I attended a small Estampie concert last friday. Estampie is an ensemble playing medieval music with original instruments and of course, vocals. It was a really beautiful concert: small (roughly 90 people), seated and with an enchanting performance of Estampie, especially by their singer Syrah and their newest addition, soprano Sarah M. Newman.

I know Estampie’s music since the early nineties, but so far I have not been attending one of their concerts, obviously, like other bands, they also skip Münster. I have only seen Syrah’s and Michael Popp’s electronic sideproject Qntal live (well, not in Münster).

The playlist of Estampie:

• La morena (sefardí, trad., 14th century)
  
• La galana y el mar (sefardí, trad., 15th century)
  
• Floret silva (Carmina Burana, 12th century)
  
• Ave donna santissima (13th century)
  
• Trotto (14th century)
  
• Los caminos (14th century)
  
• Gaudens in domino/Pferdetanz (13th century)
  
• Disse mi (14th century)
  
• Voi ch’amante (13th century)
  
• A virgen muy gloriosa (Alfonso X. el Sabio - Cantigas de Santa Maria, 1230 - 1284)
  
• Estampie V (14th century)
  
• Las suegras de ahora (sefardí, trad., 14th century)
  
• Quantos me creveren (Alfonso X. el Sabio - Cantigas de Santa Maria, )
• Gran dereit (Alfonso X. el Sabio - Cantigas de Santa Maria)
• and finally: Non sofre Santa Maria (Alfonso X. el Sabio - Cantigas de Santa Maria)

The concert lasted for over two hours (counting the small break within). It was a really impressive performance and when they performed the mongolian horsedance (see videos below), I was speechless. Needless to say the whole concert send shivers down my spine. Cudos to Estampie!

I also took some (bad quality) videos, mostly for you to have a clue what kind of music they play:

Estampie 1

Estampie 3

Estampie 4

Estampie - Mongolian Flying Horse Dance (part 1)

Estampie - Mongolian Flying Horse Dance (part 2)

Estampie 8:

More on my youtube-channel.

Oh, and of course I got me a new DVD from their Marco Polo-tour, of course signed by every ensemble member. And last but not least I got my personal pic with Syrah. Sadly, the colour version is overexposed and so I had to rescue it by converting to black and white.

Today I have been to the art museum. Well, I have been there in the enjoyable company of a beautiful lady. I proposed the place for the date and she agreed to it. Some kind of neutral ground.

The exhibition is called “Orte der Sehsucht - Mit Künstlern auf Reisen” (Destinations of Desire - Travelling with artists). It displays over 250 works of prominent artists (according to their website, I didn’t count the paintings and photographs), classified in different categories: e.g. the Orient, Paris, New York etc. It was some kind of pictorial journey through the countries/regions as well through time.

I especially liked the paintings from Paul Klee and August Macke from their journey to Tunisia. I was a bit surprised to see the original size: they are small, compared to the reprint on posters etc. you can buy all over the world. Another interesting one was Carl Blechen, who I already knew from the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. I especially like his painting of the Palm House near Potsdam. He was present with a lot of nice sepia aquarelles. The 18th/19th century illustrations from the expeditions in Egypt were also great.

At the reception they said you normally need more days to see everything. Well, I guess if you are a real art lover, you certainly invest thirty minutes before every painting. So we only ventured through the halls for two hours. And I guess we have seen most paintings. A lot were not to our tastes, but as you know, taste is different for everybody. And yes, it seems we are some kind of art low-brows (Kunstbanausen).

So, if you are in or near Münster until the 11th January 2009, it’s well worth to drop by our art museum and enjoy some nice art. Especially in nice company.