Oliphant - Oliphant: Songs From the Crusades (CD)

Release Date: 01/01/00

Each song is monophonic in the manuscript, no rhythm is indicated and, of course, no instrumental parts. In the case of

Each song is monophonic in the manuscript, no rhythm is indicated and, of course, no instrumental parts. In the case of a song by Thibaut, King of Navarre its source is beautifully copied with an illustration depicting a fiddler seated before the King and Queen, reminding us that ”trouvere” songs were to be performed for kings and queens and princes of the earth” (Johannes de Grocheio). String instruments were the only ones not too crude for such an important performance. Oliphant uses shawms, bagpipes, flutes, bell drums, symphonia, dulcimer, fiddle and various percussion. If this worries you then I would add that they are used carefully, sometimes as introductions to, or between, verses of the songs and also in the four instrumental-only performances. Soprano, Uli Korhonen, who has a light and flexible voice, which can rise to a ringing passion when appropriate, is often accompanied by the string instruments only. The recording is vivid and Higginson