Tansy Davies’s 17-minute song cycle Troubairitz is a setting 12th-century poems by women troubadours in translations by Derek Mahon. The extraordinary emotional directness of these texts is honoured in Davies’s sombre, soulful and dance-like songs, which are sparely scored for voice and percussion.
‘Angular, spare but human.’
The Times (Geoff Brown), 1 April 2011