Machaut: Songs From Le Voir Dit - Orlando Consort (2013)
Machaut: Songs From Le Voir Dit - Orlando Consort (2013)
EAC Rip | Flac (Tracks + cue + log) | 1 CD | Full Scans | 215 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog Number: 67727
EAC Rip | Flac (Tracks + cue + log) | 1 CD | Full Scans | 215 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog Number: 67727
The Orlando Consort performs the music of Machaut, the most significant French poet and composer of the fourteenth century. Sometimes described as ‘the last of the trouvères’ because of his dual talents as poet and musician, Machaut built on past traditions yet spearheaded a new school of lyric composition. In the field of literature, he developed several of the poetic forms and genres that dominated for generations to come. His impact on the musical life of his age was equally profound; he is closely associated with the new style of polyphonic love-song that became so popular in the fourteenth century, and today is considered the supreme representative of the Ars nova musical tradition that revolutionized composition and notation in that period.
Livre dou Voir Dit (‘Book of the True Tale’) is Machaut’s masterpiece. By its very title, the tale purports to be autobiographical: it relates a supposedly recent episode in the ageing poet-composer’s life, his love affair with a lady some forty years his junior.
Composer: Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Reviews: This isn’t a standard program of Machaut, with the immediately memorable thematic material (“Douce dame jolie”) and pronounced rhythmic impetus (“Rose, liz, printemps, verdure”) of his earlier works. What we have here are nine songs drawn from the last of his dits , first-person narrative poetry of considerable length that was very fashionable at the time—a game of truth and fiction, often cloaked in allegory, with inserted poetry and songs. The Livre dou voir dit (Book of the True Tale) was written in the late 1360s, at which point Machaut was in his 60s. Which isn’t to say that there is little beauty in the passionate Se pour ce muir , nor a lack of virtuosic brilliance in Quant Theseus/Ne quier venir. (The latter was the result of a private contest with a colleague, Thomas Paien, who wrote the text and music to the first song but lost to Machaut, who beat him out for imagery in the text of his response and musically by combining that response with Paien’s original.) The delights are there, just not as obviously so.
The Orlando Consort is hardly unfamiliar with this music. It issued an earlier CD of Machaut’s songs more than a decade ago (currently on Archiv 993102), and continued to draw from the composer over the years in various collections. Ne que on porroit , for example, is on this disc, but was also part of an extraordinarily conceived release entitled Food, Wine & Song (sadly deleted, though still available through secondhand distributors) that featured both music and recipes from early Renaissance England, France, Italy, Burgundy, Spain, and the German States. The two performances are distinct: identical in approach, but countertenor Robert Harre-Jones on the earlier album possessed a richer timbre, while his replacement, Matthew Venner, has superior enunciation. Differences in engineering might be responsible to an extent as well.
The centerpiece of this program is the complex lai, Longuement me sui tenus . Clocking in here at just over 21 minutes, it is by far the longest piece on the disc, and receives a truly virtuosic performance by Angus Smith—who must have felt as though he’d run a marathon after singing it, if indeed it was recorded in a single session. (It is presented unaccompanied, per the latest research.) Without resorting to any anachronistic expressive devices, he makes much of the emotional content of what he sings through discreet changes to tempo, enunciation, phrasing, and a warm, focused vibrato that blooms naturally, repeatedly, in the upper reaches of the piece.
Machaut’s songs are not as poorly served on disc as those of many of his contemporaries, but the Orlando Consort’s latest is exceptional in all respects. While I wouldn’t recommend it as a first choice because of the repertoire, it isn’t surpassed for performance by anything else out there, not even Ensemble Gilles Binchois or Gothic Voices. Strongly recommended.
Tracklisting:
1. Sanc cuer, dolens by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
2. Quant Theseus/Ne quier veoir by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
3. Puis qu'en oubli by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
4. Plourés dames by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
5. Nes que on porroit by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
6. Longuement me sui tenus "Lai de bonne esperance" by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
7. Dix et sept, cinq by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
8. Dame, se vous n'avez aperceü by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; France
9. Se pour ce muir by Guillaume de Machaut
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orlando Consort
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century; Finland
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 21. November 2013, 20:45
The Orlando Consort / Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit
Used drive : SlimtypeDVD A DS8A8SH Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
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Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
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Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 6:48.60 | 0 | 30659
2 | 6:48.60 | 3:41.32 | 30660 | 47266
3 | 10:30.17 | 7:33.40 | 47267 | 81281
4 | 18:03.57 | 4:38.23 | 81282 | 102154
5 | 22:42.05 | 21:02.08 | 102155 | 196812
6 | 43:44.13 | 4:34.22 | 196813 | 217384
7 | 48:18.35 | 1:44.55 | 217385 | 225239
8 | 50:03.15 | 6:56.02 | 225240 | 256441
9 | 56:59.17 | 7:26.49 | 256442 | 289940
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Track 3
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Track 4
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\04 - Sans cuer dolens.wav
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Track 5
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Track 6
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Track 7
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\07 - Puis qu'en oubli.wav
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Track 8
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\08 - Quant Theseus - Ne quier veoir.wav
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Extraction speed 2.3 X
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 9
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\09 - Se pour ce muir.wav
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Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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End of status report
==== Log checksum 5F2F8E4AE6341B925D473B7440104E5CC63C21EE5ADF75837EF6B432636B4339 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 21. November 2013, 20:45
The Orlando Consort / Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit
Used drive : SlimtypeDVD A DS8A8SH Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 512 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "COMMENT=EAC Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -8" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:48.60 | 0 | 30659
2 | 6:48.60 | 3:41.32 | 30660 | 47266
3 | 10:30.17 | 7:33.40 | 47267 | 81281
4 | 18:03.57 | 4:38.23 | 81282 | 102154
5 | 22:42.05 | 21:02.08 | 102155 | 196812
6 | 43:44.13 | 4:34.22 | 196813 | 217384
7 | 48:18.35 | 1:44.55 | 217385 | 225239
8 | 50:03.15 | 6:56.02 | 225240 | 256441
9 | 56:59.17 | 7:26.49 | 256442 | 289940
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Track 2
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Track 3
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\03 - Ne que on porroit.wav
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Track 4
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\04 - Sans cuer dolens.wav
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Track 5
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\05 - Longuement me sui tenus, 'Le lay de Bon Esperance'.wav
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Track 6
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Extraction speed 2.1 X
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Track 7
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\07 - Puis qu'en oubli.wav
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Extraction speed 1.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 8
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\08 - Quant Theseus - Ne quier veoir.wav
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Extraction speed 2.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 9
Filename I:\MY RIPS\Guillaume de Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit (2013) [FLAC] {Hyperion CDA67727}\09 - Se pour ce muir.wav
Peak level 26.3 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum 5F2F8E4AE6341B925D473B7440104E5CC63C21EE5ADF75837EF6B432636B4339 ====
Thanks to the original releaser