The "Ars subtilior" style, exemplified by Jacob Senleches's "En attendant, Esperance conforte," is described as jazzy, with complex, precisely specified rhythms that create a loose and improvisatory effect.
Recording & Production
Other tracks were commissioned for the "Oxford Anthology of Western Music," edited by David J. Rothenberg and Robert R. Holzer.
Album & Artwork
The album title, "A 14th-Century Salmagundi," refers to a "hodgepodge" or "disparate assemblage of miscellaneous components," reflecting the varied musical ingredients.
Compositional Technique
Petrus de Cruce, a cleric and musician, expanded the range of rhythmic values, sometimes fitting up to seven semibreves into a single breve, creating a virtuosic and improvisational effect.
Historical Context
The motet "Garrit gallus/In nova fert animus," attributed to Philippe de Vitry, is interpolated into the "Roman de Fauvel," a satirical poem about a politically ambitious horse.
Recording & Production
Several tracks on this album were originally commissioned for a CD accompanying "Capturing Music: The Story of Notation" by Thomas Forrest Kelly, a book about musical notation.
Performer Biography
Blue Heron, the ensemble on this recording, has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as "one of the Boston music community's indispensables" and by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for its "expressive intensity."
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