The Curious Bards

Sarah Van Oudenhove, viola da gamba
Jean-Christophe Morel, cistrum
Louis Capeille, triple harp
Sarah Dubus, recorder
Alix Boivert, baroque violin & conducting
Ilektra Platiopoulou, mezzo-soprano

After three programmes looking at popular music and its relationship with learned music in Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Norway, The Curious Bards now explores these close links within the work of one of the greatest English composers of the 17th century, Henry Purcell. Looking back over his secular musical output, it is clear that he was necessarily familiar with the folk music around him, thanks in particular to his friend the dancing master and publisher John Playford (witness his "Scots & Irish"). tunes' and other dances straight from the English countryside; hornpipes and other country dances). country dances). These influences can also be seen in his talent for writing dance pieces for the theatre ("Scots & Irish tunes"). incidental music") and opera.

Some of the arias and many of the songs are not immune to this popular influence, such as the drinking song "Bacchus is a pow'r divine" (Z.360), the Scottish-style song "Sawney is bonny lad" (Z.412) sung by the mezzo-soprano Ilektra Platiopoulou, invited for the occasion, and the dozens of "Catches" considered to be the "madrigals of the people". To develop this new musical challenge, The Curious Bards have included the recorder (Sarah Dubus) and commissioned a cistrum based on a late 17th-century English model to match the instrumentarium of Purcell's time. By taking this slight step away from scholarly music, The Curious Bards sheds a completely new light on a multi-faceted composer, better known today for his operas and semi-operas than for his undeniable popular genius!