Examples of Early Music involving Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Music performed in unusual ways, including new compositions based on styles from the past. The site will likely inspire amateur, and professional musicians, and composers to help make Early Music relevant in today's world. The music links published here may not always lead to audio/visual material, and a word search may be required. Virtually all the links come from youtube and adverts may appear and an ad blocker may be used.
In the following we have another example of L'homme d'armee which appears in a film on Joan of Arc known in French as Jeanne La Pucelle.
Below links to the film music appear and some modern orchestration seems to be included. However, most of the on screen sound seems to consist of early musical instruments. It is certanly well worth a listen as it has all been devised by the great early music pioneer Jordi Savall from Spain.
Jordi Savall i Bernadet (Catalan: [ˈʒɔrði səˈβaʎ i βərnəˈðɛt]; born August 1, 1941) is a Spanishconductor, viol player, and composer. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for reviving the use of viol family instruments (notably the viola da gamba) in contemporary performance and recording. His characteristic repertoire features medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, although he has occasionally ventured into the Classical and even the Romantic periods.
His musical training started at age six in the school choir of his native town (1947–55). After graduating from the BarcelonaConservatory of Music (where he studied from 1959 to 1965) he specialized in early music, collaborating with Ars Musicae de Barcelona under Enric Gispert, studying with August Wenzinger at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland (1968–70) and eventually succeeding Wenzinger in 1974 as professor of viola da gamba at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
Savall's discography includes more than 100 recordings. Originally recording with EMI Classics, and then from 1975 on Michel Bernstein, Astrée label, since 1998 he has recorded on his own label, Alia Vox.
In 1974 he formed the ensemble Hespèrion XX (known since 2000 as Hespèrion XXI), together with soprano Montserrat Figueras (his wife, who died in 2011), Lorenzo Alpert and Hopkinson Smith. Hespèrion XX favored a style of interpretation characterized simultaneously by great musical vitality and maximum historical accuracy.
In 1987 he returned to Barcelona to found La Capella Reial de Catalunya, a vocal ensemble devoted to pre-eighteenth-century music.
In 1989 he founded Le Concert des Nations, an orchestra generally emphasizing Baroque period, but sometimes also Classical and even Romantic music (e.g., Sinfonía [por] Grande Orquesta by Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga) (1806-1826).
More recently, Savall has performed with family members. The family ensemble has included his late wife Montserrat Figueras and their two children, Arianna and Ferran. Arianna Savall plays the harp and sings, like her mother. Ferran Savall plays the theorbo (bass lute) and sings, not only with his family but also in Barcelona jazz clubs.[1]
Savall's discography includes more than 100 recordings. Originally recording with EMI Classics, and then from 1975 on Michel Bernstein, Astrée label, since 1998 he has recorded on his own label, Alia Vox.[2]
Savall adapted and performed music for the 1991 Alain Corneau film Tous les matins du monde about composers Sainte-Colombe and Marin Marais. His work on this film earned him a César award from the French film industry in 1992. The soundtrack has sold more than a million copies worldwide.
He has composed music for the following films:
(1991) Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings of the World) by Alain Corneau
(1993) El Pajaro de la felicidad (The Bird of Happiness) by Pilar Miró
Savall and his wife are characters in a 2009 work of fiction, Sır (Secret), by Turkish writer Enis Batur. The plot includes a surprise birthday party for Jordi Savall.
