My husband Tim, our friend Esther Criscuola de Laix, and I are the members of a trio specializing in medieval and early Renaissance music. I’ve been thinking about the music that would have entertained the characters in my books, and we’ve started recording some examples to share with readers. I’ll put each link up as a separate page under this Music heading. Some videos will show us playing the music, while others will have a slideshow accompanying our performance.
We’ve all been involved with early music for many years, though it’s only in the past couple of years that we formed this trio. Tim and I play various Renaissance winds (recorders, crumhorns, shawms), and Tim also plays harp and I play a portative organ. Esther is both an accomplished mezzo-soprano and a talented organist, and Tim and I were delighted to meet her and have a chance to make music together.
Here’s a photo of Esther, and one of Tim and me with some of our instruments, all in our rather book-infested living room:
And just to show you how serious we are about everything, here’s a page from an early music manuscript showing the French composer Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474, with the portative organ) and the Franco-Flemish composer Gilles Binchois (c.1400-1462, harp), and Tim and me trying to recreate the image:
We’re amateurs in the literal sense, people who love what we do. The recordings I’ll be posting here are casual and informal, not polished concert performances. You may even see the occasional blooper reel – we certainly have plenty! But they may give you a taste of what this music is like, and you can always search YouTube for professional recordings of these pieces and others by the same composers, or from the same manuscripts.
Enjoy!
Here’s that link:
