Amystis, La Chimera Consort, José Duce Chenoll - Por los montes de coñares, Music and Erotism in the Spanish Golden Age (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Si habrá en este baldrés
02. Caldero y llave
03. No me le digáis mal, madre
04. Al cedaz, cedaz
05. Por los montes de coñares, por unos puertos arriba
06. Dale si le das, moçuela de carasa
07. Si no hay quien dé limosna de su papo, flérida, para mi dulce y sabrosa
08. Comadre la de buen día, serrana si vuestros ojos
09. Madre, la mi madre, que me come el quiquiriquí, madre la mi madre guardas me ponéis
10. Toda me has mojado, mi vida, toda dime de que te quexas
11. Jácaras
12. Cura qu'en la vecindad
13. Si el jardín de chipre se te cerrare de tu vista celoso
14. Caracoles me pide la niña
15. Al son del rumor sabroso, un sarao de la chacona

Saucy songs of sex, love and life in the Spanish Golden Age, revived and performed with relish by a native early-music ensemble.
Of the 10 composers featured on this entertaining new album, only two have any claim to fame: Juan del Encina (1468-1529) and Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710). The others will be discoveries for even the most assiduous collectors of early music: the likes of Luis de Briceño, Diego Pisador, Juan Bon and Juan Arañés. This rarity value, appealing in itself, is perhaps less germane to the character of the album than the bawdy and boisterous character of the whole.
Many of the melodies may have originated as settings of sacred texts, but they became attached to decidedly profane verses: one song to the tune of another, as it were. The booklet essay exposes the many double-entendres latent within both texts and settings. Several are couched in explicitly anti-clerical vein, mocking the clergy for their hypocrisy and priapism. Other texts rejoice in the pleasures of hedonism, for both men and women, inviting the listener to enjoy by proxy the prospect of threesomes and happy endings.
In the nature of such songs, the music swaps sophistication for good, simple fun, based on strong Spanish rhythms, rooted in chaconne and folia ground basses. Several of them were originally sung as verses and chorus, with everyone present joining in. There are also seguidillas of a more erotic and sensual nature, but the texts still appeal to the listener with a dirty mind. These reconstructions accordingly seek to recapture the rough and tumble of a late-night session at a grimy bar in 17th-century Burgos. Not, perhaps, an album for those who like their music on the straight and narrow…
Led by José Duce Chenoll, Amystis has a track record of success in unearthing both sacred and profane musical treasures from Golden-Age Spain. ‘Chenoll has an endearing way of letting his singers express the music with a natural flow free of effects.’ (Fanfare on works by Joan Bautista Comes,95231).

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