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Recorded live at concerts of the Collegium Musicum
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April 11, 2007
From “His Majesty’s Music —
Service and Masque Music for the English Royal Court, 1600 – 1750”
If All These Cupids Now Were Blind — Alfonso Ferrabosco II (ca. 1575 – 1628)
Alfonso Ferrabosco II (ca. 1575 – 1628) was the illegitimate son of a Bolognese musician in the service of Elizabeth I. Though the elder Ferrabosco sent for his son after his return to Italy, young Alfonso never left England, serving as a viol player and music tutor to the Prince of Wales. He was extremely active in composing vocal music for Ben Jonson's masques, and "If All These Cupids Now Were Blind" is part of a series of songs composed for the playwright's The Masque of Beauty in 1608. The song's text is a response to the appearance of sixteen ladies of the court, including Queen Anne, who had been "beautified" from their former state as "Ladies of Niger" in the masque's prequel, The Masque of Blackness. According to Jonson's text, these two songs were sung by a "treble," the common term for a soprano (probably a boy from the Chapel Royal).
Antimasque — Anonymous
Beginning in the seventeenth century, the masque, which had allegory as its main function, was preceded by a short "antimasque," a drama that served as a foil to the drama of the main masque. The name "antimasque" had several meanings: it came before the masque proper (ante-masque), its action was usually meant to contrast with the masque proper (anti-masque), it often involved comedy (antic-masque), and it sometimes involved themes from Antiquity (antique-masque). Like the masque it preceded, it involved both song and dance, but of a burlesque and occasionally macabre nature. This anonymous dance is labeled "antimasque" in the source that preserves it; its contrasting meters and somewhat unusual melodic gestures confirm its purpose.
Hear my Prayer — Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695)
Born at the cusp of the Restoration, Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695) became one of England's greatest composers. He was a choirboy at the Chapel Royal, receiving his earliest musical training in the renewed tradition of Anglican church music. Hear my Prayer as it has come down to us is probably a fragment of a much larger anthem. Its effect derives from Purcell's intensely emotional chromaticism and the work's dense, eight-voice texture.
Trio Sonata in G minor — G.F. Handel (1685 – 1759)
Like Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporary, George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) combined German contrapuntal rigor with Italian orchestration and instrumental techniques; unlike Bach, Handel was especially interested in opera, moving to England from Hanover in 1710 to establish himself as an opera composer there. The Trio Sonata in G minor bears the form of a sonata da chiesa or church sonata and probably dates from Handel's years in Italy (1706 – 1710). Frequent points of imitation and virtuosic flourishes idiomatic to the violin characterize the work.
As Pants the Hart, “Put Thy Trust in God” — G.F. Handel (1685 – 1759)
Despite his enormous output, Handel is most famous for his Messiah, an oratorio that has been performed unfailingly every year from its premiere in 1742 to the present day. To those who know Handel's idiom well, the verse anthem As Pants the Hart will sound unquestionably like it, and this is especially remarkable when one considers that it was probably Handel's first setting of an English text. The piece was composed at the behest of the royal court for the Chapel Royal, which Handel was never to enter in an official capacity. He seems to have held it in high regard, for he revised it several times after completing it in 1711 or 1712. The first version (HWV 251a) is exceptional in that it was composed for voices and continuo only. We have paired this version with the introductory sinfonia from a somewhat later version (HWV 251c) that Handel probably prepared upon learning that the Chapel Royal did not exclude the court's many instrumentalists. The work is a verse anthem in the English tradition, and this is especially apparent in the first choral movement, which alternates soloists and the full chorus. But subsequent solo movements are formally separate from the interspersed chorus and resemble the form of the church cantata or oratorio more than that of the anthem. The excerpt is the final movement of the anthem, “Put Thy Trust in God.”
November 15, 2006
From “This Day Christ was Borne: Musical Responses to Christmas
in Medieval and Renaissance England”
O magnum misterium — William Byrd (1543 – 1623)
Many of Byrd's motets, works strongly associated with Catholicism, fell into complete obscurity in Protestant England after his death. They were seldom performed even after a revival of his music began in the early twentieth century. O magnum misterium bears the text of a Matins responsory for Christmas Day, a popular text for polyphonic settings that was also employed in a famous setting by Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 – 1611). The motet follows the form (ABCB) of the plainchant responsory exactly.
This Day Christ was Born — William Byrd (1543 – 1623)
A good deal of Byrd's music was published during his lifetime, so we may trust the few indications of its performance practices that are found in published sources. This Day Christ was Born appeared in a 1611 print bearing the title "Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets … fit for voyces or viols." We have decided to employ both (and some other instruments) in our performance of the piece. Musicologists remain unsure of the degree to which instruments participated in church services, but it is clear that they did so. Byrd's designation of the piece as "A Caroll for Christmas Day" does not tell us definitively whether the piece was used in church. It may well have been, however; not only is the style similar to that of a full anthem, the principal Protestant genre of the period, but its text is an English translation of the eleventh-century antiphon presented at the beginning of this concert.
Ave regina caelorum — Leonel Power (d. 1445)
Leonel Power (d. 1445) is the most represented composer in the Old Hall Manuscript, from which we drew the somewhat older Credo that we performed earlier on the program. Power's Ave regina caelorum, which is also in the manuscript, is a setting for three voices in the style of English discant — improvised harmonizations of plainchant that have been notated. The plainchant antiphon "Ave regina caelorum" is the tenor or cantus firmus for the piece and is heard in the middle voice. The chant is normally sung after Compline, between the Feast of the Purification (2 February) and Palm Sunday. As with earlier examples, this Marian piece could have been sung for extra-liturgical devotion at Christmas as well.
Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sung — Anonymous
Songs could circulate as lute songs, in consort settings, or as songs for multiple voices; they varied enormously in topic. Though the lute was the most important amateur instrument of the sixteenth century, amateur musicians also enjoyed playing in consorts of viols, and the consort song, a song accompanied by a number of the instruments, was another popular genre in England during the period. This piece was probably intended for private devotion, though it might have been used in church as part of an English service. It is also a lullaby.
Pavan from the Lumley part books — Anonymous
A pavan is a stately dance in duple meter; a galliard is a lively dance in triple meter. These two short examples employ the same melody and harmonizations, and the galliard contains lively cross rhythms and syncopations. Both of these dances have three short repeated sections. The Lumley part books were copied around 1550 and contain English verse anthems and dances; the latter were added later in the century. They were in the inventory of Lord Lumley by 1609.
April 6, 2006
From “Oltramontani Musicians and the Tranditions of Venice”
Ecco la primavera — Francesco Landini (ca. 1325 – 1397)
Francesco Landini (ca. 1325 – 1397) was the most celebrated musical figure of the Trecento (1300s), composing about a quarter of all Italian secular music known to have survived from that period. Renowned as an organist, he also played several other instruments, sang, and wrote poetry. He traveled widely and is thought to have visited Venice. His ballata Ecco la primavera for two voices is one of his most popular works for performance today. Its lively rhythms occasionally create two groups of three beats in place of three groups of two, a rhythmic displacement known as hemiola. The texture is homophonic, with singers and viele (the instrument we have chosen to accompany them) performing nearly identical rhythms throughout.
Dit le burguygnon — Anonymous
Though Ottaviano de’ Petrucci was not a composer, he was one of the most significant and influential figures of musical development ever to reside in Venice. Petrucci was the first printer of polyphonic music, for which he held a Venetian privilege from 1498 until 1509, when he returned to Fossombrone, his birthplace. His first book, Harmonice musices odhecaton (“One Hundred Polyphonic Songs”), was published in 1501 and was immensely successful; new editions appeared in 1503 and 1504. The contents of this anthology and several others printed around the same time are revealing: northern composers are represented almost exclusively. Many works printed in the Odhecaton bear fragmentary texts or no texts at all, and this has led to the supposition that Petrucci conceived of his anthology for primarily instrumental use. "Dit le burguygnon" (“The Burgundian Says”) is cast in the form of a dance, with only a small amount of imitation at the end. We offer the work with several different combinations of instruments: first strings, then pizzicato strings and recorder, and finally a full consort of both.
Se gran festa me mostrasti — Bartolomeo Tromboncino (ca. 1470 – 1534)
In addition to anthologies of northern music, Petrucci published several volumes of frottole — Italian strophic compositions for several voices in a homophonic texture. (In a strophic piece, each stanza or strophe is sung to the same music.) The text can be in a variety of meters, and either light or serious. Scholars believe that a frottola generally was sung by one voice over several instruments. The accompanying parts of Bartolomeo Tromboncino (ca. 1470 – 1534), one of the principal composers of this genre, support this idea; they are quite instrumental, with very large leaps. The rhythmic pattern of Se gran festa me mostrasti constantly shifts between groups of two and three beats, a common characteristic of the frottola. Its text is probably a parody of a rustic poem.
Passa la nave — Adrian Willaert (ca. 1490 – 1562)
Adrian Willaert (ca. 1490 – 1562) was of South Netherlandish origin. He began his career in Venice in 1527, when he was made maestro di capella at the Basilica of San Marco, the most prestigious musical position in the city. Among the most celebrated publications of the sixteenth century was Willaert’s Musica nova, a large collection of motets and madrigals published by Antonio Gardano of Venice in 1559. The dedication asserts that the music had lain “concealed and buried” for many years before its publication, an apparent contradiction of the work’s enigmatic title, “New Music.” The style of the music itself is idiosyncratic; the motets exhibit impeccable text declamation and extraordinarily continuous counterpoint built on declamatory rhythmic motives that are distributed equally among all the voices. The madrigals — each one a setting of an entire sonnet by Francesco Petrarch (1304 – 1374) — exhibit similar qualities and were enormously influential. We offer here the first half of the collection’s six-voice madrigal "Passa la nave."
Ego sum qui sum — Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1556 – 1612)
In 1587 Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1556 – 1612) took over the position of maestro di capella of the Basilica of San Marco from his uncle and mentor Andrea Gabrieli (ca. 1510 – 1586). The basilica has a number of balconies from which choirs sang the Gabrielis’ music for divided choirs or cori spezzati, a tradition begun long before under Willaert. In this style of composition, the texture within each choir tends to be more homophonic than imitative, with all of the voices of a choir singing the same text together so as to express it clearly. Giovanni extended the technique of his uncle somewhat so that the two choirs do not simply answer one another, but develop the musical material. Ego sum qui sum is a two-choir motet published in 1597 and is a relatively modest work for Gabrieli—many of his motets are for three choirs. This text is from the service of matins on Easter. The use of instruments in these pieces is well documented, though not specified in the music.
December 3, 2005
From “L’oraculo del fato — A Secular Cantata by Francesco Gasparini”
It was during his years in Venice (the first decade of the eighteenth century) that Gasparini’s success as an opera composer won him an invitation from Charles III of Spain to come to Barcelona and establish the city as a center for Italian opera. Though Gasparini seems never to have visited Barcelona, his L’oraculo del Fato was composed in the wake of both the invitation and Charles’s marriage to Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in August of 1708. The work flatters Elisabeth with an elaborate conceit, one that combines philosophical and poetic traditions of Antiquity: Diana, goddess of the hunt and moon, engages in an academic debate with Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, over who is more powerful; their respective male lovers, Endimion and Cefalo, support their arguments. Fato (Fate), who is eventually employed as arbiter, reveals that the goddesses are equal, but that Elisa (who is, of course, Elisabeth) is the most powerful of all. All of this discussion is presented through a succession of alternating recitatives and arias in a wide variety of styles and instrumental colors; our performance offers excerpts of a very expansive work, one that is seldom (if ever) performed. Our scores and parts for this piece have been newly transcribed from a facsimile of a manuscript in Vienna’s Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
Aria (Endimion): “Son chiare, son belle nel cielo le stelle”
Endimion sings a heroic-style aria, accompanied by a solo violin, describing how the sun obliterates all the stars of the night sky.
Aria (Aurora): “Se non canti più per me”
Everyone agrees to cede the contest to Elisa, whereupon Aurora sings an aria forgiving the nightingale for singing for Elisa rather than for the dawn. The character of Aurora’s aria seems to run against that of the text, however; the nightingale is represented by flutes, which play bird-like calls over rapid minor-mode figuration in the strings that seems more in keeping with anger than forgiveness.
Aria (Diana): “Abbia Elisa in ogni core”
Diana commands all of the elements of the natural world allied with her to switch their fealty to Elisabeth. Diana sings an aria to this effect, complete with horns that signify her role as goddess of the hunt.
Chorus: “Un nome più bello di quello d’Elisa il mondo non ha!”
A last, affirming recitative, in which all the characters sing together, introduces the final celebratory chorus.
April 17, 2005
From “J.S. Bach’s Musical Exegesis — Two Cantatas by the Late Baroque Master”
Bach Cantata BWV 106, Sonatina
The opening sonatina or “little sonata” establishes a meditative F major, though it also progresses through some of the other keys that are heard later in the work. Its use of falling melodic figures, particularly half-steps, projects a sense of sadness over the mostly warm harmonies. Bach’s use of the two recorders is noteworthy: although the instruments generally play in unison, here they continually separate and then reunite in a two-in-one effect, creating subtle dissonances. Several motives heard in the sonatina recur later in the piece.
Bach Cantata BWV 106, Chorus: “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit”
The opening chorus is a prologue that unfolds in three sections. The first section offers a hopeful contrast with the meditative sadness of the sonatina, presenting an opening phrase of text that privileges God’s time, or eternity, over human time, which is finite (“God’s time is the very best time”). The second section sets a line from a speech by Saint Paul in the Acts of the Apostles (“in him we live, move, and have our being,”) to a triple-meter imitative passage meant to evoke the movement mentioned in the text. The third section returns to the mostly homophonic texture of the opening, with all parts singing the text simultaneously. At the mention of the death (“In Him we die at the appointed time, if he chooses”), the tempo slows considerably, and the harmony progresses downward chromatically until the final half-cadence sets up the key of d minor.
Bach Cantata BWV 106, Alto; Bass, Alto Chorus: “In deine Hände / Heute wirst du mit mir”
This movement serves as the central one theologically. The text of the alto solo is drawn from a phrase in Psalm 31 (“Into your hands I commit my spirit”) that Jesus is reported to have uttered before dying on the Cross — a Biblical combination of Old and New Testaments. The continuo presents an ascending ground bass, symbolizing the theological shift from struggle against death to resignation and (therefore) liberation.
Bach Cantata BWV 106, Chorus: “Glorie, Lob, Ehr’ und Herrlichkeit”
After a brief instrumental introduction, the chorus sings the final verse from the Lutheran chorale In dich hab’ ich gehoffet, Herr, cast in the F major of the cantata’s opening. The recorders play ornate interludes with triplet figures between each phrase. Like most final chorale verses, this text is a doxology, offering praise to each aspect of the Trinity in turn. The final phrase of text, which refers to the role of Jesus in the Christian victory over death, is set to a sprightly fugue; the melody emerges in a cantus firmus in the soprano towards the end of the movement. This cantata, so rich in its presentation of theological meaning through music, ends with a modest cadence in the recorders and strings.
Bach Cantata BWV 14, Chorus: “Wär’ Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit”
The first movement is a tour de force of counterpoint scored for four part chorus, strings, two oboes, horn, and continuo. It is a fugue-fantasy in which the subject in all of the phrases is presented with its inversion. Despite the complexity of this procedure, one can hear it plainly in the opening measures: the tenors and viola begin the piece by ascending, and the basses and continuo enter one measure later by descending. The same holds true for the soprano and alto entrances (doubled by the first and second violins) a few measures later. Each of the descending entrances contains the exact intervallic content of each of the ascending entrances. This would be complex enough if the subject of the fugue were of Bach’s own choosing; instead, he uses each successive phrase of the chorale’s surprisingly chromatic melody for the subject. In addition, he presents the chorale melody as a cantus firmus played by the two oboes and horn. The result is a complex sea of highly chromatic counterpoint that seems to depict a troublingly complex world, one out of which the cantus firmus rises as a firm foundation that is surely meant to be analogous to Lutheran faith.
Bach Cantata BWV 14, Soprano Aria: “Uns’re Stärke heißt zu schwach”
The second movement, scored for horn (played here by a trumpet), strings, and continuo, abandons the dark g minor of the opening for the relative major, B-flat. As in many of the arias from the Leipzig cantatas, opera informs Bach’s approach to the form. It begins with an instrumental ritornello or refrain, from which the soprano’s melody is also derived. The fanfare-like opening, which quickly gives way to a brilliant, rising scale and other fast passagework, can be heard as representing military strength — the very thing that the text describes as weak but for the presence of God. The second section sends the ensemble careening into c minor, where the soprano engages in a virtuosic duet with the first violin. The ritornello sees a brief return of the major mode (E-flat), but the soprano and continuo break off in a harmonically unstable passage that finally concludes on a d-minor chord. The return of the B-flat ritornello marks the da capo (literally, “from the head”) — the return of the opening section that then leads to the end of the aria.
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