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Home , Claude Le Jeune, Infelix ego, William Byrd

SCATTERED ASHES Josquin’s and the Savonarolan Legacy

Directed by Philip Cave SCATTERED ASHES Josquin’s Miserere and the Savonarolan Legacy Directed by Philip Cave

Josquin des Prez (c.1450–1521) q Miserere mei, Deus ...... 17:33 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525–1594) w Tribularer, si nescirem ...... 9:55 (c.1528/30–1600) e Tristitia obsedit me ...... 5:51 (c.1530/2–1594) r ...... 8:44 Jean Lhéritier (c.1480–c.1552) t Miserere mei, Domine ...... 9:20 (c.1495–c.1560) y In te, Domine, speravi ...... 9:29 Jacobus Clemens non Papa (1510/15–1555/6) u Tristitia obsedit me ...... 10:15

William Byrd (c.1540–1623) i Infelix ego ...... 12:58

Total Running Time: 84 minutes

2 Recorded at St George’s Church, Summertown, , UK, 19–23 January 2015 Produced and recorded by Philip Hobbs Post-production by Julia Thomas Cover image Portrait of Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo By permission of Bridgeman Images Design by gmtoucari.com

3 Photograph by Ralph by Williamson Photograph

4 Josquin’s Miserere and the Savonarolan Legacy

Dateline: , 23 May 1498. The Dominican friar , who had been convicted of heresy, was hanged and burned this morning in front of a large crowd in the Piazza della Signoria. When the embers of the fire had cooled, the officials scattered his ashes into the River Arno in order to prevent the friar’s followers from collecting them and using them as relics to heal the sick and perform miracles. Luca Landucci, Florentine shopkeeper This brief summary of Landucci’s eyewitness account of Savonarola’s execution evokes an event that sparked a sensation across Europe. The friar, born and raised in Ferrara, joined the Dominican order in Bologna, and then experienced a few years of spectacular success in Florence with impassioned sermons that called for religious, political and social reform. Printers issued copies of his sermons, devotional writings and prophecies, and they disseminated them throughout the continent. Dukes and kings took note of his prophecies. The friar railed against the corruption of Pope Alexander VI (Borgia), and when the pope retaliated with excommunication, many Florentines abandoned Savonarola’s cause. While in prison awaiting execution, he wrote a lengthy meditation on Psalm 50 (), Miserere mei, Deus, and began work on another on Psalm 30, In te, Domine, speravi. His followers smuggled these writings out of his prison cell, and had them printed all over Europe. Reformers such as read them with approval. The Latin on this recording span the decades from 1500 to about 1580, and several of them set the opening words of Savonarola’s prison

5 meditations. The motets titled Infelix ego (‘Unhappy I’) by Orlande de Lassus and are settings of the opening of the friar’s meditation on Psalm 50. Motets titled Tristitia obsedit me (‘Sadness has besieged me’) by Jacobus Clemens non Papa and Claude Le Jeune provide music for the first part of the meditation on Psalm 30. Clemens also incorporates part of the meditation on Psalm 50 at the end of his . This is just a sampling of settings of Savonarola’s meditations: three composers associated with the Este court at Ferrara (Willaert, Rore and Vicentino) also set Infelix ego to music. Other lesser-known composers in France and Germany also made musical settings, including Simon Joly and Jacob Reiner. The 1490s ushered in more than half a century of wars and religious strife in Europe; duelling armies from France and the Holy Roman Empire marched across the Italian peninsula. Revolt against the broke out in northern Europe, and in 1527 the unpaid German mercenaries of the emperor mercilessly sacked Rome. In this time of extreme disorder, the meditations of Savonarola must have provided comfort and consolation. In the meditation on Psalm 50 the friar hovers on the brink of despair, then rejects it emphatically and calls on the mercy of God to deliver him. Military imagery comes to the fore in the meditation on Psalm 30: the allegorical figure of Sadness fights against the friar with banners of her armies flying, but the figure of Joy arrives and instructs him to cry out: ‘In you, Lord, have I put my trust; let me never be confounded’. In his sermons, Savonarola often lashed out against the worldly vanity of religious worship, including elaborate polyphonic music. He claimed that such music merely charmed the senses – the ears of listeners – and the overlapping melodies made it impossible to hear the words. Thus elaborate music prevented meditation on the meaning of the sacred texts. In one sermon he

6 excoriated : ‘These create a roaring sound, because there stands a big-voiced singer who sounds like a calf and the others howl around him like dogs, and one can’t make out a word they are saying’. The friar promoted the performance of a simpler kind of music that made the words clearly audible: Latin in , as well as the sacred lauda in Italian (Savonarola himself wrote texts for several laude). But, in one of the ironies of history, many composers selected the friar’s own prison meditations for treatment in gloriously expressive polyphony. One can only imagine how the puritanical friar would have reacted to such complex musical settings of his words. And yet the words do emerge clearly in many of these motets: the composers highlight the texts with rhetorical emphasis through repetition and with clearly shaped melodies. By around 1500 the motet had eclipsed the polyphonic Mass as a focus of compositional energy: motets began to vastly outnumber Masses, and many of their texts shifted from corporate pleading (‘pray for us’) to the more immediate first person (‘have mercy on me’). The texts of the provided perfect vehicles for this new personal emphasis, and was among the first to set complete psalms to music, as in his monumental motet Miserere mei, Deus. Josquin’s career oscillated between sojourns in France and the courts of Italy. After training in northern France and Provence in the 1460s and 1470s, he moved to Milan and then to Rome as a singer in the Sistine Chapel in the 1480s and 1490s. He returned to France around 1495. By 1503 his services were in high demand, and Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, negotiated a contract for one year – but only after offering an enormous salary. According to the poet Folengo, Josquin composed his setting of Psalm 50 at the duke’s request. The devoutly religious duke was a supporter of Savonarola, and in

7 1498 Ferrara witnessed the first printed edition of the friar’s meditation on this psalm. In his meditation, the desperate friar reiterates the opening words ‘Miserere mei, Deus’ several times; Josquin likewise turns these words into a refrain that returns at the end of each verse in a rhetorical manner hitherto unseen in the genre of the motet. The melodic subject at the opening is simple in the extreme: a single reiterated note leads to an upward inflection by just a semitone on the word ‘Deus’. The music proceeds in airy textures for two voices, and these alternating pairs of voices lead to powerful sections for all five parts, often in chordal homophony in which all the voices declaim the text together. Only at the refrain on ‘Miserere mei, Deus’ does the fifth voice (a second tenor) join the ensemble for added emphasis. This fifth voice provides an armature for the other voices by singing the monotone subject, at each entry, on successively lower steps of the scale: first on tenor E, then a tone lower on D, then on C, etc. In the second part of the motet, the direction reverses and the tenor ascends the scale. In the third part, the tenor again descends the pitches of the scale. The words are crystal clear, and the friar, had he lived, could hardly have found fault with the music. The Este court in Ferrara evinced particular interest in Savonarola’s meditation on Psalm 50 in the and 1550s. The composers Willaert, Rore and Vicentino were all associated with the court, and each provided a lengthy musical setting of the opening words of Savonarola’s meditation, Infelix ego. Furthermore, they incorporated the music of Josquin’s austere monotone subject, ‘Miserere mei, Deus’, as a recurring cry in an inner voice, with each entry on a different pitch of the scale. In this way, the three composers made explicit a connection between Savonarola’s meditation and Josquin’s Miserere, a link merely suggested by the circumstantial evidence of the commission in 1503 of Josquin’s motet by Duke Ercole. Further possible patronage of

8 Savonarolan motets by the duke’s grandson, Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este, will be suggested below. The music theorist Heinrich Glarean esteemed the music of Josquin and his contemporaries as a ‘perfect art’, and he thereby posed a dilemma for the next generation of composers active from the 1520s to the 1540s: how does one improve on perfection? Composers such as Jean Lhéritier, Nicolas Gombert and Jacobus Clemens responded by filling in some of the diaphanous textures of music from Josquin’s generation. They wrote denser polyphony in which the voices enter in a series of imitative statements and then continue to sing throughout the rest of the work, with very few pauses for breath. The music theorist Hermann Finck commented favourably on this development, and singled out Gombert for praise: ‘[He] has shown all musicians the way… For he shuns rests, and his compositions use full harmonies in general, and imitative textures in particular’. Greater density of texture inevitably produced friction among the parts, and consequently occasional harsh dissonances can be heard at the ends of phrases of text. These dissonances help to articulate the sections of text within the dense melodic flow. Lhéritier may have been a student of Josquin in the early 1500s, and from 1506 to about 1530 he enjoyed a career at various Italian courts, including Ferrara, Rome, Mantua and Verona. After 1530 he served the Cardinal of Clermont, probably in Avignon and Rome. In the years before 1530 Lhéritier composed his six-voice motet Miserere mei, Domine, whose initial melody echoes Josquin’s Miserere: Lhéritier opens with a single repeated note that leads to an ascending semitone inflection, as in the opening of Josquin’s work. While Lhéritier makes no overt reference to Savonarola, the penitential mood of the music, as well as the verses from Psalm 50 in the second part, mark this work as a descendant of Josquin’s motet. Lhéritier structures his motet around

9 an armature of two inner voices, who sing in canon on a separate text, ‘Da pacem, Domine’. These two inner voices are not readily apparent, and are thus less rhetorical than the highly audible refrains in Josquin’s motet. Lhéritier does signal the first entry of this inner canon through striking declamation in the outer voices for the words ‘sana me Domine’. Gombert’s motet on the opening six verses of Psalm 30, In te, Domine, speravi, also bears no overt relation to Savonarola, aside from the fact that the friar based one of his prison meditations on this text. Gombert served the Emperor Charles V (who was also King of Spain) in the 1520s and ; he travelled constantly with the emperor’s , which accompanied the peripatetic ruler from Madrid to Barcelona, from Bologna to Tunis and back to Rome, and to the Netherlands. Around 1539 the composer met misfortune when the emperor sentenced him to the galleys on the high seas for violating a choirboy in his charge; but after a few years of exile he received pardon and retired as a canon at Tournai cathedral. His setting of Psalm 30 creates a constant flow of imitative entries: Gombert leaves no room for rhetorical moments of chordal declamation. Once the music gets underway, it unfolds with unstoppable, energetic momentum. The penitential text could address Gombert’s own human frailty, or it could equally well have been used for services in the emperor’s chapel. In the liturgy, these first six verses of Psalm 30 occur in the final office of the day, , sung just before retiring for the night. The concluding verse is particularly apt: ‘Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my spirit: you have redeemed me, Lord God of truth’. Clemens’s music shares Gombert’s sense of inexorable forward motion. Little is known of his career, beyond a short time in Bruges in the 1540s, a few months in 1550 in ’s-Hertogenbosch, then an early death in the 1550s (he had a reputation for heavy drinking). He composed over 200 motets, which

10 circulated widely in the Netherlands and Germany. His motet Tristitia obsedit me, published in Antwerp in 1553, is a setting for four voices that draws on both of Savonarola’s prison meditations, first the one on Psalm 30, then that on Psalm 50. He obsessively repeats phrases of text, and the opening section vividly creates the friar’s state of mind as he endlessly replays images of friends who have rejected him, as well as the sins that oppress him. Only in the second part of the work does the sense of doom begin to lift: the friar hovers on the brink of despair, then emphatically rejects it: ‘absit’ (‘let it not be’). The music drops to a whisper as he prepares to cast himself on the mercy of the Lord. He finally arrives at the pleading words of the Psalm: ‘Miserere mei, Deus’. Here he audibly refers to Josquin’s monotone subject for the same words. Le Jeune, Palestrina and Lassus all belong to the generation of composers active from the 1550s to the 1590s. They represent three European capitals, Le Jeune in , Palestrina in Rome and Lassus in . Like Clemens, Le Jeune provided a musical setting for the opening of Savonarola’s meditation on Psalm 30, Tristitia obsedit me, but he selected completely different phrases from it. Little is known of Le Jeune’s biography before the , but the possibility arises that he composed his motet for a patron from Ferrara, Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este. Le Jeune converted to the Huguenot cause around 1560, while from 1561 to 1563 Cardinal d’Este served as papal legate to France, with orders to negotiate with Huguenot leaders and return them to the Catholic fold. Civil war between Catholic and Protestant factions erupted in 1562, and Cardinal d’Este departed France in defeat. During his few turbulent years in France, the cardinal may have commissioned the setting of Savonarola’s meditation from Le Jeune. It is a dramatic and vivid evocation of Savonarola’s final meditation: the allegorical figure of Sadness has gathered up an army to lay siege to the penitent friar, and with banners waving she

11 fights mightily against him. The battle rages at the words ‘pugnare non cessat’ (‘she never ceases to fight’), with incessant repetition in thumping military rhythms and repeated notes in the music. Le Jeune also follows the example of Willaert, Rore and Vicentino in their settings of Infelix ego, by incorporating a borrowed melody as a repeating subject. He takes this melody and text from Lupus Hellinck’s motet In te, Domine, speravi. These opening words sound repeatedly in the second cantus voice, always on the same pitch, like a clarion call. The rhythms of the subject are more urgent in the second part, where the voices sing it at twice the original speed. Finally, all voices join in clamorous imitative entries and cry: ‘In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum’. Palestrina, living in Counter- Rome, could hardly risk setting Savonarola’s words to music; rather he set a liturgical text, Tribularer, si nescirem, a for the Office of on the First Thursday of Lent, which he published in 1572. He does, however, give a nod to Josquin’s Miserere: he quotes the monotone melody from that motet as a repeating subject, with entries on ascending and descending pitches of the scale, as in Josquin’s motet. Palestrina also carefully studied the motets of the preceding generation, as can be seen in his Masses that rework the music of motets by Lhéritier and Hellinck, among others. Palestrina’s dense and continuously imitative textures recall those of Gombert, yet the effect of his music is less driven and more luxuriant. His finely turned melodic lines flow smoothly, even suavely, and he avoids the harsh dissonances that are a hallmark of Gombert’s generation. The music promotes quiet contemplation and purges dramatic gestures and dissonances that would break the serene mood. Palestrina worked for Cardinal Ippolito d’Este in the late 1560s, and, given his adoption of Josquin’s melodic subject from Miserere, he may have composed Tribularer, si nescirem for his Ferrarese patron.

12 Lassus was born in Mons (now in southern Belgium) around 1530, and moved in 1544 to Italy for musical training; the young composer came to prominence in Rome in 1553 as chapelmaster of San Giovanni in Laterano. He returned north in 1555 and spent the rest of his long career in Munich as chapelmaster to the dukes of Bavaria. Duke Albrecht, who maintained close ties with Ferrara, must have known the motets by Willaert and Rore on Savonarola’s meditation on Psalm 50; perhaps he requested a setting of Infelix ego, or Lassus took the initiative himself. The composer’s distinctive rhetorical style captures the friar’s desperate state of mind, especially through surprising shifts of harmony. And the third section suggests a single speaking voice with passages of chordal declamation that alternate the full choir with reduced groups of low and high voices. The voices cry out at times, then fall suddenly to a whisper, as in the setting by Clemens, concluding with a final chordal appeal of ‘Miserere mei, Deus’. William Byrd’s Infelix ego represents a culmination of the tradition of setting Savonarola’s meditations to music, and he exceeds his predecessors in both length and intensity of expression. He did not publish it until 1591, in a volume of his motets dedicated to the Catholic nobleman Lord John Lumley, but manuscript sources show that he composed it in the late 1570s. Motets circulated in these manuscripts alongside English songs, and it is likely that sophisticated amateurs performed this repertory as chamber music. Byrd possibly knew the motets on Savonarola’s meditations by Clemens and Lassus, for Lord Lumley owned printed copies of them. Perhaps Byrd’s rhetorical repetition of phrases of text owes something to Clemens; his iridescent shifts of harmony from major to minor recall the music of Lassus. At the end of Byrd’s motet, the familiar words ‘Miserere mei, Deus’ arrive, and here the chordal declamation recalls Josquin’s subject, with the monotone statement and semitone inflection in the top voice. The most extraordinary

13 moment, however, unfolds at ‘misericordiam tuam’, where the voices pour forth wave upon wave of imitative entries and ascend to the heights. This is music of unprecedented power, in or on the continent. As Catholics in Protestant England, Byrd and his co-religionists suffered harassment, and Byrd’s setting of Savonarola’s meditation must have given voice to their sense of persecution, as well as their hope in the Lord’s mercy. © Patrick Macey, 2016

14 Photograph by Ralph by Williamson Photograph

15 Performance Note: Singing Josquin’s Miserere Commentators have referred to Josquin’s Miserere as ‘epic’, ‘massive’, ‘courageous’ and ‘bold’; similarities in stature and significance have been drawn between the music of Josquin and Beethoven. Certainly on the grounds of length alone, this setting, almost 425 bars long, sits among the heavyweights. Josquin’s setting may seem large scale from the outside, and the style of his musical lines can at times be intimidating; but from the inside, Josquin’s musical architecture, and his sensitivity to the text, combine to produce a work of astonishing delicacy, with kaleidoscopic twists and turns, rich and subtle use of texture and variety exploiting and illustrating the text with a heartfelt empathy. Singing Josquin’s Miserere is a challenging and thrilling experience. The outer parts are complex and varied, requiring both control over long-breathed phrases with leaps and wide ranges, and agility in more soloistic sections. The middle voice holds the repeated plainsong-like incantations of ‘Miserere mei, Deus’, and simple though its notes are, it plays a vital structural and unifying role. Patrick Macey’s note tells of the inspiration for Josquin’s setting and its link with Savonarola, and Macey has suggested that the work was not only composed at the behest of Josquin’s musical patron, Duke Ercole, but that the duke (a keen singer) may have sung one of the parts himself. The ‘’ part covers about an octave, and perhaps this was the duke’s part: there would have been less likelihood of royal embarrassment or vocal difficulty than there might be in singing one of the other parts, which cover an octave and a half or more. Much of the Miserere text is delivered in tightly imitative two-part writing – a technique that reappears in several of Josquin’s later psalm-settings – with contrasting fuller passages containing static, chant-like repetition. The figure ‘Miserere mei, Deus’, for example, is barely more than a monotone with ‘hypnotic rumination around the same circling figure’ creating ‘extraordinary

16 intensification’ (Macey). By the simplest means, Josquin holds our attention and draws us into his music, into the mood of the text. Though not present in any rubric, there is an inherent imperative to give the more elaborate verse sections (all scored with a reduced number of voices) to solo voices, and to use the full ensemble for the ‘Miserere mei, Deus’ sections, most of which are scored for the full complement of five parts. This scheme allows the singers freedom to narrate their parts and interact with each other in verse sections that demonstrate Josquin’s subtle and expressive writing, then to combine in the more solid, structural passages. Josquin’s masterful writing demands a measured and thoughtful response, and for me, giving the singers the opportunity to weave artistic individuality into the fabric is essential.

Even though Savonarola’s ashes were consigned to the waters of the River Arno, his influence did spread far and wide across sixteenth-century Europe. His meditations exhibit both despair and redemption, themes that, in the hands of the composers represented here, provide the inspiration for musical works of great passion. Josquin’s Miserere lies at the heart of this programme, and the choice of the other pieces was influenced in no small part by Patrick Macey’s book Bonfire Songs – Savonarola’s Musical Legacy. As with Savonarola’s writings, these compositions are both political and personal: they reflect on turbulent times and on people of great conviction and spirit. Their variety of scoring, texture and harmonic language is mirrored in their intensity and attention to detail. We invite you to listen ‘from the inside’, embracing both their power and their subtlety, and to find as much satisfaction in listening as we did in performing these extraordinarily intense works. © Philip Cave, 2016

17 Photograph by Joe Starbuck by Photograph

18 Texts and Translations

Josquin des Prez q Miserere mei, Deus

Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam Have mercy on me, God, according to your misericordiam tuam: great mercy: et secundum multitudinem miserationum and according to the multitude of your mercies, tuarum dele iniquitatem meam. expunge all my sinfulness. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea: Wash me more thoroughly from my iniquity: et a peccato meo munda me. and cleanse me of my sin. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco: For I acknowledge my iniquity: et peccatum meum contra me est semper. and my sinfulness is ever before me. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci: Against you alone have I sinned, and done evil in your sight: ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, so that you are just when you pass sentence and et vincas cum judicaris. carry conviction when you judge. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum: For see, I was born in iniquity: et in peccatis concepit me mater mea. and amid sins did my mother conceive me. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti: For see, you delight in the truth: incerta et occulta sapientiae tuae the secret and hidden ways of wisdom manifestasti mihi. you have shown me. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God.

19 Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor: You will sprinkle me, Lord, with hyssop, and I shall be clean: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. you will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Audi, auditui meo dabis gaudium et laetitiam: To my hearing you will grant sounds of joy and gladness: et exsultabunt ossa humiliata. and the crushed bones shall rejoice. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis: Turn your face away from my sins: et omnes iniquitates meas dele. and wipe away all my iniquities. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Cor mundum crea in me Deus: Create a pure heart in me, God: et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis. and put a new spirit of righteousness into my heart. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Ne proicias me a facie tua: Do not cast me away out of your sight: et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. and do not take your holy spirit away from me. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui: Give me back the joy of your saving help: et spiritu principali confirma me. and confirm in me a pristine spirit. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Docebo iniquos vias tuas: I will teach your ways to sinners: et impii ad te convertentur. and the unholy will turn back to you. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Libera me de sanguinibus, Deus, Free me from the guilt of blood, O God, Deus salutis meae: the God of my salvation: et exsultabit lingua mea justitiam tuam. and my tongue will extol your justice. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God.

20 Domine, labia mea aperies: Lord, open my lips: et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam. and my mouth will declare your praise. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium, For if you had wanted sacrifice, dedissem utique: I would have given it: holocaustis non delectaberis. but you take no delight in holocausts. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus: True sacrifice to God is a spirit that struggles: cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, a contrite and lowly heart, God, non despicies. you will not despise. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Benigne fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Sion: In your good will, Lord, be favourable to Sion: ut aedificentur muri Jerusalem. that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God. Tunc acceptabis sacrificium justitiae, Then you will accept the just sacrifice, oblationes et holocausta: the offerings and the holocausts: tunc imponent super altare tuum vitulos. then will they place young bullocks on your altar. Miserere mei, Deus. Have mercy on me, God.

21 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina w Tribularer, si nescirem

Tribularer, si nescirem misericordias tuas, I should be in distress, if I knew not your mercies, Domine. Lord. Tu dixisti: nolo mortem peccatoris, You have said: I desire not the death of a sinner, sed ut magis convertatur et vivat. but that rather he should turn from his ways and live. Qui Cananaeam et publicanum vocasti You who called the Canaanite woman and the ad poenitentiam. publican to repentance.

Secundum multitudinem dolorum meorum No matter how great the multitude of sorrows in corde meo: in my heart: consolationes tuae laetificaverunt your consolations have given joy to my soul. animam meam. Qui Cananaeam et publicanum vocasti You who called the Canaanite woman and the ad poenitentiam. publican to repentance.

22 Claude Le Jeune e Tristitia obsedit me

Tristitia obsedit me. Sadness has besieged me. Magno et forti exercitu vallavit me, With a great and mighty army she has encompassed me, occupavit cor meum clamoribus has taken possession of my soul with her war cries et armis die noctuque and with force of arms night and day contra me pugnare non cessat. she never ceases to fight against me. Vocabo Dominum; veniet profecto I will call on the Lord; he will come at once nec me confundet. and will not leave me bewildered. Ecce iam venit, See now he has come, gaudium attulit. bringing me joy. Pugnare me docuit He has taught me to fight dixitque mihi: and said to me: ‘Clama ne cesses’. ‘Never cease crying out’. Et aio: ‘Quid clamabo?’ And I replied: ‘What should I cry?’ ‘Dic’, inquit, ‘confidenter ‘Say’, he said, ‘trustingly et ex toto corde: and with all your heart:

In te, Domine, speravi: In you, Lord, have I put my trust: non confundar in aeternum.’ let me never be confounded.’

[Cantus firmus] [Cantus firmus] In te, Domine, speravi. In you, Lord, have I put my trust.

23 Orlande de Lassus William Byrd ri Infelix ego

Infelix ego, omnium auxilio destitutus, Unhappy I, bereft of all succour, qui coelum terramque offendi. who have offended against heaven and earth. Quo ibo? quo me vertam? Whither should I go? Where shall I turn? ad quem confugiam? quis mei miserebitur? To whom can I fly? Who will have pity on me? Ad coelum levare oculos non audeo, To heaven I dare not lift my eyes, quia ei graviter peccavi; for against her I have grievously sinned; in terra refugium non invenio, on earth I find no refuge, quia ei scandalum fui. for I have become an outrage to her.

Quid igitur faciam? desperabo? Absit. What then shall I do? Shall I despair? Let it not be! Misericors est Deus, pius est salvator meus, Merciful is God, loving is my saviour; Solus igitur Deus refugium meum; therefore God alone shall be my refuge; ipse non despiciet opus suum, he will not despise the work of his hands, non repellet imaginem suam. will not reject what he has made in his image.

Ad te igitur, piissime Deus, To you, then, most loving God, tristis ac moerens venio, sad and sorrowing I come, quoniam tu solus spes mea, for you alone are my hope, tu solus refugium meum. You alone my refuge. Quid autem dicam tibi, cum oculos levare But what should I say to you, since I dare not non audeo? raise my eyes? verba doloris effundam, I shall pour out words of sorrow; misericordiam tuam implorabo, et dicam: I shall implore your mercy and shall say: Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam Have mercy on me, God, according to your misericordiam tuam. great mercy.

24 Jean Lhéritier t Miserere mei, Domine

Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam infirmus sum: Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak: sana me Domine, quoniam conturbata sunt heal me, Lord, for I am shaken to the bones. ossa mea.

Et anima mea turbata est valde: And my soul is greatly troubled: sed tu Domine usquequo? but you, Lord, how long [before you come to my aid]?

Ne proicias me a facie tua: Do not cast me away out of your sight: et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. and do not take your holy spirit away from me.

Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui: Give me back the joy of your saving help: et spiritu principali confirma me. and confirm in me a pristine spirit.

[Cantus firmus] [Cantus firmus] Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris. Grant peace, Lord, in our days.

25 Nicolas Gombert y In te, Domine, speravi

In te, Domine, speravi, In you, Lord, have I put my trust, non confundar in aeternum: let me never be left in confusion: in justitia tua libera me. in your justice set me free. Inclina Domine aurem tuam: Lord, turn your ear to my prayer: accelera ut eruas me. make haste to rescue me. Esto mihi in Deum protectorem: Be for me a God who protects et in domum refugii, ut salvum me facias. and a house of refuge, where you may keep me safe. Quoniam fortitudo mea et refugium meum es tu: For you are my strength and my refuge: et propter nomen tuum deduces me and for your name’s sake will guide and et enutries me. nurture me. Educes me de laqueo quem You will draw me out from the snare absconderunt mihi: they have set for me: quoniam tu es protector meus. for you are my protector. In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum Into your hands, Lord, I entrust meum: my spirit: redemisti me, Domine Deus veritatis. you have redeemed me, Lord God of truth.

26 Jacobus Clemens non Papa u Tristitia obsedit me

Tristitia obsedit me; Sadness has besieged me; amici mei sunt in castris eius my friends have gone over to her camp et facti sunt mihi inimici. and have become enemies to me. Quaecunque video, quaecunque audio, Everything I see, everything I hear, vexilla tristitiae deferunt. raises the banners of sadness before me. Memoria amicorum me contristat, The calling to mind of my friends makes me sad, cogitatio peccatorum me premit. the thought of my sins crushes me. Infelix ego, qui coelum terramque offendi. Unhappy I, who have offended against both heaven and earth! Quid igitur faciam? Desperabo? Absit. What, then, shall I do? Shall I despair? Let it not be! Misericors est Deus, pius est salvator meus. Merciful is God, loving is my saviour. Ad te igitur, piissime Deus, To you, therefore, most loving God, tristis ac moerens venio. sad and sorrowing I come. En quaeso: See, I beseech you: Miserere mei, Deus, Have mercy on me, God, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. according to your great mercy.

Translations by Jeremy White, 2016

27 Photograph by Ralph by Williamson Photograph

28 Edition Credits

Josquin: Miserere mei, Deus ed. John Milsom

Palestrina: Tribularer, si nescirem ed. Sally Dunkley

Le Jeune: Tristitia obsedit me ed. Patrick Macey

Lassus: Infelix ego ed. Sally Dunkley

Lhéritier: Miserere mei, Domine ed. Sally Dunkley

Gombert: In te, Domine, speravi ed. Sally Dunkley

Clemens: Tristitia obsedit me ed. Sally Dunkley

Byrd: Infelix ego ed. Sally Dunkley

29 magnificat

Directed by PHILIP CAVE soprano: Amy Haworth, Emma Walshe mean: Sally Dunkley, Alice Gribbin, Kim Porter, tenor: William Blake, Guy Cutting, Steven Harrold, Benedict Hymas baritone: Jonathan Arnold, Ben Davies, Will Dawes, Lawrence White bass: William Gaunt, Giles Underwood

Information about upcoming Magnificat concerts and projects is available at www.magnificat-consort.uk.

30 magnificat Magnificat was formed in 1991 by its conductor, Philip Cave, to explore the rich diversity of choral music from the last five centuries. The ensemble specializes in the restoration and performance of neglected choral masterpieces with particular emphasis on music from post-Reformation England and from late Spain. Magnificat’s focus on Latin-texted music from sixteenth-century England includes The Tudors at Prayer, featuring ’s great Vox patris caelestis, and Where late the sweet birds sang, exploring works by William Byrd, Robert Parsons and . Magnificat’s recording of ’s forty-part motet Spem in alium was hailed as ‘quite the best recording’ by Gramophone. That album also includes the four-part Mass and Latin motets, and was selected as BBC Radio 3’s recommended performance of Tallis’s Lamentations of Jeremiah. Magnificat has released three recordings celebrating the music of composer : Music from the Missae Sex offers the first complete recordings of both the Missa Inclita stirps Jesse and the Missa Philippus Secundus Rex Hispaniae. The ensemble’s recordings of music by Rogier on Linn also feature the Missa Ego sum qui sum and the Missa Domine Dominus noster. The latter recording, accompanied by His Majestys Sagbutts & , casts new light on the Spanish polychoral tradition, and includes the premiere recording of Rogier’s rediscovered twelve-part motet Domine, Dominus noster. Other recordings of music from the Golden Age include an album of motets by Gesualdo, Guerrero, Josquin, Rebelo and Victoria together with Allegri’s Miserere and Palestrina’s Stabat mater, a highly acclaimed recording of Victoria’s Officium Defunctorum of 1605, and an album of Palestrina’s twenty- nine motets from the Song of Songs.

31 Photograph by Ralph by Williamson Photograph

32 Philip Cave With an international reputation as a singer and conductor, Philip Cave’s career began as a chorister at the age of seven, followed by musical studies at Oxford University with Simon Preston and David Wulstan. In 1991, he founded Magnificat, which has since attracted much critical acclaim for its vibrant performances and recordings. Cave takes a poised and expressive approach to , combining close attention to text, carefully crafted phrasing and subtle individual expression within a coherent whole. Cave was a joint recipient (with Sally Dunkley) of the American Musicological Society’s Greenberg Award for work on Philippe Rogier’s music; he has received the Byrne Award of the London Handel Society; and he is an Honorary Fellow of London’s Academy of St Cecilia. Now based in the USA, Cave is Executive Director of Chorworks (www.chorworks.com), a non-profit organization that provides singers and conductors with opportunities to study and perform choral music with special emphasis on works from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

33 Photograph by Joe Starbuck by Photograph

34 ALSO AVAILABLE ON LINN CKD 517

Magnificat Magnificat Magnificat Magnificat The Tudors Where late the Rogier: Music from Rogier: At Prayer sweet birds sang the Missae Sex Polychoral Works

Magnificat Magnificat Magnificat Magnificat Magnificat Tallis: Rogier: Europe’s Victoria: Palestrina: Song Spem in alium Missa Ego sum Golden Age Officium of Songs qui sum Defunctorum

For even more great music visit linnrecords.com

Glasgow Road, Waterfoot, Eaglesham, Glasgow, G76 0EQ T: +44 (0)141 303 5027 | E: [email protected] Scattered Ashes Josquin’s Miserere and the Savonarolan Legacy magnificat Directed by Philip Cave magnificat Josquin des Prez Jean Lhéritier

q Miserere mei, Deus ...... 17:33 t Miserere mei, Domine ...... 9:20 Scattered As he s

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Nicolas Gombert w Tribularer, si nescirem ...... 9:55 y In te, Domine, speravi ...... 9:29

Claude Le Jeune Jacobus Clemens non Papa e Tristitia obsedit me ...... 5:51 u Tristitia obsedit me ...... 10:15 Scattered As he s Scattered

Orlande de Lassus William Byrd r Infelix ego ...... 8:44 i Infelix ego ...... 12:58 magnificat

Total Running Time: 84 minutes

CKD 517 LINN RECORDS Linn Records 2016. Linn Records 2016. Made in the EU. www.linnrecords.com© ℗ 6 91062 05172 9