaña, the Festival Estival de Paris, the International Organ Week in Nuremberg, the Passau European Festival (Europäische Wochen Passau), the Lucerne International Music Festival, the Dubrovnik Festival, the Schwetzinger Festival, Music in Old Krakow, Festivals in Osijek, Flanders, Istanbul, Ljubljana, and Ochrid, the Maulbronn "Monastery Concerts," and many others. Birgit Kurtz ~ soprano, Florian Mayr ~ countertenor, Kurt Kempf ~ tenor, Erich Klug ~ bass The complete libretti and texts of the performance: ~ as website ~ |
The history, the composers and the works
Gherardello de Florenzia (13101370) Guillaume de Machault (c. 13001377) Hermann, Monk of Salzburg (second half of the 14th century) Heinrich von Mügeln (14th century) Guillaume Dufay (14001474) Alfonso el Sabio (12211284, reigned from 1252) Johannes Bassart (mid-15th century) Kolmarer Liederhandschrift (15th century) Oswald von Wolkenstein (circa 1377 in Schöneck/Alto Adige1445 in Neustift/Brixen) The Mensural Codex of Nicolaus Apel Cancionero Musical del Palacio and Cancionero Musical de la casa de Medinaceli Montpellier Codex Squarcialupi Codex (Florence, Medicea Laurenziana pal. 87) |
1. Concert start 2. Psalm 115: "Nicht uns, o Herr, nicht uns..." 3. Benedicamus Domino 4. Groß bist du, Herr... 5. Benedicamus Domino 6. Ich liebe dich, Herr... 7. Benedicamus Domino 8. Wenn ich scheine mußt Du leuchten... 9. Aucun - Amor - Kyrie 10. "A" setzen wir, das ist unser Herr und Gott... 11. Tribulatio proxima est 12. Oh Himmel-König... 13. Christe - Veni creator - Tribulatio 14. O Mensch, bezeichnet und geziert mit Gottes Ebenbild... 15. Nova laude, terra, plaude... 16. Omnis mundus - Omnes nunc 17. Wie uns die Heiligen helfen 18. Arcangel San Miguel... 19. Der heilige Erzengel Michael 20. St. Martein, lieber Herre... 21. Quem terra, pontus, aethera... 22. Durch die Frau kam das Übel - durch die Frau kam das Gute... 23. Ad laudes marie cantemus hodie... 24. Einen gekrönten reien... 25. Sancho Pansa: "Und hätte ich auch nichts anderes..." 26. Praeludio: "Santa Maria amar..." 27. Gran dereit... 28. Nachdem der Heide alle Darlegungen angehört hatte... 29. O flos flagrans... 30. Vergine bella... 31. Ave mater o maria... 32. Predigt: "Der Tanz ist ein Ring oder Zirkel, des Mittel der Teufel ist..." 33. Chaldivaldi "Wie schon oben gesagt..." |