Norbert Rodenkirchen

medieval flutes, harp, severin´s lyre, cithara

Pierre Hamon

medieval recorders, pipe & tabor, bansuri,

bagpipes, percussion

Recorded May 2023 and mastered

In spring 2024 at Topaz Studio Cologne by

Reinhard Kobialka. Edited by Pierre Hamon.

Cover design: Max S. Rodenkirchen, Albrecht

Maurer. Cover photo: Lyon Bibl. M. Ms

P. A. 27. Portrait photo by Ananda Brandão.

Thanks to Joël Grare for the sounds of

frame drum (tr. 4) and bells (tr. 9).

Produced by Norbert Rodenkirchen.

P + C 2025, All rights reserved.

Made in Germany. Nemu Records

Wolkenburgstraße 25a, 53797 Lohmar

The music was either composed by Pierre Hamon and Norbert Rodenkirchen together or in case of the historical medieval pieces transcribed by Norbert Rodenkirchen as contrafactures of existing melodies by Anonymus. This new duo program by the two friends and flautists - who also play various kinds of percussion, instruments and harps - presents the very early development of the medieval estampie style improvisation. But as you can also hear: there are some other fantasies as well, composed by the two musicians: modern archaic sounds, inspired by world music.

Die beiden Flötisten Pierre Hamon und Norbert Rodenkirchen haben ein Duo-Programm entwickelt, das die tänzerische und kontemplative Gattung der estampie von ihren frühesten Anfängen bis in die gut dokumentierte Zeit des 13. Ein Programm mit neuen „aktuellen“ Transkriptionen und Rekonstruktionen der frühesten mittelalterlichen Instrumentalmusik, ergänzt durch Originalkompositionen neuer Musik und Improvisationen der beiden Musiker, genannt autres fantasies, die anderen Phantasien.

Pierre Hamon & Norbert Rodenkirchen. De juer et de baler, et autres fantasies 

Medieval instrumental music in the form of double versicles, as described by Johannes de Grocheo in 13th-century Paris as stantipes (estampie) and ductia, had already existed for centuries in oral tradition. In the course of several centuries, a formally uniform instrumental music of the Middle Ages had developed in parallel with certain vocal forms. Along the lines of sequence, planctus, lai, nota, the estampida or estampie had developed. The first notated examples of purely instrumental music from the 13th century are therefore not first attempts, but the result of a long creative tradition in a continuous context. 

The two flutists Pierre Hamon and Norbert Rodenkirchen have developed a duo programme that traces the genre of the estampie, both dance-like and contemplative, from its earliest stages to the well-documented period of the 13th century. A program of new "up to date" transcriptions and reconstructions of the earliest medieval instrumental music, complemented by original compositions of new music and improvisations by the two musicians, called autres fantasies, the other fantasies.

Noeoeane Improvisation

A sonic dialogue on an anonymous modal exercise, an ancient memorisation formula of Byzantine time. It is played here on an early frestel and on the so-called Severin's lyre, a very small harp-like instrument based on an archaeological find of a Merowingian warrior's instrument in St. Severin's Cologne.

Lai du Fou - Improvisation

Certainly a different kind of musical invention - une autre fantasie, this surrealistic lai was born out of the musicians' ad hoc inspiration, without any prior rehearsal directly to the recording device. It happened stante pede - thus creating a spontaneous "stantipes" 

Almifona - Melodia longissima 

Textless sequence models, described as “long melodies” and also called "sequelae", were given mysterious additional titles already in the early Middle Ages, from the 9th century on. Sequelae are the origin of medieval instrumental pieces in the form of estampie. Almifona is a prominent example of this type of textless melismatic pieces from the 11th century.

La route d'Alexandre 

It is always fascinating to sense, how much inspiration came from the Orient to the Occident and vice versa, following not only the trade routes of the Silk Road, but also the more archaic roadmap of Alexander the Great from Macedonia to India and back. Our musical sketch is a sonic reflection of these musical travels, played on a Montecassino cithara of the 11th century and an Indian bansuri flute.

Estampie C'an feme ce fie 

This purely textual estampie of the 13th century is one of the first appearances of a poem in the distinguished estampie form. The metrics fit well with the melody of Ave, regina glorie documented as duplum voice in a famous motet of the Codex Montpellier, f. 102v. 

Le mystère de l'azur 

From the crystalline blue of the Mediterranean sky emerged the wondrous and timeless art form of troubadour poetry and music. Here, in our free improvisation, we simply reflect on the colour of the mediterranean region, which has inspired so many musicians and poets from ancient times to the present day. 

Notula De juer et de baler 

A nota or notula in medieval times is a written, popular melody to a poem whose lyrics and metrics hint to the estampie form. De juer et de baler is one of the few surviving examples of this genre. It survives as a Latin contrafactum with a new text "Olim in harmonia" in Adam de la Bassee's "Ludus super Anticlaudianum". There it has the title “Notula, que super illam incipit "de juer et de baler …”.

Estempida Pus chan era 

This estampie-like piece is based on a songtext by Ceveri di Girona, a Catalan troubadour of the 12th century. As the melody has not survived, we had to reconstruct it by comparing the text with a variety of similar troubadour songs with surviving melodies.

Canconeta Tedesca  

The four German tunes in in the Northern Italian manuscript LOB add 29987 certainly were intended to be the lower voices in polyphonic settings and were marked as tenors. The first canconeta stands out in its title (the others are called cancona). A double flute and traverso are joined by small bells and a Toupin, a big bell from the Swiss Alps.

Pierre Hamon from Paris is one of the most internationally renowned flutists of medieval music. He plays regularily with Jordi Savall and is known as co-founder of the ensemble "Alla francesca", director of the Machaut projects with Marc Mauillon and former professor at the CNDSMD in Lyon: In "De juer et de baler" he meets the Cologne musician Norbert Rodenkirchen, a specialist in medieval traverso, known for his decades of work with Sequentia and the Ensemble Dialogos, as well as his own projects Candens Lilium, with numerous avantgarde projects combining contemporary music with medieval sound reseach.