The title of the album Mia Yrmana Fremosa (My Lovely Sister) comes from a 13th century Galician-Portuguese collection of songs, Cantigas de amigo, by Martín Codax, the oldest surviving music from the Iberian Peninsula. The seven-song cycle is the featured work on this recording of Medieval women's songs by the Berlin-based early music trio Triphonia. Besides singing, the women expertly play recorders, Romanesque harp, psaltery, vielle, and numerous exotic percussion instruments, so the recording has a refreshing timbral ...
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The title of the album Mia Yrmana Fremosa (My Lovely Sister) comes from a 13th century Galician-Portuguese collection of songs, Cantigas de amigo, by Martín Codax, the oldest surviving music from the Iberian Peninsula. The seven-song cycle is the featured work on this recording of Medieval women's songs by the Berlin-based early music trio Triphonia. Besides singing, the women expertly play recorders, Romanesque harp, psaltery, vielle, and numerous exotic percussion instruments, so the recording has a refreshing timbral variety. Although none of the selections are known to be by a woman (though there are many anonymous works), all are written from a woman's perspective and are grouped according to topic: separated lovers, mothers and daughters, unhappy marriages, laments, and divine love. Manuscripts of the period offer few clues about how the music was to be played or sung, so authenticity of performance practice is a shady issue and conscientious performers are guided largely by their broad...
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