Release Date: 15 February 2019
Label: First Hand Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5060216347769
Genres: Classical  Chamber Music  
Release Date: 15 February 2019
Label: First Hand Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5060216347769
Genres: Classical  Chamber Music  
Description
'Of Arms And A Woman' is a chronicle of love, loss, chivalry and memory built around the late medieval wind music of Dufay, Binchois, Ciconia, Landini and Machaut, performed on shawms, slide trumpet, recorders, sackbut, bagpipes and percussion. The album is inspired by the writing of Christine de Pisan, whose work touched on every aspect of courtly life, from romantic poetry to military strategy and feminist critiques of the position of women in society. It includes rousing calls to battle, arresting love songs, and the heartbreakingly beautiful Dueil angoisseux, the only contemporary musical setting of any of de Pisan's poems.
In 1410 Christien de Pizan (1364-1430) produced an extraordinary book called The Book of Fayttes of Arms and of Chivalrye: a manual on modern warfare. In her lifetime, Christine was accepted as one of the foremost writers and thinkers in Europe. Her reputation today rests on her determination to give women a voice, and it is this that sets her apart from her contemporaries.
Blondel performs ceremonial fanfares and intimate chansons, dances and theatre music on shawns, bagpipes, recorders, curtals and a variety of percussion, all of which are reconstructions of historical instruments. Blondel's past performances include concerts at the Cheltenham Festival and the Cambridge Early Music Festival. Members of Blondel on this recording have performed with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the London Contemporary Orchestra, I Fagiolini, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Freiburger Barockorchester.
Blondel Louise Anna Duggan - Drums
Emily Baines - Recorder
Daniel Serafini - Baroque trumpet
Lizzie Gutteridge - Recorder
Belinda Paul - Recorder
Tracklisting
Noxwode, Conor Gricmanis
Tessa Lark, Jon Batiste, Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Edgar Meyer
David de Winter and The Brook Street Band
Alexander Baillie & Nigel Yandell
Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa; Alvaro Cassuto
The Flautadors Recorder Quartet
The Telling
Sarah Cahill
Karolos
The Counterpoints
Narratio Quartet
Danbi Um; Juho Pohjonen
Engegard Quartet, NyNorsk Messingkvintett
Flute Alors
Louise Bessette
Jonas Batstrand, Jorn Fossheim