Le Roman de Fauvel and Tous Les Matins du Monde

[doversoul1]

Saturday
Le Roman de Fauvel is a 14th Century text satirising the tendency of the State and Church towards misrepresentation and fraudulent behaviour. It reads like a great drama divided into two parts. In the first part Fauvel, who is a horse, determines to leave his stable and with the aid of Dame Fortune, take over his master's house. In the second part he is encouraged by Dame Fortune to marry a character called Vain Glory.
[…]
Catherine Bott looks back on the story and history of the book with the medieval expert Emma Dillon, who has written a book about Fauvel - and features a recording of its music by the Boston Camerata directed by Joel Cohen.
Translations from the text are read by Scott Handy and Caroline Martin. (R)http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bs9dg

Sunday
The revered French actor Gerard Depardieu is frequently in the news these days and not always for his acting. In the early 1990s Depardieu gave a brilliantly nuanced performance as the 17th/18th Century composer and viol player Marin Marais. The acclaimed film "Tous Les Matins du Monde" was one of the few movies to celebrate and popularise early music. Lucie Skeaping remembers the film and considers some of the music.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pz961

Another programme about a film…Never mind. The music is wonderful irrespective of the film.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Another programme about a film…Never mind. The music is wonderful irrespective of the film.

Not at all a bad film, though; and it started my own interest in French Baroque Music, so I'm very grateful.



Oh; and I adore Le Roman de Fauvel, so this is going to be a great weekend!

[doversoul1]

Not at all a bad film, though; and it started my own interest in French Baroque Music, so I'm very grateful.



Oh; and I adore Le Roman de Fauvel, so this is going to be a great weekend!

By ‘irrespective of the film…’ I did not mean the film was not good (I don’t think that you think that I think that, I hope ).. I didn’t see the film, actually, I don’t know the film, so this was probably a wrong remark to have made. I meant the music was here before the film.

These may be of your interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCfhn0IZ6L8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AFJkWDhdRg

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

By ‘irrespective of the film…’ I did not mean the film was not good (I don’t think that you think that I think that, I hope ).. I didn’t see the film, actually, I don’t know the film, so this was probably a wrong remark to have made. I meant the music was here before the film.

Yes; I didn't mean to imply that I inferred any criticism in your comment. It's a highly enjoyable film, if not a "great" one, that takes liberties with known historical events (and even greater ones with unknown ones!), Depardieu is very good, and the Music (Savali) is magnificent - and there's quite a bit of it included.

These may be of your interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCfhn0IZ6L8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AFJkWDhdRg

Oh, yes!

[doversoul1]

Le Roman de Fauvel
Just to think we are sharing this music with people who lived 700 years ago… It beats my imagination.

Presto Classical has the CD at £4.31. Has anyone got this CD? Does it come with any information/text or is it just a CD?

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Apex/2564620382

[vinteuil]

Le Roman de Fauvel
Just to think we are sharing this music with people who lived 700 years ago… It beats my imagination.

Presto Classical has the CD at £4.31. Has anyone got this CD? Does it come with any information/text or is it just a CD?
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Apex/2564620382

... I don't know this CD ; as it is an Apex cheapie I assume it will come with minimal or no information. However, it's remarkably cheap, and the performers are marvellous -

Dominique Visse & Anne Azéma
Boston Camerata & Ensemble Project Ars Nova, Joel Cohen


I think worth investing!

[Dave2002]

Le Roman de Fauvel
Just to think we are sharing this music with people who lived 700 years ago… It beats my imagination.

Presto Classical has the CD at £4.31. Has anyone got this CD? Does it come with any information/text or is it just a CD?
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Apex/2564620382

Plus postage takes it to around £5.80. An Amazon marketplace sellet has it for approx £3.00 plus £1.26 postage. i ordered it an hour back.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Le Roman de Fauvel
Just to think we are sharing this music with people who lived 700 years ago… It beats my imagination.

Fantastic, isn't it!

Presto Classical has the CD at £4.31. Has anyone got this CD? Does it come with any information/text or is it just a CD?
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Apex/2564620382

I have this, and APEX are quite generous with the documentation - a couple of short essays by Joel Cohen, and full text and translations. The performance is superb; extremely lively with some deliciously "tangy" tunings and intonation. (I also have the EMI REFLEXE recording by the Studio der Frühen Musik, which sounds more sedate in comparison - which has its attractions - and contains less material. The documentation is feeble here.) Recommended without reservation, dovers.

[vinteuil]

An Amazon marketplace sellet has it for approx £3.00 plus £1.26 postage. .

... yes, on amazon - marketplace : zoverstocks. Still a few left - even after I put my order in...

[Flosshilde]

... I don't know this CD ; as it is an Apex cheapie I assume it will come with minimal or no information. However, it's remarkably cheap, and the performers are marvellous -

Dominique Visse & Anne Azéma
Boston Camerata & Ensemble Project Ars Nova, Joel Cohen


I think worth investing!

I'm pretty sure this was the recording used for the programme. CB mentioned it at the beginning.


I thought the whole thing sounded petty amazing - especially as it was written by someone who was effectively a court employee, & satirised the French establishment. I wondered who Fauvel would represent now - bankers & global business perhaps, with the government fawning over them.

[doversoul1]

I have this, and APEX are quite generous with the documentation - a couple of short essays by Joel Cohen, and full text and translations. The performance is superb; extremely lively with some deliciously "tangy" tunings and intonation. (I also have the EMI REFLEXE recording by the Studio der Frühen Musik, which sounds more sedate in comparison - which has its attractions - and contains less material. The documentation is feeble here.) Recommended without reservation, dovers.

Thank you for the information. I was given a Presto Classical gift voucher and have been making an order list. I have added the CD to the list.

But a project like this must have been very time consuming and therefore costly. How can they produce/sell the CD so cheaply?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thank you for the information. I was given a Presto Classical gift voucher and have been making an order list. I have added the CD to the list.

But a project like this must have been very time consuming and therefore costly. How can they produce/sell the CD so cheaply?

Originally a full-priced ERATO release from 1995. Presumably, insufficient sales led to parent company re-issuing it at Budget Price.

[ardcarp]

What a truly FABULOUS EMS on Sat.

Catherine Bott looks back on the story and history of the book with the medieval expert Emma Dillon, who has written a book about Fauvel - and features a recording of its music by the Boston Camerata directed by Joel Cohen.
Translations from the text are read by Scott Handy and Caroline Martin.

How I wish we'd had a programme like that to bring the Roman de Fauvel alive when I was an undergraduate. CB guided the programme expertly. Emma Dillon spoke clearly and concisely (and has French as her mother tongue) and having actors to speak key extracts from the text was a brilliant touch. How I wish the programme could have lasted 3X longer! I loved the way the men in Boston Camerata sang with rough voices when necessary. It makes me want to rush off to the Biblioteque Nationale and see the Roman for myself. Good to hear all those Burgundian Cadences...and I hadn't realised (apart from the Ars Nova thing) what a polymath de Vitri was, nor his probable involvement with the R de F.

I've got a few queries which experts on The Forum may be able to answer.

1. Some of the texts were in Latin (the conductus and the motets) whilst some were in medieval French. I don't think the programme touched on the proportions of Latin/French texts in the musical settings.

2. The modern. pronunciation of FAUVEL would have the 'au' pronounced roughly as 'o' as in 'hotel'. I noticed the singers used 'ow'...presumably a medieval version, whilsy Emma tended to say 'a' (short 'a'). Which is best?

3. How much of the instrumental accompaniment (drones, the harp part) was conjectural?

4. 'France' is referred to in the text (the garden of France, for instance) and I wonder what geographical region France occupied in the early 14th C. Not Brittany, presumably, and how far south did it go...to the Pyrenees?

[vinteuil]

4. 'France' is referred to in the text (the garden of France, for instance) and I wonder what geographical region France occupied in the early 14th C. Not Brittany, presumably, and how far south did it go...to the Pyrenees?

The fourteenth century is when "France" begins to re-establish itself into a territory more akin to the France of today.
In 1259 England was still in possession of Gascony - Aquitaine (Guyenne) - much of Perigord, Limousin, Saintonges, Angoumois.
Much of the last had been regained by France before the death of Philip IV in 1314, and by the death of Charles IV in 1328 France extended down to the Pyrenees (tho' the English held out in part of Gascony). France still didn't control Brittany, as you indicate - nor much of the territory to the east of the Saône and Rhône that we now see as "France" (Brittany, Burgundy, Provence, Auvergne, the Bourbonnais join France in the fifteenth century); but its possessions in Flanders put it in control of what is now northern Belgium (Bruges, Ghent, and as far as Antwerp).

But this is not really my period and I defer to those expert in the matter - French Frank, perhaps?

[ardcarp]

Thanks Vinteuil. As far as...

But this is not really my period

....I'd never have guessed!