Gilles Binchois  (c.1400-1460)
Loyal Souvenir
Le Miroir de Musique / Baptiste Romain
rec. 2024, Église Saint-Léger, Leymen, France
Ricercar RIC473 [74]

Gilles Binchois was one of the greatest composers of the fifteenth century, very likely a colleague occasionally of Guillaume Dufay (d.1474). Binchois was based at the Burgundian court, the richest of all cultural centres at that time. His music can be seen, as it were, as a template for the younger contemporaries who aspired to such a position.

Binchois’s songs, his best-known pieces, have been often anthologised by ensembles such as Gothic Voices. They feature in concerts and on recordings. Seventeen secular works appeared on a Virgin Classics disc from 1998, Mon souverain desir (Veritas 45285-2). It was recorded by the Ensemble Gilles Binchois directed by Dominque Vellard.

This disc combines sacred and secular, and includes so-called intabulations of some of the chansons as found in manuscripts such as the Buxheim Organ Book compiled in Germany around 1460. It seems that Binchois wrote a considerable amount of sacred music, but little is now known. Helpfully, we also get a list of sources.They indicate that some songs can be found in a variety of contemporary manuscripts, hence the confusion of spellings – see the contents at the end of the review.

What I find especially enjoyable is the mix of genres, and the use of instruments alongside the voices (often dismissed). The Ensemble Gilles Binchois only play quiet, reflective string instruments such as vielle and harp. These players are not averse to wind instruments, which do not only accompany the voices. The instrumentalists also get four pieces allotted to them. Particularly attractive is their rendition, for differing instrumental groupings, of Triste plaisir basse danse. This is interesting: a song by Binchois was so popular that an instrumental group would make it the basis for a courtly dance.

There are here three organ works based on Binchois’s songs. We are offered Adyeu ma tres as an instrumental piece, and later the version from the Buxheim book.

Many have noted the mood of nostalgic yearning in Binchois’s music; director Baptiste Romain mentions in his excellent annotation. It can in a way be summed up with the song En vera il mieulx voustre cuer. It contains the line ‘que votre humble et loyal serviteur’ fitting in with the disc’s title ‘Loyal Souvenir’, and that sense of ‘souvenir’ can be heard in what is often described as the wistful nature of Binchois music. This can even be sensed in the beautiful Gloria ‘hominibus’ recorded here.

We can date some of songs depending on the source from which they come. So, for example, we know that the beautiful J’ay tant que je vous revoye is an early work because it hails from the Oxford Songbook compiled in the 1430s. That also applies to the motet Salve Sancta parens which comes from a manuscript found in Bologna’s Aosta Choir Book from the 1430s. Binchois, as typical of his times, uses chant to underpin the polyphony. So, the Agnus dei ‘cum jubilo’ (it ends this programme) uses a Marian chant.

The singing is supple, elegant and captivating, never rushing the mood Binchois creates. Personally I would have liked even more from them. The instrumental work is neat, beautifully balanced and recorded.

All in all, I feel that anyone with a lively interest in this period should look for this disc. It also opens up an area of Binchois’s work which has hitherto been little heard.

Gary Higginson

Contents
Sanctus
Adyeu ma tres [Adieu mes tres belles amours] (instrumental)
Veneremur Virginem
Je loemors [Je loe amours]
Salve sancta parens
Qui vult messite [Qui veut mesdire si mesdie] (organ)
Adieu, jusques je vous revoye
Dixit sanctus Philippus (instrumental)
Gloria ‘hominibus’
En sera il meiulx voustre cuer
Redeuntes in re (instrumental)
Jamais tant que je vous revoye (instrumental)
J’ay tant de deul que nul homs peur avoir
Triste plaisir – basse danse (instrumental)
Adyeu ma tres belle [Adiue mes tres belles amours] (organ)
Depuis la congié que je pris
Geloyamors [Je loe amours] (organ)
Agnus Dei ‘cum jubilo’

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