Tombeaux - A secular requiem for my father
This recording stands in memory to my late father. It is the first recording to focus on the rarely surveyed lute tombeaux repertoire of 17th-century France: examining its stylistic predecessors, application to alternative plucked instruments and its circulation. The recording is presented across a range of plucked instruments: baroque lute, renaissance lute, baroque guitar and theorbo.
The tombeau (translated as tomb) was a secular genre of instrumental music dedicated to a deceased person. They were usually written in the form of a Pavane or Allemande and presented in dark, usually barréd keys: C Minor being the most common on plucked instruments. The recording presents beautiful solemn examples of this profound repertoire, as well as works that break the conventional mould in, sometimes, the most surprising ways! A good deal of variety is included and the works provide great catharsis for mourners across the ages: for those who live and have ever lost.
Works are featured by composers including Francis Pilkington, Anthony Holborne, Jacques de Gallot, Ennemond Gaultier le vieux, Denis Gaultier, François Dufault, Francesco Corbetta, Robert de Visée, François Campion, Gallot d'Irelande, Georg Gebel and Tobias Hume.
Recorded in St. Bartholomew's Church, Otford.
"A profound and meditative beauty, not sadness or sorrow, characterises this lovely and fascinating recording... [An] excellent CD by young multi-instrumentalist Richard MacKenzie." *****
Early Music Today Magazine, December-February 2018 (Rhinegold Publishing)
