Time has told me

Songs of Leonard Cohen in new arrangements, mix with French Renaissance chansons. Parts of the Echo Prize-winning program "Requiem for a Pink Moon" with music by Nick Drake and the English Renaissance composer, John Dowland. Original songs by Joel Frederiksen, personal and reflective, bring us back, full-circle, to the present.

In the course of time we all change or, as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: “Everything changes and nothing stands still”. Time has told me, a song written in the 1960s by a young English singer-songwriter, Nick Drake, reflects on things of the heart that only time can teach us. The Renaissance song, Time stands still, by John Dowland describes a precious state of being during which the movement of time is suspended. To quote Heraclitus again, “You cannot step into the same river twice” or, as he also said, “Everything flows”. No wonder, Nick and other poets so often use water as a metaphor for time in their lyrics.

When Nick Drake died, he was only 26 years old, but had already recorded three remarkable albums. A very different artist, with a long career, was Leonard Cohen (1934-2016). First a poet and novelist, his music career first began at the age of 33. In this program, we will connect Cohen, musically and poetically, to the French Renaissance chanson. Cohen was born and raised in Montreal, a city in Canada where French is the first language and with a history tracing itself back to the 16th century. We pair Cohen songs like “Suzanne” with Orlando di Lasso’s Susanne ung jour or Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye with Josquin des Prez’s Adieu mes amours in new arrangements.

The present in which we find ourselves may be disorienting, but it also offers a chance to orient anew. In new songs, I try to do just that….

Musicians: Emma-Lisa Roux – soprano, lute | Domen Marinčič – viola da gamba | Joel Frederiksen – voice, lute, direction