Live at St Paul's  /  The Bleecker Consort

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The Bleecker Consort
2018
[39:00]








1. Stella splendens   LV  2  /  Tempus est iocundum   CB  179   [5:29]

2. Bonum est confidere   [2:33]   CB  27

3. Bache bene venies   [2:39]   CB  200

4. De la gloriouse Fenix   [2:39]

5. Como poden per sas culpas   [1:22]   CSM  166

6. Santa Maria strela do dia  [2:52]   CSM  100

7. Non é gran cousa   [2:02]   CSM  26

8. Dum pater familias   [2:36]   CC  117

9. Nachtanz   [2:10]

10. Hoy comamos y bebamos / Si habrá en este baldrés   [3:50]   Juan del ENCINA

11. Una sañosa porfía   [4:05]   Juan del ENCINA

12. Lamento di Tristano / Rotta   [3:23]

13. Stella splendens   [3:57]   LV  2

Album Notes

The Bleecker Consort specializes in performing the exotic sounds of Medieval music as well as the lush polyphony of the Renaissance. Most of our arrangements are “broken consort” combinations of string, wind, and percussion instruments, and vocals. A few “whole consort” pieces are played on instruments of the same family, such as recorders. Our instruments are modern reproductions of recorders, strings (bandurria, mandola, mandolin, lute, laud, harp, hurdy-gurdy, vielle, and viol), reeds (cornamuse, kelhorn, dulcian, crumhorn, rauschpfife, shawm), brass (sackbut), and percussion (doumbek, tambourine, castanets, frame drum). Our group’s linguist holds a doctorate in Spanish and has expertise in early Romance languages.

The Bleecker Consort formed in 1988 in Albany, NY. Past performances have occurred at the nationally famous Troy Music Hall, the Albany Medieval Fair, and venues throughout the region, with the very occasional gig in Boston or Italy.

Though members of The Bleecker Consort come from a variety of professional backgrounds including medicine, music, astronomy, library sciences, biology, and romance languages, we have been fortunate to have studied with genuine masters in the field of early music, such as John Tyson, Tina Chancey, Judy Linsenberg, Laura Hagen, Eric Von Huene, Susan Iodone, Dan Stillman, Eric Haas, and Sheila Beardslee.

This CD was recorded during two “Music at Noon” concerts at St. Paul’s Church in Troy, NY.
Most of the works are from our 2015 performance, “Music of the Iberian Kingdoms”. Stella Splendens (Shining Star) is a hauntingly beautiful piece found in the Llibre Vermell (Scarlet Book) from the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat in the mountains of Catalonia. The bawdy and irreverent music from the Carmina Burana manuscript was mostly 11th and 12th century, compiled in the 13th century, and played throughout Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, by minstrels and troubadours. The Cantigas de Santa Maria (Canticles of Holy Mary) contains 420 poems with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese, a language whose modern form is still spoken in northwest Spain, during the reign of Alfonso el Sabio (1221–1284). He was an important benefactor and patron of the arts, and many of the songs are often attributed to him. The 12th century manuscript Codex Calixtinus provides detailed information a pilgrim would need to complete the Way of St. James, or Camino de Santiago pilgrimage to the Cathedral at Santiago de la Compostela in Galicia. The villancicos of Juan del Encina (1468-1529) can be found in one of the most important manuscripts of the Renaissance: Cancionero Musical de Palacio.
Two pieces were recorded at our 2013 concert: the sacred French Troubadour piece De la gloriouse Fenix, and the Italian dance Lamento di Tristano.

Recorded and mastered by Dan Czernecki, Classical Recording Service
© 2018
Photo courtesy of Jim Schwab, Cover design by Gretchen Schwab

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