Dato/tid
04.10.2016
20:00 – 22:00

Sted
KoncertKirken

asteria_press4_large

Copenhagen Renaissance Music Festival 2016 – DUO!

ASTERIA MUSICA (us)

Sylvia Rhyne, soprano
Eric Redlinger, tenor, lute
 
“My heart remains with you”
– medieval love songs inspired by Arthurian Romance
 
TIckets: 100 DKK / Stud: 50 dkk
 
* * *
In the courts of Europe at the end of the Middle Ages, musical performance not only sounded, but also looked very different than it does today. Large orchestras did not exist. Aside from fanfares and other public celebrations, music was largely a more personal, intimate affair, with individual songs composed and performed by a handful of musicians and singers for private audiences or as an eagerly awaited treat at banquets and other social settings at court.
Quieter instruments such as lutes, harps and vielles (a predecessor of the violin) often accompanied singers to produce the sumptuous sound of interweaving melodies that characterizes the period.
The topic of the poetry is invariably that of courtly love, that mysterious and uniquely medieval literary and cultural tradition that places the lady on the highest possible pedestal and defines the social roles for noblemen and noblewomen at court. But, like the experience of love in any age, there are countless variations and some unique medieval twists on this timeless subject.
A knight is expected to woo his lady, but the pain of her initial refusal is bittersweet. The more inaccessible the object of his affections, the higher the drama and the glory of the pursuit. The troubadours, the celebrated singer/poets of the 12th and 13th centuries, preached the gospel of courtly love as the ultimate in human experience. But what did it all really mean, and why was this hopelessly romantic form of human expression so revered at that time when today chivalry appears all but dead (or is it)?
The tradition of courtly love, however, was not just tapped by jilted poets and troubadours, it also provided the inspiration for a literary tradition that turns out to be much longer lived than the long-forgotten poems and songs that once delighted noble audiences at the dawn of the Renaissance. The Middle Ages was also the great era of Arthurian romance, and a quick scan of the offerings in Hollywood and on cable television today makes it clear that our appetite for this genre has hardly waned in the interim. Foundational characters and events that are absolutely integral to Arthurian lore, such as Lancelot and his tragic affair with Guinevere, and Percival and the grail saga, were actually “invented” in the 12th century, and mostly by one man: Chretien de Troyes.
In today’s concert, Asteria will follow one of Chretien’s most beloved stories, that of knight Yvain, to illustrate how the concepts of courtly love as presented in Arthurian romance were very much alive and well in the art songs of the 15th century, just as they would go on to inspire great writers in the centuries that followed.
 
 
Program
 
Ave regina coelorum
Walter Frye (d. 1474/1475)
 
Pour tant se j’ay la barbe grise
Anonymous
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici Misc. 213, circa 1420
 
Au gré de mes ieulx, je vous ai choisie
Antoine Busnoys (1430-1492)
Dijon Chansonnier Ms. 517
 
Pour prison
Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460)
Escorial B – Biblioteca del Monasterio Ms. IV
 
Entre vous nouviaux mariés
Johannes le Grant (fl. c. 1420 – 1440)
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici Misc. 213
 
J’atendrai tant quil vous plaira
Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474)
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici Misc. 213
 
Le souvenir de vous me tue
Robert Morton (~1430-1476)
Dijon Chansonnier Ms. 517
 
~Pause~
 
Dueil angoisseux
text: Christine de Pisan / music: Gilles Binchois
 
Tristre dolent – lute solo
Anonymous
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici Misc. 213, circa 1420
 
Soyes loyal
Anonymous
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici Misc. 213, circa 1420
 
Quant la doulce jouvencelle
Anonymous
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici Misc. 213, circa 1420
 
Dame d’onnour
Anonymous
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canonici Misc. 213, circa 1420
 
Le corps sen va – le cuer vous demeure
Antoine Busnoys (1430-1492)
Dijon Chansonnier Ms. 517
 
* * *
 
ABOUT ASTERIA MUSICA
 
Asteria burst onto the national Early Music scene in October 2004, winning Early Music America’s first Unicorn Prize for Medieval and Renaissance Music with a performance heralded by the New York Times as “intimate and deeply communicative…meltingly beautiful.” This engaging duo brings out the passion and emotional impact of late medieval vocal and instrumental music with timeless love songs of wide appeal, transporting their listeners back to the age of chivalry.
Eric’s skill on the lute and sweet tenor voice are complemented by his expertise in early music, earned through study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and extensive archival research into original sources. Following graduation from Middlebury College, Eric spent several years immersing himself in the European musical archives of the Hague, Basel and Marburg. During this time he also did post-graduate studies in composition and musicology at the Frankfurt Conservatory of Music, worked in the studio of New York based avant-garde composer Philip Glass and studied medieval lute with Crawford Young and voice with Richard Levitt at the Schola. He now makes his home in New York, where he has studied with Drew Minter and Gary Ramsey.
Sylvia brings to the partnership not only her quicksilver soprano but also a strong dramatic connection with the audience, gained from a professional career in musical theater. She has starred internationally as Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera,” and on Broadway as Joanna in “Sweeney Todd” under the direction of Harold Prince, Susan Schulman and Stephen Sondheim.
Raised in London and the Pacific Northwest, Sylvia grew up surrounded by classical music, opera and dance. She pursued a passion for early music at Carleton College, guided by Stephen Kelly, taking leading roles in early operas and operettas on her way to a degree in music. She studied acting with Wesley Balk at St. Olaf College and recorded with Dennis Russell Davies and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Arriving in New York, Sylvia was invited to sing with the New York City Opera. She is currently studying with Marcy Lindheimer, Victoria Clark and Alexandra Neil.
Upon meeting, Eric and Sylvia immediately discovered their mutual interest in earlier repertoire and began to rendezvous regularly in New York’s Central Park to work on late Medieval and Renaissance pieces, gradually developing their passionate approach to the music. Asteria’s performances convey the anguish and ecstasy of the poetry and the rapturous beauty of the interweaving vocal and instrumental lines.
Their unique style is showcased on four CDs: Le Souvenir de Vous Me Tue, Soyes Loyal, Un Très Doulx Regard and, recorded in an authentic Burgundian chateau, the lovely For The Love of Jacqueline. All four CDs, along with more information about their research and upcoming concerts are available through their website: ASTERIAMUSICA.com, and via digital download at Amazon.com and iTunes.
 
http://asteriamusica.org