Hang Around the World: January 2013

“The number of voice parts in the 5 movements increases (by 1 per movement), from 3 in the Kyrie, to 4 in the Gloria, and so on, up to 7 in the Agnus Dei.”

* Salve Regina 4-voices 6-voices

“His choral setting of the Salve Regina may have been performed both in church and at popular, secular festivities, perhaps with instruments. Despite its modest scoring, which allows references to the original antiphon to shine through, the texture is surprisingly rich and sonorous.”

* Missa “Super Maria zart”

His 4-part Marian Mass setting, lasting over an hour, shows his ingenuity with a large canvas.

* Mille quingentis

A motet composed in honor of his father, Guillermus

Clément Janequin

(c.1485-1558, French)

* La bataille

- a popular chanson imitating the noise of battle

- celebrating Francis I's victory over the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano in 1515

* Les cris de Paris

- a short melody imitating the sound of Parisian street life

* Le Chant des Oiseaux / 鸟鸣

* Chantons, sonnons, trompettes

- in 1530, this song to celebrate Francois I (1495-1515-1547)'s entry into Bordeaux brings him public fame

For 2 trumpets and 2 trombones

Alexander Agricola

(c.1446-1506, Belgian)

* L'eure Est Venue / The hour has come

John Taverner

(1490-1545, English)

Taverner wrote 8 Masses in all.

* The tune for the “In nomine Domini” (In the name of the Lord) section of his Missa “Gloria tibi Trinitas” (Glory to you, Trinity) became one of the most popular cantus firmus (fixed melody) melodies for instrumental music in England, in a genre known as the “In nomine” in honor of Taverner's vocal original.

* Magnificat à 4, for 4 adult male voices, whose text contains the words of the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation.

Note: The Magnificat (Latin for "[My soul] magnifies [the Lord]") is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary.

Music #315 - Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli

(c.1556-1612, Venetian School)

“Prolific and innovative, ... Giovanni's polychoral works for voices and instruments, particularly those intended for performance in religious services, make use of a wide variety of acoustic textures and effects.”

Saint Mark's Basilica (Venice) has multiple galleries inside.

Much of the sacred music written for St Mark's Basilica in the polychoral style was by Giovanni Gabrieli.

He composed, among many other motets, Omnes Gentes, for 4 4-voice choirs.

The choirs located in separate galleries, with delays (spatial separation) and reverberations, provided "surround-sound” effects to the audience.

Venetian polychoral style:

The antiphonal effects in the music were emphasized by the spatial arrangement of musicians in opposing organ lofts within the church - a divided-choir technique known as cori spezzati (literally, separated choirs).

Instrumental

* Sonata Pian'e Forte, from Sacrae Symphoniae

- 2 choirs of 4 players each

Motet

* O Magnum Mysterium

- the 8-part choir is divided into high and low voices

- the phrases repeated by different combinations of voices

Source: Wiki

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Music #314 - John Dunstable

John Dunstable (c.1390–1453)

The Battle of Agincourt

Agincourt Hymn - with lyrics (in old English)

- celebrating Henry V's victory

Why the French Lost the Battle of Agincourt:

Heavy Armors
Muddy Battlefield
Longbow Arrows
Crowded French Troops
Lack of Authority
Narrow Battlefield
Superior British Army
Lack of Anticipation
French needed more soldiers
Sheer Complacency

(L) Veni Sancte Spiritus

(R) Quam Pulchra

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Music #313 - English Madrigal

The English Madrigal School

During the Elizabeth era (1558-1603), the immensely popular form of madrigal was imported to England by Italian composers working at the English court.

The English Madrigal School was the popularity of the musical madrigal in England, mostly from 1588 to 1627, along with the composers who produced them.

The English madrigals were a cappella (usually 3 to 6 voices), and generally began as copies or direct translations of Italian models.

Thomas Morley (1557–1603)
* Now is the month of maying
* It was a lover and his lass
* Sing we and chant It

Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623)
* Hark All Ye Lovely Saints Above
* As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending
* O Care, thou wilt despatch me

John Wilbye (1574–1638)
* Lady When I Behold
* Draw on, sweet night
* Sweet Honey Sucking Bees

John Dowland (1563–1626)
* Me, me, and none but me
* Flow my tears
* Sweet, stay a while

Music #312 - Carlo Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo - top tracks
- aka Gesualdo da Venosa
(1566–1613, Italian)

Gesualdo was an Italian prince and count, lutenist and composer. He killed his wife and her lover red-handed, before living the rest of his life in misery, loneliness, and madness, music-making his only pleasure.

As a composer of the late Renaissance, he is remembered for writing intensely expressive madrigals and sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century.

The madrigal (love song), a setting of a text for polyphony, was developed by the end of the 13^th century, and flowered in the hands of Flemish and Italian composers, including Gesualdo.

* Moro, lasso, al mio duolo / dark period, to my sorrow
- from Death of Five Voices, a documentary movie on his music and personality.

* Tenebrae Responsories

- responsories (chants) sung during tenebrae
(darkness; Christian religious services during the last 3 days of Holy Week: Thursday, Good Friday, Saturday)
- madrigals on sacred texts

The distinctive ceremony of Tenebrae is the extinguishing of candles one-by-one while a series of readings and psalms is chanted or recited.

Music #311 - William Byrd

'William Byrd was a Catholic
composer who managed to
survive persecution at the
time of Elizabeth I.'

William Byrd - top tracks
/bɜrd/ (c.1543 – 1623)

'Apart from Tallis, the other giant of 16th century English music was his pupil, William Byrd.'

Byrd wrote various types of sacred (3 masses in Latin, and 1 in English) and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music. He wrote many madrigals and songs ideal for small social gatherings.

In 1575, Elizabeth I granted Tallis and Byrd patent for publishing printed manuscript paper and music. In the same year, Tallis and Byrd jointly published Cantiones, with 17 pieces by each.

Cantiones sacrae / sacred songs

Masses for 4 Voices

- Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, Agnus Dei

Great Service

The work, in English for use in the Anglican liturgy, takes its name from its massive scale; 2 choirs of 5 voices perform in different combinations across 7 movements: Venite, Te Deum, Benedictus, Kyrie, Creed, Mafnificat, and Dunc Dimittis.

The Queen's Alman

(L) played on the virginal keyboard

(R) Alman is a dance that became popular in the English courts in the 1560s

Byrd's My Ladye Nevells Booke was a compilation of music for the virginal. The virginals were much favored by female musicians of the middle and upper classes in Europe.

Qui passe: for my Lady Nevell

- a wonderful rework of a piece published decades earlier by Venetian composer Azzaiolo, “Chi passa per questa strada” (Who Walks Along This Street)

Consort songs:

- a characteristic English song form of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, for solo voice or voices (usually five), accompanied by a consort of instruments, most commonly viols.

viols

(R) “Ye Sacred Muses”, a touching consort song

in honor of his colleague and friend Thomas Tallis.

Music #309 - Tomás Luis de Victoria

Tomás Luis de Victoria
- aka Tommaso Ludovico da Vittoria
(1548–1611, Spanish)

The most famous composer of the 16th century in Spain, he was one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso.

* a 1-hour BBC documentary

Officium Defunctorum
- aka Missa pro Victoria / Victoria's Requiem

- composed for the funeral of Dowager Empress Maria

- considered among the finest of his works

O vos omnes / Oh, all ye

Music #310 - Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis
(c.1505–1585, English)

Considered one of England's greatest early composers, Tallis occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is honored for his original voice in English musicianship.

He served 4 English monarchs: Henry VIII (a Catholic-turned-Prostestant), Edward VI (a Prostestant), Mary I (a Catholic), & Elizabeth I (a Prostestant), “each of whom required music with a different religious emphasis: e.g. from the elaborate, Latin-texted polyphony composed for Mary, to the direct, Protestant settings of English texts favored by her half-sister, Elizabeth I”

“He managed to survive an extremely dangerous age of religious upheaval and persecution, mainly by adapting his musical style to suit the circumstances, and by keeping a low personal profile.”

His personal profile was so low that
no contemporary portrait of his survives:
the earliest dates from 150 years after he died,
and there is no certainty that it is a likeness.

Tallis is mostly remembered for composing office hymns and the following motet, for eight five-voice choirs.

Spem in alium / Hope in any other
“It opens with a solo voice, but quickly builds as voices are layered on top of one another until the sound is rich and sonorous. The music can be heard to sweep around the full choir, or work with the sub-choirs singing across to one another. The full choir sings only 4 times; a dramatic rest in all parts precedes the final full-choir section.”

(R) An introduction to the history and theory of Tallis's 40-part masterpiece, followed by a full performance.

Laudate Dominum / Praise the Lord (motet)

Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet

- Part 1

- Part 2

O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit

- a Whitsuntide anthem written in the Elizabethan era

If ye love me

- the message to keep God's commandments

Music #308 - Orlande de Lassus

Orlande de Lassus

- aka Orlando di Lasso
(c.1532 – 1594)

He is today considered to be the chief representative of the mature polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school.

He was one of the three most famous and influential musicians in Europe at the end of the 16th century, the other two being Palestrina and Victoria.

Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales / The seven Penitential Psalms of David

- One of the most famous collections of psalm settings of the entire Renaissance

No. 1 - Domine ne in furore tuo

(Lord, not in your fury)

Click here to watch entire psalm for an hour.

Tristis est anima mea / My soul is sorrowful

Adoramus te, Christe / We adore you, O Christ

= = = = =

Matona, mia cara / Matona, my dear

Music #307 - Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

(c.1525–1594)

Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition.

“He spent almost all his career working and composing for the Catholic Church in Rome, much of it for the Vatican..... He also wrote over 100 madrigals, both secular and sacred.”

Missa Papae Marcelli / Pope Marcellus Mass

- his most well-known and most often-performed mass
- is frequently taught in university courses on music
- always sung at Papal Coronation Masses
- in honor of Pope Marcellus II (1501-1555-1555) who held the Papacy for 22 days

'Kyrie'

Click here for a 26-minute full version

- Like most Renaissance masses, it consists of a Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Angus Dei. The music's sense of balance and pose is evident from the opening Kyrie.

- Its is primarily a six-voice mass, but voice combinations are varied throughout the piece.

Missa brevis (brief Mass)

- The Gloria opens with all 4 parts in homophony before the parts began to weave an imitative texture, sometimes working in pairs or trios.

Stabat Mater Dolorosa / Sorrows of Mary 聖母瑪利亞悼歌

- during crucifixion of Jesus - a sacred music

Source: Wiki

O Crux Ave / Hail, O Cross

BBC: Sacred Music: Palestrina & the Popes

Music #305 - Johannes Ockeghem

Johannes Ockeghem

(c.1410 – 1497)

Johannes Ockeghem was the most famous composer of the Franco-Flemish School in the last half of the 15th century.

He is often considered the most influential composer between Guillaume Dufay and Josquin des Prez.

His masses are the most important of their time.

Missa prolationum

This work does not rely on a cantus firmus.

It is for 4 voices, and has the usual 5 parts of a mass.

Click here to watch a 33-minute version.

Missa ma maistresse

This work was based on the cantus firmus Ma maistresse below.

Missa pro defunctis (Requiem)

A polyphonic Requiem Mass which is the earliest surviving example.

It is for 4 voices, and has the usual 5 parts of a mass.

Chansons / Songs:

Déploration sur la mort de Binchois

- motet-chanson

Fors seulement

- 3 voices
- aka Fors seulement l'attente (to differentiate it from his similarly titled Fors seulement contre).

Deo gratias / Thanks to God

- 36-part canon

= = = = =

Bonus:

* Row, row, row your boat - round/canon version

* Frère Jacques / Brother Jack - round/canon version

Music #306 - Josquin des Prez

Josquin des Prez

[ʒɔskɛ̃ depʁe] (c.1440 – 1521)

Josquin is considered to be the central figure of the Franco-Flemish School. He was one of the first composers to relate his music closely to the text.

Mass Pange lingua / Sing, my tongue

Mass de Beata Virgine / The Blessed Virgin

Stabat Mater dolorosa

The motet-chanson

was a specialized musical form of the Renaissance, developed in Milan during the 1470s and 1480s, which combined aspects of the contemporary motet and chanson.

“The motet (經文頌/polyphonic church songs) was one of the most popular sacred forms during the later Middle Ages, gradually making way for polyphonic settings of the Ordinary of the Mass. The motet was developed in the 13th century in northern France. The plainchant was placed into a strict rhythmic pattern, above which between one and three other lines were placed; these upper parts were each given a new text, resulting in a complex texture in which many different words sounded together.”

Josquin wrote three motet-chansons.
'Que vous madame / In pace' (You madam) had circulated widely by 1490:

Source: Wiki

Music #304 - Guillaume Dufay

Guillaume Dufay
- aka Guillaume Du Fay
(1397 – 1474)

A Franco-Flemish (or Netherlandish) composer, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the early Renaissance.

He usually worked in churches in/around Cambrai (in present-day northern France), or served powerful families in Italy. Younger composers frequented Cambrai for his advice.

Many of his works are based on pre-existing melody (cantus firmus) - either a plainsong melody or a popular secular tune. For example, his most famous Mass was based on the folk song L'homme armé.

Mass:

Missa 'L'homme armé' /

The Armed Man Mass

Click here to watch a 46-minute full version.

Plainsong / Chant:

Ave Maris Stella /

Hail, star of the ocean

(a setting of Marian antiphon

- hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary)

(portion of setting in fauxbourdon - false bass)

Nuper rosarum flores /

The Rose Blossoms Recently

- a motet composed for the 1436 consecration of the Florence Cathedral, on the occasion of the completion of the dome built under the instructions of Brunelleschi.

Most of Dufay's secular songs follow the fixed forms (ballade, rondeau, and virelai); he also wrote a handful of Italian ballate (most similar to virelai).

Ballade:

Resvellies vous et faites chiere lye /

Resvellies cheer you and make lye

Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoys /

Farewell to the Fine Wines of Laonnais

Rondeau (for 3 voices):

Mon bien, m'amour et ma maitresse /

My good, my love and my mistress

with French lyrics in the footnote

Italian ballata:

Se la face ay pale /

If the face ay pale

Music #303 - Guillaume de Machaut

Guillaume de Machaut

(c. 1300 – 1377)

A French poet and composer, he wrote the Notre-Dame Mass, the earliest known complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer.

la Messe de Nostre Dame / Notre-Dame Mass

It consists of 5 movements: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, followed by the dismissal Ite, missa est.

Machaut was the first to write music in 4 parts/voices.

... to listen ...

... to sing along - starting with part/video 1 of 4

His list of compositions represents both sacred and secular vocal music of the French new style (ars nova). Many of his secular songs dealt with courtly love.

Circa 1363, he wrote a collection of music, letters, and poetry in his autobiographical book, Le voir dit.

He was one of the first to set the typical secular poetic forms of his days: ballade, rondeau, and virelai.

(ballade B19) Amours me fait désirer / Love makes me desire

(rondeau R18) Puis qu'en oubi / Then in oblivion

(virelai)
(V21) Je vivroie liement / I should lead a happy life

with French subtitles plus English translation in the footnote

(virelai)
(V4) Douce dame jolie / Sweet lovely lady

Did you enjoy the Tudors TV series?

* some snapshots for refreshment

* lyrics for singing along

Music #302 - Léonin & Pérotin

École de Notre-Dame de Paris

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

Master Leoninus and Master Perotinus were the best known of a group of composers known as the Notre-Dame school of polyphony (organum).

Polyphony is music of 2 or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).

Léonin

A priest at Notre-Dame, Leonin composed the Magnus Liber Organi (great book of organum) for the choir of this new cathedral.

Here's one of his 2-voice plainsongs:

Viderunt Omnes / They saw all.

Note the nice 2-voice polyphony?

Pérotin

Perotin may be a pupil of Leonin, but may not have worked in Notre-Dame. After Leonin's death, Perotin revised the Magnus liber and added his own compositions of 3- and 4-voice polyphony.

(L) Alleluia Nativitas (The Nativity) : birth of Jesus

- organum triplum (3-voice polyphony)

(R) Sederunt principes (princes sat)

- organum quadruplum (4-voice polyphony)

Music #301 - Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen

(1098 – 1179, German)
- aka Sibyl of the Rhine (many sought her prophecy)
- aka Saint Hildegard von Bingen (although she was never formally canonized)

She experienced intense visions
(probably due to migraine),
which she recorded in her books;
she came to be known for
her prophecies and miracles.

She founded a nunnery near Bingen. She was a German writer, composer, philosopher, polymath, Benedictine abbess, Christian mystic, and visionary. Her achievements were remarkable - and unique for a woman of her time.

"Vision", a 2009 movie on Hildegard von Bingen:

In music, her specialist genre was plainsong-equivalent writing of her own poetry.

Her Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues), a morality play, which describes the sixteen Virtues battling with the Devil, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.

Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Music harmony of celestial revelations) is a collection of lyric and dramatic poetry:

Part 1

Note the nice antiphons (call and response)?