Anthoine de Bertrand: Amours de Ronsard

Bertrand: Amours de Ronsard
Ensemble Clément Janequin - Dominique Visse
Harmonia Mundi "musique d'abord" 1901147

Contents:

  1. Ha Seigneur Dieu, que de graces écloses
  2. Dans le serain de sa jumelle flamme
  3. Nature ornant la dame
  4. Pavane et Gaillarde "La Milanoise" (Morlaye)
  5. Ces deux yeux bruns doux flambeaux de ma vie
  6. Je parangonne au Soleil que j'adore
  7. Gaillarde "La piémontoise" (Morlaye)
  8. Oeil qui mes pleurs de tes rayons essuye
  9. Amour archer d'une tirade ront
  10. Mon Dieu, mon Dieu que ma maistresse est belle
  11. Amour, Amour, donne moy paix ou treve
  12. Gaillarde (Morlaye)
  13. Je vy ma nymphe entre cent damoiselles
  14. Tout me desplaist, mais rien ne m'est si grief
  15. Pavane et Gaillarde "La Romanesque" (Morlaye)
  16. Avecques moy pleurer vous devriez bien
  17. Certes mon oeil fut trop avantureux
  18. Ce ris plus dous que l'oeuvre d'un abeille

Performers:

Ensemble Clément Janequin
Agnès Mellon (soprano), Dominique Visse (countertenor), Michel Laplénie (tenor), Philippe Cantor (baritone), Antoine Sicot (bass), Claude Debôves (lute)

Playing time: 53'

Recording date: June 1984

Excerpts:
[10] Harmonia mundi HMX 290 8016.20 Musique de la Renaissance Music - L'Europe Musicale au XVe et XVIe siècles

This disc presents excerpts of the first book of the "Amours" of Pierre de Ronsard, subtitled "Amours de Cassandre," set to music by Anthoine de Bertrand (1540?-1581?).

Ronsard is the central poet of the French Renaissance. His main characteristics are to have a very rich language and to use a lot of images to illustrate his ideas. His works were used by a great variety of composers.
The realization made by de Bertrand is one of the most achieved, in the art of underlying the text and its ideas with music. One perfect example is the last track of this disc, beginning slowly and softly (word "doux" - soft), and ending with waves of sounds and rhythms (words "Montagnes and plaines" - mountains and plains).
Always the music respects the scansion of the text, thanks to a great variety of rhythms and tempi.

Bruno Cornec

This citation represents the substantial output of musical settings for major French poets of the period. These are important literary & musical combinations which have been largely overlooked next to the Italian madrigal of the period.

Other collections devoted to settings of Ronsard's poetry:

Bertrand: Amours d'Ronsard
Ensemble Metamorphoses de Paris - Maurice Bourbon
Arion 268230 (2 CDs)
Chansons sur des poèmes de Ronsard
Régnard / Boni / de Monte / Castro
Ensemble Clément Janequin - Dominique Visse
Harmonia Mundi 901491
Ronsard et les Neerlandais
Songs based on the Poetry of Ronsard
Egidius Quartet
Etcetera 1254

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Todd M. McComb