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The chansons on Asteria's debut album are gathered from compositions
which were likely performed in the courts of the Dukes of Burgundy at
the height of their reign and cultural influence during the mid to late
15th century. As you listen to the work of these masters, let the emotions
conveyed in their ancient melodies carry you away, as they did the courtly
audiences of the middle ages.
> track listings, texts and translation
>
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100 years before the reign of the Renaissance masters, a new
polyphonic art form was taking root in the low countries and making
its way across a rapidly transforming Europe. The Burgundian chanson
tradition, which reached its apex in the latter part of the 15th century,
is much less well known and understood than that of the 16th; however,
it was a crucial step in the development of western music, leading out
of more chaotic, early polyphonic experiments into the refined, mature
polyphony of the high-Renaissance.
At
the time the chanson repertoire was created and performed, large orchestras
and choirs did not exist, nor did the modern concept of a concert. Period
documents often mention individual songs being performed by one or two
persons as a diversion in a larger program of entertainment at banquets
and other social settings at court. Small, mixed ensembles of voices
and instruments were not infrequent, with lute, harp and vielle being
among the favorite accompanying instruments.
The verses that make up the bulk of the Burgundian chanson repertoire
often seem superficially simple, even trite, and yet they are steeped
in a fascinating tradition of elevated poetry that sought to transcend
the horror of everyday existence in the middle ages, with its plagues,
diseases and death at every turn, creating a temporary mythical reality.
Reading court scribes of the period would lead us to believe that every
move, meeting and affair was drenched in a fantastical surfeit of emotion
and allegorical role-playing. Lords, courtiers, pages everyone
rejoiced, wept and despaired with great frequency and passion. The distinction
between fiction and non-fiction writing is in fact barely perceivable,
with the 400 year old chivalric tradition still very much the dominant
aesthetic even into the 16th century.
Quasi-deification of the Lady, appeals for aid to personified
figures representing Fate, Death, and Jealousy, and a general willingness
to extinguish ones life at the drop of a hat for ones principles
all find their way into Burgundian poetry in much the same form as in
the 13th century verses of the Provencal troubadours. The memory
of you kills me when I cannot see you... writes Robert Morton
in the title composition, while Estienne Grossin asks bluntly in his
delightful Vit Encore: ...is he not dead yet, this
false rascal? Then by God, he shall soon die!
The chansons on Asteria's debut album are gathered from compositions
which were likely performed in the courts of the Dukes of Burgundy at
the height of their reign and cultural influence during the mid to late
15th century.
A renowned patron of spectacle and art, Philip the Good (1396-1467),
with his court centered in present day Lyon, was blessed with great
economic prosperity and regional power unrivaled even by the King of
France. His prolific court historian Georges Chastellain provides us
with much of what we know about this period, including the emotionally
charged comings and goings of noble guests and the wondrous fetes that
witnessed such spectacles as a giant, leading an elephant,
mechanical dragons, and one account of a huge meat-pie from which
sprang twenty-eight musicians.
Every generation wistfully idolizes that which preceded it as being
more pure, uncluttered with trouble and complexity. As you listen to
the work of these masters, let the emotions conveyed in their ancient
melodies carry you away, as they did the courtly audiences of the middle
ages, yearning for the romantic utopia of their forbears.
Asteria