The Ars Nova Appreciation Thread

[Mandryka]

The CD contains several motets by Machaut sung by the Clerks' Group. They sing with a preference for slow temps, which lets you really enjoy Machaut's beautiful harmonies. Their colours are pastel. The combination of sweet and subtle shades and languorous tempos makes something very sensual out of Machaut's music. I'm tempted to use the word oneiric, but I won't. I like it a lot.

The CD also contains some anonymous mass movements, which are treated totally different from Machaut's motets - much more dynamically and extrovertly. I like them rather less.

[The new erato]

I'm tempted to use the word oneiric, but I won't.

I'm glad you didn't since I don't know what it means.

BTW thanks for starting all these interesting threads and filling them with useful reviews.

[Mandryka]

Judging by the way Pedro Memelsdorff plays these motets by Paolo de Firenze, he was a Gesualdo avant la lettre. What Mala Punica do here really ought to fail, because on paper it should be kitsch. But I can assure you that it works and the recording is a fantastic ride through the most unexpected harmonies and timbres.

Memelsdorff makes me think of Ponnelle! Without the Ponnelle irony maybe.

[jochanaan]

...some anonymous mass movements...

I'm sure Anonymous thanks you for the shout-out!

As for Ars Nova, it's definitely a Machaut thing.

[Mandryka]

Tieus rit au main qui au soir pleure,  is a long poem which Machaut set to music in La Remedie de Fortune. The title just about sums it up: who laughs in the morning cries in the evening. The poem is a complaint, that Fortune is a pretty nasty kettle of fish who sends you up and then brings you down mercilessly, especially if you happen to fall in love.

According to Todd McCombe's site, http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/composers/machaut/rf2.html, it has been recorded many times, but I suspect only in part. Marc Mauillon here gives us the whole caboodle, and it lasts more than 40 minutes.

The poem is magnificent. Even I can tell that by reading the English translation in the booklet, and casting an occasional eye to the Old and Modern French. Resolution: read some more poetry by Machaut.

As far as the performance goes, it is one hell of an achievement. Prima facie there's not a whole lot that happens in the poem, it's basically a very very very long complaint. But Mauillon makes the music sound so very expressive, never bitter - whatever he's expressing, it's much more complex, more humane and more interesting than that. Just as Machaut uses many poetic techniques in his poem - varied phrase lengths, varied rhythms I think, repetitions, alliteration etc (or at least that's my impression from a superficial reading), Marc Mauillon does the same in his singing - which is by turns confidential, lyrical, reflective, impassioned, rhetorical and declamatory . . .  Mauillon is an actor with his voice - and a very convincing one, never ham or sentimental. The instrumental accompaniment is always restrained and varied. Personally I'm more used to hearing shorter pieces of music, but this had me strapped to my seat.

[Mandryka]

Two things seem to mark out the Orlando Consort's approach in this CD, The Dart of Love, which is, with one notable exception, dedicated to Machaut songs.

• It is understated. Or rather it is nothing like aria, and at times rather like speech, natural speech. I have the impression of someone confiding in me, whispering secrets  to me.  I'm sure that's not totally right but it's the best I can do right now to express what I'm hearing. Maybe another way to say what I'm getting at is that it's relaxed, it doesn't have  extrovert intensity  - Orlando Consort make Gothic Voices sound like a bunch of opera singers!


• There is something harmonically interesting going on. I don't know how much freedom singers have to alter pitches in a Machaut score, but they're doing something interesting here to produce interesting harmonies

The notable exception is a memorable number by Denis le Grand. Who he?

Anyway I was very impressed by the way Orlandos do Quant en moy vint premierement Amour et biauté parfaite. And listening to other performances I stumbled across the extraordinary one by Thomas Binkley.

[Mandryka]

Gothic Voices do some French and English songs. Highlights on the English side include a credo by Pycard and a Salve Mater Domini by Nicolas Sturgeon. On the French side there's an exquisite Machaut song called "Riche d'amour" (which is sung unbelievably sensitively - no one else seems to sing it, not even Lucien Kandel) The recording ends with an unforgettable thing, a French anonymous song called je veuil vivre au plaisir d'amours, which seems to be completely Sui generis and totally wonderful.

The whole CD is worth exploring IMO.

I'm begining to think I prefer English music to French, at least this evening.

[Mandryka]

This performance of the Machaut mass is a beautiful and languid siren song. Luxurious, calm and voluptuous. Machaut Baudelaire style!

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

[North Star]

This performance of the Machaut mass is a beautiful and languid siren song. Luxurious, calm and voluptuous. Machaut Baudelaire style!

Yes indeed. And it's also available in this Brilliant box, coupled with two excellent recordings of the chansons and some motets. The poetry readings on these two discs I always skip, though.

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[Mandryka]

This CD includes  a performance by Lucian Kandel of an interpretation of Machaut's mass by Gérard Geay, a researcher at Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and a former mover and shaker in the conservatory at Lyon. Geay has written the booklet essay, where he explains that the ideas here implemented are based on real historical research.

In particular, there are significant new ideas about tempo and about ficta. This basically means that the mass is played at about half the speed of previous performances, and there is much more expression through dissonance than in in earlier readings.

A third aspect of the performance is that he uses quite large forces, I think 2 on a part. Half the choir are women. Geay does not discuss this decision as far as I can see. This lets him make some unforgettable effects especially in the Sanctus, and as far as I'm concerned there is no major problem of balance anywhere, though I'm pretty cloth eared about that sort of thing.

And a fourth is that the Kyrie is performed with organ incipits, which is nice IMO. There is no plainchant.

The result was initially really disorientating, just because I've come to expect the music to be vigorous.

I am now sold.

What I've seen is that this is a mass in which whole phrases from the liturgy are set to music, not syllables, and each phrase counts,  each phrase has an emotional meaning  and Kandel / Geay bring that meaning out. The tempos give me the time to reflect, and the dissonances act as an expressive tool to make the music meaningful in rich and complex ways.

[Mandryka]

Missa super O Rosa Bella is taken from one of the Trent Codices. The music's great and the performance has had me strapped to my seat. I think one or two  to a part, if not you certainly get the impression of a small group of people in collaborative singing,  and Clenencic has prepared an edition which is so alive with harmony, counterpoint,  melody and rhythm. It's wonderful, I'd like to know more, if anyone has the booklet and it contains interesting information please let me know. I'm not averse to buying CDs for the booklet, but I want to be sure the booklet is good first!

Musica  Nova? I have no idea but I needed somewhere to note it of I'll forget.

The Clemencic Edition of CDs, which are appearing on spotify, is full of real treasures. A fabulous series to explore.

[Mandryka]

Björn Schmelzer has deliberately chosen a vocal style which is strange from the perspective of classical music.  He has done this because he thinks that the Machaut mass is essentially strange. He asserts the first singers,who would have been used to chanting the mass, would have been been disoriented by the novelty of  Machaut's polyphonic vision, disorientation is part of Machault's design, Machaut's music is a shocking act of resistance against the ideology of the times (a fabulation),  and hence he aims  to transfer some of that original disorientation to us. He credits Perès and Deleuze with the inspiration for these ideas.

The strange style is, I think, used for the music outside the ordinaries, I can't explain why. (Maybe I'm wrong about this and he just uses a normal eastern chant there, but it's not so clear that it is - contrast Perès.)

Schmelzer has asked his singers to use their imaginations about modulations and ornamentation to make the music expressive, as suggested by the words. Tempos are slower than Parrott, for example, or Clemencic. The slow tempos helps with their expression. Although Schmelzer is not interested in historical investigations about original tempos, original modulations etc, his choices and approach may not be out of line with the latest ideas. (See my comments on Lucien Kandel's performance.)

He uses small forces, all male, no countertenors, no instruments. Textures are transparent, it feels like collaborative and responsive singing.

The CD includes two motets, the opening motet seems particularly effective to me. But strange! (Why the strange style there? Surely the strangeness of the mass would have been better communicated if the rest were sung in a more familiar style.)

[Mandryka]

This recording of Missa Tournai by Marcel Pérès is, no doubt about it, very very fine. But I have a specific question. Why did he use traditional sounding voices for this and strange Corsican style singing for the Machaut mass?

[prémont]

This recording of Missa Tournai by Marcel Pérès is, no doubt about it, very very fine. But I have a specific question. Why did he use traditional sounding voices for this and strange Corsican style singing for the Machaut mass?

I have wondered about this too. He may himself be the only one who is able to explain why.

[Drasko]

Maybe he hadn't came up with the idea yet by that time?

Messe de Turnai was recorded in 1990, Chant Corse - the first Organum recording with Corsican singers was in 1993 and Machaut was in 1995 or '96.

[Mandryka]

Maybe he hadn't came up with the idea yet by that time?

Messe de Turnai was recorded in 1990, Chant Corse - the first Organum recording with Corsican singers was in 1993 and Machaut was in 1995 or '96.

This is possible, though I note that according to this discography there's a recording of Corsican chant which predates Missa Tournai. Has anyone heard it?

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/performers/ens_orga.htm

Also in their recording of the Christmas mass (their second recording) there's some pretty strange singing, in the gradual for example - whether it's Corsican or Byzantine I would not like to say!

I also note that they used Corsican singing for Missa Gotica, but that is a late recording - they must have been pretty pleased with the results for the Machaut.

I just read Pérès's essays on Tournai and the Machaut mass, but there's nothing revealing there. It's interesting that for the Machaut he is keen to stress how much the performers should be creative with modulations and with ornaments (an idea that Björn Schmelzer takes up of course.)  This doesn't come up for the Tournai mass - nothing really follows of course.

[Mandryka]

It's not a good day for the "wild man" of early music. In one hour he will walk on stage with his group, Organum, and perform a difficult and exposed programme of vocal music by the 14th century poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut. But for now, we are told, he has lost his voice, is battling with an upset stomach and has had a minor car crash - last seen somewhere in the Paris rush-hour. Rock and roll.
Well, not quite. When Scott Walker defined Ensemble Organum as "the wild men of early music" he quickly added a note of perspective: "I mean, don't expect to come and see wild men, but their scholastic approach is very interesting, and the singing style is very raw, so you don't hear the beautiful vowels and everything that you do with most groups singing very early music". Fuckhead, Blur, Pulp - watch out.
But earning a reputation as a "crazy genius", as Marcel Peres is frequently called, in the world of very early music is not about bad behaviour at the Brits or throwing your life out of a hotel window. It has to do with arguments over the minute details in the interpretation of music - the detective work that goes towards producing an "authentic" performance. After all, the debate on how best to reproduce music as it would have sounded perhaps a millennium ago will always be a compromised one - we can not regain a medieval ear - and the spirit with which that compromise is entered into sets schools of thought apart.
Peres trained as a composer and organist, but since the early 80s has dedicated himself to the performance and rediscovery of medieval music, going back as far as the earliest days of Christianity. Evidence that might lead to an accurate representation of how music would have sounded so long ago is fragmentary.
Within this world of obscure manuscripts and mysterious notations, Peres attempts to go beyond musical archaeology and work with historians, musicologists and acousticians to create a more rounded picture. Grandly, Organum claim that under their interpretations "music becomes a privileged means of bringing back to life the memory of old societies... reviving the memory of European patrimony which extends far beyond simple musical facts".
"Some people do think I'm a little mad," says Peres, finally relaxing after managing to hold on to his voice (and lunch) for the evening's performance. "Particularly in my approach to the use of the voice and ornamentation." He scours the menu for something least likely to inflame his troubled stomach. It is late and everyone is weary, but as Peres explains his work the debate revives him. He moves seamlessly between speaking and singing to demonstrate his points - instinctively adding articulation with his hands.
Whereas now we have a system of writing music down that can hold quite complex information about pitch, speed, articulation and volume, medieval manuscripts from before the 13th century give a much simpler representation of the music. In some cases, there was only a rough indication of the relationship between the notes to be sung, and even then it is debatable as to what the starting pitch should be.
"We are very used to reading now," explains Peres. "We have an advanced system of musical notation. And because we are so accustomed to the process, early representations of chant - such as that of the early Notre Dame - are often taken too quickly. Reading itself would have been a much more unusual - and slower - process. This is also important when you consider that speed often relates to religious importance."
But reading between the lines of notation, recreating what the semiology could never have captured, is where Peres is at his most inspired - and where he has attracted most criticism. The ornamentation of chant - improvised decoration and elaboration by the singers - has always passed in and out of fashion. Combining his belief that notation was more of an "aid to memory" and that speeds were often much slower than imagined, Peres has reintroduced embellishment - or improvised ornamentation - that he feels would certainly have been employed by the singers. But who best to perform this music?
"I am always trying, even with very early musics, to try to find a living connection with the contemporary world. So it was important for me to find singers who still have a tradition of improvisation in their singing." Peres feels that highly trained classical singers use the voice in a quite different way to that of medieval musicians and that, whatever the benefits of our refinement and notation, the skill of ornamenting a musical line by ear has been lost.
What's more, many attempts by contemporary trained singers to regain this art have been stiff and academic. "But there are singers who really understand the art of embellishment, where it is still part of the culture - Greek, Middle Eastern and Moroccan for instance." More recently, Peres has been using singers from Corsica (who will be joining him in Organum's first London performance) where Catholic chant is still ornamented by ear.
Seeing Organum in New York, critic Paul Griffiths concluded: "Whatever the musical accuracy, this was music." Authenticity, ironically, takes many forms; but authenticity by itself will never necessarily equate with quality. You may prefer classically trained singers who know the medieval repertoire and have worked at adjusting their approach for a more improvised style. But for Peres, "untrained" singers who have an instinct for embellishment by ear capture a vital element that binds academic authenticity with a spirited, contemporary performance.
Peres's determination to fuse the present with the past is echoed by his most recent composition, the Mysteria Apocalypsis - a new polyphonic vocal piece inspired by the various "unauthorised" apocryphal texts of the Apocalypsis. It is a contemporary composition inspired by the musical spirit of the medieval past. He would like to perform it in London, but the extra cost prevents it. "Tell them we should do it," he says. "Go back to London and shout 'Apocalypsis now!' " he giggles. And with that he's off - in his gently wild way.

Some comments by Marcel Pérès on improvisation.

[Mandryka]

Missa Gotica is a compilation of music from several sources, including the previously recorded Barcelona Manuscript. It is, I think, my favourite of the thee EO gothic mass recordings (ie this, the Machaut and the Tournai), partly because the music is so very very good!

The performances are both harsh and expressive. In fact more than that, at times Pérès achieves something approving to great humanity (in the Credo from the Barcelona Mass, which is my favourite for the highest summit of medieval music) and indeed a sort of mysticism (in the Gloria, also from Missa Barcelona)

It's that combination of contradictory characteristics which is the key to gothic music I think, that's what I've learned from Clemencic and from Pérès.

[Drasko]

This is possible, though I note that according to this discography there's a recording of Corsican chant which predates Missa Tournai. Has anyone heard it?

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/performers/ens_orga.htm

I've seen that CD around, it's mostly folk songs and I had no idea Peres was involved in it. It's not by Organum but a Corsican folk group. I guess that's where Peres got the idea for using Corsican singers for early polyphony but it probably took some time to bear fruit.

[Mandryka]

 


The first thing to say is that it's hard for me to say what Machaut's Lai de la Fonteinne is about, because I find the old French text difficult, though not impossible, to understand. Can anyone help out, with either a modern French of English version?  The verses are alternatively monophonic and polyphonic so I guess it has a call and response form.

Anyway of the two recordings above, structurally the main difference is that that Binkley supports the monophonic music with a lute (I guess), while The Medieval Ensemble of London leave the monophonic parts to Richard Covey-Crump alone. And Studio der Frühen Musik  uses just women, MEL just men.

The MEL approach is slower, clearer possibly (though I certainly can't follow the words because of the language) and less dramatic. I think the polyphonic sections are more bold harmonically, I hear more interesting harmonies.

I am very fond of Covey Crump's voice, less of Andrea von Ramm's. I'm also keener on their more introspective approach.

The second Lai on the MEL CD, Un Lai de Consolation, is all with one voice and lute (?) and some bowed instrument, I think it is less successful. I can find very little reference to this Lai on the web, and I wonder if the music is by Machaut. The text is here

http://www.poesies.net/guillaumedemachautleslays.txt