The Art Of The Bawdy Song
The Baltimore Consort an ensemble of six players was founded in 1980 with the purpose of performing ‘broken consort’ pieces of Elizabethan origin. ‘Broken’ here refers to the instrumentation – treble viol/violin flue/recorder lute cittern bandore and bass viol. Their repertoire expanded beyond these beginnings to include broader British fare as well as French and Italian music of the time. This is a happy expansion as it made this disc of older bawdy (for its time) music possible.
The Baltimore Consort play with life and vigour with a good deal of improvisational flair not being bound to texts and going through the production of notes as if mechanically. This is true to the spirit and nature of the early music in which performers often had to ‘play by ear’ neither being able to read music nor having printed music even if they could. This is particularly true of the songs on this disc where many are derivative of anonymous jokes and stories and much of the music is likewise folk-tune and anonymously composed.
Some of the songs can be rather shocking. As Mary Anne Ballard writes in the accompanying notes ‘We must remember that in the days before indoor plumbing and pooper-scooper laws everyday life was of an earthier flavour than it is today…. The men of the singing clubs and the ladies of stage poked fun at themselves and their companions with wit pleasantry and contrivance.’
The names of many of the composers of these pieces have been lost to history particularly the more folk-song oriented ones. However some well-known composers are represented among the pieces here – Purcell D’Urfey Aldridge and others.
The regular players include Mary Anne Ballard (viols) Deutsche Mark Cudek (cittern guitar recorder and bass viol) Custer LaRue (vocalist/soprano) Larry Lipkis (recorder viols) Ronn McFarlane (lute) Chris Norman (flutes) Webb Wiggins (tambourine and ‘virginals’). Some artists are known from other Dorian productions such as Ronn McFarlane on the lute in the collection ‘Greensleeves’.
Added to the regular consort players are the Merry Companions including Peter Becker (baritone) Alexander Blachly (baritone) Paul Shipper (bass belch-canto) and James Weaver (baritone).
One more addition includes a guest artist Lorenzo Labbrobacio playing of all things the ‘fartophone’ a rather mysterious instrument indeed. Labbrobacio defies identification on the internet other than references to this disc and so the mystery deepens.
This is music that is interesting truly fun to listen to entertaining and has a quality about it that makes it a joy both in musical and humourous tones.
Was will man mehr?
dieses CD ist meines Wissens nach eine echte Rarität. nirgendwo sonst kann man diese Mischung aus sowohl hervorragend gesungener und gespielter mittelalterlicher Töne mit wunderschön auszüglichen Liedtexten finden. sehr schade daß die anderen CD’s der Baltimore Consort nur selten diese Mixtur aufweisen – obwohl auch diese durchweg aus sehr schönen Stücken mit technisch hervorragender Güte bestehen. zu empfehlen für alle die in aller Öffentlichkeit schmutzige Lieder hören wollen ohne das es jemand mitkriegt – denn wer hört schon bei Klassik auf die Texte?
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