Track Listing

1. Adieu mes amours
2. Se J'ay perdu mon amy
3. Baisez-moy, ma doulce amye
4. Musae Jovis
5. Bransles de village
6. Prelude - Languir me fais
7. Allemandes
8. Pavane Dellestarpe Basse Dance
9. Bransle de chevaux
10. Content desir, qui cause ma douleur
11. Quant je suis au prez de mamye
12. Pis ne me peult venir
13. Amour partes
14. Une nonnain refaite
15. Premiere suytte de Bransles d'Escosse
16. Recercare
17. Regina coeli
18. A Suite Of Dances

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13884 in Music
• Released on: 1996-10-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
I really doubt that anyone but an expert could tell the difference between the French music in this collection and the music in Piffaro's Italian collection. Both discs are equally charming; both feature the same variety of well-played, tasty-sounding period instruments. Both have moments of reflective beauty, but most of the music makes you feel like getting up and dancing. If you don't know this period, start out with this disc or with Canzone e Danze (Archiv 445 883-2). Both will cheer you up, and the bright sound of the Renaissance instruments makes them ideal companions for car trips. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews

Hauntingly beautiful.
We purchased this CD somewhat on a whim, based on an unsatisfied fondness for medieval sackbut music. This recording, however, provides much, much more and has rapidly become one of our favorites. Its haunting beauty is both relaxing and inspiring. We highly recommend it.

Room for Nuances
"Chansons et Danseries": French Renaissance Wind Music. Performed by Piffaro - the Renaissance Band, dir. Joan Kimball und Robert Wiemken. Recorded in St. Osdag's Church in Mandelsloh near Hanover, Germany, in June and July 1994. Published in 1996 as Deutsche Grammophon Archiv 447 107-2. Total playing time: 62'44".

Although there is evidence of the existence of a shawm consort in 16th century France, there is only a very limited amount of music from France that was specifically written for such an ensemble. The Philadelphia Renaissance Wind Band (to use Piffaro's former name) has extricated itself from this quandary, however, by making its own arrangements (from Arbeau's "Orchésographie", for example) and by making use of pieces which, on a strict evaluation, should probably be considered Dutch (composers with names such as Buus, Willaert oder Van Wilder were from areas we today associate with Belgium). And together with the shawm and sackbut ensembles or the lute and bagpipes that one has come to associate with Piffaro, some exquisite recorder consorts have slipped into the program, reminding one in places of the musical paths trodden first by Clas Pehrsson's Musica Dolce ensemble or even by the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet. There is even a contrabass recorder to be heard!

What I personally like about this program ist that it is more comprehensive than "Canzoni e Danze" (which was recorded at the same sessions) and that the large number of "serious" pieces which are not just dance numbers leaves room for nuances, allowing the seven musicians of Piffaro to demonstrate their qualities not merely as rhythmically stomping "forte" virtuosi, but also as sensitive experts for the "piano" side of the coin. Of course, anyone looking merely for the wildness of bagpipes or the brassy loudness of "sackbuts" (trombones) could be disappointed because these aspects, although present, are embedded in an artistically and musically balanced whole.

As a footnote, I should like to add that Deutsche Grammophon's booklet for this second of their series of Piffaro CDs shows some improvements over the one issued with "Canzone e Danzi". The musicians are individually named, and abbreviations enable one to know who is playing which instrument when. Unfortunately, Deutsche Grammophon could still not bring itself to offer an introduction to the instruments which, today, have largely been forgotten. If you want to know more about them, you will have to use a musical encyclopedia or take a look at the magnificently produced booklets of the CDs by the group called Joculatores Upsalienses (there are three of them on the BIS label), where the whole gamut of late medieval instruments is lovingly described with words and contemporary illustrations.

Not up to Pifaro's standards
Perhaps, instead, I should say, "Not up to my standards for Piffaro." This CD over-emphasizes the slow recorder or lute music that I always skip, and doesn't have much in the way of the faster, toe-tapping bagpipe or shawm music that made Piffaro poular. This CD is worth having, but only after you have Piffaro's Flemish and German CD's.