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'Le Jardin de Plaisance', LA MORRA's
first CD, is dedicated to the sophisticated repertoire of Franco-Burgundian
secular song copied in the French royal domaine of the Loire Valley
during the 1460s and 70s into six closely related songbooks (now
preserved in the libraries of Dijon, Kopenhagen, London, Paris,
Wolfenbüttel and Washington). These are small, finely illuminated
anthologies of secular polyphonic song created by the generation
of composers active during the latter half of the century. Many
of the poems here set to music found their way into large printed
sixteenth century anthologies of late Medieval French poetry (such
as Antoine Verard's 'Le Jardin de plaisance et fleur de rhetorique',
which lent the CD a title).
Each song is performed by a single
vocalist, while remaining parts are played on instruments. Inserted
between - performed exclusively on instruments - are textless pieces,
which borrow musical material from the song repertoire.
Composers include Jean Ockeghem,
Barbingant, Antoine Busnoys, Guillaume Dufay, Delahaye and Hayne
van Ghizeghem.
Co-production of Schola
Cantorum Basiliensis and the Swiss Radio DRS II.
IN THE UPPER-RIGHT CORNER:
detail from Antoine Verard's printed 'Le Jardin de plaisance et
fleur de rhetorique' (Paris, prior to 1501)
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