In the year 1688, when the 52-year-old Georg Daniel Speer, son of a reputed peltmonger family of Breslau, had his Musicalisch-Türckischer Eulen-Spiegel published in Ulm, he was an organist and assistant teacher in South Germany and already had an eventful life behind him. At the age of 18, he sets off on his way through the Carpathian Mountains to Spisz (located in the north-east of present-day Slovakia). Throughout the following years, he works as a mercenary for various armies, once as an army drummer, then as a bugler in the war of Hungary against the Turks. Finally, he reaches Constantinople in the company of a “high-born lord”.
In his Musicalisch-Türckischer Eulen-Spiegel, Speer sets texts from his picaresque novel Ungarischer oder Dacianischer Simplicissimus in music. Spear lets his hero Lompyn travel musically through all the countries then affected by the Turkish invasion. To this effect, the versatile composer created dances and melodies in the style of each of these almost exotic peoples. From the large number of stories, Gunar Letzbor, the leader of Ars antiqua Austria, chose two CD filling programs: the already released CD with War Stories (PC10317) of our hero Lompyn and now his Love Affairs. These are erotic accounts from the past that provide a certain antithesis to the war stories. In Love Affairs, we witness a few spicy scenes illustrating how little the world of love has changed its face over the centuries. The erotic allusions titillate today as they did then.
