Frouwen Tranen

Three women playing twenty recorders lead a magical dance through six centuries of captivating recorder music from Dufay, Boismortier and Playford to world premiere recordings of contemporary works. Musical tears in all their many colored facets are collected in this recording by Trio Viaggio. Of course tears are primarily associated with weeping, lamentation and melancholy, but their cultural history shows many more, often astonishing, aspects. Tears both symbolize emotions and are visible proof that the affect, or rhetorical emotion of a work of music, has been conveyed. They are unique in that they leave the body: through them, emotions emerge albeit in liquid, and therefore ephemeral, form and become visible to others. In the Christian religion, tears of remorse were long considered to have healing properties; the tears of relics were laboriously collected and venerated. Pope Clemens VIII was once purportedly so overcome by spiritual fervor that multiple cardinals' administrations were necessary to dry his cheeks. According to an Indian legend, the Hindu god Krishna transformed the tears of a lovelorn princess into pearls. These and numerous other myths, legends and rituals surround the phenomenon of tears. The works on this recording portray tears of contented and painful love as well as those stemming from religious adoration, euphoria and joy.