This review ran originally on Green Man Review.
Hurdy gurdy music from Brittany? Cool! Jean-Pierre Lécuyer’s Matin 1 – Vielles à roue is a lovely album of hurdy gurdy music that will get more than a few playings here in me Green Man office. Green Man has reviewed many, many groups and solo performers that use hurdy gurdies — Sinfonye, Blowzabella, Whirling Pope Joan, Susan McKeown, The Duelists, Shave the Monkey, the Jez Lowe Band, Medieval Baebes, Garmarna, Freyja, Prego, Eel Grinders, Hedningarna, Athanor… The list goes on for quite a few more!
However, this is the only Breton CD from Keltia Musique that features a hurdy gurdy as the main instrument! It is lovely music, but is the hurdy gurdy really part of Breton music? Good question. A Guide to Music in Brittany on Ceolas says ‘This instrument has been found throughout Europe since the Middle Ages. Its period of greatest development in France seems to have been the 18th century when it was a popular instrument of the court and aristocracy. In France the areas of Bourbonnais, Berry, Auvergne and Upper Brittany have been particularly active areas for this instrument in more recent periods. A current revival began in Brittany in the 1950s with the use of the hurdy-gurdy by Celtic Circles (“cercle celtiques”) of Rennes, St. Malo, Penthièvre, St. Brieuc and Dinan. This instrument remains a part of the traditions especially of northeastern Brittany where it is played for dancing, for wedding festivities and informally for local festivals.’ OK, so it is. What the hurdy gurdy brings to Breton music is a medieval feel — even, as me wife notes, a slightly haunted feel — that makes the music feel much older than music played on a violin or on the pipes. And much of the material on Matin 1 – Vielles à roue certainly feels old, very old.
Unlike much of the music that Nigel Eaton does, be it with Blowzabella, Robert Plant, or own his own, which sounds modern, this really does sound traditional. Now some of it ain’t very old, i.e. ‘Bonaparte’s Retreat’ which Jean-Pierre thinks is American in origin, but which I believe has no known origin. There is lovely Breton material here such as ‘En Soirante Suivie De La Petite Danse’ which has weird, rather haunting vocalizations on it, and ‘La Barrique d’Amontillado’ that has very nice guitar and percussion work. The only thing missing here a gavotte or two! Like everything else that’s been reviewed here, I can wholeheartedly recommend this CD. It’s faintly possible that Keltia Musique has put out a less than superb CD, but doubt it as everything I’ve heard from them is truly outstanding!
Jack Merry
(Keltia Musique, 2001)
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