Tuesday 1 January 2008

Gig-a-Blog™ (Laulan and Peyronelle, St Anne & St Agnes)

Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Laulan and Peyronelle: medieval harp, fiddle, voice.

Laulan and Peyronelle started from the west end with a processionette, which was nice.

Lovely. Lively. Incredible clarity. It's just wonderful to hear this totally different sound. They did (among many other pieces) There Is No Rose, a particularly gorgeous tune.

I was surprised by how many of these tunes I knew. I suppose it's partly that brass ensembles have been plundering this repertoire for decades: in addition some of it has been adapted and survived to modern times in, I guess, continuous use? Others seemed completely new to me - which is good too!

They do excellent chat and are highly audience-friendly. Much mention was made of the collection Piae Cantiones which I must read about - er - one day.

I very much liked the pretty, painted medieval fiddle. Apparently it's a replica of one held by a mummified saint in a church in Bologna. Oh and they sometimes added little bells in too. These probably have a proper name too, skrinks or nakers or diplocks or something. But, y'know... jabnaas.

Ah, they've just done the Coventry Carol: lovely lovely. And apologized for overrunning, which is nice (get on with it!) And just publicized their MySpace - er - spaces on the Wretched Young People's Musical Webnet Two Dot Thing. How frightfully modernistic of them. So, fair dos, here they are:

V v good and enjoyable in every way. Another St Anne and St Agnes triumph!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey there

Lovely to read your comments on my gig!

Piae Cantiones is a really big collection of Latin songs and what have you which was originally published in Finland in the late 16th century although many songs are of a much earlier origin. A nice connection for me is the fact that it was published at the University of Turku, where my Finnish boyfriend studied! Anyway, it was edited and published in England in the late 19th century and was thus indeed "plundered" by many people including Holst as well as brass ensembles! Some of the most famous pieces in there are Gaudete (thank you Steeleye Span) and In dulci jubilo (which I didn't in fact play but which Holst arranged very nicely)...
My little bells are in fact just finger cymbals of the kind that you find in children's percussion kits - I'll let you into a secret, I forgot my Tibetan frame drum with jingles which I had wanted to
use....
Keep enjoying the St A & A gigs!

Strawberryyog said...

Hi Laulan - thanks very much for that. Fascinating stuff - great to have some knowledge-gaps filled! Now I feel even more that I need to investigate Piae Cantiones further.

I hope we will see you back at SS A&A again soon.