Search - Ensemble Clement Janequin, Visse :: Le Cris de Paris: Chansons de Janequin & Sermisy

Reissued Now on Musique d'Abord!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 09/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you have a mental image of the Renaissance as a rollicking time of bawdy humor in rowdy taverns, and yet you are constantly surprised by music of exquisite refinement and intellectuality - Ockeghem, Josquin, Lassus, Palestrina inter alia - then this performance of Parisian chansons from the first half of the 16th Century will rescue you from your disillusionment. Several of these texts are raunchy enough to be sung at any lowlife tavern in Amsterdam then or now, though a few are still delicate enough for public radio.



Clement Janequin and Claudin de Sermisy were extremely well known in their time because of the printing and publication of these and hundreds more of their chansons by Pierre Attaingnant, whose collections reached all corners of Europe. Thus it's obvious that the chanson repertoire was intended for recreational amateur singers, urban middle class people chiefly, the 'new rich' who bought printed music while the aristocracy still preferred exquisite illuminated manuscripts. Both the humor and the sentiment in these would have resonated with such an audience. Make no mistake about the musical sophistication, however; though the demands on the singers are not virtuosic, these chansons are extremely well-composed and imaginative as well as novel in rhythm and counterpoint.



The title chanson - Voulez ouyr les cris de Paris, by Janequin - is one of the earliest pieces of "program" music in European history; it sets in sober polyphony all the shouts and hoots of the peddlers and hawkers in a Parisian street market: Herring! Pickled herring! Peaches! Turnips! Look at my berries, my fine wild berries! Etc. Janequin also gets credit for the first "battle" chanson, celebrating the French victory at Maregnano, with the sounds of battle - the fanfares, the drums, marching steps, clashing lances - all imitated in vocal ployphony.



Ensemble Clement Janequin! You can spot the respect for the composer in the name they've chosen for themselves. They - in this case five singers led by Dominique Visse - perform this music with gusto and creativity, and make it work as a concert for modern ears. At times nasal and comical, at times langorous and sweet, their voices are always spot perfect in ensemble. Both composers, by the way, had "day jobs" - Sermisy was a priest and Janequin was the King's Private Composer - but their musical hearts were with the people in the taverns; their chansons far outnumber their liturgical and devotional compositions."