Lie Down Poor Heart

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The patriarch of modern countertenors, Alfred Deller, once pointed out that many well-known English folk songs are at least as old as the great lute songs of Shakespeare's era, and suggested that the more melancholy examples "one must treat in exactly the same way as one would treat the art songs." For this disc, countertenor Daniel Taylor and lutenist Sylvain Bergeron have taken Deller at his word, and bracketed a set of songs and lute solos by great Elizabethan composers such as John Dowland and Thomas Campion with lyrical, even melancholy, traditional English airs. These fine Canadian musicians treat the folk songs with the respect that Deller called for--and it works: even old chestnuts like "The water is wide" and "Black is the colour of my true love's hair" come across as credible in the company of Dowland's masterful "Sorrow stay." ("The Foggy, Foggy Dew," however, was not the best choice for ending the disc.) Bergeron plays both his solos and the song accompaniments beautifully, with a gentle charisma that holds a listener's attention even through the softest, more slow-moving passages. Taylor, who has made exquisite recordings of Purcell and Dowland, is a bit more problematic: his diction could be clearer; and, particularly in his upper register, there's often a worrisomely tremulous quality to his sound. Has this talented singer's career in Baroque opera begun to fray his voice already? Let's hope not, for he's as intelligent and sensitive a musician here as ever he has been, and in his middle and lower registers he still makes some lovely sounds. Flaws notwithstanding, this is a worthwhile record--both for the fine performances and the reminder that the line between "art music" and "folk music" is thinner than we might think. --Matthew Westphal

Tracks:

O Waly, Waly - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
I Will Give My Love An Apple - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Black Is The Colour - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
The Isle Of Aigas (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
Mary, Young And Fair (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
What If I Seek For Love Of Thee - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Lie Down, Poor Heart - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Say, Love, If Ever Thou Dist Find - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Sorrow Stay - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
I Saw My Lady Weep - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Never Weather-Beaten Sails - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Prelude (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
A Corranto (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
Cuperaree (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
A Coranto (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
Grays Iron Mask (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
The Fairy Masque (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
The Three Ravens - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Howm Againe Markget Is Done (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
Joane To The May Pole (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
Down By The Salley Gardens - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
Variations On The Scottish Air (Lute Solo) - Sylvian Bergeron
Greensleeves - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron
The Foggy Dew - Daniel Taylor/Sylvian Bergeron

Amazon.com

The patriarch of modern countertenors, Alfred Deller, once pointed out that many well-known English folk songs are at least as old as the great lute songs of Shakespeare's era, and suggested that the more melancholy examples "one must treat in exactly the same way as one would treat the art songs." For this disc, countertenor Daniel Taylor and lutenist Sylvain Bergeron have taken Deller at his word, and bracketed a set of songs and lute solos by great Elizabethan composers such as John Dowland and Thomas Campion with lyrical, even melancholy, traditional English airs. These fine Canadian musicians treat the folk songs with the respect that Deller called for--and it works: even old chestnuts like "The water is wide" and "Black is the colour of my true love's hair" come across as credible in the company of Dowland's masterful "Sorrow stay." ("The Foggy, Foggy Dew," however, was not the best choice for ending the disc.) Bergeron plays both his solos and the song accompaniments beautifully, with a gentle charisma that holds a listener's attention even through the softest, more slow-moving passages. Taylor, who has made exquisite recordings of Purcell and Dowland, is a bit more problematic: his diction could be clearer; and, particularly in his upper register, there's often a worrisomely tremulous quality to his sound. Has this talented singer's career in Baroque opera begun to fray his voice already? Let's hope not, for he's as intelligent and sensitive a musician here as ever he has been, and in his middle and lower registers he still makes some lovely sounds. Flaws notwithstanding, this is a worthwhile record--both for the fine performances and the reminder that the line between "art music" and "folk music" is thinner than we might think. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews:

Folk songs - where they belong.......2001-03-06

In the universe of singers specializing in song, Daniel Taylor takes a special place. He really knows how to communicate emotion. Even the simplest of songs come out memorable when Dan sings them. Unlike many recordings of lute songs, this disc includes a fair amount of anonymous material, and the approach taken by the singer is very appropriate. I think the point of this disc was to bring these songs home to their origins. I think it worked. The singing here is gentle, intimate, purposely unaffected: it evokes the image of a wandering 16th century bard singing his own songs to a bunch of villagers, plucking his own lute. The simplicity is utterly beguiling because it communicates so much and because it makes falsetto sound like the most natural of voices. The centerpiece of this disc is Robert Jones's melancholy Lie Down Poor Heart. Clocking at more than 7 minutes, it never gets boring. The lightly decorated stanza with which it ends is absolutely delicious. Dowland's evergreen Sorrow Stay and I Saw My Lady Weep, interpreted through a folk lens, are striking in their freshness. Of the folk songs, O Waly Waly and especially Black Is The Colour really stick in memory. If there is anything about this disc that was not quite to my liking it was the playing of Sylvain Bergeron. I do not profess to know much about lutes, but, to me, the lute often sounded like it was being played one string at a time. For example, Bergeron's accompaniment to I Will Give My Love an Apple sounded like "boink - boink - boink..." You won't be surprised that I thought that there were way too many solo lute pieces on this disc (11 of 24). But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this disc to anyone (just skip the lute). -- gggimpy@yahoo.com.