Musica Vitae
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2In 2020, Chantal Schütz and David C. Kendall formed the duo Musica Vitae, dedicated to live performances that illustrate various themes addressed in academic conferences, such as pastoral literature, Shakespeare's world or healing in early modern Britain. These programs combine traditional and modern folk repertoire, including broadside ballads and Renaissance material, with theatrics and creative anachronisms in the spirit of the Commedia dell’Arte.
3With the theme of the conference being “Healing in Early Modern Britain”, we wanted to present a program that explored the topics of sickness and health. What causes illness, physically or mentally? What sours a temperament? What heals a tortured soul? What cures ailing bodies? This program explores these questions with humor, melody, and poignancy.
4In order of the video highlights:
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The Italian madrigal “Fa una Canzone” by Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) celebrates the power of music to comfort the heart and heal melancholy.
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The French Court Air “Quel Espoir de Guérir” by Pierre Guédron (1575-ca 1620) describes the pangs of love seen as a sickness that only death can heal, above all because the lover dares not voice her torment.
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The Broadside Ballad “The Maid’s Lamentation” gives voice to a young woman who describes the symptoms of the green sickness – the condition that was believed in early modern days to be brought on by the lack of a husband.
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Captain Tobias Hume (1569-1645) wrote this humorous song about “Tobacco” to compare its beneficial (and nefarious) virtues with those of love.
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The concluding song, “Thyme”, derived from a traditional Scottish ballad, cautions young maids to protect their “bonny bunch of thyme” and declares that time (pun intended) heals all maladies in the end.
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Beyond the early modern repertoire, the concert included a humorous folk song about “Marrowbones” being used as a poison to cure a loveless marriage, and how in the end the wife’s accidental death becomes the crafty husband’s cure.
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The concert also included a setting by Alan Taylor of Robert Herrick’s “The Kiss”, a poem that underlines the soothing power of the lips.
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Référence électronique
Chantal Schütz et David C. Kendall, « Musica Vitae », Études Épistémè [En ligne], 46 | 2024, mis en ligne le 15 mars 2025, consulté le 13 mai 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/episteme/20672 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/13juz
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