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557341 bk Dunstable US 17/08/2005 11:04am Page 12 III III Peccatorum perdonator Pardon for our sins, we pray, John esto noster expurgator Make us truly clean today, et duc ad divina. So may we to God be led. DUNSTABLE Veni Creator (FB) Veni Creator (FB) I I Veni Creator Spiritus Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come, Sweet Harmony mentes tuorum visita And visit every soul of Thine: imple superna gratia Fill with Thine own supernal grace que tu creasti pectora The hearts which Thou hast form’d for Thee. Masses and Motets Qui paraclitus diceris Thou, who art named the Paraclete, donum Dei altissimi The heavenly gift of God most high, TONUS PEREGRINUS fons vivus ignis caritas Fountain of Life, refining fire, et spiritalis unctio Anointing Spirit, Love Divine: Tu septiformis munere Thou in Thy gifts art manifold [sevenfold]; dextre Dei tu digitus Th’ effectual finger of God’s hand; tu rite promisso Patris The Father’s faithful promise Thou, sermone ditans guttura Touching each lip with eloquence. II II Accende lumen sensibus Shine forth before our vision, Lord, infunde amorem cordibus Into our hearts infuse Thy love; infirma nostri corporis And with Thine all-enduring strength virtute firmans perpetim The weakness of our frame confirm. Hostem repellas longius Far hence repel the threatening foe, pacemque dones protinus Thy peace delay not to confer: ductore sic te previo That, following Thee, our Guide before, vitemus omne noxium We may escape all noxious harm. III III Per te sciamus da Patrem Grant us, by Thee, to apprehend noscamus atque Filium The Father, and to know the Son; te utriusque spiritum And Thee, the Spirit of them both, credamus omni tempore. Now and in all times to believe. Veni Creator (TW/AP/ALE) Veni Creator (TW/AP/ALE) [...] mentes tuorum visita [...] visit every soul of Thine: imple superna gra- [...] Fill with Thine own supernal grace [...] 8.557341 12 557341 bk Dunstable US 17/08/2005 11:04am Page 2 John II II DUNSTABLE Sine tuo numine If Thou take Thy grace away, (c.1390-1453) nihil est in lumine Nothing pure in man will stay; Sweet Harmony – Mass Movements and Motets nihil est innoxium All our good is turned to ill. 1 Quam pulchra es [JD44] 2:38 Lava quod est sordidum Heal our wounds; our strength renew; (RE/ALE; AH/AP; TW/FB) riga quod est aridum On our dryness pour Thy dew; sana quod est saucium Wash the stains of guilt away. 2 Kyrie [JD1] 6:14 (FULL) Flecte quod est rigidum Bend the stubborn heart and will, 3 Gloria a 4 [JD11] 6:35 fove quod est frigidum Melt the frozen, warm the chill; (FULL) rege quod est devium Guide the steps that go astray. 4 Credo a 4 [JD12] 8:42 (FULL) III III Da tuis fidelibus On the faithful, who adore 5 Gloria Jesu Christe Fili Dei [JD15] 7:48 in te confidentibus And confess Thee, evermore (RE; FB; AH/TW/AP) sacrum septenarium In Thy sevenfold gifts descend: 6 Credo Jesu Christe Fili Dei [JD16] 5:59 (KO/ALE; RE/AH; TW/FB/AP) Da virtutis meritum Give them virtue’s sure reward, 7 Sanctus [JD6] 4:28 da salutis exitum Give them Thy salvation, Lord, (JF; RH; KO) da perenne gaudium. Give them joys which never end. Veni Sancte Spiritus (RE/AH) Veni Sancte Spiritus (RE/AH) 8 Credo Da gaudiorum premia [JD17] 6:00 (RH; JF; KO/ALE) I I 9 Sanctus Da gaudiorum premia [JD18] 6:13 Veni Sancte Spiritus Come, O Holy Spirit, come, (JF; KO; RH/ALE) et infunde primitus Now in us, Thy work begun, 0 Agnus Dei [JD14] 5:33 rorem celi gratie Pour the dew of heaven’s grace. (FULL) Precantibus humanitus Pray we in humanity, salva nos divinitus But by Thy Divinity ! Veni Sancte Spiritus – Veni Creator [JD32] 6:56 a serpentis facie Save us from the Serpent’s face. (JF/RH/KO; RE/AH; FB; TW/ALE/AP) In cujus presentia There we stand without a plea, @ Gloria in canon [version*] 3:01 ex tua clementia Save Thy gracious clemency: (FULL) II II TONUS PEREGRINUS tecta sint peccata Blot out sins that once defiled. Nostra que servitia Then we in due service bound, Joanna Forbes – soprano Richard Eteson – tenor corda penitentia Hearts in penitence be found! Rebecca Hickey – soprano Alexander Hickey – tenor tibi fac placata May to Thee be reconciled. Kathryn Oswald – alto Timothy Watson – tenor Languidorum consolator Comfort of the weakest soul, Alexander L’Estrange – countertenor Francis Brett – bass et lapsorum reformator Gracious Guide to them that fall, mortis medicina Be our quickening from the dead. Antony Pitts – director 8.557341 2 11 8.557341 557341 bk Dunstable US 17/08/2005 11:04am Page 10 7 & 9 Sanctus 7 & 9 Sanctus John Dunstable (c.1390-1453) Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Holy, Holy, Holy, Sweet Harmony – Mass Movements and Motets Dominus Deus Sabaoth; Lord God of Sabaoth; That today the first truly great English composer is either Dunstable’s rich harmony with its cross-relations, pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory. unknown or just a name to most musicians and music- resulting partly from major triads on different degrees of Osanna in excelsis. Hosanna in the highest. lovers is one of the great ironies of Western musical the scale, remained a quintessentially English characteristic, surviving through the glories of the Eton Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. history. In about 1475 the musicologist Tinctoris claimed Osanna in excelsis. Hosanna in the highest. that during his own lifetime music had been transformed Choirbook at the turn of the fifteenth century, through into a “new art”, rendering obsolete anything written Tallis’s famous forty-part motet, Spem in alium [Naxos 0 Agnus Dei 0 Agnus Dei more than a generation earlier. He singled out the English 8.557770] to English composers of the twentieth as responsible for this giant leap forward, and one man in century and beyond. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world; particular: our all-but-unsung hero, John Dunstable (the Very little is known of Dunstable’s life, although Miserere nobis. Have mercy upon us. composer formerly known as Dunstaple - at least in most there are a number of connections with the area around Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world; contemporary manuscripts which bear his name). St Albans, north-west of London. Part of the reason for Miserere nobis. Have mercy upon us. Back in 1442, Martin le Franc had noted his neglect at home stems from the fact that his pieces Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world; Dunstable’s influence on contemporary Continental survive mostly in manuscripts scattered across the Dona nobis pacem. Grant us Thy peace. composers Dufay and Binchois in his poem Le Continent, where he seems to have spent at least part of Champion des Dames: his career. Another reason, I suggest, is that there is a ! Veni Sancte Spiritus – Veni Sancte Spiritus – ! Veni Sancte Spiritus – Veni Sancte Spiritus – Veni veil of mystery over this extraordinary music: on Veni Creator – Veni Creator Creator – Veni Creator “Car ilz ont nouvelle pratique ‘paper’ it can seem very dry and overly mathematical, De faire frisque concordance but when the missing accidentals are restored (either Veni Sancte Spiritus (JF/RH/KO) Veni Sancte Spiritus (JF/RH/KO) En haute et en basse musique “out of necessity” or “for beauty’s sake”, as late En fainte en pause et en nuance mediaeval theorists put it), the colour returns to the I I Et ont prins de la contenance music and it is immediately full of melodic life and Veni Sancte Spiritus Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come, Angloise et ensuy Dunstable harmonic direction. It is not simply that Dunstable uses et emitte celitus And from Thy celestial home Pour quoy merveilleuse plaisance triads, it is what he uses them for – as J.R. Downie lucis tue radium Shed the ray of light Divine. Rend leur chant joyeux et notable.” points out: “The change in the number of triads from Ciconia to Dunstable is a matter of degree – a matter of Veni pater pauperum Come, Thou Father of the poor, “For they have a new method counting word combinations. It is the meaning of the veni dator munerum Come, Thou Source of all our store, Of making fresh harmony triads that switched.” And it is only by hearing veni lumen cordium Come, within our bosoms shine. In music both high and low Dunstable’s harmony in action that we can begin better In artifice and interruption and nuance to understand why continental musicians of his own era Consolator optime Thou of Comforters the best, And have adopted the English were so gripped by what for them was utterly new dulcis hospes anime Thou the soul’s most welcome Guest, Habit and followed Dunstable music. dulce refrigerium Sweet Refreshment here below. Because of which wonderful delight The two motets which frame our main sequence of Makes their song joyful and remarkable.” Mass movements by Dunstable are the brief, but In labore requies In our labour Rest most sweet, exquisite Quam pulchra es [JD44 – numbering from in estu temperies Pleasant Coolness in the heat, Successions of sweet-sounding thirds (C+E, D+F etc) Musica Britannica VIII (revised)] (track 1), and the in fletu solatium Solace in the midst of woe.