Blondel – Cover Story

Blondel Medieval & Renaissance wind band playing music from the 14th-16th centuries on shawms, bagpipes and recorders.

What makes a song leap across national boundaries and language barriers, slip from the secular to the ecclesiastic, and remain at the top of the charts for more than 70 years? We don’t have the formula, but we know why these pieces wedged themselves into the cultural background of medieval Europe. The music is fabulous.

Cover Story tracks connections between people, places, texts and music. It follows the evolution of popular late medieval melodies across Europe as they are copied, rearranged and repurposed over years, and even decades.

Catchy dances and lyrical chansons, ingenious rounds and dazzling divisions by Machaut, Dufay, Wolkenstein, Bedyngham, Binchois, and many unnamed masters.

Inspired by the virtuosic wind players of the Middle Ages, Blondel bring their signature rousing blend of shawms and bagpipes, and introspective mix of recorders to Otley for the first time.

Blondel is a Medieval and Renaissance wind band made up of Belinda Paul, Emily Baines and Lizzie Gutteridge. Like the virtuosic wind players of the Middle Ages, we enjoy pushing the limits of our technique, performing music that many might not expect to hear on loud wind instruments, without losing the subtleties of phrasing, mood and balance of the original. Blondel play shawms, recorders, bagpipes and other early wind instruments. It is easy to imagine how the bold tones of a shawm band cut across the hustle and bustle of dance and banquet halls, or even a city square. More surprising to modern ears is the joyful and sophisticated beauty that results from this uniquely blended sound.

As well as the evening concert there will be a chance for players of historical instruments (at A=440) to try some related repertoire in an afternoon workshop lead by Lizzie Gutteridge. Where our concert programme is currently restricted to versions of these wonderful melodies for three voices the workshop will give us a chance to play some versions of the same famous classics in up to 6 parts. Lizzie is a popular workshop leader with experience running sessions for Early Music Fora around the country and at Medieval Music in the Dales. Please see here for details of the workshop.