The Early Music Club (EMC)

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Willoughby earl of Itacarius

Quote from: ~ Que ~ on January 17, 2012, 12:39:59 AM


It seems I got myself another OOP disc - my apologies for bringing it up... :-\ Still, as promised to Drasko a little writeup - maybe this recording will resurface again.

Anyway, what a gorgeous disc! :o the Franco-Flemish composer Jean Richafort was an unknown quantity to me. He is of the first post-Josquin Deprez generation. He was widely known and respected during his life time, hence a lot of his works have been preserved for prosperity. Paradoxally little is known about his life - another short but more elaborate bio HERE. So, why is this the sole recording? ::) The discontent for this neglect is clear in Van Nevel's liner notes, where he fulminates against certain musicologists that have dismissed Richafort on the basis of the scores as "uninteresting". He argues that the qualities of Richafort only truly become apparent when listened to.
And listening I did... :) In some comments on Richafort the similarity with Desprez is emphasised. Nonsense. Technically Richafort built on Desprez' heritage, but the experience is entirely different. What he presents us is sensuous, introverted music that is expansive with long drawn smooth lines that are continuously blending, with a lot of complex stuff going on below the surface. I suspect the sound blending is typically something that does not very visible in the score. Far from "uninteresting" - unique, engaging and achingly beautiful! :) Van Nevel and his ensemble do a superlative job with music that seems very hard to pull off in a proper way. The six-part Requiem in Desprez' memory is a daunting masterpiece, so are the motets included here - the Salve Regina in particular. It seems the only nag for some listeners are the church acoustics, that are spacious with a noticeable delay yet definitely clear. I think taking issue with this aspect is a mistake - this is exactly what the music was written for and actually needs! As long as this is taken in in the performance, which is here the case - Van Nevel takes a steady but unhurried pace as to prevent blurring of the musical texture.

I'm quoting below David Vernier's comments to which I fully concur:

Note also the elaborate Amazon reviews.

More recordings of Jean Richafort's music please!! :)

Q

Of course its OOP, as I discovered when I tried to order it. :(

Que

Quote from: Harry on January 17, 2012, 12:42:18 AM
Of course its OOP, as I discovered when I tried to order it. :(

I know, I know... :-[ It was issued in 2002, which is not that long ago (or maybe I'm getting old 8)).

Harmonia Mundi should include it in their new pretty Hm Gold series. Don't you have any connections with them? :)

Q


Willoughby earl of Itacarius

Quote from: ~ Que ~ on January 17, 2012, 12:57:28 AM
I know, I know... :-[ It was issued in 2002, which is not that long ago (or maybe I'm getting old 8)).

Harmonia Mundi should include it in their new pretty Hm Gold series. Don't you have any connections with them? :)

Q

No, alas I have not  :(

Coopmv

Quote from: ~ Que ~ on January 17, 2012, 12:57:28 AM
I know, I know... :-[ It was issued in 2002, which is not that long ago (or maybe I'm getting old 8)).

Harmonia Mundi should include it in their new pretty Hm Gold series. Don't you have any connections with them? :)

Q

I wonder what kind of lousy sale a recording has to generate to be put on the OOP list only eight years after it has been released?  There are classical recordings that stay in the catalog for 20 or 30 years and perhaps longer ...

The new erato

Quote from: Coopmv on January 17, 2012, 06:36:04 PM
  There are classical recordings that stay in the catalog for 20 or 30 years and perhaps longer ...
Yes, but usually of pretty mainstream repertoire of interest to the non-special listener.

Drasko

Quote from: ~ Que ~ on January 16, 2012, 12:02:14 AM
If some of you are in the know, I'd like to discuss the Anglo-German vocal ensemble The Sound and the Fury. And I promised Drasko a write up on their De la Rue disc. :)

That was super prompt, thanks! And most interesting, since my impressions after Gombert disc were different (save for relative lack of blend and preference for dry and detailed rather than wet, reverberant acoustics, but those seem to me more like differences in taste) and much more positive. Haven't noticed any lack of tightness and sloppiness, but it might be due the fact that TSatF don't sing always in same line up - for instance aforementioned tenor doesn't sing on Gombert disc. Will have to give another spin to Gombert, and Que would you give a shot to their Gombert motet I've uploaded few pages ago, I'm curious would you have same reservations on that one.

Thanks also for Richafort writeup, haven't heard anything from him yet.

bumtz

Quote from: ~ Que ~ on January 17, 2012, 12:39:59 AM


It seems I got myself another OOP disc - my apologies for bringing it up... :-\ Still, as promised to Drasko a little writeup - maybe this recording will resurface again.


Quote from: Harry on January 17, 2012, 12:42:18 AM
Of course its OOP, as I discovered when I tried to order it. :(

No need to despair, it is still available as a part of a 3-CD Huelgas Ensemble Renaissance set: http://www.amazon.fr/Renaissance-Compilation/dp/B000H4VXMS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1327755005&sr=8-4


Coopmv

Quote from: bumtz on January 28, 2012, 03:53:22 AM
No need to despair, it is still available as a part of a 3-CD Huelgas Ensemble Renaissance set: http://www.amazon.fr/Renaissance-Compilation/dp/B000H4VXMS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1327755005&sr=8-4



Thanks for the link and I just bookmarked it.  I have never ordered anything from Amazon France but may do it this time since this set is not available on other Amazon sites at a reasonable price ...

chasmaniac

#369
I find myself enamoured of ars nova and the Burgundian school, Vitry, Machaut, Landini, Ciconia, Dufay, Binchois et al. I'll offer up favourite recordings and some background in the hope that others will find the matter worthy of comment.

First up is Philippe de Vitry and the Ars Nova by the Orlando Consort:

[asin]B00000204S[/asin]

QuoteDe Vitry is best known (and only to musicologists) as the mastermind of the new musical notation which made ars nova polyphony possible, and which led to the development of modern notation. The evidence of his role is provisional, and the attribution of the motets on this CD to him is quite speculative, but if it's correct, then he was one of the greatest musical innovators of all time. Now the virtuosity of the Orlando Consort has brought this crucial repertory to life in a performance of such beauty and subtlety that the listener can forget about scholarship and just bask in sound. The art of this music is chiefly in the complex polyrhythmic development of relatively transparent harmonic progressions. As usual, the Orlando's control of phrasing and tuning is phenomenal. I have one huge gripe, however. There are no texts! These motets, most of them poly-textual, are of great literary interest. They are not just the usual love-stuff; they include mordant satire of 14th C society and of the church, as well as witty self-reflections. Still, the musical values are so strong that I have to rate the CD as five stars... or let's say as seven stars, minus two for the lack of texts.
--Giordano Bruno on amazon

Quote'The flower and jewel of singers', 'the finest figure in the entire musical world', 'the outstanding prince of musicians, heir to Orpheus, whose name will live forever'... such contemporary views of Philippe de Vitry rightly suggest that his music (not so well known as it might be) is worthy of listening to. Born in 1291, probably in Champagne, he spent most of his life in the service of the royal administration and as Bishop of Meaux dying an accomplished poet, philosopher, cleric and mathematician to boot in 1361. Conjecture has it that this combination of skills and attendant predispositions towards both rigor and innovation, combined with drive and repute, enabled Vitry to play certainly a leading role, maybe a decisive one, in the changes that occurred in French music in the ten years or so before 1325; these changes were in three significant areas:

1.the systems of notation were thoroughly revised
2.a new form and technique of building the motet was arrived at
3.a new language of harmony and counterpoint was developed for the motet

These developments resulted in the classic isorhythmic motet, which sets a pair of texts simultaneously in its two upper voices; the repeated rhythmic patterns of the tenor do not necessarily accord with melodic ones. Other strict 'regulations' of repetition (coincidence at prominent or significant textual junctures, for example) made for a rigorously-organized structure, following which was an intentional intellectual challenge. That Vitry was able to utilize this set of self-imposed restrictions to such effect and specifically to create music which also sounds so well is remarkable. But here is the evidence; it's plain that, for all the mathematics, the text comes first and the music is unforced and never distorted by the format. What's more, textual cross-referencing, allusions, symbols and thematic subtleties are packed into each short motet (most last a mere three minutes and none much longer than seven on this disc) more densely than in almost any other mediaeval form. This means that careful listening is a requirement if you want to get the most from the whole. Nothing arid or crossword puzzle-like here, though: this tight, colorful weave is one on which Machaut gazed, which he understood and then unpicked for himself.

Philippe de Vitry and the Ars Nova is a wonderful CD with almost an hour's worth of 19 motets from the first quarter of the fourteenth century reflecting the changes through which the genre passed. In fact, it's unclear exactly which of the works were composed by Vitry himself and which by members of his circle. The earliest group of four motets dates from right at the beginning of this period of change; they illustrate Le Roman Fauvel, which satirizes religious and political corruption and, from specific references, can be dated fairly certainly to shortly after 1315. The rest are from the 1320s: they concentrate on courtly life, abuse, fawning dependency at court and (other) such deviants as writers who compose incoherent texts (In virtute/Decens, tr.12; the two texts, separated by the oblique, are that pair set in the isorhythmic motet, described above) as well as personal attacks. The lovely Tuba/In arboris, Vos/Gratissima, Impudenter/Virtutibus, Flos/Celsa, Almifonis/Rosa and Apta/Flos are strictly religious, particularly Marian, motets, the latter being probably of a later date and certainly of the 'ars subtilior' (more subtle style) which characterized the second phase of the 'ars nova'. The theme of courtly love, otherwise ubiquitous at this time, is represented here by only one motet, Douce/Garison ; while one other 'frivolous' piece, Se je chant, has been included because it is so close to the Vitry school or style.

The Orlando Consort consists of a countertenor, two tenors and a baritone: their singing is near impeccable. This is music which they know well and sing from the soul. Where a certain 'spring' is needed, the Orlando Consort has it; where reticence, a tender pause; and where humor is called for, just the right, light touch of emphasis. Relaxed yet meticulously-articulated, their performance of each motet is a study in paying perfect attention to the individual line; this greatly helps the listener to follow the dual texts. Each singer's part nevertheless melds into a deeply musical ensemble. There seem times (in Tribum que non abhorruit/Quoniam secta latronum, for instance) when Robert Harre-Jones' countertenor is a little too closely miked compared with the other singers. Their performance is intimate, focused and ultimately very satisfying. Although the accompanying booklet has clear notes on the historical and musical background, the motets' texts are not included: a pity. Amazingly, there is no other CD in the current catalog devoted exclusively to Vitry, so if you want to know more about this important and interesting period of French musical development, this excellent CD is a must. Buy it with confidence.

Copyright © 2007, Mark Sealey
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."  --Wittgenstein, PI §217

mc ukrneal

Quote from: chasmaniac on February 09, 2012, 04:13:42 AM
I find my self enamoured of ars nova and the Burgundian school, Vitry, Machaut, Landini, Ciconia, Dufay, Binchois et al. I'll offer up favourite recordings and some background in the hope that others will find the matter worthy of comment.

First up is Philippe de Vitry and the Ars Nova by the Orlando Consort:
[asin]B00002MN2C[/asin]

Will follow with interest.
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

Lethevich

Glad to see the Orlando Consort mentioned - they recorded one of my favourite early music discs - desperately in need of reissue:

[asin]B000002K3V[/asin]
The singing is impeccable, but it's also not obscured by the acoustic as in some - just gorgeous-sounding.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

chasmaniac

Quote from: Lethevich on February 09, 2012, 04:50:27 AM
Glad to see the Orlando Consort mentioned - they recorded one of my favourite early music discs - desperately in need of reissue:

[asin]B000002K3V[/asin]
The singing is impeccable, but it's also not obscured by the acoustic as in some - just gorgeous-sounding.

That looks like one for the high-and-low search list. I quite agree with you about acoustics. I like a sound dry enough to hear the parts clearly. Here's Bruno again on the Dunstaple:

QuoteIn terms of influence and recognition elsewhere, yes! English singers and composers (the two were usually the same) had been working in France and 'Italy' long before Dunstaple's time of fame, but they had assimilated continental styles. Dunstaple's music introduced English harmony, based on fa-burden, emphasizing perfect thirds, to the generation of Dufay, and the effect was huge. Possibly the marked shift in tuning of instruments, from Pythagorean to "mean" reflected Dunstaple's influence; it's a chicken/egg question.

Influence aside, Dunstaple was a glorious composer, the musical ancestor of Ockeghem in his freely polyphonic, horizontally extended, rhythmically uninhibited lines. Sung well, both Dunstaple and Ockeghem sound like passionate improvisation in all four parts, which nonetheless reaches cadences with sublime harmonic assurance. No consort or choir has come close to singing this music as perfectly as the Orlandos, not even the wonderful Hilliard Ensemble. And since four voices are easier to record than twelve or twenty (a chamber chorus), the sound quality on this CD is excellent. Why, it sounds like four beautiful men's voices in the same room! And singing with incredible precision of pitch and attack! And inflecting every line as if the language had meaning! This is the best recording of Dunstaple ever made. Buy it while you can.

That last sentence is telling.
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."  --Wittgenstein, PI §217

Leon

Early Music has been a particular interest of mine for a long time, but my listening to it goes in spurts with long periods without putting it on my player.  I have accumlated about 80 or so albums but don't find myself adding to it much more these days. 

After seeing this thread I created a playlist in my iTunes library and am enjoying hearing this music again.

So far I've heard selections from these:

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[asin]B000002SSB[/asin]

[asin]B00004TC4W[/asin]

:)

chasmaniac

Cool, Arnold! That third number was on my list anyway, so here goes. (Pictured as rereleased last year on HM Gold.)

Guillaume Dufay, O gemma lux: Complete Isorhythmic Motets by the Huelgas Ensemble

[asin]B004IXP5P0[/asin]

QuoteModern ears have been subjected to a sound world so complex and chaotic--and just plain noisy--that it's impossible for us now to really appreciate the original contextual significance of works such as these 15th century motets of Guillaume Dufay. We can enjoy them on many levels and we can intellectually understand their importance, but when we hear these very complex rhythms, and harmonies that often have a strange, vacant quality, we can't erase from our memory the fact that we've heard Brahms and Ives and Stravinsky. But I picked those three composers because each owes something to Dufay and to others who wrote in ancient forms and styles, in this case the isorhythmic motet. Much like Bach's works were at the same time a summation and epitomization of the Baroque, so were these motets of Dufay in their way a final, ultimate statement regarding one of the more sophisticated musical forms of the Middle Ages. Simply put, the isorhythmic motet begins with a particular rhythmic formula or pattern that's applied to a melody in one or more voices and repeated several times throughout the piece. The structure can get quite complicated, especially if different rhythmic formulas are used for different voices, making for irregular patterns of repetition. Dufay was a master of this compositional technique and as you listen you can see why later composers looking for interesting new ideas would have found very fertile ground among pieces like these. Conductor Paul Van Nevel organizes the program chronologically so the careful listener can follow the gradual stylistic changes Dufay employed from first motet to last--a range of approximately 20 years. His singers and instrumentalists, the always intriguing, musically polished, and stylistically informed Huelgas Ensemble, just seem to revel in the music--somehow reaching back to that motorless, unplugged time where no sound was amplified or transmitted except by means of natural acoustics, where voices and instruments were commonly heard resonating from stone and wood. And we get that too, thanks to Harmonia Mundi's skillful miking in the suitably ancient, resonant space of l'Abbaye-aux-Dames.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

QuoteMusic appreciation textbooks and timelines in magazines often name Guillaume Dufay as the first great composer of the European Renaissance, but one might equally call him the last great composer of the Middle Ages. This disc presents all 13 of Dufay's isorhythmic motets--the final masterpieces of a very medieval-minded genre. During the Middle Ages, music was considered a science (just like mathematics), and isorhythmic motets are constructed according to strict arithmetical principles. In addition, each voice generally has a different text, while the fundamental voice (called the tenor) usually has no text at all and is often (as here) performed by instruments. As this description might indicate, isorhythmic motets are among the most intellectualized and least emotive works in the entire pre-20th century repertory--yet Paul van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble achieve an impressive range of expression from such seemingly poker-faced music. Apostolo glorioso (composed for the consecration of a church) and Ecclesie militantis (written for the coronation of a Pope), performed by choir and (antique) brass, are ornate and imposing, while Magnanime gentes laudes, done by one soprano, one tenor, and one trombone doubled by recorder, is intimate and delicate. The director's excellent program notes explain how isorhythmic motets are constructed and what to listen for. Van Nevel also offers wise advice: Don't listen to this disc straight through--rather, listen carefully to one or two motets several times until you recognize the structural markers, then move on to other motets later. Following that advice will make this CD somewhat more work than most, but the listener's effort will be richly repaid by these splendid performances.
--Matthew Westphal
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."  --Wittgenstein, PI §217

val

The CD with Motets of Dufay, "O gemma lux" is one of the most beautiful I ever heard. But let's not forget at least two other sublime recordings with music of Dufay:
Missa "Ecce ancilla Domini" (Ensemble Gilles Binchois)
Missa "Se la face ay pale" (Early Music Consort, Munrow)

chasmaniac

Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame, by Diabolus in Musica

[asin]B001E1TGMW[/asin]

QuoteMachaut's elegant and glorious Notre (or, more properly, Nostre) Dame Mass is still emblematic of events 40 years ago in the 'early' music field. It was one of the first works to which attention turned during the great resurgence of interest and explosion of expertise in performing medieval music in the 1960s. Perhaps because this is the first complete polyphonic mass known to have been the work of one composer and preserved in its entirety. Perhaps because two or three generations ago it sounded so splendid, new – exotic, almost. Certainly striking. There are currently fewer than a dozen recordings in the catalog; these do not include the one by Noah Greenberg and the New York Pro Musica, an iconic recording central to the early music revival. Like any modern symphony or chamber work, Machaut's hour-long work admits of almost as many interpretations as there are interpreters.

On this CD we get a robust and highly convincing interpretation from the ever enterprising eight-person (all male) French group, Diabolus in Musica, under their director Antoine Guerber. 'Diabolus in Musica', by the way, implies the E-B (or the modern F-B) tritone, or augmented fourth, used throughout Western music to establish dissonance – the devil, to be kept out of music at all costs. The group's is a direct, intimate and penetrating approach. Although the textures which the ensemble consistently achieves are sonorous, they are neither fanciful, nor over-rich. The tempi are refreshingly slow, unhurried and allow exposition of the importance, weight and impact of every syllable; for the words are of the utmost importance.

Machaut (c.1300-1377) was a contemporary of Chaucer. It's tempting to see parallels between Chaucer's wry adaptability to the succession of disasters of the century (plague, famine, war, social instability) and the almost sanguine response to such suffering of Machaut, who was canon at Reims cathedral from 1337 until his death 40 years later. It's to what was surely Machaut's inner strength, his faith, certainty of the rightness of a devoted life and later salvation, that Guerber and Diabolus in Musica respond in this excellent performance.

It's just as important to bear in mind how much of a change in liturgical life this mass represents. This may be surprising: Machaut was following on the tradition established during the composer's first years in his post at Reims of singing a plainchant votive Marian mass; yet polyphony was discouraged. In 1352 Pope Clement VI funded the Chapter at Reims with twelve cantors of sufficient skill and experience to provide Machaut with executors of his more ambitious and resplendent music. It did, though, take him another dozen years or so before the Messe de Nostre Dame was written. But can there be no connection?

By refusing to overplay their hands, by judicious restraint, and by meticulous articulation of every note in undemonstrative yet highly expressive phrasing Diabolus in Musica seems to have captured not only the rigor and joy which Machaut employed in this task. But these wise musicians are also at one with the novelty and innovative impact which the mass must have made when first sung. The recording – which is crisp and atmospheric – was made in a low-ceilinged location at the Abbey of Fontevraud. This acoustic enhances the music-making. Ultimately, it's the perspicacity and skill of Guerber and his singers that makes this recording so successful and satisfying. Listen to the lines and varying intensities of the Gloria [tr.3], for example. As much gentle and yet lavish breath as unselfconscious poise. Yet without drawing any teeth: the singers in Diabolus in Musica are real individuals performing as such. No attempt to submerge or efface their vocal personalities. Nor yet to impose wayward, unnecessary color. The music comes first and last – and is somehow interpreted for what it is: a liturgy in which to be involved. Yet as much as an object of beauty and wonder as a rather austere – No, restrained – service.

Plainchant is interspersed with polyphony. The flow is never interrupted and onto the whole work is conferred a unity under the direction of Guerber that makes attentive listening particularly rewarding. Perhaps this is due in part to the pronunciation adopted... the Latin pronounced as was the 'Middle French' – for it is now thought that clerics in a setting like Machaut's at Reims used the vernacular. Note, too, that there are two motets: Rex Karole by the contemporary Philippe Royllart [tr.8], and the anonymous Zolomina/Nazarea/Ave Maria [tr.15] interspersed with the mass.

The booklet that comes with this CD is up to the usual standards with introductory essays in French and English; the text of the mass is in Latin, modern French and English. So here's a recording that can be unequivocally recommended both for anyone who has yet to discover the glorious intensity and transparent beauty of this music; and who may have one or more other recordings in their collection (that by Oxford Camerata under Jeremy Summerly on Naxos 8.553833 is otherwise a good first stop) but wants to get to know multiple perspectives. Don't wait!
--Copyright © 2008, Mark Sealey

QuoteBiographical note from medieval.org:

Guillaume de Machaut (d.1377) is one of the undisputed pinnacle geniuses of Western music, and the most famous composer of the Middle Ages. Today his four-voice Mass of Notre Dame is a textbook example for medieval counterpoint, and has served sufficiently to maintain his reputation across shifts in fashion. However Machaut's work is extensive, with his French songs & poetry dominating the fourteenth century by both their quality and volume. A series of carefully prepared illuminated manuscripts, undertaken for members of the French royalty, preserve his complete artistic output. Along with these major sources, various pieces are duplicated in scattered sources throughout Europe. His life and work are thus extremely well-preserved for the period, and his position as the most distinguished composer of the century has never wavered.

Machaut was apparently born in the vicinity of Rheims in Champagne, around the year 1300. He is first known as the secretary of John of Luxembourg in 1323, and used the position to travel extensively for various battles and political events. In approximately 1340, Machaut returned to Rheims to take up the position of canon (he had previously been an absentee office-holder) together with his brother Jean. However, he continued to serve John of Luxembourg until the latter's death at Crécy in 1346, and then served his daughter Bonne, who appears in the Remède de Fortune. The remainder of the fourteenth century was an epic of wars and plagues, and one of the few periods in which the population of Europe declined, but Machaut's reputation continued to rise. He went on to serve two kings of France, and was charged with a task as important as accompanying hostages during the English war. In 1361 the Dauphine was received in Machaut's quarters, an exceptional event. By the 1370s Machaut's name was associated with Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus, thus establishing his fame nearly as far as Asia.

Machaut is frequently portrayed today as an avant garde composer, especially because of his position with regard to the early Ars Nova (a new, more detailed rhythmic notation), but one must also emphasize the masterful continuity with which he employed established forms. While using the same basic formats, he made subtle changes to meter and rhyme scheme, allowing for more personal touches and a more dramatic presentation. Indeed, Machaut's poetry is one of the most impressive French outputs of the medieval era, serving as an example even for Chaucer. The theme of courtly love dominates his writing, becoming heavily symbolized in the guises of such characters as Fortune & Love, and the personal dramas in which they act. Machaut's poetic output, and by extension the subset of texts he chose to set to music, is both personal and ritualized, lending it a timeless quality. Some of the love themes date to Ovid and beyond, from whom they had been elaborated first by the troubadours of Provence and then by the northern trouvères, and so it is truly a classical tradition to which Machaut belongs.

Machaut marks the end of the lineage of the trouvères, and with it the development of the monophonic art song in the West. This aspect of his work is found in the virelais and especially the lengthy lais. He also acted decisively to refine the emerging polyphonic song forms ballade & rondeau, and these were to become the dominant fixed forms for the following generations. What Machaut achieved so eloquently is an idiomatic and natural combination of words with music, forcefully compelling in its lyrical grace and rhythmic sophistication. His songs are immediately enjoyable, because he was able to shape the smallest melodic nuances as well as to conceive forms on a larger scale. The latter is reflected especially in his poetic-musical creations Le Remède de Fortune and Le Voir Dit, as well as in his Messe de Notre Dame. One must not lose sight of Machaut's position within the sweep of medieval history, as his great "multimedia" productions had clear precedents in the Roman de la Rose and especially the Roman de Fauvel. It is Machaut's ability to unite cogent and elegant melodic thinking with the new rhythmic possibilities of the Ars Nova which ultimately makes his musical reputation.

Although he wrote music for more than one hundred of his French poems, and even for half a dozen motets in Latin, Machaut remains best-known for his Mass of Notre Dame. This mass was written as part of the commemoration of the Virgin endowed by the Machaut brothers at Rheims, and was intended for performance in a smaller setting by specialized soloists. The most striking aspect of the piece is not simply the high quality of the contrapuntal writing, but the architectural unity of the Ordinary sections as well. Machaut's mass is not the earliest surviving mass cycle (there are two which predate it), but it is the earliest by a single composer and indeed the earliest to display this degree of unity. While the chants used as cantus firmus do vary, opening gestures and motivic figures are used to confirm the cyclical nature of the work. Technique of this magnitude is frequently offered as evidence of Machaut's prescience, given the prominence of such forms a hundred or two hundred years later, but the musical quality of his cycle can be appreciated on its own terms. Of course, the same can be said for Machaut's oeuvre as a whole.
--Todd McComb, 4/98
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."  --Wittgenstein, PI §217

chasmaniac

The Unknown Lover: Songs by Solage and Machaut by Gothic Voices

[asin]B000H80LEA[/asin]

QuoteGothic Voices is a durable British ensemble that has performed medieval secular music mostly in vocal a cappella style. You may or may not like that approach, but if you'd like to give it a try, this disc contains repertory in which unaccompanied singing works well. The group sings some of the fixed-form chansons of Machaut -- and not the usual ones -- but then seizes on the inherent complexity of Machaut's music and looks forward in time to one of his successors, the mysterious Solage. Nothing, not even a first name, is known of this composer, but he was active at the end of the fourteenth century, and his music, lumped at the time under the label of ars subtilior or "subtle art,"seems to have been intellectual and at times freakish. Many discs contain one or two of his pieces, but this one offers a more generous sampling of this music. For a taste of what you're getting into, sample his best-known piece, Fumeux fume par fumee (track 6), whose opening lines are here translated as "Out of dreams the dreamer dreams up dreamy speculation." Elsewhere the pieces have been thought to refer to smoke, or perhaps even to drug use -- a logical supposition in view of the thoroughly cosmic text. This was apparently music made for small groups of aficionados, and the rather claustrophobic atmosphere induced by the small groups of voices singing medieval intervals actually helps put across the weirdly arcane mood of Solage's music. Other songs involve acrostics in their texts, comment on political affairs (S'aincy estoit, track 10), or even argue in favor of jackets as opposed to robes or cloaks (Pluseurs gens, track 11). The Gothic Voices achieve variety by assigning pieces to high or low ranges and deploying shifting groups of singers. This album is worth anyone's time for the ride through Solage's music, and it's a must for those already enamored of the Gothic Voices style.
--allmusic

QuoteGothic Voices explore songs by two 14th-century French composers. Machaut, well known to lovers of early music, represents the first half of the century; Solage, almost unknown today, represents the second half, the evolution of Ars Subtilior from Ars Nova. We can only surmise that he wrote for princely and ducal courts by names hinted at in his songs.
The opening song, Solage's ballade Le Basile, is sung at a brisk tempo by a soloist over a busy "di-di-di-di" accompaniment. Many of the ballades have a similar accompaniment, sometimes with a soprano soloist, more often a male voice. The singers manage with perfect ease the long vocalisations and rhythmic complexity of some of the ballades, for example S'aincy estoit: their performance flows as naturally as a gentle stream. Several of Machaut's virelais are particularly interesting, especially the passionate Mors sui se je ne vous voy, where two solo male voices respond to each other melodically.
Perhaps most intriguing of all is Solage's rondeau Fumeux fume par fumee. Gothic Voices take this strange song at face value and perform it at pitch with a group of the lowest male voices. They seem to suggest that these rFhe effect is astoundingly modern, entailing chromaticism and exotic modulations' singers sink into a boozy haze. But what do we know about performance practice in the 14th century? Precious little. The truth is that Solage is actually describing an existing group of poets, bent on trying to uncover the very essence of poetic imagination and creation. We hear several series of short phrases, sung sequentially, six or seven in a row, reaching the very bottom of the vocal range. The effect is astoundingly modern, entailing chromaticism and exotic modulations. It would take another 200 years before a Gesualdo might attempt anything equally exotic.
--Mary Berry, Gramophone
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."  --Wittgenstein, PI §217

chasmaniac

#378
Lassus, Bonjour mon coeur, Capilla Flamenca
[asin]B002PDB9W8[/asin]

QuoteOrlando di Lasso (1532-1594), Lassus, was the most widely-respected composer of his age. His output ranges over a wide spectrum of styles and genres – from the demotic and downright "lowly" chansons and Lieder through both secular and sacred madrigals and court music, to highly refined masses and liturgical compositions. All these forms of Lasso's music share the quality of an almost naîve joie de vivre; yet Lassus never descended to the vulgar, or ran the risk of pomposity or undue piety. Bonjour mon Cœur is a collection of what the note which accompanies the CD calls "Entertainment music of substance" by Lassus and nearly a dozen of his contemporaries... some well known, like Adrian Willaert (1490-1562); others more obscure and unrepresented elsewhere in the current catalog, like Jean de Castro (c.1540-c.1600).

Not that the teeth are in any way drawn from this music – at least not in these spirited and at the same time authoritative interpretations of Capilla Flamenca. There is a nice mix: there are gaiety, movement and elegance. And grace: the way the ensemble conveys all the emotions of the music stops well short of punchiness. Equally, they perform each work with sensitivity and style, never in any staid way.

Many of the pieces here presented are variations, "imitations", "emulations", "parodies" or "contrafacts" of works originally conceived (or indeed perhaps themselves originally borrowed) by Lassus and his contemporaries. The music remained, but a – usually sacred – text replaced a – usually secular – one. It's still hard for a post-Romantic mind to appreciate just how acceptable, how lauded even, this practice was. The CD is in fact centered around the particularly refined chanson by Ronsard, Bonjour mon Cœur. It should also be enjoyed for the lyrical beauty of the songs, which Capilla Flamenca perform with as much gravity and gentility as wit. Indeed, this is an excellent assembly of pieces illustrating the ways in which Renaissance songs dealt with love.

The way in which Capilla Flamenca expose, rather than completely sink themselves into, the songs on the CD is never either didactic or doctrinaire. Their approach comes across as well thought-out: their decision to divide the selection into four groupings corresponding to times of day (in keeping with the spirit of Bonjour mon Cœur) should better provide the listener with a framework for reacting to love's many attendant emotions... pain, exhilaration, hope, despair etc. than would a random sequence. Love awakes in the morning, becomes "exuberant" in the afternoon, eternal in the evening (all six pieces in this section are Lassus') and sleeps at night. On the whole, there are more slower and implicitly reflective works here than there are upbeat ones.

So, it's clear that great care has gone into conceiving, performing and producing this exemplary CD. Capilla Flamenca and Dirk Snellings, its director who also sings bass, are to be congratulated. The result is both entertaining and substantial. The variety of music is stimulating, and is enhanced when you know something of this contextualization. The standard of interpretation itself is very high. Unless every composer here is familiar to you, it's likely that you'll find new favorites. And, although just half the works are by Lassus himself, Bonjour mon Cœur is a good introduction to his work and the genres at which he was so expert and which he could turn to such good account.

The acoustic is close and intimate – surely the right way to present this repertoire... the plucked, wind and stringed instruments have presence and make an appropriate contribution. The "Digipak" has notes in Flemish, French, German and English – and has the texts in their original language and in translations where necessary (the songs are variously in Flemish, French, German). There is a detailed track listing, and an image of a very stern Lassus which somehow conveys his stature, as well as a photograph of the nine-person Capilla Flamenca. This is a more than merely pleasant recital. It's informative, representative of the genres whose music it contains, very persuasively performed and makes an excellent introduction to the accompanied vocal music in the sixteenth century of which Lassus was such an accomplished, imaginative and impeccably polished exponent. Recommended.

Copyright © 2010, Mark Sealey.
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."  --Wittgenstein, PI §217

kishnevi

This was part of a larger order I posted in the Purchases Today thread, but it may be of interest here:

While some of the music is found in the Secret Labyrinth box, the performances are all relatively recent, recorded in concert, and there's no actual duplications from the Sony set.