New Orleans Musica da Camera - The Cross of Red (1998)

The New Orleans Musica da Camera is not well known outside the U.S. Southeast, but with this disc of medieval songs and dances it delivers a recording that can stand with the thematically focused medieval releases of top European groups. Soprano Thaïs St.-Julien (only in New Orleans!) isn't a virtuoso singer like Montserrat Figueras, but she communicates a real sense of the texts of troubadour songs lamenting the absence of a crusading knight. The best news here is that the program makes sense in a way that bespeaks long acquaintance with the medieval secular repertory on the part of the group and its director, Milton G. Scheuermann Jr. The music pertains more or less directly to the four Crusades, not all of which have surviving music that is chronologically appropriate. But Scheuermann picks pieces that could theoretically have worked, and the group renders them convincingly. The music on the disc consists of troubadour songs, sacred monophony, and instrumental dances. Some listeners will prefer rhythmically meatier performances, especially in the instrumental pieces, but the New Orleans Musica da Camera is never guilty of giving dry readings of the sparse manuscripts that have come down to us. For an idea of the music on this disc, sample track 9, Ja nus hons pris, said to have been composed by Richard the Lionhearted (King Richard I of England) while imprisoned in Austria on his return from the Third Crusade. It's expressively sung by Richard Hutton, and it's a good illustration of how the monophonic songs of the era weren't all about pining away for a missing or unattainable loved one; some were quite political in their content. One disappointment is that the texts are given only in English translation, but this is better than no translations at all. The sound design is unusually nice; an old wood-paneled banquet hall in downtown Baton Rouge makes an evocative stand-in for a medieval castle. The booklet notes, which provide plenty of specific information while also placing the Crusades in both medieval and modern perspective, are also useful. Promoters who are trying to build an American early music scene to match the ones in Europe are advised to head on down and see how they are doing it in New Orleans.