Signumclassics YELLOW Catalogue No
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CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer: SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No. SIGCD065 BLACK Job Title: SIGCD065 booklet Page Nos. The king’s singers on signumclassics Six SIGCD056 Gesualdo Tenebrae Christmas SIGCD502 1605 Treason and Dischord Responsories SIGCD048 SIGCD061 Six gents singing six tracks that span The late renaissance Italian Prince, 24 carols for each day of Advent and 400 years after the Gunpowder Plot, the life of the group so far. Perennial Gesualdo, was the most original, a bonus 25th track which pays the King’s Singers and Concordia favourites - Neil Young’s ‘After the expressive and sensual composer of homage to one of the King’s Singers commemorate the attempted treason Goldrush’, Irving Berlin’s much loved his time. The programme on this CD famous songs ‘You are the New Day’. that shocked the whole of Europe. classic ‘Blue Skies’ and the Beatles’ represents part of the liturgy for the ‘Christmas’ covers five centuries of Based around Byrd’s perfect four ‘Blackbird’ - are perfectly balanced Matins Offices on the final three days music, seven different languages, part Mass, the music contains with new additions to the songbook. of Holy Week, the Triduum Sacrum. favourite traditional carols and motets by Catholic composers of the special arrangements. day and anthems celebrating the downfall of the Plot by Protestants. www.kingssingers.com www.sarband.de Available through most record stores and at www.signumrecords.com. For more information call +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer: SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No. SIGCD065 BLACK Job Title: SIGCD065 booklet Page Nos. Sacred bridges Sacred bridges Christian, Jewish and Muslim Psalm Settings Salamone Rossi Hebreo: Hashirim asher liSh´lomo From the 16th to 17th Centuries (“The Songs of Solomon”), Venice 1622 1 Salamone Rossi Hebreo Psalm 124 (KS) [2.27] 2 For thousands of years, the biblical Psalter has been the liturgical At the turn of the 17th century, Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Ali Ufkî, Claude Goudimel Psalm 9 (KS & S) [6.17] “heart” of the three main book religions: Judaism, Christianity and Mantova, led the musical culture of his court to its summit. Among 3 Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Psalm 6 (KS) [4.01] Islam. The Psalms announce the word of God and, simultaneously, the composers employed by him were Monteverdi, Gastoldi, Wert, 4 Ali Ufkî, Genevan Psalter Psalm 6 (KS & S) [13.22] contain the full range of human experience. They are songs of Viadana and, from 1587 to 1628, the Jewish violinist, singer and 5 Trad. Jewish Psalm 113 (KS) [1.44] lament and joy, relations of the acts of God, confessions of sin and composer Salamone Rossi Hebreo (ca. 1570 - ca. 1630). Apart from 6 Salamone Rossi Hebreo Psalm 118 (KS) [4.49] hymns of praise. Many psalms are attributed to David himself, and sonatas and dance music, madrigals, canzonettas and stage 7 Instrumental improvisation Psalm 2 (S) [6.08] if the latest of the psalms were composed during the Persian and music for the court, he also composed music for the Synagogue. 8 Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Psalm 7 (KS) [4.36] perhaps even into the Hasmonean eras, then the Psalter was For the very reason that they lived in Diaspora, Jews held on strongly 9 compiled over the better part of a millennium of Jewish history to their traditional Middle Eastern liturgy. Any liturgical or musical Ali Ufkî, Genevan Psalter Psalm 2 (KS & S) [9.02] before being finalized during the second Temple period. As a part innovations - instruments, new melodies, polyphony - were 0 Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Psalm 2 (KS) [3.07] of the Septuagint, they were translated into Greek and found their unwelcome for a long period of time. But also the members of the q Ali Ufkî, Claude Goudimel Psalm 5 (KS & S) [12.06] way into early Christian usage. Jewish congregations in Italy began to take pleasure in the “Nuove w Salamone Rossi Hebreo Psalm 128 (KS) [3.54] Musiche” of the Late Renaissance. The efforts of the Catholic Jews, Christians and Muslims sing and listen to the same songs of Counter Reformation in intensifying the separation between Total Time [71.36] lament and joy, confessions of sin, hymns of praise and adoration. Christians and Jews proved an obstacle: by 1516 the first Jewish In this project of the King’s Singers and Sarband, psalm settings Ghetto had already been established in Venice. Vincenzo Gonzaga by composers from three religions give an example of how followed this example in 1612 with the Ghetto in Mantova. As a KS: KING’S SINGERS / S: SARBAND psalms can be a source of spirituality, a political instrument, a link result, Jews were cut off from Italian culture during one of its between tradition and modernity and, above all, a bridge connecting heydays. This forced isolation led to an enormous desire among the The radiant voices of the King’s Singers and the exotic sounds of Sarband unite in a celebration of the rich connections between Orient human beings. Jews for the lost cultural achievements of the Renaissance, for and Occident, a musical exploration of the complex intertwinings – the sacred bridges – between Christianity, Islam and Judaism as example polyphonic music, which in the Ghetto was confronted seen through settings of the timeless Psalms of David. with a practical obstacle: the only building large enough for performances was the Synagogue. With his polyphonic works for the Synagogue, which have no musical connection with Jewish tradition, but can easily be integrated into the liturgy, Salamone Rossi sought to unite one last time two worlds drifting apart. The king’s singers & sarband www.signumrecords.com www.kingssingers.com www.sarband.de - 2 - CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer: SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No. SIGCD065 BLACK Job Title: SIGCD065 booklet Page Nos. Clément Marot & Théodore de Bèze: After having converted to Islam, he changed his name to Ali Ufkî Les Psaumes en vers français avec leurs mélodies, Geneva 1562; and became interpreter, treasurer and musician at the Sultan’s Claude Goudimel: Psalmes de David …, Paris 1551-1580; seraglio. Ufkî, who was given to deeply contemplating religious Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Cinquante Pseaumes de David …, questions, not only translated the Anglican catechism into the Amsterdam 1604 Ottoman and later wrote a Latin explanation of Islam, but also created two manuscript anthologies of Ottoman music, containing During the Reformation, European Christians tried to reintegrate sacred and secular pieces, instrumental and vocal music, art laymen into the liturgy. One method was to translate the Psalms music as well as traditional Turkish songs. In a small collection of into the vernacular, and set them to simple melodies. The most psalms, Ali Ufkî used original melodies from the Genevan Psalter, popular and largest psalm collection, completed in 1562 at classified them according to the Turkish modal system and Geneva, was a collaborative effort of several people. It was used as translated the texts into the Ottoman. Because of the peculiarities the principal liturgical book among the reformed Swiss Christians of French prosody, the Genevan melodies tend to be in (Calvinists). The melodies of the Genevan Psalter, also known as asymmetrical meters, which brings them close to an important “the Huguenot Psalter”, range from tunes with the character of folk idiom of Middle Eastern music. Apart from their rhythmical songs to chants in ecclesiastical modes. The Genevan Psalter intensity, their modal character makes it easy to transform them became the most successful hymnbook of all times. Many into Turkish modes just by subtle shadings of intonation. Ali Ufkî’s composers used it as a base for arrangements or independent versions of the psalms are free of the superfluous: no musical works. Especially the polyphonic settings by Claude Goudimel embellishments nor artful affects disturb the power of the word. became very popular. With his virtuoso rhetoric “Cinquante By returning to the Book of Books, the worlds of Islam and Pseaumes de David” from 1604, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck brought Protestant Christianity, seemlingly so far apart, are united with the great period of Dutch vocal polyphony to a grandiose finale. artistic simplicity in a natural way. Recorded at St Andrews Church, Toddington, UK - May 2005 The King’s Singers would like to thank Erika Esslinger, Judith Haug, St. Andrew’s In our performance, we intertwine the compositions of Rossi, Producer - Adrian Peacock Church, Toddington, Robin and Jane Rogers for their assistance with this project. Ali Ufkî (Wojciech Bobowski): Goudimel, Sweelinck and Ufkî in order to recapture the original Engineers - Mike Hatch and Limo Hearn Mezamir (F-Pn Suppl. Turc 472, 1665–1673) intention of the psalms: to be sacred bridges between peoples, Editor - David Hinitt P 2005 The copyright in this recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd. religions, between human beings. Artwork and design - Woven Design C 2005 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd. Protestant missionaries had begun as early as the 16th century to © Dr. Vladimir Ivanoff Programme Idea and development - Dr. Vladimir Ivanoff Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact translate Christian texts into the Ottoman language. In the 17th Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will