Saturday, October 20, 2007
A review:
Perfect Antidote
Another of those impulse buys that turns out to be a delight.
Apparently the 15th century had its fair share of nutty professors – and even nuttier hypochondriacs. It was believed that the bite of the tarantula (not the big hairy spider of the rain forest – quite a modest little thing of only a couple of centimetres from the Mediterranean regions) provoked ‘Tarantulism’ – whose various symptoms, included melancholy and the urge to dance with frenzied agitations of the limbs.
Vampire like, this little monster had a habit of injecting its venom into the sleeping neck of its victim – at night or during the afternoon siesta.
The only cure was music.
Fast music with a strong rhythm, and shrill instruments playing it for some; slow and melancholy for others; and almost everything in between if this disc is anything to go by.
Oh, and copious quantities of wine and strong broth which both victim and musicians consumed in the pauses between bouts of uncontrolled dancing.
Sadly the disease seems to have died out at the end of the 18th century,
Not so the music – which gets a totally spirited (if not actually venom induced) performance from Atrium Musicae de Madrid.
The selection is catholic – ranging from various parts of the
Mr. Anonymous is the main composer and he seems to have a delicious sense of humour – his Antidotum Tarentulae on the first track manages to drag in a hotchpotch of instruments including a performing bird or two. But there are a couple of names represented – A Couperin, a Buxtehude mixed in with a Monteverdi, and a Praetorius.
My favourite is track 5, Tarentella Neapoli Tonum Phygium, et al – distinctly the nuttiest and quite maddening with a stomping rhythm that have my fingers dancing in time as I type.
I defy you to listen to this music and not want to ‘jig about’ – as if bitten by the tarantula.
