a r t i s t : Estampie
t i t l e : Best of Estampie (1986-2006)
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Galileo Music
g e n r e : Medieval Folk
r l s. d a t e : Jun/2007
t r a c k s : 18
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 100,4 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
20 th Anniversary of Estampie
When a period of creativity lasts for such a long time, it
cannot proceed like a smoothly flowing stream, but takes many
a turn, as time goes by - due to various influences upon the
creative activity of the ensemble. Over the years, the
musicians themselves and their artistic views have changed as
well as the general attitude towards medieval music within
musical life. And of course, the general esteem of music
within society is also playing an important role. Enjoy this
little retrospective and let me sketch out these 20 years of
Estampie in five different phases:
The Early Phase / Beginnings
Inspired by our studies with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at Salzburg,
we started to explore Medieval Music. Even in the context of
Early Music, Medieval Music was of minor importance at that
time. Publications were scarce and it was hard to find an
adequate artistic approach to musical sources. Music groups
like Sequentia or the Hilliard Ensemble were mainly concerned
with vocal music and held very strict views about
interpretation. As each piece of music was the result of
extensive research they were convinced that there was the one
and only true interpretation. It was not long before epigons
turned up and a so-called äsceneô established itself. They
sometimes quarrelled tooth and nail about their contradictory
views of performing practice. Estampie never participated in
this kind of trench war and preferred to find their own,
individual way from the beginning. But nevertheless, the early
pieces sound rather conventional, with their cautious
instrumentation and being performed rather close to the
original text.
The Second Phase / The Departure
In the early nineties we set out and tried to take the road
less travelled. Ludus Danielis, conceived as theatre
performance with kathak dancers, was realized in co-operation
with the äTheater der KlΣngeô at Dⁿsseldorf. Our conceptional
approach here was much more complex than before. We
deliberately accepted the risk of neglecting many a äruleô of
historically correct performing practice in favour of a vivid,
exciting and captivating interpretation. We earned praise from
a responding, growing audience, but occasionally harsh
criticism from the ähardlinersô, too. äThis record is
dangerous to your musical health. Boycot this CD!ô was the
climax of the crushing critique of an american critic, who had
to admit musical quality, but nevertheless sensed profound
betrayal of Early Music. In the year 1996 we released
Crusaders, featuring Alexander Veljanov as a guest-singer. The
ensemble increased from initially 3 members to sometimes even
10 musicians. Combined with modern (sound) recording
technology this allowed musical results of a new dimension.
The Experimental Phase / The Quest
Materia Mystica stands for a period, when the Middle Ages
played but a minor role in our musical work. We spent much
time with theatre music and experimented with avant-garde
elements and our own compositions. Beside Materia Mystica,
which was performed on stage scenically, we were working on
our large-scale Hildegard-von-Bingen-Project, Ordo Virtutum,
with choir and orchestra. In spite of several attempts, this
work was never released on CD. Until today, these experimental
pieces, mostly combined with dance or theatre, have always
been a crucial part of our artistic activity.
The Trilogy
At the turn of the millennium Estampie released the three CDs,
Ondas, Fin Amor and Signum. They can be said to be the essence
of the ensemble┤ s phase of maturity. Our many years of
experience are incorporated in these productions. The
interpretation of some pieces being very liberal, one can
rather speak of new compositions here. Until today these three
CDs represent the essential repertoire of our life-concerts.
We stuck to their basic conception more or less consistently
and they partly have been turned into scenes.
World Music
In the year 2004 we started to make a long-cherished wish
reality: to incorporate our (medieval) music into a non-
European musical project. We started with Marco Polo. In
co-operation with musicians from Mongolia, Iran and India we
retraced Marco Polo┤s journey into the realm of Ghengis Khan
with our music. A live-DVD of this project was recorded on the
occasion of a concert in Hannover. First night of our latest
and current project Al Andaluz was in July 2006 in Landshut on
the occasion of the local festival. The focus of this project
are the three religions and cultures in medieval Spain. It is
performed by Estampie and members of the spanish-arabian
ensembles "L┤ham de Foc" and "Aman Aman". The CD will be
released in summer 2007.
_______________________________________________________________________
01-disse mi [05:18]
02-chanterai por mon corage [06:14]
03-imperator rex graecorum [05:10]
04-quantos me creveren [01:46]
05-palaestinalied [04:27]
06-bluomenrot [03:14]
07-gol (live-aufnahme) [06:52]
08-estampie v [04:22]
09-voi ch'amate [05:44]
10-al jorn [00:48]
11-a voi gente [04:53]
12-qui sunt hi - o antiqui sancti - aer enim volat [05:04]
13-o fortuna [03:49]
14-fin amor [03:10]
15-reis glorios [08:14]
16-numquid dari [01:15]
17-heu heu heu [03:53]
18-summersunne [05:13]
-------
79:26 min