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Home , Carmina Burana, Carmina Burana (Orff), Trobairitz

Friday 2nd July 2021 8 pm The Old Church Stoke Newington Church St, London N16 9ES Duo Trobairitz Faye Newton , Hazel Brooks

The Wheel of Fortune

Fas et nefas ambulant Anon,

O varium fortune lubricum Anon, Carmina Burana

Bonum est confidere Philippe le Chancellier (1165-1236) on Bulla fulminante Carmina Burana

So blôzen wir (d.c.1250) Dance on Meie, din liehter schin

Ar ne kuth ich sorghe non Contrafacta of ante nescia, from Carmina Burana

Der May mit lieber zal Oswald von Wolkenstein (c.1376-1445)

Veris dulcis in tempore Anon, Carmina Burana

Under der Linden Walther von der Vogelweide d.1228)

Love potion scene from Tristan Gotfrid von Straßburg (fl.1210)

Tristan muose sunder sinen danc Hendrik van Veldeke (d.c.1190) Dansse Real Anon, Manuscrit du Roi, late 13th century Reis Glorios Guiraut de Bornelh, , 12th century The Wheel of Fortune – Programme Notes The Carmina Burana manuscript was constructed in Germany in the first decades of the thirteenth century. It is a collection of predominantly songs (there are a handful in Middle High German and a few with traces of medieval French or Provençal) from many different places and sources and organised according to subject matter. songs, drinking songs, moral and satirical songs sit alongsideChristian prayers and religious plays. Most of the poems and songs are thought to be the work of , wandering student clergy, who protested against the growing contradictions within the Church by writing satirical and lustful poetry. The manuscript also features the work of serious and respected theologians such as the Frenchman Philippe le Chancellier. The title of our programme, The Wheel of Fortune is inspired by the illustrated title page of the Carmina Burana manuscript. Beneath the striking image of Fortune’s wheel the text and melody of ‘Fas et nefas ambulant’ is presented. The notated music in Carmina Burana is written in neumes that provide the basic contour of each vocal melody without giving definite pitches. In order to obtain a more accurate transcription it is necessary to locate con- cordant manuscripts written in staff notation. Luckily for us many of the melodies in Carmina Burana are of French origin and have therefore been preserved in a number of French and Provençal manuscripts. ‘O varium fortune lubricum’ is a case in point as it appears in both the Florence manuscript and in the fourteenth century Roman de Fauvel as well as in Carmina Burana. We have decided to perform a polyphonic version of the song as it appears in the Florence manuscript. Whilst on the subject of fortune, in this case rather ‘bad’ fortune, we have included the beautiful thirteenth century prisoner’s prayer, ‘Ar ne kuth ich’. Expressing the anguish of a man who has been unjustly imprisoned and is appealing to God for help, this song is a contrafactum of one of the Carmina Burana songs, the religious ‘Planctus ante nescia’. A contrafactum is when a melody is taken from an existing song and given new words which share the same poetic scheme as the original. ‘Planctus ante nescia’ has two contrafacta, one in English and one in French. These share the same subject matter as each other, but differ from the original. We have chosen to perform the English version. The moral and religious elements from Carmina Burana are represented in two works by the aforementioned Philippe le Chancellier. ‘Bonum est confidere’, a religious song warning of the sinfulness of material wealth is fol- lowed by a lively fiddle estampie based on ‘Bulla fulminante’, a about the corruption of the Papal Bull. Es- tampie form, with its double versicles with open and closed endings, is the most common instrumental form that has come down to us from the time. The Dansse Real from the Manuscrit du Roi is a typical example, and structured improvisation in this form would have been standard practice. Probably the most important and universal topic to feature in Carmina Burana is, of course, Love. ‘Veris dul- cis in tempore’ is a pretty refrain song which celebrates the sweet season of spring and the romantic possibilities that it brings. This is a Latin song, but the tradition of writing about love in the vernacular was well developed by this time. Programme Notes — cont.

The courtly love ethic developed by the in the south of France in the 12th century influenced the cultures around it. They adopted this style of writing poetry and song into their own languages and added a cer- tain local flavour. Hence the trouvère school developed in the north of France, Spain produced trobadores, and in Germany the tradition began to flourish. As in the French tradition, the central motif of this aristocratic poetry is Minnedienst (servitude to love). The knight is expected to strive courteously to gain the favour of a lady who is socially superior and therefore unat- tainable, even at the expense of his own suffering, for the sake of Minne (courtly love). One of the earliest poets writing in German to adopt this French style was Hendrik van Veldeke. His ‘Tristan muose sunder sinen danc’ is of the genre of song described as Minnelied, which like the Provencal canso, and French d’amor describes a man’s longing in love, and is usually introduced by a description of nature which reflects or contrasts with the poet’s feelings. It is a great pity that only two stanzas of this beautiful piece have survived. Walther von der Vogelweide is held to be the greatest master of Minnesang, taking the art to its peak. ‘Under der linden’ is one of his most famous poems. In terms of genre it is perhaps a Frauenlied, a song which presents love from a woman’s perspective, although it is also reminiscent of the French pastourelle form. Another genre is the Tanzlied (dance song), typical of Neidhart von Reuental. His ‘So blozen wir’ opens with the description of the coming of spring, but unlike in a Minnelied, it is seen through the eyes of a young girl. Later stanzas (not performed tonight) show she is looking forward to the dancing where she may attract a knight for a husband, so she doesn’t have to marry a peasant. The dance character can be clearly heard in the metre, and the music adapts easily into instrumental dances, as demonstrated in ‘Meie din liehter schin’. Neidhart, though a con- temporary of Walther von der Vogelweide, writes in a less courtly way. He leads towards a new realism, introduc- ing moments of rustic wit and the occasional coarse undertone which give an earthier, often satirical flavour. ‘von Riuwental’ is not his real name. It means ‘Vale of woe’ and is the name given to the impoverished knight whom he portrays in the poems, and with whom he probably identified. This more down to earth outlook, along with the dance element, is perhaps the reason why his songs continued to be performed long after his death (occasionally even into the 16th century), unlike than those of other lyric poets whose songs became unknown as society evolved and courtly attitudes fell from fashion. Many melodies survive for his songs, in contrast to the other Minnesinger, where almost no melodies survive. In order to perform the others, it is necessary to set each text to a contrafactum: a melody taken from another song with the same poetic scheme. This technique was widely practised in the , even across languages and many examples are extant (see ‘Ar ne kuth ich’, above). We perform Hendrik van Veldeke’s ‘Tristan muose sunder sinen danc’ to a melody by the troubadour Faidit, and Walther von der Vogelweide’s ‘Under der linden’ to an anonymous French melody.

Programme Notes — cont. In addition, but not unrelated to the lyric poetry of the Minnesang tradition, was the Middle High Ger- man epic poem, of which Gotfrid von Strassburg’s Tristan is a famous example. These large-scale works recount- ed romantic dramatic sagas. The stories were usually already well-known, based on earlier versions extending back into time immemorial, and versions in other languages, but the poets expanded the stories and refined them to suit the courtly audience of the time. Other Middle High German epics include Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzifal, and the anonymous NibelungenliedGotfrid’s Tristan is 20,000 lines long, but incomplete because he died. It is based on a French version by the Anglo-Norman Thomas of Britain, although the roots of the story are of Celtic origin. Most cultured people of the time would have been familiar with the plot and there are innu- merable references to the story in literature from across Europe. The story recounts how the Cornish knight Tristan sets out to escort the Irish princess Isolde to Cornwall to marry his uncle Mark. By mistake, on the jour- ney, they drink a love potion which binds them to each other. The rest of the story deals with the endless prob- lems that this causes and the trickery they are forced to resort to in order to conceal this from Isolde’s husband. The language is colourful and dramatic and certainly creates a gripping and entertaining story to warm up winter evenings in a draughty castle. The figure of Tristan, a skilled musician and knight, desperately in love with a for- bidden lady, and suffering endless ordeals for her sake, perfectly fits the image of a lover as idealised by the court- ly love ethic of the time. We perform only a short extract today, but one of the most poignant scenes, where the couple drink the love potion. The story of Tristan continued to be popular subject matter and a slightly later, much expanded, version of the story in French prose is found in the Vienna Manuscript. At moments of key drama in the story, songs are inserted into the text (rather like a modern musical!). These songs are mostly pieces taken from the existing trou- badour and trouvère repertory. It seems particularly relevant to include a troubadour song in our programme as an example of where the courtly love ethic first developed. ’s famous ‘Reis glorios’ is an (or dawn song), a genre in which a lover’s tryst is interrupted by the coming of dawn. It appears in the Vienna Manuscript at the point where Tristan and Isolde are meeting secretly, and the song is sung by an accomplice who is keeping watch to warn Tristan that it is time for him to leave. The last verse does not appear in any other source and is probably not by Giraut de Bornelh. It was probably added to make the song more relevant to the Tristan story. By far the latest composer in our programme, Oswald von Wolkenstein, termed ‘the last Minnesinger’ was working at a time when the style represented by Walter von der Vogelweide was all but obsolete. Although his monophonic music has its roots in the earlier tradition, he also wrote polyphony which clearly belongs to a later age. He made extensive use of contrafacta, mostly taking music from polyphonic French in two to four parts, and writing his own texts. It is perhaps because of this that he is sometimes regarded as more im- portant as a poet than as a composer. Interestingly, the texture of his songs seems to be determined by subject matter: the religious or philosophical ones are mainly monophonic, whereas those about love or light-hearted themes are polyphonic. ‘Der May’ is a prime example, and shows a striking sense of humour. The wheel of for- tune has turned full circle and we are able to laugh again. Duo Trobairitz

Faye Newton and Hazel Brooks met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where they discov- ered a shared passion for and poetry. They subsequently worked together in the award-winning ensemble Concanentes and in the year 2000 they formed ‘duo Trobair- itz’ to explore the courtly song reper- toire of the troubadours and trou- vères, which is especially appropriate to their combination of voice and vielle. Following an acclaimed international debut at the Antwerp Young Artists’ Presentation in 2000, Duo Trobairitz has appeared at major festivals within the UK and across Europe. The duo has collaborated with the Flemish theatre company fABULEUS for performances at the Belgian Interna- tional Day of Early Music and broadcast live on British, Belgian and Slovenian radio. Performance highlights to date include a tour of Slovenia, a Dutch Early Music Network tour, the Leeds Interna- tional Medieval Congress and the debut performance of its ‘Medieval Femme Fatale’ programme at the York Early Music Festival. Their debut CD 'The Language of Love' was released on the Hyperion label in 2007 to international critical acclaim, and was the American Record Guide Choice of 2007.

Faye and Hazel are fascinated by the medieval period and thrive on the challenge of interpreting me- dieval music in a way that is true to its historical roots whilst being entertaining and meaningful for a modern-day audience. They enjoy the creative process of taking a melody and a text and, through a combination of scholarship and imagination, bringing the meaning and emotion of the text to life.

http://www.ineedmorespace.co.uk/ About Stoke Newington Early Music Festival

Stoke Newington Early Music Festival, founded by Vanessa Coode, is a community event that has brought the finest Mediaeval, Renaissance, Baroque and to Stoke Newing- ton for a quarter of a century. The Festival’s ‘home’ is The Old Church next to Clissold Park. Built in 1563, this is the only Elizabethan church in London. The warm acoustic and intimate atmosphere of this church make it uniquely suitable for early music. This year, we are also using the larger St Matthias Church , Wordsworth Road and Everyday Sunshine Café on Bar- bauld Road. We are especially grateful to our main sponsors, Bridgewood and Neitzert, for their generous and consistent support. Our heartfelt thanks go to all our sponsors, benefactors and Friends. Special thanks are due to Lester Hawksby for managing the festival’s website, Katarina Dorde- vic for handling the social media accounts, Rupert Meats of RUDE for the poster design and Liz Robinson for her tireless support. Many thanks also to the staff and volunteers of The Old Church, to Father David Lambert and Jackie Ambrosini at St Matthias Church, and to Abi Meats at Everyday Sunshine Café. If you would like to be added to the Festival Mailing List, or to become a Friend of Stoke Newington Early Music Festival, please email [email protected] Rachel Stott, director.

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