Courtly Noyse Recordings




We haven't been able to find the time to record a CD yet. Frankly, we would rather be performing for people than in a recording studio. However, people keep asking us if they can hear some of our music, so we finally just put up some microphones during one of our concerts. Thus, these are live recordings, not studio recordings. You may hear people coughing, etc.

Recordings

Description
Tordion Most of this piece was published by Pierre Attaingnant (1494 - ca. 1551) in 1530. Unfortunately, he didn't indicate the composer. The middle interlude is another Tordion published in Arbeau's Orchesographie in 1588.
We perform it with voices, krummhorns, viola da gamba, recorders and percussion.
Gaudete Rejoice, Christ is born of a Virgin! Although its earliest known rendition is in the Piæ Cantiones collection of 1582, the words were around in the 1400's and the melody is a Bohemian tune from the 1300's. We sing it in Latin using a lower-class English accent.
Patapan A traditional Burgundian carol, dating from the Renaissance, thought by some to be the ancestor of "The Little Drummer Boy". Lyrics by Bernard de la Monnoye.
Greensleeves Sometimes attributed to Henry VIII, as were many other songs, and like the others, probably written by someone else. It is a lamenting lovers' hymn from some gentleman to his "Lady Greensleeves." The tune was first published in 1652, but the melody is thought to have originated in the late 1500s. A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves".
Nowell sing we A 15th-century piece found in the Selden manuscript (Nowel syng we bothe al and som).
"Nowel syng we bothe al and som, Now Rex pacificus ys come."
Alle Psallite An early vocal piece found on the 13-century Montpellier manuscript (or "codex"), so named due to its present location in Faculte de Medecine in Montpellier (Montpellier, Bibliothèque Inter-Universitaire, Section Médecine, H196). The codex contains 336 polyphonic works probably composed ca. 1250-1300, and was likely compiled ca. 1300 in Paris.
Widmann Dances Erasmus Widmann (1572 - 1634) wrote a set of dances named Musikalischen Tugendspiegel. He named each of them after a woman: Margaretha, Johanna, Anna, Regina, Clara, Catharina, Sophia, etc.
Here are Margaretha and Johanna played on recorders, viola da gamba and tambourine.