CHRISTOPHER PRESTON THOMPSON

DIRECTOR, TENOR & HARP

CONCORDIAN DAWN

FAUVEL CHARIVARI

LE REMEDE DE FORTUNE 
Medieval French Songs
of Fate, Fortune & Fin' amor

Music
Guillaume de Machaut
and a selection of troubadour and trouvère songs

featuring

Concordian Dawn
Medieval Ensemble

Amber Evans, soprano and percussion,  
Michele Kennedy, soprano,
Niccolo Seligmann, vielle and percussion,
Christopher Preston Thompson, director, tenor and medieval harp,
Jerome Boxer, guest artist, baritone

at the
Landcraft Garden Foundation
​4342 Grand Ave, Mattituck, NY 11952
 
Saturday, July 13th, 2024, at 5:00pm
Rain date is scheduled for July 14th at 3:00pm

BUY TICKETS / make a reservation

"There is no doubt about the skill of the performers... especially evident in the balance and clarity of their interpretations of the polyphonic selections."
Brewer, American Record Guide [September/October 2022]

"The six members of the group include three singers, two singer-players (including the director), and a vielle player. It has not taken long for them to develop the skill that these pieces demand... Unless there is more to find on the theme of Fortune, this must mean the first in a series of Concordian Dawn’s recordings of medieval music for MSR Classics. This ambitious goal promises much, for this disc is a worthy beginning."
J. F. Weber, Fanfare [November/December 2022]

Description
​The redaction of Machaut's Le Remede de Fortune that Concordian Dawn will present, the lyric narrative is set in public spaces within and outside a court in 14th-century France.
At a certain point, one of the main characters retreats to a vegetation-filled garden to isolate himself from everyone else. A personified Esperance visits him while in this garden, and a good bit of the story takes place there. Two more of the songs take place on the journey back to the court. The first of the songs could take place anywhere, and the last song takes place back at the court. This lyric narrative certainly is perfectly resonating in the natural setting such as the Landcraft Garden. The main illuminated manuscript that transmits the piece is full of illuminations in a garden and full of nature.


We invite the audience to arrive at 4:00pm to visit the garden and enjoy the beauty of the natural landscape. 

The concert is a 5:00pm outdoors on the main lawn of the Landcraft Garden. You will find chairs on the lawn to listen to the concert.  It is highly recommended to bring a hat to cover yourself from the sun while waiting for the sunset and to enjoy listening to the music.


​Music Program
Repertoire, all from medieval French manuscripts, includes:
Trouvère songs (13th century)
Medieval instrumental dances (13th century)
Ars antiqua polyphonic motets (13th century)
Le Remède de Fortune by Guillaume de Machaut (1300-77)
* Lay, "Qui n'aroit autre deport"
* Complainte, "Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure"
* Chant Royale, "Joye, plaisance, et douce nourreture"
* Balladelle, "En amer a douce vie"
* Ballade, "Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient"
* Virelai, "Dame, a vous sans retollir"
* Rondelet, "Dame, mon cuer en vous remaint"


A tasting menu presented by the chef Martine Abitbol with several bite-sized dishes immediately after the concert will be offered to all concert attendees. 
The tasting menu is inspired by the Medieval Culinary degustation with a focus on the flavors of the earth and culinary art.
Menu
Grilled chicken skewers
Mushrooms, Swiss chard and lentils stew
Large Rye Bread with dill
Madeleine dipped in chocolate
Butter cookies with homemade peach jam

These songs of fin' amor, or true and refined love, were composed in a courtly setting, which often included gardens and vegetation-filled natural surroundings. ​​
A common poetic trope in troubadour and trouvère song is the "nature ingang," or nature opening. As an example, here are the first stanzas of a few troubadour/trouvère songs:

"Can lo boschatges es floritz" attributed to Bernart de Ventadorn:
When the woodland is in flower and the season is
new again and every bird seeks its mate and the
nightingale sings and calls, I am so overwhelmed
and lost to the world through joy that I can turn
my mind to nothing else. It makes me sigh night
and day, so tightly does it bind the root of my
heart.

"Ha! Mi non fai chantar foille ni flor" attributed to Albertet de Sestaro
Ah! I am not made to sing by leaf or flower,
nor the birds’ songs, nor the nightingale in May,
but the best one of all the best ones
and the most noble of all the people I know.
I am made to sing of the valour that from her I have;
because of her I am compelled to sing well.
And so I will, since that is her desire,
for I do nothing except that which she wants.
So much she is worthy, wise, and elegant.

"Quant voi la flour boutener" attributed to Gace Brulé
When I see the budding flower
along the clamoring riverbanks,
and I hear the skylark sing
of seasons that cheer,
alas, there’s no comfort for me,
for love wills my despair.
About her I am forced to think
who holds me in contempt.
Ah, true love,
I’ll die, it seems;
I see no way to escape alive.
Too much has hurt me.


This is a production of 
Rites of Spring Music Festival
in collaboration with
​Landcraft Garden Foundation

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Huntington Arts Council.

Concordian Dawn
​Concordian Dawn, ensemble for medieval music, specializes in 12th- through 14th-century vocal repertoire, drawing on primary source material and focusing on socio-philosophical similarities between texts from centuries ago and the mindset of modern society. In doing so, the ensemble produces a musical experience accessible to contemporary audiences, relating the human condition of the past to the familiar experiences of the present. Concordian Dawn, a 2024 UC-Davis Ensemble-in-Residence, was founded in 2012 and performs regularly on the east coast, annually with Gotham Early Music Scene in NYC, and at venues across the country. The ensemble’s “mesmerizing” (Early Music America) debut album, Fortuna Antiqua et Ultra (MSR Classics), was released in December of 2021 to critical acclaim. The ensemble's second album—based on their collaboration and publication with medieval studies scholar Sarah Kay, entitled Medieval Song from Aristotle to Opera—was released in October of 2023 (MSR Classics) following the 2022 book/website publication (Cornell University Press). Concordian Dawn made its west coast debut in 2022 with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival and at UC-Berkeley and UC-Davis. The ensemble, which received a 2020 Ensemble Forward Award from Chamber Music America, and its director, Christopher Preston Thompson, have performed and led workshops and lectures for Princeton University, Stanford University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Modern Language Association, the CUNY Graduate Center and the Medieval Academy of America, among others. For more information, please visit www.concordiandawn.com.