Montreal Medieval Festival 2013
MIDGARD
During our 2013 edition of the Montreal Medieval festival, we presented 2 concerts:
Sunday June 23rd
Ensemble Mandragore
présented:
The Vikings... A civilization that flourished and dominated the seas during a mere three centuries. A civilization
whose colourful vocabulary is the stuff of dreams: Valkyrie, Odin, runes, Yggdrasil... And yet, most of us know very
little about their actual history, their daily lives, their extraordinarily extensive travels. How many of us are aware
that the Vikings not only explored Iran and Newfoundland, colonized Iceland and Greenland, invaded England and Normandy,
but also carried out commerce and trade in Russia and served as mercenaries in Constantinople?La Mandragore has decided
to imagine the music these tireless voyagers would have notated had they had the time and leisure. A melting pot of cultures
from the Orient to the West: Scandinavian folklore; songs in Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian and Norse... and even in French;
our Mediterranean instruments; and finally several instruments exclusive to Nordic lands, such as thenyckelharpa (the
Swedish keyed fiddle), and the sackpipa (the Scandinavian bagpipe). A thousand leagues from our idealization of the Viking
warrior, La Mandragore proposes instead a voyage through Midgard, the “middle earth” between heaven and hell... the land
of humankind
Musicians
Ingried Boussaroque, voice, flutes, crumhorn
Sean Dagher, voice, cittern
Grégoire Jeay, voice, flutes, traverso, percussions
Alex Kehler, voice, nickelharpa, violin
Andrew Wells-Oberegger, oud, bouzouki
