BRIGHTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017

PLAINSONG TO POLYPHONY

BREMF Consort of Voices

Deborah Roberts director

The Lacock Scholars Greg Skidmore director BREMF Consort of Voices, The Lacock Scholars PLAINSONG TO POLYPHONY

St Bartholomew’s Church, 7.30pm

Saturday 28th October Event 11 THE PROGRAMME THE MUSIC

Should you wish to applaud, please only do so at the end of each half of the concert

Processional chant Alternatim Josquin des Prez 1450–1521 England and the Sarum rite A solis ortus cardine (hymn for the Nativity) Nymphes de bois (Déploration de Johannes Jacob Obrecht 1457–1505 Ockeghem) Sarum chant Organum Salve Regina Kyrie trope: Orbis factor Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, Cantus firmus:Grant them rest O Lord and Creator of the world, eternal king, have Anon c.900 our sweetness and our hope. let perpetual light shine upon them. mercy on us. Sancte Bonifati (first piece of notated We cry to you, poor banished children of polyphony) Eve. We sigh, mourning and weeping in Wood-nymphs and goddesses of the Robert Fayrfax 1464–1521 Saint Boniface glorious martyr of Christ… this valley of tears. Turn, most gracious fountains, skilled singers of every nation, Magnificat Regale advocate, your merciful eyes toward us turn your voices to cries and lamentation, My soul does magnify the Lord. Léonin fl.1150s–?1201 and after this our exile, show unto us the that the earth must cover Ockeghem, the Haec dies blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. true treasurer of music. Put on the clothes c.1505–1585 This is the day O kind, loving and sweet Virgin Mary. of mourning, Josquin, Pierre de la Rue, Dum transisset Sabbatum Brumel, Compère, and weep great tears When the Sabbath was past, Mary Pérotin fl.1200 Chant from your eyes, for you have lost your good Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Viderunt omnes Regina caeli father. May he rest in peace. Amen. James, and Salome brought sweet spices All the ends of the earth have seen the Queen of heaven rejoice, alleluia. to anoint him. Alleluia. salvation of our God. For He whom you bore is risen, alleluia. Jean Richafort c.1480–c.1547 Kyrie from Requiem (in memoriam Josquin Processional chant The motet style Heinrich Isaac 1450–1517 Desprez) Salus aeterna (sequence for the first Regina caeli Sunday in Advent) Guillaume de Machaut c.1300–1377 Jacobus Vaet 1529–1567 Saviour eternal, life of the world unfailing... Kyrie from Messe de nostre Dame INTERVAL Continuo lacrimas (elegy on the death of Clemens non Papa) Tallis Fauxbourdon Spem in alium 1495– c.1560 Cantus firmus: as above I have never put my hope in any other but Regina caeli a 12 Guillaume Dufay c.1397–1474 you, O God of Israel. Ave maris stella (alternatim with chant) Pour out in a continuous flow your tears, Chant and the Requiem Hail star of the sea. singers, for the praise and glory of your (Paraphrase and Cantus firmus) choir has departed. Too inclement is the Isorhythm violence of Fate, which refuses to spare Johannes Ockeghem 1410/1425–1497 so clement a one harsh blows. But all- Introit from Missa pro defunctis John Dunstable c.1390–1453 powerful God Himself will help Clement to Grant them rest O Lord and let perpetual Veni sancte spiritus conquer death, whom death has laid low. light shine upon them. Come Holy Spirit / Come creator Spirit…

3 THE MUSIC THE MUSIC

Any trip through more than 500 years dove. Basically, and oversimplifying a lot, Fast forwarding to the 12th century and of music is going to leave a lot out! The most of the melodies we still use today had the Notre Dame school of composers How did polyphonic music start? When history of polyphony is highly complex and been notated by the 9th or 10th centuries. represented by Léonin and Pérotin, we did people realise that different lines full of gaps in our knowledge, especially see that organum had become a highly It is a truism to say that what we know when it comes to performance practice sophisticated form. The chant is written in of music could work together to create about history depends upon what survives and the techniques of improvisation. It also very long and slow notes with dazzling lines a whole that can vastly exceed the from the past, and that is certainly the differed within various European countries. above it moving at comparatively lightning sum of the parts? Did it even begin Even the plainchant melodies on which case with music. Beautifully bound and illuminated manuscripts are generally all speed. Haec dies is in just two parts and the accidentally when some singers strayed almost all of the earlier polyphony was chant line is so stretched out that only the based were far from standardised, nor were the music that survived from medieval from their single line of plainchant and times, for in the days before the mass notes of the first word are actually sung. We the practices of improvised or composed will precede the piece by singing the chant made concordant sounds? We will polyphony that we have grouped under production of paper everyday documents would have been re-used or recycled. It melody of that single word. The slightly probably never know, but even within broadly acknowledged headings. With later Pérotin wrote music in up to four those caveats, we dare to present this is therefore especially exciting when new the last three years, a piece of music discoveries are made. parts, but still with a mostly static chant line survey highlighting just a few pieces from serving more as a drone. Viderunt omnes is clearly in two parts has been discovered a truly massive repertoire, and will try to The earliest harmonisations of chant an extensive piece with three fast moving dating back to the 10th century, at provide here a few guidelines to help your melodies, known as organum would polyphonic lines changing syllable so rarely ears pick out the golden thread of ancient least 100 years earlier than anything originally have been improvised. In its that in the whole of the first section only chant melodies woven throughout. earliest form organum consisted in just two words are sung. In order to get through previously known. Tonight’s concert will What is the origin of chant itself? The adding an extra voice one fifth or fourth more of the text, verses in plainsong look at some of the earliest polyphony, singing of sacred texts could well date from the chant melody. Eventually the alternate with the polyphony. all of it based on plainsong melodies, back to the earliest Christian churches and second voice became more independent but no written examples had been found Guillaume de Machaut, active in the 14th and take a trip through the centuries may even have been influenced by ancient century, was part of a movement known Greek and Jewish practices, but little is dating any earlier than the 11th century illustrating some of the ingenious ways until just three years ago. An Italian PHD as Ars Nova and was the first composer actually known. The history of chant is a from whom a fully composed mass survives. in which ancient chants were woven highly complex tree with different branches student, Giovanni Varelli was working an internship at the British Library when he By this stage rather more attention was into the evolving structures and forms of evolving in different parts of the Christian being paid to word setting and a form that world, but to prune a very long story, what came upon a manuscript that had not been polyphony. From a single line of music, noticed previously, probably because of epitomised that was the motet. In origin, eventually dominated and brought some the word meant little more than a piece in we will work towards a piece that is the strangeness of the notation. Varelli, a standardisation of melodies was known as several parts with often different texts or not based on any chant melody at all, Gregorian chant. Whether or not Pope notation expert, recognised this as two- part music with no stave, dating from the even languages, frequently set over a tenor Thomas Tallis’s extraordinary 40-part Gregory I, reigning in the late 6th century, line ‘holding’ the chant. In his mass Machaut had anything to do with the melodies is early 10th century. This is not just a string motet Spem in alium. of parallel intervals, but independent parts. used two styles of writing: the more flowing debated, but images portray him receiving conductus with much parallel movement them from the Holy Spirit in the form of a

4 5 THE MUSIC THE MUSIC

and rapid declamation of the text, used Dunstable sits very much on the cusp of composed settings right up to modern Jacobus Vaet, writing more than a more in the longer movements such as the the early Renaissance showing not only times. The Missa pro defunctis of Ockeghem generation later used the same technique Gloria and Credo, and a more elaborate and a building of complexity, but also an is thought to be the earliest polyphonic and Introit chant in his own elegy on the rhythmically complex style taken from the increase in the potential number of vocal setting to survive. It uses a paraphrase death of Clemens non Papa in 1555/6, motet. The Kyrie is a good example of this. parts. In the next generation of composers, of the chant melody set very audibly in the Continuo lacrimas. Born in the Netherlands, this became far more common, as did top line and the other voices make much Vaet eventually worked as a much-valued By the time we reach the 15th century, a more free way of incorporating chant use of parallel fauxbourdon writing. The Kapellmeister to the Emperor Maximilian plainchant is embedded in ever more diverse melodies into polyphony. Almost exact scoring varies within different sections and II. He is not yet a familiar name, but as ways. Fauxbourdon has much in common contemporaries, Obrecht and Isaac belong movements, from two to four parts, but the this year marks the 450th anniversary of with organum in that the vocal parts to a school of composition known broadly Introit is in three parts throughout. his death, more attention is finally being move mostly in parallel, but in this case in as Franco-Flemish. This style of dense and paid to an unjustly neglected and very fourths and sixths. Dufay’s Ave maris stella That same haunting chant from the Introit, richly textured polyphony originating in fine composer. Completing the connection is a prime example, with an exact fourth ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine’, Northern Europe was to dominate musical between requiems and elegies, Richafort’s between the two upper parts, while the (‘Grant them eternal rest O Lord’) was also tastes throughout Europe until well into 6-voice Requiem is dedicated to the lowest voice generally sings a sixth below used as a cantus firmus in two other the 16th century. Obrecht’s Salve Regina memory of Josquin, probably his own the middle part. In this hymn, there is no works performed this evening, both of is in six parts and also alternates verses of former teacher. direct chant line, but the melody of the top which are elegies on the death of famous this Marian antiphon between chant and two lines hints strongly at the chant, which and much-loved composers. Josquin’s Finally, we come to a version of Gregorian polyphony. There is no one cantus firmus we hear sung alternatim between the Nymphes de bois, also known as ‘La chant that was special to pre-Reformation or chant line, but instead fragments of the polyphonic verses. Déploration de Johannes Ockeghem’ paid England, the music of the Sarum rite: chant, especially the opening phrase, are tribute to his friend and predecessor, the Another important form or structure in quoted in all voice parts. Another Marian ‘Among the churches of the whole ‘treasurer of music’ at St Martin’s Basilica medieval music was isorhythm, in which world, the Church of Sarum hath shone antiphon, the five-voice Regina caeli by in Tours, who died in 1497. Ockeghem a chant phrase, or just a rhythm usually in resplendent like the sun in his full orb, Isaac, also treats the chant in a similar himself had earlier paid a similar tribute the tenor voice, is repeated throughout the in respect of its divine service, and its way while not including any verses of pure to the older composer, Binchois, inserting piece. In English composer John Dunstable’s ministers.’ chant. We begin the second half with a Latin-texted requiem chant melodies into a Veni sancte spiritus, the tenor chant line is 12-voice setting also of Regina caeli, this French song in his ‘Mort tu as navré de ton Bishop Giles de Bridport, 1256 at the bottom of the texture and repeats the time by another Franco-Flemish composer, dart’. The text of Josquin’s elegy, written second phrase of the chant for the hymn Originally the liturgy that was practised at Gombert. Writing in so many parts led to a by Jehan Molinet, calls upon a number of Veni creator spiritus, which also provides the Salisbury Cathedral, the Sarum rite spread far more simple and direct style with much contemporary composers: Pierre de la Rue, text for the contratenor part. The top two to many parts of Britain and Ireland until chordal music but still with fragments of this Brumel, Compère and Josquin himself to parts sing two different versions of the text it was abolished with the establishment of well-known chant audible in all parts. join the nymphs and goddesses in weeping for the sequence Veni sancte spiritus, but at the English church and Book of Common The chant melodies from the Mass for the great tears. the same time, the musical material for the Prayer. While most of the chants are very Dead, or Requiem, are especially familiar top line is based on the Veni creator hymn! similar to their Roman counterparts, there as they have been often incorporated into are distinct differences and practices.

6 7 THE MUSIC Saturday 4th November, 8pm St George’s Church

One such was the troping of Kyries. Pre- would all end with the Reformation, or Reformation English polyphonic settings of would it? CARISSIMI’S JEPHTE: the Mass never included a Kyrie; instead, Thomas Tallis lived to be 80 years old and a plainsong version would be embellished served under four different monarchs. APPROACHING THE ORATORIO with extra text inserted, and often As an ardent Catholic he also survived, elaborate melodies. Orbis factor is one of and even thrived under Protestant rule, the best known of these. The existence composing some of the earliest music for of many tropes and elaborate chants in the new English rite. When Queen Mary Musica Poetica the Sarum chant repertoire may have came to the throne, he was once again free influenced the way polyphony evolved in to compose for the Catholic religion, and Britain, for by the late 15th and early 16th Lucy Knight and Jenni Harper sopranos his setting of Dum transisset Sabbatum, century it was quite unlike anything heard with its chant cantus firmus lying in the on the Continent. Another critical factor Ciara Hendrick mezzo soprano soaring treble register, probably dates from was the existence of choir schools and the this period. What is perhaps surprising Peter Davoren and Graham Neal tenors extensive training of boy choristers. As the is that he even continued to write Latin result, the overall compass, or gamut, of polyphony when the Church of England Christopher Webb bass-baritone much English music could be extended to was restored under Queen Elizabeth. Spem 22 or even 23 notes. Boys’ voices were in alium is not based on any chant. It was Toby Carr lute also divided into high trebles and lower quite possibly composed in response to meanes, thus providing a resonant alto Jan Zahourek violone a challenge laid by the Duke of Arundel line without the need for falsettists. Robert for an English composer to rival a 40- Fayrfax was composing during the reign Oliver John Ruthven director, organ, harpsichord part work by Alessandro Striggio, which of Henry VIII, and his Magnificat Regale had been performed in England in 1567. would presumably have been composed Tallis’s work, surely the ultimate piece of for a state occasion, perhaps even the polyphony, returns to the glorious tapestry Continue your journey through the development of vocal music with famous treaty/meeting between the Kings sound world of the pre-Reformation. There former BREMF Live! young artists Musica Poetica’s exploration of the roots of France and England at the Field of the are moments of block harmony, but they Cloth of Gold in 1520. English polyphony of the oratorio. stand out strikingly amidst the dazzling from this period has an almost wild quality, texture of 40 truly independent and fully with fewer formal structures, such as polyphonic lines like tall pillars against the canon, so popular in mainland Europe. delicate tracery of a Gothic window. Includes motets and cantatas by de Wert, Cozzolani, Francesca Caccini and There are certainly hints of imitation between voices but overall it is freely Deborah Roberts Frescobaldi and culminates in Carissimi’s poignantly beautiful Jephte. composed with a lot of melisma, or runs of decorative notes on a single syllable. This

8 9 THE PERFORMERS THE PERFORMERS

BREMF Consort of Voices BREMF Consort Tenors Deborah turned to choral directing 20 years ago Tenors of Voices (BCV) was founded in 2010 as a Nick Boston, Nicolas Chisholm, Richard and is now actively involved with her regular Will Wright, Joe Steadman, James Cormack, high quality amateur/student ensemble of solo Davis*, Peter Larcombe, Mitch Phillips*, choirs, BREMF Consort of Voices and Celestial Jason Field Sirens, and also as a visiting tutor on many and consort voices. The group is dedicated James Pittman*, Graeme Smith, Tom Whalley, Basses summer schools and courses. to exploring the enormous repertoire of Timothy Wilcox* Sam Poppleton, Dominic Oldfield renaissance and early baroque polyphonic music Basses In her home on the Brighton sea front she has and making it more widely accessible through lacockscholars.org Michael Bishop*, Terry Cannon*, George to resist spending the whole day looking out of imaginative staging and use of space. In 2015 Fitzsimons*, John Gillies, Reuben James, Tony the window at the sea. She also owns a rather They are led by Greg Skidmore, one of their BREMF concert featuring the Vespers Jay, Jason Jeffries, Simon Madge, Andrew wonderful house in the medieval town of Triora, the UK’s leading baritones, who is busy as a of nun composer Cozzolani, for which they Robinson*, Maurice Shipsey in the Ligurian Alps. Here she organises regular soloist and consort performer. He brings his provided choir and soloists, was broadcast on music courses for singers and instrumentalists. experience of working with groups such as BBC Radio 3. Last year they were brave enough * Tallis Spem in alium and Gombert Regina , I Fagiolini, and Alamire as to take part in our festival ‘creation’ Gaia! caeli only well as regularly leading workshops and giving As well as regular appearances at BREMF and masterclasses. Together, Greg and The Lacock in other local festivals and venues, the choir Deborah Roberts graduated from Nottingham Originally formed from a group of young Scholars have found a unique approach in their promotes a regular series of concerts in St University with an MA in editing and performing participants on Lacock Courses, workshops series of monthly concerts in London, exploring Paul’s Church, West Street. Although there renaissance and baroque music. She has led by the early music world’s top conductors the relationship between concert performance is a core of around 20-25 singers, BCV can remained mildly obsessed with research and the and practitioners, The Lacock Scholars is and liturgical observance in partnership with be expanded in order to perform large scale discovery of new repertoire and performance dedicated to a cappella consort singing of one of London’s hidden gem churches, St ‘architectural’ works. styles ever since. . It is among Britain’s few Cuthbert and St Matthias in Earl’s Court, true amateur consorts, exploring the intimacy lavishly decorated in the Arts and Crafts style. As a long term member of The Tallis Scholars, Their next concert on 2nd December, Veni and technical sophistication vocal chamber They seek to create unified, holistic experiences Deborah performed with them in over 1,200 redemptor gentium, will feature rousing music requires. It provides its members, all of for their audiences, free from applause and concerts in many weird and wonderful places Advent music from the German-speaking world whom are recent participants in the English other interruptions, in which listeners are free around the world and in countless recordings along with mulled wine, fizz, mince pies and choral tradition of cathedral and chapel choir to approach the music and architecture on their of rare and beautiful renaissance music... Stollen. singing, a musical environment that sustains own terms. something for which she will always be grateful. and builds on the high standards present in our Sopranos She also sang with many other early music gregskidmore.co.uk top universities. Claire Ashton, Emily Burn, Helen Dewhurst, ensembles and as a soloist, encountering Elizabeth Kelly, Briony Lambert*, Emily wonderful and inspiring musicians along the Sopranos Meredith, Karen Rash way. Catherine Shaw, Annabel Church, Soumaya Keynes, Abigail Ellison Altos In 2002 she co-founded BREMF, with Clare Elspeth Barnett, Maria Birch, Sebastian Blue Norburn, and now hardly has a moment to Altos Pin, Janet Gascoine, Gill Kay*, Bibi Lees, Silvia herself! Tom Jordan, Mayuko Tanno, Jess Clark-Jones Reseghetti, Natasha Stone*, Liz Webb

10 11 Friday 3rd November, 8pm St Paul’s Church

ROOTS, SHOOTS AND CELESTIAL FLOWERS

Musica Secreta Hannah Ely soprano Nancy Cole and Katharine Hawnt mezzo sopranos Caroline Trevor alto Alison Kinder bass viol Claire Williams organ

Celestial Sirens

Deborah Roberts and Laurie Stras directors

Tracing the rise of the great convent choirs of Italy in music from the 15th and 16th centuries celebrating the Virgin Mary. Includes Gregorian chant plus polyphony by Josquin, Gombert and Willaert and extraordinary music probably composed by Lucrezia Borgia’s daughter, Leonora d’Este, as featured on Musica Secreta’s latest recording. ‘Unrelentingly beautiful and fully captivating throughout’ Gramophone

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