BLESSED ECHOES

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Forgotten music presents us with a particular kind of enigma. "Blessed Echoes" is the distant resonance of a bygone era, and a tribute to a great English musical tradition that appeared at the end of the 16th century: The Lute Song, a secular repertoire intended to be performed by amateur musicians. Officially, the first collection which presents this type of work was composed by John Dowland and published in London in 1597, towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  Blessed Echoes is a research project. For this programme, Près de votre oreille has collected dozens of Lute Song scores. Our research is focused on Lute Songs composed for four voices composed by John Danyel, Francis Pilkington, John Bartlet, Robert Jones, Thomas Campion, Michael Cavendish, Alfonso Ferrabosco II and John Dowland. As a sequel to the Come Sorrow programme, Près de votre oreille seeks to further its research into Elizabethan vocal music and offers you the opportunity to discover Songs composed for four singers, which will be accompanied by two gamba viols, a lute and a virginal. In the intimate and majestic setting of this group of eight musicians, we will introduce you to other masterpieces of Elizabethan and post-Elizabethan Song.

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Blessed Echoes program had been created in 2020 february at Cité de la Voix in Vézelay, in coproduction with Entente Cordiale’s Cultural Center (concert at elisabethan theatre of Hardelot Castle in 2020 February 23th).

The recording had been made between 2021 september 5th and 9th at Saint-Sylvain Church in  Saint-Sauvant, with the support of Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes. It had received the financal support of SCPP, CNM, Mécénat de la Caisse des dépôts as well as a crowdfunding on Ulule platform.