RECOMMENDED As much as we like to be critical of the Taliban and other current Islamic fundamentalist groups that think that music arouses such passions in us that it should only be used for prayer, it’s easy to forget that the same attitude existed across Christian Europe for well beyond a millennium. The figure credited with breaking that ban and setting secular subjects to music is thirteenth-century French composer Adam de la Halle. His “Le Jeu de Robin et Marion” (“The Play of Robin and Marion”) is the first known play to contain music that was not an oratorio or mystery play with a religious theme. Based on an old French chanson and folk tale, the story concerns Maid Marion’s attempts to resist the romancing of Robin the Knight and stay faithful to Robert the shepherd and is told in dialogue alternating with sung verses that are more melodic and less complex than de la Halle’s more stylized and elaborate songs and motets. This first account of the romance of famous lovers Robin and Marion will be presented semi-staged for Valentine’s Day weekend and set to the improvised accompaniment of lutes, fiddles, flutes, recorders and percussion with an ensemble directed by Newberry Consort music director David Douglass on vielle and rebec, with Mark Rimple on lute, Tom Zajac on flute and percussion with soprano Ellen Hargis and countertenor Drew Minter as the lovers. (Dennis Polkow) Friday, February 15 at Newberry Library’s Ruggles Hall, 60 W. Walton. 8pm.
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