Squarcialupi!

[atm]

This seems interesting.

https://pastebin.com/raw/3kh81iAi

[Mandryka]

This CD from Sollazzo Ensemble, their second, has won much praise this year, and I concur. The ensemble is made up for vielles, harp and voices. Much of the material on the CD is from Squarcialupi composers.

Why is it so good? Well it's fluid, it's expressive with both words and melody, and their voices are beautiful. But that's not the real reason. The real reason is that they sing like a team, responsively, with a sense of freshness and discovery and pleasure in performance. There is nothing whatsoever routine or blasé about their art.

You can hear them and see them here, I'm specially fond of the final song by Loyset Compère. Here they use early arrangements in manuscripts testifying to a medieval tradition of blind vielle players.

https://youtube.com/v/nYjxQ4giHWg

[Mandryka]

Here are some comments on rhythm by Mark Everist (taken from one of John Potter's Conductus CDs), really about earlier music than you find in the Squarcialupi manuscript, but nevertheless not uninteresting

Over the course of the last 150 years, it has been proposed that these sections—which do the all-important work of projecting the poetic text—should be interpreted in the same way as caudae: in other words, according to the rhythmic modes. The immense difficulty in making the notation look remotely like any of the rhythmic patterns that the rhythmic modes involve has led others to argue for a relaxed interpretation of the notation but still within the context of the rhythmic modes. Some have argued for duple rhythm, while others have suggested that the unmeasured notation probably indicates a non-metrical, rhythmically flexible type of performance.

Arguments in favour of the use of the rhythmic modes are either circular (the music must be metrical because the conductus might have been used as a processional / the music is used as a processional because it is metrically regular) or based on a faulty understanding of the poetic principles underpinning rithmus (the poetry used in the conductus repertory). Rithmus usually tells us little about the accentual control over the line except for the cadence (paroxytonic or proparoxytonic), but editors over the years have claimed to see quantitative feet in the poetry, as if it were Virgil, and have drawn conclusions about which rhythmic mode to use as a result. This has been shown to be false.

So while we can be sure that the caudae of the conducti are to be performed in accordance with the rhythmic modes (as they are on this recording), it is much less clear how the syllabic musica cum littera might be performed. Significant amounts of experimentation of all types of delivery have led to a style of performance that rejects a priori rhythmic systems that are inappropriate or anachronistic, and that places the poetry at the centre of the performance's stage. This leads to a number of consequences, many of which are audible here. The first thing is not only the clear declamation of the poetry, but a flexibility on the part of the singers to declaim the poetry according to the way they might read and understand it; this is particularly interesting in strophic settings where—notionally—the same music is used for all the stanzas, but where the singer can articulate the poetry in different ways, with the same musical superstructure lightly adjusted in the light of the poetry. This can be heard, for example, by comparing the openings of the first two stanzas of `Ut non ponam' and contrasting the ways in which the first stanza (`Ut non ponam os in celum') and the second (Munda manus debet esse') begin and continue, subtly giving emphasis to different words, and declaiming the text at different speeds depending on meaning. Other, smaller-scale consequences of non-metrical but rhythmically flexible performance are the regular simultaneous presentation of ligatures of four and three notes, three and two notes, and other combinations, which hark back to the music of previous generations.

MARK EVERIST

The prima le parole idea expressed here is one I'm very attracted to emotionally . . .

The first thing is not only the clear declamation of the poetry, but a flexibility on the part of the singers to declaim the poetry according to the way they might read and understand it

[Mandryka]

Have you warmed to the Conductus CDs?  I can't keep up with your tastes.     One minute you way you prefer polyphony to monophony then a week later it is the opposite.

I don't think it's totally monophonic. Heterophonic maybe.  And no, I haven't bought CDs 1 and 3, though I'm tempted because I'm interested in the performers, I've had CD 2 for ages, all the booklets are on line.

[Mandryka]

By the way, San, given your taste for desert landscapes unaccompanied monophony and blokes' voices, I hope you've discovered this CD



details here

http://www.marcmauillon.com/?page_id=532

[Mandryka]

I'd completely forgotten about this recording, which contains quite a bit of music by Squarcialupi composers. And what a joy to rediscover it. What I want to say is this: the performances communicate the musicians' enthusiasm for the music, their total and inspired involvement, their alpha-state. In this respect at least, Peres is like Schmelzer: they both know how to get the best from the people who work with them.

A capella, rather energetic and exciting rather than sensual and curvaceous, , a pulse without stiffness, only male singers, often sung more for melody than harmony I'd say.  Peres is one of the few, maybe the only one in fact, who can make me really enjoy this approach.

[Mandryka]

Does anyone know who the singers are on this Jacopo de Bologna CD? James Bowman is probably one of them. The vocal music on the recording is rather good I think.

[pjme]

Ricercare Ensemble für Alte Musik Zürich
Wally Staempfli - soprano
Kurt Huber - tenor and percussion
Fritz Naf - tenor
Michel Piguet - Schalmei, recorder, tambourine
Christopher Schmidt - rebec, portativ
Jordi Savall - fidel, percussion
Françoise Stein - harp
Anthony Bailes - lute, bandurria, drum

Michel Piguet, conductor
1973 recording (LP). The cd was issued in 2000.

Peter

[Mandryka]

Thanks, some good singers there who I'd like to hear more of.

[prémont]

Ricercare Ensemble für Alte Musik Zürich
Fritz Naf - tenor

Small correction:

Fritz Näf or Naef

http://www.fritz-naef.ch/

[pjme]

  Setting the record straight!

[Mandryka]

https://youtube.com/v/sFgBb8gRLbE

I've found three recordings of Paolo de Firenze's madrigal Lena Virtù: Mala Punica, ClubMedieval and a live one from Tetraktys from Utrecht in 2013 on YouTube. All  three set for two voices and different quantities of instruments. The reason I want to mention it is, to my ears, it shows the absolute superiority of Mala Punica, and for an interesting reason: their musicians, especially the singers,  are listening to each other, responding, and that makes the music come to life. Tetraktys aren't bad, but they really don't really touch Mala Punica.

At least, that's how I hear it.

And yet this



is a totally satisfying recording when you don't do comparative listening and you're in the mood.

[prémont]

And yet this



is a totally satisfying recording when you don't do comparative listening and you're in the mood.

Yes, a very nice recording. Comparative listening ought to be illegal.  

[Biffo]

And it's not clear to me what happens to French music after Machaut. There's a well regarded book on this, Nadas and Cuthbert Ars nova: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century , it's too expensive for me I think.

An interesting question. Possibly the ravages of The 100 Years War and the Black Death took its toll though you would expect the latter to affect Burgundy as well. The Binchois Consort have an album Music for the 100 Years War and most of the music is English or Anon, even the music for the coronation of Henry VI as King of France. This might just be a reflection of the choice made by BC of course.

[Mandryka]

Revisiting this I find myself caught up by the intensity of it, the energy. In some moods this approach can be very satisfying! ATM was right.

A total contrast from this



which has a feeling of breathlessness - not because it's too quick but because it's so articulated, short phrases. The extraordinary thing is that somehow the phrases are linked in such a way that it's fluid, plastic, sensual. I like the singing and the organ playing very much.

What Reverdie don't have is the raw energy of Micrologus, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Mandryka]

This is music taken from a manuscript called Q15 in Bologna, which, it's claimed, is very important "This manuscript is to sacred music of the period what the Oxford Chansonnier (MS Canon. misc. 213) is to the Burgundian chanson." Lymburgia gets a big role to play in Q15. As for the music, my impression is that what Baptiste Romain says is spot on, couldn't put it better myself

The music of Johannes de Lymburgia occupies a central position in this repertoire, between the works of Johannes Ciconia and of Guillaume Dufay. Whilst it is strange that a composer of that generation who left behind such a quantity of music should have been so forgotten, this programme is an important first step towards the rediscovery and reinstatement of Lymburgia and his music.

Maybe it is the power of suggestion, but yes, you sometimes hear the voice of Dufay, sometimes Cicconia! All very beautiful and well worth checking out I'd say.

[San Antone]

This recording might be appropriate for this thread:



Musica del XV Secolo in Italia
Ensemble Ars Italica
Tactus 40012201
Also issued under numbers Tactus 400201 & Tactus 400001.

Contents:
Brassart: Gratulemur Christicole (6 voices, organ, lute, harp)
Anon: Se ce n'estoit (harp, vielle, lute)
Anon: Se je suis despourveu / Veni veni clerice (voice, organ, harp, lute, vielle, bombard)
Anon: Maintenons nous / Resveilles qui dort / Chascun par acord (2 voices, organ, harp, lute, vielle, shawm, bombard)
Anon: O gratiosa viola (2 voices, vielle, lute, harp, percussion)
Anon: I ochi di una ançoleta (organ)
Anon: Ave Mater o Maria (5 voices, shawm, bombard)
Arnold de Lantins: In tua memoria (lute, organ)
Anon: La belle se sit (voice, double flute, gittern)
Anon: Noes vous point / Coq en l'orge / Coq en l'orge (6 voices, vielle, lute, harp, organ)
Lymburgia: Imnizabo regi meo (shawm, bombard, percussion)
Lymburgia: Salve Virgo regia (5 voices, vielle, lute, harp, slide trumpet, bombard)
Pullois: De ma dame (vielle, lute, harp, organ)
Fontaine: J'aime bien celui qui s'en va (voice, organ, lute, harp, vielle)
Piacenza: Rostiboli gioioso (lute, vielle, harp)
Anon: Hora may che fora son (voice, lute, vielle, harp, slide trumpet, bombard, dulcian)
Anon: O partita crudele (shawm, slide trumpet, bombard, dulcian)
Anon: A Florence / Helas la fille / En ma chambre (3 voices, shawm, slide trumpet, bombard, vielle, lute, harp)
Performers: Sigrid Lee (voice, vielle, direction), Gloria Moretti (voice), Alessandra Fiori (voice, portative organ), Claudio Cavina (voice), Marco Beasley (voice), Marco Ferrari (voice, double flute, shawm, bombard, direction), Giovanna Ferrari (voice), Francis Biggi (lute, gittern, direction), Perla Manfrè (harp), Guido Morini (organ), Pier G. Callegari (bombard, slide trumpet), Dante Bernardi (bombard, dulcian), Franco Perfetti (dulcian)

[Mandryka]

Here's a hypothesis for your consideration. The covers of the CDs tell the whole story. Ensemble Ars Italica, outside dancing boisterously to loud music with an easy foot tapping pulse, Baptiste Romain inside a palazzo savouring sophisticated sensual nuanced music.

Probably a load of crap that, but that's my initial impression. 

[Mandryka]

.   

I'm enjoying this recording of music mostly by Jacopo da Bologna, not least because of the instrumental contribution, which seems quite imaginative and intelligent. This is something I've become quite sensitive about since revisiting some recordings from Studio Der Frühen Music.

As far as I know there are only two other recordings with substantial amounts of music by Jacopo, Project Ars Nova and La Reverdie.

[Mandryka]

https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/firenze-1350-un-jardin-medieval-florentin-sollazzo-ensemble-anna-danilevskaia/s5bge21u04eda

Lots of new names for me on this one, Donato di Firenze, Bartolino da Padova, Andrea da Firenze , , ,

Initial impressions is that it's as good as you'd expect anything by these artists to be: vocally, instrumentally and in terms of programme. There's a range of moods, of styles, which make it a great thing to listen to.