Troubadours Art Ensemble in Stanford

I came to know the 'Troubadours Art Ensemble' fairly soon after we arrived in France.
I had heard about the Troubadours when I was young, so now was the opportunity to become more acquainted with it. So I bought several CD's and one was from a local group under the name of Gerard Zuchetto. The other CD's were beautiful, but with Gerard Zuchetto I came to difficulties. I had to stop whatever I was doing and had to concentrate and listen several times to the same song before I could discover the many dimensions of the song. As with other songs, it repeats melodies, but with Gerard Zuchetto they did sound different, because he did not want to sing just a nice song, but to express the meaning of the song. Each word was very clearly sung, sometimes half spoken. The instrumental music was not for accompaniment, but to help to bring over the whole meaning of the song. It was as if the troubadour was standing in my room.
I have now been to several performances and also Sandra-Hurtado-Ros has the ability to give all her energy in bringing over that special element of the Troubadour music, but then in her own individual way.
The first clip is an introduction,the second a concert.



The Troubadours Art Ensemble performs Occitan troubadour lyric of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a lyric known as the foundation of European vernacular poetry. They visited Stanford in early March 2010 and the video clips are from there.