MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Renaissance en Provence - Traditional Music of Southern France

Renaissance en Provence marks the debut of the Terra Nova Consort on Dorian, following its success in the label's first recording competition. Founded in 1988 and long associated with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, this early music ensemble consists of five gifted musicians who impart equal measures of scholarship and imagination to their lively performances. Vigorous and exciting, the performances on this disc are credible re-creations of traditional Provençal music, and the region's diverse ethnic influences are evident in the group's varied approaches. Central to these effective renditions are the singing of Sue Carney, Pat O'Scannell, and Kay Hilton. Their differentiated vocal styles -- afillá (rasping), fácil (fresh), and naturá (natural) -- are appropriately matched to the characters of the songs, and rustic coarseness and genteel tenderness are evenly balanced on the program. The singers are also fine players on recorders, reeds, and percussion, among many other instruments. With Nancy Elliott on viols, David Rogers on lute, and Ethan James as a guest artist on hurdy-gurdy, the consort displays consummate mastery of the period's instruments. Dorian's fabulous recorded sound captures the full range of the ensemble's sonorities, from the raucous sounds of krummhorns and shawms to the softest accompaniments on cittern and viols.