Dark Cloud: Songs from the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648 The Playfords

• Anonymous:
• 1Es geht wohl gegen der Sommerzeit03:09
• Martin Opitz (1597 - 1639):
• 2Ist Liebe lauter nichts01:19
• Melchior Franck (1580 - 1639):
• 3Kein Soldat soll nicht trauren02:38
• Anonymous:
• 4Frisch auf in's Feld zu rucken04:34
• Paul Fleming (1609 - 1640):
• 5Lob eines Soldaten zu Fuße02:22
• F.R. Berger:
• 6Lallekeenig01:13
• Hofmann von Hoffmannswaldau (1616 - 1679):
• 7Wo sind die Stunden?00:59
• Anonymous:
• 8Es geht ein dunkle Wolk herein05:13
• Tobias Hume (1569 - 1645):
• 9First Part of Ayres: No. 13, Death04:45
• Heinrich Schütz (1585 - 1672):
• 10Die Erde trinkt für sich, SWV 43802:13
• Tobias Hume:
• 11First Part of Ayres: No. 64, A Souldiers Maske03:51
• Vicentz Rupffenbart:
• 12Es hat ein Tantzer gsprungen01:23
• F.R. Berger:
• 13Ryslaifer01:40
• Traditional:
• 14Mit Lust vor wenig Tagen02:03
• Melchior Kardinal Klesl:
• 15Es ist kein Schnee gefallen02:37
• Martin Opitz:
• 16Schönheit dieser Welt vergeht00:28
• Anonymous:
• 17Es ist ein Schnitter heißt der Tod04:21
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750):
• 18Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude02:38
• Andreas Gryphius (1616 - 1664):
• 19Abend01:28
• Heinrich Schütz:
• 20O meine Seel, warum bist du betrübet, SWV 41903:04
• Samuel Scheidt (1587 - 1654):
• 21Ludi Musici, SSWV 47: Courant Dolorosa03:14
• Anonymous:
• 22O übergrosses Hertzenleid04:45
• Christoph Demantius (1567 - 1643):
• 23Schwedischer Postbot den verlorenen Tylli zu suchen04:31
• Caspar Othmayr (1515 - 1553):
• 24Der Schwartenhals / Wo soll ich mich hinkehren03:34
• Total Runtime01:08:02

Info for Dark Cloud: Songs from the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648

The Playfords are dedicated to creating authentic and innovative interpretations of Renaissance and early Baroque dance music. Using historical instruments, they perform early music in new arrangements that start with spontaneous improvisation and reach completed form after a process of cooperative work with dance experts and after a great deal of live performance.

Björn Werner, vocals
Annegret Fischer, recorders
Benjamin Dressler, viola da gamba
Nora Thiele, percussion
Erik Warkenthin, baroque guitar, lute, chitarrone

The Playfords
developed a distinctive authentic, innovative and danceable Early Music Style over the last 20 years of their existence. They are one of the few ensembles improvising extempore on stage and thus embody truthfully authenticity of historically informed performance. Their sources of creativity are music, texts and life of the 16th and 17th century in Europe and beyond. History, tradition & evergreens are woven into holistic concept programmes and blossom in new arrangements.

Early music, Folk, Pop, Jazz, non-European Music, Poetry, Dance, Art, Visual Arts and Theater are metamorphosed into I n s p i r e d E a r l y M u s i c .

The five-headed ensemble is named after John and Henry Playford’s collection “The English Dancing Master” (1651). A Real Book of it’s time providing notated Hit-melodies on fitting dance steps. Harmonies and Bass were to be improvised by the performing musicians, their essential character determined by those own predilections and particular talents. This was a welcome challenge to any virtuosic musician’s creativity – then as well as now.

The Playfords have performed regularly at international festivals since 2005, including as part of the “Oude Muziek Utrecht” Fringe festival, at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Schloss Tirol, MDR-Musiksommer, Bach-Biennale Weimar, Stockstädter Blockflötenfesttage, Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin, to Belarus in cooperation with Goethe Institut and at the EXPO 2015 in Milan and many more. So far six CDs have been released at Coviello Classics, Raumklang and DHM.

With their yearly Playgroundfestival of early music folk in Weimar the format of “Early Music Jam Sessions” and different crossover programmes with Latin, Iraqi, English, Italian, German, Austrian and Dutch Musicians have been created (Latin Baroque, Shakespeare’s Musicke & Dounce, Trialogue of Religions, L’Arte da Vinci).

Booklet for Dark Cloud: Songs from the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648