Under The Greenwood Tree

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Cat No: 8553442

Release Date: 01 January 2000

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099444224

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Under the Greenwood Tree

Description
UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE Latein the sixteenth century a ballad air began to appear in a number ofcollections of music. Its appeal was such that the melody remained popular wellinto the eighteenth century. It was known by various names, Robin is tothe greenwood gone, Robin Hood is to the greenwood gone, BonnySweet Robin or even simply Robin. There are many examples, yet wehave only the melody. It is as if it were so popular and so well known thatno-one bothered to write down the words. The popularity of this ballad is easilyexplained. Apart from its attractive and wistful tune, the opening line bringstogether three ancient themes. First there is Robin, medieval hero, lover af)droving outlaw. Secondly there is the greenwood, a place of adventure andromance, and thirdly it recalls the old celebration of the arrival of summer,with its May-time festivities and excursions into the woods. Over the yearsEnglish writers and performers have reshaped this fusion, or confusion, ofhistory, legend and tradition, to suit themselves or their audiences. Estampiehas followed this practice in the present recording. Thehistorical Robin Hood has been placed with some certainty early in thethirteenth century. Several traditions date his birth in the reign of Henry II(1154-1189) and his rise to notoriety to the reign of Richard I (1189-1199),while that king was absent from England on a crusade. Theearliest surviving ballads of Robin Hood, however, were set down in thefifteenth century, and for these we only have words. Not until the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries do we have a really useful stock of words and tunesto sing of the adventures of the heroic outlaw. While the Robin Hood legend was evolving, songsand dances were also composed to celebrate May-time and the annual revival ofthe Green Man and his home, the Greenwood. These festivals took place all overEngland, and elsewhere. Like the tales of Robin Hood, they were enjoyed at alllevels of society. In the course of time Maying and Robin became closelyassociated, while, from the French pastoral tradition, the outlaw acquired hisbeloved Marian. Inthe present recording Estampie first evokes some of the sounds, sentiments andpersonalities of Robin Hood's time, then drawing on later ballads and dances tocelebrate the fact that Robin is to the greenwood gone. John Peel Walther von der Vogelweide, acontemporary of the historical Robin Hood, a Minnesinger in the Germantroubadour tradition, was born in Austria about the year 1170 and spent hislife in the service of a series of noblemen, kings and emperors, recognised asone of the leading poets of his generation. His Paliistinalied (PalestineSong) is the only work of his for which the original melody has been preservedand in its words describes the Holy Land, which the poet may have visited withthe crusading Emperor Friedrich II. Richard I, Coeur de Lion, was born in Oxford in1157 and in 1171 became Duke of Aquitaine, wher
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