NEWBERRY CONSORT
The Parisian music scene in the early 1400s described by the Newberry Consort’s detailed program notes doesn’t seem all that unfamiliar. Theory was debated at the universities; private conservatories, with their rigorous curricula, trained singers and instrumentalists in “serious” religious music; street minstrels, who had organized a guild to ensure professional behavior, concocted lighter fare with a broader appeal; star musicians, despite low social status, hobnobbed with their employers; and the dukes of Burgundy, on whose fortunes the well-being of Paris depended, eagerly stole top singers from the choirs of the royal chapel and the papal seat in Avignon. Musical and other cultural activities in Paris continued to thrive well into the 1450s, despite political chaos. But virtually no records of Parisian cultural life survived the ensuing turmoil, which lasted into the 1480s and included the reign of the cruel, uncultured Louis XI.
