07/08/2019
Dominique Jouve/Paotr an dreujenn-gaol/Dastum/2019
Paotr an dreujenn-gaol (Man of the clarinet), the first volume of Dastum's new "Passeurs" collection, is a double CD by clarinetist Dominique Jouve. Jouve has become a recognized authority for his ethnographic work collecting and transmitting the tradition of the treujenn-gaol, the traditional clarinet from Kreiz Breizh (Central Brittany), after many years of study with older musicians. In this double album, he offers us sixty tracks recorded from 1984 to today, first with the “old masters” and then with contemporaries.
The first of the two CDs, Dec’h (Yesterday), finds him performing on different occasions through the years - Fest Noz, weddings, ethnographic collection, rehearsals - alongside the players of previous generations who carried this tradition out of the past: Auguste Quéméner, Hyacinthe Guégan, Christian Duro, Jean- Louis Le Boulc'h, Guillaume Tasset, Denis Jouan, and André Le Maguet.
The second CD, Hiriv (Today), presents him in the company of musical contemporaries (Olivier Urvoy, Tristan Gloaguen, Philippe Le Guennec, Yann Goas, Joachim Mouflin), with whom he updates the collected repertoire while offering new takes on the treujenn gaol sound.
In the accompanying 32-page booklet Jouve presents his overview of the treujenn-gaol tradition of Central Brittany, the tracks, and background information on the different musicians heard on the recording.
This CD is not intended for, I must say, the casual listener. The treujenn gaol has a particular lovely high haunting sound almost always in the clarion register, accompanied by, particularly in the older pieces, a somewhat limited technical capacity. You don’t get a sense of virtuosity here but more a feeling of a tradition of working people playing these instruments. In the second disk the technical limitations ease somewhat as newer generations of more professional players on modern instruments take up the sound.
If you are, however, a fan of Breton music, a fan or player of the clarinet, or any combination thereof, you may find this an intriguing and even indispensable recording. If you turn your attention to the accompanying PDF file you get some deeper ethnomusicological material that is truly remarkable. A 58-page file provides a detailed description of the repertoire, enriched with 43 photos, and an educational section including musical analysis, with 71 scores.
-Fañch
