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Istanpitta

Program: #22-46   Air Date: Nov 14, 2022

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The ensemble Early Music New York directed by Frederick Renz also brings back a project from 25 years ago with a 2 CD set dedicated to the medieval dance.

NOTE: All of the music on this program comes from the recording Istanpitta: Medieval Dances featuring Early Music New York and drum soloist Glen Velez directed by Frederick Renz. It is on the Ex Cathedra label and is CD EC-9012.

Artists:

  • Wayne Hankin - bagpipes, shawm, flutes
  • Karen Hansen - rebec, psaltery, pipe
  • Rosamund Morley - vielle
  • Patricia Ann Neely - vielle
  • Christa Patton - flutes, shawms, bagpipe, harp
  • Paul Shipper - lute, flutes, hand drums
  • Frederick Renz - clavicytherium, organistrum
  • Thomas Zajac - shawm, bagpipes, flutes, dulcimer
  • Guest Artist: Glen Velez - frame drums

The two individual volumes of EM/NY’s performance of the extant repertory of medieval instrumental dances, originally released in 1995 and 1996 on the Lyrichord Early Music Series label, now reissued as a two-disc set.

From Robert Christgau: Except perhaps in matters of tempo, where the most leisurely citizens of the machine age feel speed's tug in their bones, there's no way this music could sound as raw as it did back in the day. There's a class bias inherent in the survival as written texts of three saltarellos, which probably involved leaping, and 11 other even more obscure dances--whether or not they started with peasants (or Arabs), presumptive gentlefolk put their estampie on them. What's more, moderns who can play archaic bowed, plucked, strummed, blown, and beaten instruments inevitably come out of the classical world, where they are trained in the sweet, precise intonation that was standardized by the 19th-century orchestra, and director-arranger Frederick Renz is not known for rocking the boat. But frame drummer Glen Velez, who guests on three tracks, can make some noise, and courtly or not, you have to grant these tunes a decisive victory over ye olde test of time. So take this careful, lovely, not altogether unlively collection as a romance about aristocrats who ate with their hands. Anyone with a thing for Shakespearian interludes will love the s--- out of it!

CD 1

  1. Saltarello And Trotto 4:55
  2. Parlamento 7:53
  3. Saltarello 5:26
  4. Chominciamento 7:22
  5. La Manfredina 4:01
  6. Tre Fontane 9:49
  7. Saltarello 5:16
  8. Isabella 7:36
  9. Lamento Di Tristano 3:10
  10. In Pro 7:08
  11. Saltarello 2:11

CD 2

Anon., France & England, 13th c.:

  1. La Quinte Estampie Real
  2. La Tierche estampie Roial
  3. Nota I
  4. Retrové
  5. La Seconde Estampie Royal
  6. Dansse Real I
  7. English Dance
  8. Nota II
  9. Estampie
  10. La Quarte estampie Royal
  11. La Seste Estampie Real
  12. La Septime Estampie Real
    La Uitime Estampie Real
  13. Nota III
  14. Danse Real II
    Danse Real III

Anon., Italy, 14th c.:

  1. Belicha
  2. Principiu di virtu
  3. Danca Amorosa
    Troto
  4. Ghaeta

CD Info

Ex Cathedra CD EC-9012.