Volume 23, Number 12 · July 15, 1976
Musical Rx for a Political Season
By Robert Craft
Francesco Landini
by Thomas Binkley director and lutenist, by Andrea von Ramm soprano, by Richard Levitt countertenor, by Sterling Jones stringed instruments
Studio for Early Music, Cologne. EMI Records.
Guillaume de Machaut: Chansons I and Chansons II (2 records)
by Thomas Binkley director and lutenist, by Andrea von Ramm soprano, by Richard Levitt countertenor, by Sterling Jones stringed instruments. Studio for Early Music, Cologne. EMI Records
Studio for Early Music, Cologne. EMI Records
The musical repertory of Western Europe, so far as the general public and the concert establishment are concerned, consists of the popular masterpieces of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Rich as this heritage is, it should be expanded by at least 500 years to include the treasures of the age of Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377 and Francesco Landini (1325-1397). Because of a few examples of 'old music' that did slip across the time barrier, such as Wagner's arrangement of Palestrina's Stabat Mater, music lovers have at least been aware that the distant epochs before Bach must have more to offer. Yet by still prevailing late-nineteenth-century standards, if a composer as ancient as Machaut were to receive much attention, it would be as a 'primitive.'
Review, 3113 words
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