Horses Brawl is a fairly recently-formed trio - Laura Cannell, Adrian Lever, and Jonathan Manton, playing recorders, crumhorns, violins, guitars, and 'cello. They bring a fresh and entertaining light to European mediaeval tunes and melodies, founded on scholarship and a serious knowledge of the music but with the addition of creativity and humour. On Saturday I went to see them at Norwich Arts Centre.
The programme began with a hopping dance, as Laura told us, adding "There's another one later, and it would really make me happy if anyone would have a hop during it"; and indeed three people did so, to their own round of applause. Laura created a drone-sound by playing two recorders at once. I had wondered how a repertoire based on mediaeval music, mainly dance tunes, would work on primarily modern instruments and without percussion. The answer is that they do have percussion. Guitar used percussively I've met before, but a 'cello used as a drum? Fear not for the safety of the lovely cello, though - Jon has stuck on a bright green taxdisc holder to protect the wood from his thumping.
They use the instruments in innovative ways to produce sounds which are reminiscient of mediaeval instruments - for example, the part that sounds so much like a hurdygurdy is in fact a violin played with the bow outside and around it. In one piece the guitar is bowed, too (Adrian's preparation is an amusing piece of stage business, entailing rather more rosin and squeaking strings than may be musically necessary). The cello is hit, slapped, tweaked, plucked, and slithered, as well as conventionally bowed; Jon even uses a plectrum at times. The result is an astounding range of textures. Of course, it helps that all three are superb musicians, with the accurate and warm ensemble that brings out the best in dance tunes.
They have to tune between almost every piece - not because of the environment or dodgy strings, but because their arrangements call for so many different and unusual tunings. To pass the time while tuning, they make little jokes about needing to be rich enough to have a suite of guitars and 'cellos ready-prepared, and handed to them by attendants. Laura: "You'll miss all our tuning when we stop!" Jon: "Yes, and there's no tuning on the CD".
The mood varies from toe-tappingly jolly to sensually languorous and even to the strange and almost disturbing, as in the first part of Galliard (Branle des Chevaux); from traditional to Machaut to their own composed works. Most are neatly-paired tunes (in the style of folk-dance music), from various parts of Europe, as far as Istanbul.
This is historical performance brought into our times, giving us some feel for what the music must have been like for the original listeners. The hour passed very swiftly!
You can read more about them on their website (www.horsesbrawl.co.uk), and order their first CD, released through their very own record company Brawl Records.
