Tag: Medieval

Sacred Songs by the Last of the Minnesingers
Ensemble Leones, Marc Lewon
79:21
Music by Beheim, Loqueville, Der Mönch von Salzburg, Sicher, Oswald von Wolkenstein & anon

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his fascinating and beautifully performed CD presents the sacred music of Oswald von Wolkenstein (the ‘last Minnesinger’ of the title) in the context of sacred and instrumental music by his Austrian and German contemporaries. Entrepreneur, shameless self-publicist, war hero, poet and musician, Oswald is a colourful figure who stands out from the sometimes rather anonymous musical scene of the late 14th and early 15th centuries. I am more familiar with his self-laudatory but highly engaging secular songs as explored in the 1970s by the Studio der frühen Musik in Munich, but it is unsurprising to find that he is a talented and prolific composer of sacred music, particularly in the case of his considerable masterpiece Ave Mater, o Maria which concludes the present CD. His sacred music shares the same forthright character that we hear in the secular music and that we can observe in his arresting one-eyed portrait, and these performances by the three contrasting voices and improvised instrumental drones of the Ensemble Leones are wonderfully evocative. The balance of the CD is made up by the equally characterful music of the Monk of Salzburg (who could clearly have learned a thing or two about self-promotion from Oswald) and some lesser figures of the period, with instrumental interludes from the ubiquitous Buxheimer organ book, also beautifully played. While the excellent programme notes appear in German, English and French, there is sadly only room for the extensive original Middle High German and Latin texts and translations into modern German – non-German speakers are left at a disadvantage in not having the gist of the texts of the sung material. It has to be said that this is a minor blemish in a production which otherwise delights in every respect, perhaps not least in providing the CD with a dignified cover illustrating St Michael from Rogier van Weyden’s Beaune Altarpiece rather than the more obvious reproduction of one of the surviving Oswald portraits.

D. James Ross

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Love and devotion in medieval England
The Dufay Collective & Voice
76:12
Avie AV2286

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his delightfully fresh selection of Medieval English music on the theme of love and devotion features the familiar ‘naïve’ playing style of the Collective matched by beautifully unmannered singing from the three singers of Voice. Clearly using the latest research into the pronunciation of Medieval English, the singers make this charming repertoire sound well and truly ‘lived in’, performing the material with an engaging familiarity. The accompaniments are intelligently varied, drawing on the wide range of textures on offer from the instruments of the Collective. These include flute and recorder, expertly played by the group’s director William Lyons and Rebecca Austen-Brown while the sounds of harp and gittern are contributed by Jon Banks and Jacob Heringman. These instruments and Lyons’ English double pipes provide a surprisingly varied palette of textures and tones, and often the very simplest of accompaniments are the most effective with this beguilingly simple music. The collection of lovesongs and devotional pieces is rounded off with a toe-tapping set of Medieval dance tunes, where the instrumentalists can truly let their hair down – and blow up the double pipes!

D. James Ross

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Capella de Ministrers, Carles Magraner
73:22
CdM 1536

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD consists of an uncompromising draught of the 15th century in the manner of the fondly-remembered Ensemble Organum : forthright singing, imaginative instrumental commentary and fabulously florified plainchant. Notwithstanding the stomach-turningly graphic representation of the crucified Christ’s bleeding hand on the cover, this is not in any way a miserable CD, but rather it crackles with life and excitement. The singing, as I have said, is forthright, the intonation is superb and the blend exquisite. From the programme notes it seems to involve a vocal collaboration between the four vocalists of the Capella de Ministrers and five singers of L’Almodi Cor de Cambra, but the sound is splendidly unified and passionate. Invoking the 1414 coronation of Ferdinand I, the group have scoured Spanish sources of the period to recreate the sort of courtly entertainment which greeted Ferdinand’s guests, and the result is a convincing and evocative sequence of largely unfamiliar 15th-century material beautifully performed. Striking is the unsuspected discography of 35 CDs on their own CdM label listed at the back of the present CD.

D. James Ross

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Canticum Novum, Emmanuel Bardon
75:39
Ambronay AMY043

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he listener who is anticipating a presentation of authentic studies supported by derivations and reference to manuscripts may search the booklet notes in vain. Clues as to the nature of this recording are found in the translation of Aashenayi as ‘encounter’ in Persian (becoming familiar with each other); Bardon’s training under Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall; and his foundation of Canticum Novum, the festival Musique à Fontmorigny, the itinerant early music festival Le Festin Musical, and l’École de l’Oralité, through which he teaches young audiences about early music, mainly in deprived neighbourhoods of the Loire département. This context of outreach programmes and creative workshops clarifies the metaphor of the “big top” (le chapiteau), suggested, by Aline Tauzin of the Cultural Encounter Centre of Ambronay, as an “ephemeral place set up at the end of each summer for a few weeks and then taken down”. The idea of a giant circus marquee suggests the inclusiveness and entertainment value of this performance.

So cultures, singing styles, languages, the nationalities of refugees and immigrants across the centuries, all are blended without individual attention being drawn to them. The languages of songs are transliterated though not obviously identified, and are translated into French and English. A soloist in the Eastern style of the Ottomans known to Cantemir is joined by a chorus singing with French intonation; Afghanistan, Turkey and Armenia rub shoulders unobtrusively, along with Sephardic romance and the Cantigas of Alfonso X. So, this is not historical reconstruction so much as social and cultural integration, musical improvisation and living participation.

Some of the pieces upon which performances are based will be familiar to the listener, including the Cantigas, Cantemir, and Sephardic lyrics from various lands, but the instrumental arrangements are particularly atmospheric, giving a new life to traditional themes. One representatives of the Armenian tradition (Sareri hovin mermen) expresses romantic sadness, while the other (Nor Tsaghik), though about Christ rising, seems in its mood to emphasise “the shadow of death in the darkness”. The representative of Afghanistan (Dar Dậmané Sharậ) expresses the mysterious singing sound of the shifting desert, the awe and timelessness. Iran’s representative (Sậki ba khodậ), though in the indulgent poetic tradition of Persia, would hardly meet the approval of the Revolutionary Guard. Attached to the cheeky dialogue of a Sephardic romance from Turkey (La comida de la ma­ñana), is an Afghan piece (Khan delawar khan) with a crescendo of excitement. The traditional Turkish Sirto accelerates the dance rhythm and increases amplification, before the Cantiga, Offondo do mar tan chao, with its processional movement to the finale.

Diana Maynard

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Jordi Savall rebec, tenor vielle, rebab Pedro Estevan percussion
74′
Alia Vox AVSA9907

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] have to confess that I approached this recording with some doubts; the Cantigas de Santa Maria are all songs, over 400 of them, and here is a purely instrumental version with no singing! Of course, Savall and a number of others have recorded many of the Cantigas in both sung and instrumental versions. Here he performs instrumental versions of 12 alongside 11 traditional Galician dances from what he describes as ‘oral sources’. Thanks to the wonderful internet – which has the complete manuscript available – you can check out what he does with the material from which he is working.
Peter Dronke (The Medieval Lyric) says that accompanying dancing “was one of the prime functions of lyric throughout the Middle Ages”. Fra Angelico’s wonderful ‘Last Judgement’ depicts sixteen angels doing a round dance without any instruments apparent – clearly all singing as they danced. However, Johannes de Grocheio’s remark that “The good artist generally introduces every cantus and cantilena and every musical form on the vielle”, together with the large number of instruments depicted in the manuscript (many of which are reproduced in the lavishly illustrated booklet) well justifies a purely instrumental rendition. Anyway with so few surviving instrumental dances from the period, as much of dance music was improvised, or played by non-readers, one must needs be creative.
I shouldn’t have worried. By taking the notated music of the Cantigas, and putting it in the context of traditional, orally transmitted Galician dance music, he comes up with something that not only seems very true to the spirit of the older music, but is great listening.
He plays three different instruments: a Moorish rebec, waisted with four strings and frets; a 5-string rebec dating from the 15th century – also with frets, which looks to me more like a vielle, as it is also waisted; a 5-string tenor fiddle/vielle. The percussion ranges in pitch and timbre from a gorgeously boomy tambour, a bright sounding darbuka and tuned bells. The sounds of the three string instruments are beautifully varied. The ‘rebel morisco’ sounds as though it has a skin sound-board, and the illustration bears this out – giving an intriguing ‘hollowness’ to the sound.
As you would expect, the playing is fantastic, spontaneous, brilliant. I loved the Ductia & Rota with its uneven phrases – four measures and then three measures, a wonderful catchy rhythm, an intuitive reaction to the material.
Savall encourages us to consider the most ancient of our musical traditions in the context of living folk music. The 13th-century notation of the Cantigas is comparatively clear, but an approach like this can bring them so alive, an inspiring recording of what has been called “one of the greatest monuments of medieval music”.

Robert Oliver

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