Drie Oorlogstaferelen

opis:
Editor's info:
Today's musicians like to borrow traditional music and songs from various parts of Europe or the world, and to fuse them into world music. This is happening on a large scale, but there is in fact nothing new in European cultures interacting and fertilising each other. A pure and unadulterated Flemish (or French, German, Greek...) folk song does not really exist. This does not mean of course that there isn't such a thing as regional character, but our common heritage from Greek and Latin mythology as well as from Christianity has left its mark on European folk songs. They are part of one big family with themes and motifs that run from Scandinavia to Sicily and from the Ural Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. And from Antwerp to Paris.

Belgium is a country where Latin and Germanic cultures meet. In popular song the cross-fertilisation between North and South shows in many common themes that were often sung in regional versions in Dutch (Flemish) and French (Walloon). That forms the thread that binds together Claude Flagel and Paul Rans in'De la Seine a l'Escaut/ Van Antwerpen tot Parijs'. French or Walloon and Flemish or Dutch songs alternate and complement each other, supported by a variety of instruments - from lute, recorder and bass viol to bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy.

More recently Rans & Flagel have produced a new programme called 'Trois tableaux de guerre / Drie oorlogstaferelen / Three Scenes of War' featuring songs that illustrate the wars that have raged in the Low Countries and French Flanders throughout the centuries, from the 16th c. 'gueux' or the 18th c. battles between the Duke of Marlborough and the King of France to the first World War. A CD was released in 2009 on the Fréa label (Music & Words).