|
  Corou De Berra
Maschi, Femmine and Cantanti (Forrest Hill Records, 2005)
Corou De Berra hails from Berra in the (southern) French Alps and the 7-person
choir performs polyphonic chants from the Nicoise region of France. The choir
celebrates their 20th anniversary this year and remains dedicated to preserving
their rich musical heritage. To date, the choir has produced 8 CDs, has
participated in film productions, appeared at various festivals throughout
Europe, including Recontres Polyphoniques de Calvi on the island of Corsica and
presented their work in concerts. Led by vocalist, arranger and hurdy-gurdy
player, Michel Bianco, Corou De Berra produces exciting vocal work.
Their 2005 release,
Maschi, Femmine and Cantanti, which features selections from the
late Genoese folk singer and poet Fabrizio De Andrč's catalogue, acts as a
departure for the choir. The vocalists which normally perform traditional songs
from southern France a cappella, find themselves working with light
instrumentation, (a string quartet, guitar, hurdy-gurdy and percussion) and
performing songs of a contemporary Italian troubadour. Songs that would normally
be performed by one or two vocalists have been expanded to include both
polyphony and monody of mixed voices. The work here mirrors Corsican polyphony
group A Filetta's
Si Di Me, which also featured monody backed by instruments such as
strings and percussion. Both polyphony vocal groups met the challenge of
marrying solo voices with polyphony created from various instruments and both
groups arranged choral arrangements for ballads.
Although Andrč's repertoire spanned 40 years, (1958 to 1998), when Corou De
Berra vocalists present the songs they resemble renaissance or baroque choral
arrangements. The harmonies are lush and its almost inconceivable that the
vocalists are singing about contemporary topics, yet they are singing 20th
century lyrics. Listeners unfamiliar with the dialect the songs are sung, (such
as myself), might think they are listening to Early Music. The 9 songs that
appear on this recording, including, Ave Maria, Peter's War, Rose Mouth and
others (English titles) act as a gorgeous tribute to "the most cultivated and
refined Italian singer-songwriters of the second half of the twentieth century." (Wikipedia).
Similar to Corou De Berra honoring the musical traditions of the French Alps,
Andrč paid tribute to traditional Genoese folk songs and wrote poetry in the
spirit of the original troubadours that wandered through western Europe during
the middle ages. He composed songs of amour, the unobtainable woman in les
passantes (the passer by), of a woman that nearly overturns a village with her
profane love (bocca di rosa) and he sings controversial songs about Jesus,
spirituality, morality and war. Given the subject matter of his songs and close
proximity to southern France, the songs of Fabrizio De Andrč and the choral work
of Corou De Berra compliment one another. The recording, maschi femmine cantanti
is fabulous in its own right, but also could be used as a treasure map when
mining vocal traditions of the French Alps region and discovering Fabrizio De
Andrč's folk songs. Consider that David Byrne listed Andrč's album, Crueza de ma
as a favorite album and I'm certain he's not the only contemporary musician to
jump on that bandwagon.
(I invite other music journalists and musicians to explore the work of Corou De
Berra and Fabrizio De Andrč. The information that I found on Andrč is
fascinating and his poetry quite profound, not to mention gorgeous. The vocal
work of Corou De Berra is also something you want in your CD collection).
Fabrizio De Andrč Born: February 18, 1940 and died on January 11, 1999.
By Patricia Herlevi-Balquin
|
