currentesPosted by Jostein Gundersen Fri, April 24, 2009 14:26:09Programme
Anonymus:
Che ti çova nasconder el bel viso
Jacopo da Bologna (active ca 1340-1380):
Io mi son
Io mi son instrumental diminution, Codex Faenza
Sì chome al canto instrumental diminution, Currentes
Sì chome al canto
Francesco Landini (ca1335-1397):
Angelica biltà instrumental diminution, Currentes
Angelica biltà
Nella partita
Fa metter bando
Anonymous (ca 1420):
no title & “Iaume la biaute” instrumental diminutions, Codex Faenza/Currentes
Antonio Zacara da Teramo (ca 1350-1415):
Spinato intorno instrumental diminution, Currentes
Un fior gentil instrumental version, reconstruction by Currentes
Rosetta instrumental diminution, Codex Faenza
Spinato intorno
Currentes
Jostein Gundersen - recorders
Kristin Mulders - mezzo soprano
David Catalunya - clavisimbalum
Hans Lub - medieval fiddle
The texts
...un fiore gentil m´apparse...
...a gentle flower appeared to me...
Che ti çova nasconder el bel volto? With this question, "What do you gain from hiding your lovely face", the programme starts. The answer is given in the same song: "The more you hide, the stronger my desire to see you." Many songs from the Middle Ages deal with the longing for beauty and/or the unknown. Very often this desire is depicted through the allure of a beautiful woman.
Other images are also used. In Io me son, Jacopo da Bologna depicts himself as a person searching in the woods for "delectable flowers", to make himself a "garland of new scents". In this way, he hopes to acquire the laurel, the crown of poets. In the same song, he scorns those who "dress themselves in other people´s garb". He compares them to crows wearing peacock´s feathers, saying they should pluck themselves in the company of parrots. Jacopo is here attacking his less inventive colleagues, who instead of searching for a new and distinctive style, are content with copying the styles of others.
Many songs are written to specific women, praising their beauty and virtue. Frequently a comparison is drawn to a legendary female figure. Sì chome al canto is written to a certain Margherita, who is compared with the nymph Circe. Through her beautiful "singing" (we need not discuss the finer details), Circe convinced Odysseus to stay with her for a whole year, delaying his famous travel back home after the Trojan war. Jacopo would similarly forget all other pleasures in life, if Margherita would take delight in his company. The fact that Circe turned most of Odysseus companions into pigs, Jacopo wisely leaves out of the comparison.
Not only the charm of nymphs, but also the heavenliness of the angels serve to describe beauty. What happens when Angelica biltà, an "angelic beauty", reveals herself to you? According to Landini, you will not be at peace with your emotions any more, but desire her with all your soul. And if ever you have to depart from her, you will cry until she returns and relieves you of your pain. If your eyes do not shed tears at the departure (Nella partita) of such lovely and adorned eyes as hers, you are of no value.
Frequently, love is described in legal terms. A lover was comparable to a citizen of the state: If a citizen of a medieval town broke the laws of his ruler (for example by suggesting democratic elections), he might very soon find his name "messo al bando", on a list of people banned from the city. He would then have to live outside the city walls, and was from then on a "bandito", a bandit. If, similarly, a lover did not abide by the laws of Amor, he would be banned from the City (or Garden) of Love. Amor had many rules, some of them are listed in Fa metter bando:
-a lover shall keep his love secret in deed and appearance
-a lover shall never stop loving, even if if it seems unrequited, because
-Love wants those who love to be loved
We might quote from Capellanus´ "The Art of Courtly Love":
-The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized
-He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little
-When made public, love rarely endures
The last three songs in the programme form a "Flower-trilogy". Zacara describes wonderful flowers, and suspicion soon arises that he is interested in more than the Italian flora. Zacara tells of a gentle flower, Un fiore gentil, that appears and disappears like an angel. You will never find its equal on earth. He says of Rosetta, a small rose, that it never changes its colour. Where other flowers make him languish and sigh, Rosetta desires him, and comforts him when he is sad. He promises to love this rose over all other flowers. Although Rosetta can be the name of a woman, angelic appearances and immortal roses do suggest loftier thoughts. One might remember Empyreum in Dante´s Paradiso, where the angels and the delivered form a white rose. However, Spinato intorno brings us down to earth: A thorn has pierced Zacara´s heart like an arrow and stings him so much that he forgets everything else. In other words, Amor has shot an arrow at him, and now he is deeply in love. But with whom? Zacara describes his beloved. She has lips as red as "un fiore gentile", and a mouth as small as a "rosetta". He does not only quote the texts of his own songs, he also quotes the music. That he is in love with his music is confirmed when he declares himself close to the end of the song: "O sexquitertia de maior perfecta!" Sexquitertia de maior perfecta is the Latin name for the kind of rhythm he is using at that point in the song.
It seems Zacara has purposely led us astray, using images of secular love to direct our attention towards the heavens and the love of God for man and man for God. Then, in a couple of sentences, he turns himself into Narcissus, who did not fall in love until he one day saw his own reflection.
Zacara´s "Flower-trilogy" brings up an interesting paradox: Although the intention might be to describe or represent something beautiful, the strongest image left is the music itself. And the music inevitably reflects its maker.
...e tosto sparse...
...and suddenly disappeared...
The composers
Almost no archival documents on Jacopo da Bologna survive, but some information on his life can be deduced from the texts of his songs. He worked for the Visconti family in Milan. The madrigal Lo lume vostro contains the acrostic "Luchinus" and the senhal "Isabella". (Acrostic is a word game where certain letters of several words form a new word. Senhal is an insertion of a name into the text, oftenhidden through double meaning). These names correspond to Luchino Visconti, who ruled from 1339 to 1349, and his wife Isabella. When Luchino was killed in 1349 (Isabella and Luchino`s brothers are the most likely suspects), Jacopo probably went to Verona to work for the Scaliger-family. Several of his songs mention places close to Verona, or Scaliger family members. In 1350, Beatrice della Scala married Bernabò Visconti (one of Luchino´s brothers), forming an alliance between the two cities. In the early fifties Jacopo went back to Milan, where he in 1360 composed Aquila altera for the wedding between the 8-year-old Gian Galeazzo Visconti and the three years older Isabella of Valois. Gian Galeazzo were later to imprison Bernabò and make himself the new ruler. A few of Jacopo´s songs can be read as comments on his employers´ constant conspiring. We do not know when or where Jacopo died. He might have lived as long as until the 1380´s, when a certain "Jacobo de Bolunga" appears in Aragon, Spain.
While Jacopo relatively frequently changed patron and/or city, Francesco Landini was closely attached to Florence. Born around 1335, Landini seems to have stayed most of his life in Florence. He was a chaplain in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, perhaps the oldest and certainly one of the largest churches of that city. Despite turning blind in early childhood, he became a very famous poet, singer and composer, organ- and organetto-player (a small hand-held organ), organ tuner, and - somewhat more surprising - instrument maker/inventor. Landini is the Italian
composer of the fourteenth century from whom we have the most compositions: More than 150 surviving songs make out about one quarter of all the polyphonic compositions we know from the Italian Trecento. Among his works are the fragments of a motet to the Venetian Doge, so it is quite probable that he at some point visited Venice. According to the Florentine chronicler Villani, Landini received a laurel (se miniature) from the King of Cyprus, who visited the Veneto republic in the 1360s. Landini died in 1392, and was buried in San Lorenzo.
Like Landini, Antonio Zacara da Teramo pursued more than one career. He was a famous singer, scribe, and miniature-painter. From 1390 onwards he held all these offices for the pope in Rome. (There was also an antipope in Avignon). As with Landini, his enormous career is a little surprising, considering his obvious physical handicaps, such as lacking half the digits on his hands and feet. At some point he must have changed loyalty: In 1412 he is registered at the court of John XXIII (the anti-pope in Bologna, established after the council of Pisa in 1409, making a total of three popes). He died in 1416, a wealthy man with a house in Rome and property in Teramo. Zacara was a prolific composer. Perhaps as many as 50 compositions can be attributed to him, both liturgical and secular. He wrote in many styles and forms, and is responsible for the rhythmically perhaps most complex composition of his time, the Latin ballade "Sumite karissimi".
Transmission, Research, Performance
As a general rule, the further we go back in time, the less detailed the musical notation is. Notation in our time might contain information on numerous aspects of the performance such as character, speed and duration, instrumentation, sonority, dynamics, articulation, etc. Medieval notation leaves all of these parameters partially open, transmitting mainly the relative rhythm and pitch. It is relative, because even within these two parameters, some decisions must be made by the performer. To this should be added that the repertoire of the Trecento in principle was an oral tradition. It is difficult to say at which point of its vocal transmission the music was copied into the manuscripts we know today. At any rate, these manuscripts were seldom made under supervision of the composers themselves (Machaut being a rare exception). Most songs survive in more than one manuscript, and two versions of the same song usually differ. The dissimilarities are in some cases limited to just one or two notes. In other cases they are very substantial, such as a completely new part.
All of these factors create an open field, where any performance inevitably is highly influenced by the performers´ different agendas, approaches and methods. It puts high demands on the research and creativity of the performer. It also challenges his ability and responsibility to distinguish between the various sources of information and inspiration, giving both audience and colleagues access to sources, and clarity of methods. The following paragraphs give an account of our sources, and how we have dealt with them; in short, a description of our performance.
Interspersed through the songs of our programme you will find several instrumental diminutions. Diminution is a dry and technical term for a fascinating kind of ornaments where the melody is elaborated with faster notes. There are many documents from the 14th century onwards that show rich traditions in this kind of ornamentation. The diminutions could be improvised by the performer upon existing songs. The improvisation of diminutions has been the main topic of the artistic research scholarship. The most important source for diminutions in late medieval Italy, and also one of the main documents for the artistic research period, is Codex Faenza. More about this manuscript follows below. First we shall have a brief look at the other manuscripts containing our repertory.
In the fourteenth century, music-making changed significantly in Europe. Many new ways of writing rhythms and making counterpoint were developed, resulting in a new kind of music, often referred to as "Ars Nova" (in contrast to "Ars Antiqua" of the thirteenth century). Codex Rossi 215 is perhaps the oldest manuscript containing Italian Ars Nova. Dated varyingly by musicologists to the period 1350-1370, the manuscript contains compositions in the standard forms of the day: madrigals, cacce (a kind of canon), and monophonic (one-part) ballate. It is from the latter category we have chosen our first song, Che ti çova nasconder el bel volto. The melody is of singular beauty. We have furnished it modestly with a supporting tenor line and a few harmonies.
The manuscript Panciatichi 26 is found in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence. The main part of the manuscript contains secular music from the Trecento, organised by composer and genre. In our programme, we follow the versions of Panciatichi for the songs by Jacopo and Landini, except for Angelica biltà, which was not copied into the manuscript. Instead, we use the version in the largest and most exuberant of all Italian manuscripts, Squarcialupi Codex of the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana in Florence.
For the "Flower-trilogy" of Zacara, the most important manuscript is Lucca Codex, Archivio di Stato, Ms184. Unfortunately, the manuscript is incomplete. One of the lacking folios contained the cantus part and more than half of the contratenor part of Un fiore gentil. (In Italian music, cantus is usually the highest voice, tenor the lowest. The contratenor can take on several functions, but is usually somewhere between the two other voices. If its character is much like the cantus, it is sometimes referred to as cantus secundus.) The only complete part is the tenor. Since the song was unique to this codex, it must be reconstructed using two other settings deriving from the ballata: An almost complete reconstruction can be made using Zacara´s parody-setting Gloria Fior Gentil, copied into the huge 15th century manuscript Bologna Q15 in Bologna´s Civico Museo bibliografico musicale. Zacara cut the ballata into many small sections and pasted them into the mass movement. Only very few measures were not used, and they can be reconstructed using a combination of Lucca Codex and Codex Faenza.
Codex Faenza of the Biblioteca Communale in Faenza, Italy, is in every sense a unique manuscript. It contains around 50 anonymous intabulations of diminutions on plainchant and on secular songs. (In the Middle Ages, nearly all music was copied in parts. An intabulation looks like a keyboard score.) Very few diminutions are known before the end of the fifteenth century. None of them have been copied in more than one source. Codex Faenza contains more diminutions than all the other sources altogether, and as the only source has several cases of more than one diminution on the same chant/song. The diminutions are notated as a keyboard score, in two parts, regardless of the number of voices of the original songs. None of the diminutions are attributed to any one composer, but the majority of the songs have been identified, so that the diminutions can be compared with their models. The original songs are by the most famous Italian and French composers of the day, including Jacopo, Landini and Zacara.
Four diminutions from Codex Faenza are heard in the programme: On the madrigal Io me son by Jacopo, on the ballata Rosetta by Zacara, and on two unidentified tenors on folios 49v and 50r, the latter with the title Iaume la biaute (or rather "J´aime la biautè". The scribes of Faenza had a few spelling problems). The manuscript has in different ways influenced most of the remaining songs in the programme as well. It has been a goal of the research period to develop improvisational skills in style with Codex Faenza. The manuscript reflects different styles of diminutions. Many figures are used throughout the codex, but a high number of the diminutions have figures or combinations of figures that appear only in that particular song, or in very few songs. In our diminutions on Jacopo´s Sì chome al canto, we imitate primarily the musical vocabulary of Faenza´s Io mi son. We perform a diminished version of Landini´s Angelica biltà based on Faenza´s version of Che pena è questa by the same composer. To Iaume la biaute we add a round of diminutions, based largely on the style of the songs on 49v-50r. Finally, our diminution on Spinato intorno uses mainly the vocabulary of the Rosetta preceding it in the programme.
The influence of Codex Faenza on our reconstruction of Un fiore gentil has already been mentioned. Whereas most of the diminutions on vocal models employ note values at least twice as fast as its original, the diminished version of Un fiore gentil not only restrains itself to the same speed as Zacara´s ballata, but also applies very few ornaments. That has encouraged us to include Faenza´s ornaments and Faenza-like ornaments in the performance of our reconstruction.
Most secular songs of the Trecento were in two or three parts. It was not unusual that a song was copied as a two-part-composition in one manuscript and with three parts in another. Most of Faenza´s diminutions on three-part songs move consistently around the cantus part. In a few cases, the diminutions consistently follow the highest voice, which means that when contratenor goes higher than the cantus, the diminutions follow contratenor. When the contratenor moves back down below cantus, the diminutions follow cantus again. It is interesting to observe that Faenza´s version of Io mi son in several places moves far above the original cantus. The madrigal Io mi son is only transmitted in two-parts. Could this bear witness to a lost third voice, known to the Faenza intabulator? The song works perfectly well in two parts, but we could not resist the attempt to compose a third voice. Our main model was the cantus secundus of Sì chome al canto, a song that survives in versions for two (f.ex. in Squarcialupi) and three parts (Panciatichi).
Although musicologists do not attach much importance to it, we find the decoration on the final note of cantus secundus in Panciatichi´s version of Sì chome al canto intriguing: Like many other final notes of the manuscript, it is extended in an ornamental fashion. But, unlike any other final note, on top "musicha mia", "my music" is written in red ink. Although it is a well-known fact that some composers elaborated other composer´s songs with new contratenors, we have no documentation confirming that a cantus secundus would be added in the same way. We have nevertheless let ourselves be inspired by the possibility of such elaboration not only of Io mi son, but also of the two-part songs Nella partita, Spinato intorno, and Fa metter bando. The elaborations of the two former are of a modest character, mostly filling in harmonies. The latter receives a more dominating third part. Here our procedure has been slightly different from Io me son. Instead of composing a detailed second cantus, we have added the outline of a third voice. We embellish this basic melody with diminutions in the same speed as the cantus, giving us the possibility to vary between the three strophes of the madrigal, and evidently also between each performance.
The terms mouvance and variance are used by musicologists and philologists to denote the considerable variety in the transmission of medieval texts. The extent of variety in the manuscripts carrying the Trecento repertory might be due in part to its initial oral transmission, in part to the late medieval concept of "composition", which allowed for many more open parameters than we are accustomed to today. With intentions of prudence, modern musicology paradoxically has contributed substantially to the variance in the transmission of the repertory. Modern editions have frequently been put together using a number of sources, creating versions that never existed. The recent tendency towards diplomatic editions (editions that do not try to amend obvious errors or incongruence in the manuscript) adds yet another layer. The ambition of such editions is presumably to make superfluous all previous modern editions, and eliminate the need for further editions of the same sources. The nature of artistic research is quite the opposite. If it does not add to the variance of the oral transmission of the repertory, if it does not provoke any further transmission of the same repertory, the research is not justified.
A musician that wishes to perform medieval music must involve himself in a search for something partially hidden. The traces are so many and so fragmentary, that it is equally impossible to regard everything and find all that one needs. But the material lends ideas and gives inspiration in ways one would not have thought of otherwise. The result is something new, that in part reflects the sources, in part the musician.
Jostein Gundersen, April 2009
Although this concert does not mark the end of my research fellowship, I would like to use this occasion to thank all those who have been involved in it:
University of Bergen, Faculty of Humanities for financing the scholarship, the Grieg Academy for supporting my project, my supervisors Hans Knut Sveen, Maurice van Lieshout, Pedro Memelsdorff and Einar Røttingen, Bergen City Museum/the County Governor of Hordaland for letting us use Håkonshallen, all the musicians who have performed with Currentes: Kristin Mulders, David Catalunya, Hans Lub, Ragnhild Eide Akslen, Bettina Smith, Are Frode Søholt, Luis Parrilla Lopez, Bram Verheijen, Mi Ho Kim, Stefan Lindvall, Stefanie Lüdecke, Frode Thorsen, Cecilie Haukedal-Johansen, Maurice van Lieshout, Mikko Perkola, Sofia Diniz, Anne Hytta, Elizabeth Gaver, Guillermo Perez, Ingrid Eriksen Hagen, Hans Knut Sveen, and numerous other colleagues who let me invade concert programmes with my diminutions, the fabulous Academy-librarian Kirstine Folmann, Sindre A. Sortland for all the recording sessions, Klara Sjo for helping with Latin texts, Margareth Hagen and Maria Grazia Chiarito for helping with Italian texts, Morten Eide Pedersen for encouragement and personal IT-support, my friends and colleagues for showing up at concerts.
Very special thanks to Frode Thorsen, who has been an inspiration and support since before I got my first razor. Again, to Hans Knut Sveen, for all his time, excellent supervision, encouragement and confidence.
To my parents, for unconditional support, for attending all my concerts, proof-reading my texts, listening to my enthusiasm and my complaints, for baby-sitting my son so that I could work, and to my mother in particular for all the cooking and baking. To my siblings, Sigrid, Jørund, and to Janicke, for their encouragement and interest.
Finally, and primarily, I thank my wife Luana, for moving to Bergen with me, for giving of her time so that I could go to work, for listening to endless hours of diminution-talk, and putting up with all of my stress and frustration.
Thank you!
The National Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowships Programme is parallel to other research educations organised as academic PhD programmes. The programme intends to secure high level artistic research and leads to expertise as Associate Professor. The Artistic Research Fellowships Programme is among the first in this field in Europe.
The programme offers a three-year position as Research Fellow to candidates who have completed the highest art education within their subject area. The Fellow must be associated with one of the Norwegian institutions offering one or more creative and/or performing art educations. At the same time Fellows will participate in an interdisciplinary professional community which may differ from their own artistic position and specialisation.
The Programme is coordinated by Bergen National Academy of the Arts.
currentesPosted by Jostein Gundersen Sat, March 28, 2009 18:03:02Program:
Antonio Mortaro (active ca1585-1610): La Saronna (canzona a 4)
Cipriano de Rore (1515-1565): Da le belle contrade (madrigal)
Jaques Arcadelt (1507-1568): O felici occhi miei (instrumental)
Jaques Arcadelt: O felici occhi miei (madrigal)
Jaques de Ponte (ca1510-post1546): Con lei fuss´io (instrumental)
Jaques de Ponte: Con lei fuss´io (madrigal)
Adriano Willaert (1490-1562): Io amai sempre (instrumental)
Andrea Antico (ca1480-post1538): Che debb´io fare (intabulation of frottola)
Bartolomeo Tromboncino (1470-post1534): Che debb´io fare (frottola)
Antonio Mortaro: La Cornala (canzona a 4)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Non si levava ancor l´alba novella
(madrigale in due parti)
Currentes:
Kristin Mulders, mezzo soprano
Jostein Gundersen, recorders
Mikko Perkola, viola da gamba
Ingrid Eriksen Hagen, harpsichord
The texts:
The program is framed by two madrigals, by Cipriano de Rore and Claudio Monteverdi respectively, that belong to the sub-genre "alba-madrigal". The poetic tradition of the "alba-madrigal" goes back to the middle ages, and the story is always the same: Having spent the night together, two lovers see the end of their happiness when the dawn, l´alba, finally appears. Before bidding each other farewell, they kiss and embrace each other a last time, between tears and sighs.
The alba is equally unwished-for in De Pontes madrigal "Con lei fuss´io". The poetry is the sixth stanza from Francesco Petrarca´s sestina "A qualunque animale alberga in terra". The poet complains about his tormented state: He is in love (with Laura), but fears (with good reason, as we learn from other poems) that his love will never be requited. He dreams of spending a single night with his beloved, under the stars, and that the dawn will never arrive.
Tromboncino´s "Che debb´io far" is like "Con lei fuss´io" a poem by Petrarca. Here, the poet´s suffering has changed. Whereas he earlier suffered because Laura did not return his love, now he is helplessly lost: Laura is dead, and he can never achieve her love. Since all hope is gone, he wishes only to die. He speaks to the God of Love, Amor, about his desperate state. Amor tells him that he must control his longing for earthly love and merit, and start honoring through his poetry the name and renown of his beloved Laura. From now on, Petrarca aspires a higher love, a heavenly love which is not requited, but is its own merit.
The music:
The Italians had many musical forms to convey their poetry. This program presents two of them: The frottola and the madrigal. "Che debb´io far" is a typical frottola: It is strophic (many stanzas of poetry are set to the same music), the music is in four parts, simple and syllabic, giving room for a declamatory style. The bass line is simple and rather chordal, (reminding us perhaps of the later baroque bass line). Only the top part is texted, leaving the middle parts presumably to instruments.
The madrigal, as it was developed in the beginning of the 16th century, was clearly inspired by the declamatory style of the frottola, but also brought an element imported from the style of North-European composers: The use of more complex polyphony. Arcadelt, de Ponte, Cipriano and many other composers came from the other side of the alps to work in Italy. In the madrigals, they blended their North-European polyphonic writing with the Italian declamatory style, which towards the end of the century came ever more in the foreground.
The performance:
Despite the fact that all of the pieces in the program were written for four or more voices, we perform the whole program with only one singer, accompanied by three instruments.There are many records of instruments taking part in performances of vocal pieces, and of compositions for several singers being performed either only by instruments, or by one singer accompanied by one or several instruments. There are also many records witnessing a highly improvisatory style, both in adding parts and in ornamenting pre-existing parts. We try to adopt such an improvisatory spirit, using changes in texture and ornaments to highlight and comment upon the compositions.
