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Balance your humours

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 2; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00468-x

2215-0374

Kelley Swain,

Humor Studies and Applications

Melancholy is a theme that has interested Early Music performers since Early Music was current. Stephen Carpenter, Renaissance lute player of the Lovekyn Consort, explains the rumour that “Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, hosted a ‘court of darkness’ to rival Queen Elizabeth I's ‘court of light’, which rather than have sinister overtones, would have been inspired by more melancholy aspects of art [including] dissonance and a lot of chromatic movement [which] would have been reserved for the most extreme forms of anguish”. Following this tradition, Norwegian baroque violinist Bjarte Eike was motivated to collect and arrange his “personal image of melancholy”. Yet it is striking that for a project that could have proven deeply, perhaps perilously, solitary, Eike gathered musical friends in the remote Norwegian paradise of Sjøbygda, in an old schoolhouse, with “six instruments, one singer, a pile of music, logs burning in the open fireplace”. In his personal note in the programme, Eike gives due credit to the Elizabethan and post-Elizabethan tradition of melancholia: black bile, in the physic of Hippocrates, which interacted with three more bodily humours (yellow bile, blood, and phlegm,) to balance or unbalance the physical and mental disposition. And Eike acknowledges the belief that “music could influence human moods”, “For me, melancholy is not only synonymous with sadness and despair, it is a state also harbouring reflection, meditation and relief”. Eike and his ensemble, Barokksolistene, perform The Image of Melancholy in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on Sept 20, 2015. The theatre is full, the candles flicker, and the first notes of the violin make listeners forget the awkward discomfort of the Jacobean benches. This evening, the ensemble lean and dance in their seats as one. They share eye contact and smiles throughout the performance, and when Eike rises for solo moments, his fellow violinists, Milos Valent and Per Buhre, seem to levitate from their seats, such is the joy of their playing. When soprano Berit Norbakken Solset stands to sing, the audience seems to hold a single breath. The clarity of her voice is exquisite. Though faultless in her performance, Solset is at her best with songs in her native tongue. Along with a number of Norwegian pieces, the evening includes Mit Fried und Freud (With peace and joy) and Tabhair dom do lamh (Give me your hand). The ensemble positively glows in the Norwegian pieces, as if saying, “let me give this gift to you”. A portion of the evening is given over to songs from early English melancholy music. There is a not surprising, but very beautiful, arrangement of William Byrd's Ye Sacred Muses: “Tallis is dead, and music dies”. And Niel Gow's Lament for the death of his second wife, whilst bittersweet, retains at its centre the quality of a slow but joyful dance. Solset makes great use of the gallery and stage, her voice sometimes falling upon the audience from on high, which feels apt. But when the songs pick up energy, the restraint of the theatre seems inappropriate. One thinks the audience would be dancing, too, if only there were space. If this is melancholy, it is the sympathetic fellowship of appreciating both darkness and light. It is sharing in heartache; empathising in sorrow. The performance earns a standing ovation and an encore, two bridal songs. Eike announces, “The first one is…a bit sad. And the second one is…a bit sad”. The audience laughs. The greatest sorrow this evening is that the concert has to end. Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene: The Image of Melancholy Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London Sept 20, 2015For The Image of Melancholy album see http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-image-of-melancholy-mw0002609170 Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene: The Image of Melancholy Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London Sept 20, 2015 For The Image of Melancholy album see http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-image-of-melancholy-mw0002609170