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Concerts and Castles

The time came for our concerts in Germany and we were instantly swept up by a whirlwind named Helen Patton. It seems to us that she has made it her personal mission that we shall be the toast of Europe.






Her great, enduring passion is to connect people and cultures through the arts. To accomplish this, she and her husband, Thorsten Plusczyk, have created the Patton-Plusczyk Stiftung.










Helen searched all over Saarland and found a building in the heart of Saarbruecken full of history and atmosphere. The great loft-space was restored through her efforts and is now a space of peace and harmony --



a vessel waiting for whatever creative hearts will bring to it as they engage in the process of sharing and communication through art.




We were given the opportunity to speak with children at the local school, and their enthusiasm and interest was eye-opening.






Helen presented us in three different venues around Saarland, including her own wonderfully resonant stiftung, We truly enjoyed meeting the people in this area and sharing the music we love with them.





While we were in this region at the heart of so many fairytales, we took the chance to explore a few more German castles -- these were in ruins and so different from the ornate style we had seen in Marburg. We have discovered and love the castle-on-a-hill phenomenon: great, glorious ruins of castles defending the tops of hills, with stunning views on every side. Here is the wonderful Amöneburg.




One of the other things we have discovered in Europe, is that you never need a map because at every possible point, there will be signs pointing to everywhere else that you could possibly want to go. Here we are, for instance, on a narrow footpath, by a ruined castle at the top of a great hill in the middle of nowhere, and yet...




This tiny fortress near Völklingen really gave me the sense of what it would be to defend a hilltop from an isolated castle at its peak.

We climbed up in the tower to be greeted by ...you guessed it...








another glorious view!














And at the end of our tour, we took a trip to Bremen, where we had a chance to see the statue of our esteemed colleagues, the famous musicians. Eric related at once to the donkey, Sylvia to the rooster. Only later did we find out that in the story the donkey plays the lute! And the rooster, of course....









But it was outside a small bookshop in the tiny streets that wind around the central square that we found the real musicians, properly enjoying themselves!



What a lovely experience --

we can hardly wait to return to Helen and her beautiful Stiftung.

The Holy Grail

One of our greatest dreams when coming to France was the possibility that we might - just might - get to see some of the great manuscripts in which the music that we sing appears. In particular, we dreamed of seeing the Chansonnier Cordiforme, our own personal grail. This manuscript appears on the cover of our debut album, and it contains several of the songs we sing.


What we never expected in our wildest dreams was that this wish of our hearts was going to come true within two weeks of setting foot on French soil! We are surrounded by good fairies here in Paris, and Marie-Odile Masek is the Faerie Queen. She waved her magic wand and the miracles began. With the help of sweet Pierrette, we were taken into the bowels of le Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, led blindfold (well not really, but we might as well have been) through vaults and corridors and up and down circular staircases until we felt we were in the center of the earth. And there, waiting for us on a bed of red silk was the chansonnier itself.

What a beautiful manuscript! It is shaped like a heart -- one heart when closed, two hearts nestled side-by-side when open. We love all of the symbolism in its form alone. It is covered with red velvet, and now we know what true velvet is. It was the thinnest velvet we have ever seen, worn with the years and faded, but absolutely even, and softer than anything we have ever felt.


But our true amazement came when we looked inside. We had expected faded yellow parchment and rusty colors, dimmed through centuries. I mean, my friends, we are talking about five and one half centuries of time!!! Our breath caught in our throats -- the vellum of the pages was a brilliant white. There is only a small area for music in the center of each page, completely surrounded with complex illuminations of vines and flowers.


They were a riot of color, and the inks of the illuminations gleamed from the white vellum like jewels. We have never seen anything so vibrant. We realised then, in a way we never had before, that special manuscripts like these are not just vehicles for music -- a mere record of notes -- but are, in and of themselves, exquisite works of art -- jewel boxes full of treasures.



Our third good fairy, Marie Therese, turned every page for us, one by one, so that we could see the songs we have so loved as they were originally printed, and study these glorious paintings. The illuminations are so small and yet so complete. On each page there is an animal, bird, insect or person (and sometimes a strange creature combining all three!) cunningly drawn within the encircling vines. Each has a life all its own, even the snail -- a personal favorite!





As we looked, we discovered something we had never seen in a manuscript before: the illuminations that appeared on the front side of each page were copied exactly on its back side in a mirror image. We realised that this was part of the secret of the gleamingly white vellum -- the inks were exactly placed on one side of the page to match the reverse side, and so there was no bleed-through of the ink in the white spaces between the leaves and tendrils. The inks were brighter and the white was untouched! The vellum was unusually white to begin with, but with this technique it was pristine.

This was not true, of course, with the music, which had a different song on each side of the sheet. Here you could see exactly how much the ink would normally bleed through the vellum. The effect, although still clean, is much less brilliant. The notes themselves were written in a perfect, even hand, miniscule in size, and yet each one perfectly clear.


And then, the page was turned and we found our beloved friend, "Le souvenir de vous me tue," the title song of our album. We could not help ourselves. Then and there, we sang this beautiful melody for the women who have protected this book so lovingly. It was wonderful to see the discovery in their faces as they heard its spirit brought to life.




With good fairies like this,
what shall we dream of next??





Le Souvenir de Vous

Champagne

We were invited to spend a few weeks with our new friend, Alan, at his chateau in Champagne, while we prepared for our upcoming concerts in Germany. Our first wade into the sparkling waters of France - and what a dip!



Alan's chateau was set in a beautiful park that swept down to the river Marne.













It had a forest with a hermit's cave, a stream with a bridge to a tiny cottage on an island in the center, a rose walk, and an orchard.








Tucked at the very bottom corner of the wall, with a balcony overlooking the water, was a tiny lover's cottage. Two stories tall, and just one room wide -- with no staircase to be found...perhaps this is Rapunzel's tower? -- it had a sweetness and sense of expectation that was lovely, even after centuries of waiting.




Apparently, this house really was the special retreat for lover's trysts! Most interesting to me, was that we could see a curtain rod on the outside of the double-door leading onto the balcony. It was very strong, and seemed perfectly designed to hold a tapestry. It evoked such a strong image of the lady, sitting before the tapestry on her balcony, with apples and wine, waiting for her lover. Somehow, you don't expect the most romantic of your visions to appear before your eyes, holding out the promise that they were really true.


Another striking feature of Alan's chateau, and a real gem for us, was the church at the corner of his property closest to the tiny village in which he lived. The church has been caught in the crossfire of war, and struggles with the wear of age, and yet it is a magical place - its spiritual center intact.























The qualilty of the light inside this church was breathtaking - a soft yellow glow that bathed the stone walls with warmth, even in the sharp chill of November.













Looking over the shoulder of the church is the vineyard on the hill. The village is surrounded by them, and champagne is produced everywhere you look. One of the great joys of our stay with Alan was his tradition of opening a bottle of local champage from his favorite vineyard, and bringing the bottle, three glasses and a tray of freshly baked hors d'oeuvres to the fireplace room, where we were working. We would open the champagne and sit to talk about the many events of the day.

We became aware on this first visit to France, that the culture of food and drink is an integral part of life. Stores and offices close for two hours or more at lunch and dinnertime while everyone pauses for a full meal of several courses. One dish is the central feature of each course, which allows you to really taste each flavor, and to savor it for awhile before the next dish is ready. This not only leads to a greater enjoyment of your food, but greater enjoyment of the people you are sharing it with! We found ourselves engaging in in-depth conversations on philosophy and art, as well as working out together the plans for each day. We found that the tradition of French cuisine encompasses much more culturally than just the enjoyment of good food.

Bon appetit!

Bon Voyage!

We have packed our bags and run off to Europe to discover the lands where the music we love was sung! We've travelled through them before, but living there will bring us a level of connection with those who wrote and performed this music that we believe cannot be found any other way. We intend to seek out the castles and regions they inhabited and find the music they wrote, buried in the archives of libraries great and small. What an adventure!


Okay... we didn't drive, but this is how the trip started. :-)

We began our trip visiting dear friends who live in the magical town of Marburg, Germany. They have a lovely house on the hill, and here is the view from our window!



We had no trouble getting right into the spirit of our adventure! We embarked on a wonderful climb through the city and up to the castle. The history of Marburg is very rich, and the stories center around Elizabeth, their beloved princess. At her death, she was honored as a saint within a matter of months.



Many of the houses in the town are completely sheathed in decoartive slate. And marvelous carvings peak out at you from under archways and around corners!


The ascent to the castle -- this is not a climb for the faint of heart!



But what a castle --



--and what a view!



Our adventure has begun and the sky beckons.