Can you give an introduction to Les Délices? What particular kind of ensemble are you?
Les Délices is a period-instrument chamber ensemble that makes a key contribution to the Early Music field in North America. Founded in 2009, the ensemble is recognized for our adventurous programming as well as for the scholarship that underpins our projects. While we’ve established a reputation for our refined performances of French Baroque music, our repertoire has expanded considerably in recent years to include Classical chamber music as well as late-Medieval secular song (a secondary specialty of mine). Our core ensemble members are among the top Baroque specialists in North America, but the roster is adapted to accommodate the needs of individual programs.
This 2024–25 season, the ensemble makes a return to broadcasting concerts online. Can you talk about what your motivations were in doing this?
Les Délices saw a big expansion of our audience when we offered high-quality virtual concerts during the Covid-19 pandemic. When we discontinued that in 2022, many patrons from across North America wrote to us that they were still eager to engage with our programs virtually. Having recommitted to capturing multi-camera video for at least two (of four) subscription programs per year, we found that it wasn’t a huge leap to commit to video for three programs. This approach can be good for continued audience development and it’s a beautiful way to continue to document Les Délices’ unique work.
While some of the music you present this season is more familiar, other music is less frequently heard. We were struck by the inclusion of music by Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300–1377) – what fascinates you about his work?
As I mentioned, late-Medieval secular song is a specialty of mine. I love the late-14th and early-15th centuries in particular. Guillaume de Machaut’s music is at once intellectual and deeply expressive. Because he’s both poet and composer, there’s also an incredibly rich relationship between musical and poetic syntax and rhyme. He’s also the first composer to essentially collect his own “complete works,” so there’s a huge range of poetic forms and musical textures to be inspired by.
Machaut’s Le lay de la fonteinne is one of his most striking vocal compositions, combining his frequent topic of courtly love with an unusual spirituality. What led you to this piece, and what approach do you take to performing it?
Performances of complete Lais are rare – and challenging! For those who may be unfamiliar, the lai is a twelve-stanza poetic form whose musical settings are often monophonic. Machaut’s large-scale sense of the musical and poetic journey is extraordinary, as he leads the listener through the musical and emotional shape of the whole piece from stanza to stanza through a series of unfolding variations.
Machaut’s Le lay de la fonteinne is particularly unusual since its alternating stanzas contain complex three-voice canons that represent the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The fountain, the stream flowing from it, and its source become an extended metaphor for the Trinity as Machaut asserts, “there is no difference between these three, for they are all of one essence, one virtue, one substance, one power, one wisdom: here is a most marvelous mystery.” Unlike some trends to “accompany” monophony, our performance of this piece is completely a cappella by three equal solo voices.
Machaut’s world, the 14th century, can sometimes seem quite distant to us today – how can musical performances bridge this gap of 7 centuries?
I feel like today’s audiences often respond really positively to what they perceive as an “otherworldliness” in Medieval music. The listening experience encourages us to slow down (never a bad thing in today’s world!) and focus on the musical textures and qualities of sound (from the nasal quality of a vielle or bray harp, to the sonic effect of the poetic rhymes, and the unique tang of 14th-century French pronunciation). The music can often be quite experimental – full of expressive dissonances, syncopation, and complex cross-rhythms (particularly in the later-14th century).
Can you talk a bit about the instruments you use in your performances? How do you approach playing instruments that differ greatly from modern designs?
The instruments we use are completely different depending on the repertoire we’re performing. As an early woodwind specialist, I have 7 or 8 different oboes at different pitches and a forest of recorders at my disposal. For a program featuring music of Machaut, I’m playing recorders as well as douçaine, a very soft and expressive double reed instrument with a cylindrical bore. Other soft instruments in that video performance include vielle (5-string medieval fiddle) and bray harps modeled after a famous painting by Hans Memling.
Can you talk a bit about the other concerts offered remotely this season? One intriguing guest is the Irish bouzouki player Seán Dagher.
Seán is a folk musician and sea shanty specialist whose work will dovetail nicely with Les Délices’ historical performance approach. Our program with him, The Mermaid, will build on Les Délices’ recent explorations into English and Scottish ballad tunes while taking a maritime turn. The mermaid theme encapsulates everything from desire to threat of danger lying beneath the waves – and it threads through the program from country dance tunes, to the folk ballad “The Mermaid” and Haydn’s “The Mermaid’s Song”, with text by Anne Hunter. Additional songs, shanties, and fiddle tunes will be drawn mostly from sources with roots in sailing’s “golden age” in the late-18th century, including James Oswald, Neil Gow, and others.
What general approach do you have in devising a concert programme, and selecting which concerts will be captured to become virtual events?
My mission with Les Délices’ concert programs is to present music and ideas that are rarely heard or little-known. Because of this, I like to focus on narratives in our programming. A particular topic, theme, or story may become the scaffolding or structure around which a concert experience is built. I personally question how many more recordings of tried-and-true repertoire the world really needs, so I prioritize sharing some of Les Délices’ most unique programs with our virtual audiences – literally “music you won’t hear anywhere else.”
Les Délices 2024–25 online season is available on demand from 8th November.
This interview was sponsored by Les Délices.
