The harte opreste
The harte opreste
A Due Liuti
Thierry Meunier & Jean-Marie Poirier
LABEL ENPHASES - RELEASE DATE 17/10/2025
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‘A Due Liuti’ (Thierry Meunier and Jean-Marie Poirier, lutenists) offer a selection of works from the Elizabethan period and beyond. Many of these duets are previously unreleased and are recorded here for the first time.
Recording: Église du Tiercent, Ille-et-Vilaine (35) from 28 to 31 August 2023
Sound recording/editing: Térence Meunier
1. A Galliard], Robert Askue
2. A Maske, Tobias Hume
3. Sweet Musicke, Tobias Hume
4. The King of Denmark’s delight, Tobias Hume
5. Passingmesures Pavian, John Johnson ?
6. [Passamezzo Moderno Galliard], John Johnson ?
7. Fantasia, William Byrd
8. The Battell for ii lutes, Anonyme
9. Go Merely Wheele, Anonyme
10. Short Allmaine or Tinternel], Francis Cutting
11. Reads Galliard, Richard Read
12. Callinoe, Anonyme
13. The Harte Opreste, Anonyme
14. Si vous voulez, Philip Van Wilder
15. A Fantasie (sur « Si vous voulez »), John Marchant / David Humphreys
16. The Marygolde, Ellis Lawrey
17. Duncombs Galliarde, Anonyme
18. Mault’s come downe, Thomas Ravenscroft / Anonyme
19. Ça cloche (Bonus track), Terence Meunier
Thierry Meunier, luth à 8 chœurs d’après VVendelio Venere, 1592, Bologna Accademia Filarmonica, copie réalisée par David Van Edwards, Norwich, UK, 1985.
Jean-Marie Poirier, luth à 7 chœurs d’après VVendelio Venere, 1592, Bologna Accademia Filarmonica, copie réalisée par David Van Edwards, Norwich, UK, 2008.
About
Between 1550 and 1625, the lute enjoyed unprecedented popularity among amateur and professional musicians alike. An essential part of any good education, it was quickly adopted by musicians teaching the instrument, who played it in duets, before winning over high society, as evidenced by the numerous manuscripts containing lute duets. This practice, whose educational benefits are well established, enjoyed a particular boom across the Channel.
Combining virtuosity and musicality, lute duets gave pride of place to diminutions, which became widespread towards the end of the 16th century and in the early years of the 17th. An excellent way to stimulate the interest of the most advanced students, it was also an opportunity for skilled lutenists to demonstrate their talent, using a technique that suggests that improvisation played a more important role than we might think. In fact, some diminution lines resemble written improvisation.
A Due Liuti
Thierry Meunier and Jean-Marie Poirier studied plucked string instruments — lute, baroque guitar, vihuela — as well as early music under the guidance of Javier Hinojosa. At the same time, they studied with Hopkinson Smith and Paul O'Dette, internationally renowned specialists. Driven by a desire to revive a rich repertoire dedicated to early plucked string instruments (lute, vihuela, early guitars, theorbo, archlute, etc.), they founded the duo A Due Liuti in 1990.
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