Review of the Hilliard Ensemble, Guillaume De Machaut: Motets
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Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Music Faculty Research School of Music 8-2004 Review of The Hilliard Ensemble, Guillaume de Machaut: Motets. ECM Records, 2004 Vicki Stroeher Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/music_faculty Part of the Musicology Commons Guillaume de Machaut Motets Machaut must have regarded his sively any novelties in texture, rhythm, or The Hilliard Ensemble motets as important to his compositional melody. The hocker, for example, comes 2001, ECM New Series, ECM output, because he placed them as the across in the hands of the Hilliard En B0001859-02 second genre after his revered Lais and semble as a natural occurrence, yet retains 62'26" before the now-famous Messe de Notre its significanceto the work as a whole. Dame in his compilation of a "complete Since this advance copy did not in- HE motets of Guillaume edition" manuscript.3 His preferred tex de Machaut (1300-1377), ture in these motets is three voices (tenor, Tthough described by one duplum or motetus, and triplum); only scholar as "conservative and backward four use four voices, adding an untexted looking" because of their heavy use of contratenor. All the motets are double NoRTHERN French texts, nonetheless provide a rich texted. Only two have a Latin duplum melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic palette and French triplum. The majority, fif forthe extraordinary voices of the Hilliard teen, feature two French texts, while the LIGHTS Ensemble. 1 The ensemble's recording of rest are in Latin. Machaut favored CHORAL f ES'I7IVAL eighteen of the twenty-three known works plainchant tenors, since only one of the in this genre (a twenty-fourth exists, but French motets has a secular French tenor its attribution is spurious), is exemplary ( Tant doucement m'ont attrait - Eins que and should delight both the medieval ma dame - Ruina, no. 13, performed on scholar and the casual listener. this recording at track 10). All the motets The life of Guillaume de Machaut is make use of the Ars Nova technique of synonymous with the spirit of the Ars isorhythm, and Machaut's skill as a struc Nova and the creeping secularism that turalist shows through his use of hocker, informed the fourteenth-century Catho obvious cadences and sequences that high lic Church. Machaut moved with appar light the beginnings and endings of the ent ease in religious and secular circles, taLea. with his name firstappearing as secretary The brief overview-Machaut's motets to King John of Bohemia, who secured contain far more complexities than can Machaut a canonicate at the Reims be addressed here-serves simply to key Cathedral (1340). Machaut seems to have the listener into the brilliance of the per had a flexible arrangement with the formances presented here by the Hilliard church (canons were to sing at Officeand Ensemble. The individual voices (counter in a minimum number of masses per tenors David James and David Gould; year),2 for he continued to accompany tenors Roger Covey-Crump and Steven King John on his travels, and afterJohn's Harrold; and baritone Gordon Jones) death in 1346, was attached to such royal blend wondrously, yet each strand of tex households as King Charles of Navarre ture shines through, even in the thicker (Charles the Bad) and King Charles V of four-voice works. Tuning is impeccable, France, all the while maintaining his rela rendering Machaut's dissonances particu tionship with the Cathedral. That larly satisfying.The motets present rhyth Machaut foundsecular lifefar more satis mic challenges, particularly in making fyingthan religious service is evident from clear the isorhythmic structure. Machaut his extensive poetry, which focuseson the employs devices that aid the listener, and pleasures of life outside the church, and the ensemble wisely allows Machaut's his secular compositions far outnumber compositional skill to guide the perfor his sacred works. mance, rather than highlighting exces- CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 77 elude liner notes, it was impossible to by ear alone whether the tenor was sung NOTES evaluate the group's decisions regarding with text or not, because the acoustical ' Richard Hoppin, Medieval Music (New York: texting of the tenor, or their choice of considerations of the recording and the W.W.Norton, 1978), 411. which motets to exclude (nos. 1, 6, 12, long note values of the tenor. As with any 2 Ibid., 397. 14, and 17). The scholarly decisions of motet, text declamation is an issue. The 1 Paris, Bibl. Nat., f. fr. 1584. Interestingly, the Hilliard Ensemble have always been text was hard to follow in this recording, the musical compositions are presented solid in the past, but it was difficult to tell particularly without benefit of a printed only after all of Machaut's poetry, leaving text or translations, but this was more the us to question which he considered his fault of the genre than of the ensembles most important. For an overview of the work. Individual melodic lines were in manuscript contents, see Hoppin, p. 400. Elizabethan Dinner Dinner Scripts Scripts credibly clear. Although the repertoire featured on this recording might be obscure for many Villancicos y Danzas Criollas de • 2525 pagespages of of dialogue dialogue listeners, it certainly merits attention and la Iberia Antigua al Nuevo Mundo • MusicMusic SuggestionsSuggestions carefully considered performance. The 1550-1750 • Humorous Jester Hilliard Ensemble gives it through per La Capella Reial de Catalunya / • Singer Introduction & Roasting formances that are as entrancing as they Hesp rion XXI, Jordi Savall (cond.) • Lorde's Greeting are hauntingly beautiful. Listeners should 2003 Alia Vox: AV 9834 (series La Cost: $125 pay particular attention to the group's Ruta del Nuevo Mundo, vol. 1) work on motets 2 and 16. This recording 77'03" For more information, call Cornell is recommended highly to scholars of me Runestad, 402.375.1968. To order, dieval music or to anyone else who sim send payment & e-mail address to ply receives pleasure from such purity of of this collection as "Creole Eric Runestad, 525 S. Harvest Ln, approach to sound. ONE could Songs andtranslate Dances from Old the title Sun Prairie, WI 53590. Script sent Spain to the New World," but then cru by e-mail in Word or PDF. Vicki Stroeher cial distinctions would be lost. Criolla can Elizabethan Dinner Scripts Huntington, WV refer to anything Latin American. Innsbruck Rome Sacred International Children's International Choral Festival at Music Festival Choral Festival Canterbury Cathedral Artistic Director Artistic Directors Artistic Directors Dr. Eph Ehly & RenéRene Clausen Dr. Z. Randall Stroope Alan Heatherington & Mr. Bob Chilcott June 2929 -- JulyJuly 4,4, 20052005 June 18-22, 2005 June 26-29, 2005 Join a combined choir of 500 Featuring the Mozart Requiem voices in performance of the Festival Chorus performs in the accompanied by the Verdi Requiem at the Chiesa del Nave of the Canterbury Cathedral. Salzburg Mozarteum Gesù,Gesu, accompanied by the Nova Individual choirs may perform in both the Quire and the Nave. Orchestra Amadeus Orchestra of Rome. Music Celebrations International - Concert Tours with Integrity 1440 S. Priest Dr., #102 - Tempe, AZ 85281 - 1.800.395.2036 - www.musiccelebrations.com 78 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL.45 ISSUE 1.