Mortale, Che Pensi?
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Mortale, che pensi? Nero, Zaida, Mater Euryali, Armida, the Blessed Virgin, Mary Magdalene Giacomo Carissimi Luigi Rossi Domenico Mazzocchi Marco Marazzoli Alessandro Stradella ATALANTE Erin Headley Katherine Watson, Nadine Balbeisi, Theodora Baka, Samuel Boden, Julian Podger, Christian Immler ‘Truly revelatory...a milestone…a more powerful and persuasive advocacy www.DestinoClassics.com for these pieces could hardly be imagined.’ DESTINO Worldwide distribution in association with Nimbus Alliance Iain Fenlon, Early Music CLASSICS RELIQUIE DI ROMA III: Mortale, che pensi? 1 Mortale, che pensi? (KW NB SB) Luigi Rossi (1597–1653) 4:11 Rome, Vatican Library, Barb. lat. 4200 narrowed. The unfolding tonal spectrum at the closing of the Magdalene’s lament reflects the 2 Deh, memoria (KW) Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674) 5:49 mixing of her tears with the blood of the wounded Jesus (from F to G# and C# and returning Rome, Vatican Library, Chigi. lat. IV. 18 to F), and offers the listener a rhetorically powerful spiritual transformation. 3 Plorate, filii Israel (inst) Giacomo Carissimi 3:28 Historia di Jephte, Rome 1650 A variation on Mazzocchi’s enharmonic x, the V indicates that a singer should make a messa di voce by increasing volume and pitch together while proceeding to the next note. Both symbols L’Incendio di Roma (Nerone, CI) Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682) are carefully indicated in the two laments at particularly telling moments in the poetry, and Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum: Mu. Ms. 44 4 Sopra un’eccelsa torre 3:36 Mazzocchi directs that the singer rigorously observe his indications. 5 Voi, che in soglio di pace adulate sedete 3:30 Mazzocchi seems to have been the voice of reason in a long and labyrinthine tuning saga; his 6 Si, si, viva Nerone 4:02 system is refreshingly practical and manageable. He recommends that the sovereign enharmonic Nisus et Euryalus, Epilogue Domenico Mazzocchi (1592–1665) genus should be added to express all human suffering, but only sparingly, to produce a marvellous Dialogi, e sonetti, Rome 1638 7 Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus arratro 5:01 and often unexpected effect: 8 Hunc ego te Euryale aspicio (KW) 4:08 Voluptates commendat rarior usus 9 Sonata XXIX, Terzo tono (BC) Giovanni Antonio Leone (c1600–?1652) 4:10 Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure Libro Primo, Opera terza, Rome 1652 10 Lamento di Zaida (NB) Luigi Rossi 6:44 The lirone also played an important part in the great enharmonic drama. Although the instrument Bologna, Civico Museo, Q. 46 was invented in the early 16th century, its tunings were not published until the 17th century (by Cerreto, Cerone, Mersenne and Praetorius). The fingerboard was organized such that its circle of Lamento d’Armida (TB) Marco Marazzoli (1602–1662) Rome, Vatican Library, Chigi. lat. V. 69 5ths quite simply never squared up: the flats were on one side and the sharps on the other, so that 11 Dove fuggi, crudele? 4:03 with, for example, 13 strings, it was possible to bow even the most remote tonalities with pure 12 O mio diletto 3:41 3rds. The lirone’s limitation was that it could only play chords, not melodies; but its plangent and 13 (inst, PvL) 1:56 ethereal sonority was admired and exploited by many Roman composers, including Mazzocchi, 14 A piè del sanguinoso tronco (SB) Anonymous 5:17 and its success lasted to the end of the 17th century. Rome, Vatican Library, Barb. lat. 4203 © Erin Headley, 2014 15 Lagrime amare (La Maddalena, KW) Domenico Mazzocchi 5:19 Dialogi, e sonetti, Rome 1638 I could not have gained an understanding of this subject without the generous time and expertise of 16 Sinfonia ‘Il Damone’ Alessandro Stradella 1:31 Jörg Jacobi, who contributed valuable concepts and recorded musical examples for the publication of Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Mus. F. 1139 Manfred Cordes, Nicola Vicentinos Enharmonik (2007). In Atalante’s recording, two harpsichords, one on TOTAL PLAYING TIME 66:30 top of the other, were used to simulate the cembalo cromatico. EJH 2 23 Atalante ENHARMONIC EXOTICA Erin Headley - director The music and theory of the ancient Greeks had been an obsession of scholars even before the Katherine Watson and Nadine Balbeisi – sopranos Renaissance. Texts were translated, re-translated and re-interpreted in the hope of unlocking Theodora Baka – mezzo-soprano the secrets of superior, subtler and more expressive tuning systems. To incorporate these marvels Samuel Boden – tenor into their own current music, theorists and musicians continuously experimented with new Julian Podger – tenor instruments. At Ferrara, Nicola Vicentino (1511–1576) invented the archicembalo, whose unwieldy Christian Immler – bass keyboard with 31 divisions of the octave was designed for extremely chromatic music; the Erin Headley – viola da gamba, lirone constant microtonal pitch-shifts must surely have left the listener feeling rather seasick. Siobhán Armstrong – arpa doppia In the 1630s and 40s, Francesco Barberini’s academy hosted lectures by the theorist Giovanni Fredrik Bock – chitarrone Battista Doni (1593–1647) on ancient and modern music; he gave demonstrations on his Jörg Jacobi – harpsichord novel and newly invented lutes, harpsichords and viols for playing 17th-century part-music in Bojan Čici´c – violin the Greek genera (diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic). The lyra barberina (a two-sided lute) ̌ and the cembalo triarmonico and violone panarmonico (instruments with numerous keyboards and Paulina van Laarhoven and Claire Bracher – treble viols fingerboards) were so complex and awkward, and the music (mainly composed by Pietro Della Colin Clark – tenor viol Valle) so routine and unadventurous, that interest was short lived. Keren Bruce – bass viol Domenico Mazzocchi contributed his own ideas to the academy; they are printed in the Produced, engineered and edited by John Hadden avvertimento of his Dialoghi, e Sonetti (1638), the publication from which two works on this Recorded 11–15 July 2011, St John at Hackney, London recording are taken. Lagrime amare, the extraordinarily beautiful lament of the Magdalene, became Executive producer: John Hadden, Destino Classics something of a cult piece. The lament of Mater Euryali from Virgil’s Nisus et Euryalus is unusual in being a secular Latin text set to music; the result has a uniquely antique atmosphere. Mazzocchi’s Cover image: Theodora Baka as Armida tuning system means that both laments inhabit an astonishingly haunting and bizarre sound Booklet reverse image: Erin Headley with lirone in 1981 world; he borrows the music symbol x (for the enharmonic diesis) from earlier theorists like Cover costume: Alessio Rosati Gioseffo Zarlino (1517–1590), and introduces the V (for Vetruvio). Designed by Doubletake Design Ltd. The x indicates an enharmonic Ex and Bx, to offer two further tonalities, C# and G# major. B Performing editions: Jörg Jacobi, Edition Baroque, Bremen is raised to Bx (the same amount as for a quarter-comma meantone sharp) to create a pure 3rd Italian texts and translations: Candace Smith with G#. Mazzocchi cites Zarlino’s cembalo cromatico, which had split keys with 19 divisions of the Atalante is funded by the AHRC and the University of Southampton octave and an extra key between B and C and E and F. An astonishing number of tonalities were thus available: C C# Db D D# Eb E E# F F# Gb G G# Ab A A# Bb B B#, all with pure 3rds. The basis of this tuning is still quarter-comma meantone, but with the 5ths further and equally 22 3 In 1614 the Roman nobleman, ethnographer, explorer Academies soon sprang up in the palaces and villas 15. Lagrime amare Bitter tears and amateur musician Pietro Della Valle (1586–1652) of Rome, including those of Queen Christina of embarked on a fascinating journey to the exotic Sweden, the Baroni family (with its trio of singers, Lagrime amare all’anima, che langue Bitter tears, come to the merciful aid east that lasted ten years. He investigated the music, Leonora, Adriana and Caterina) and the pope’s Soccorete pietose: il dente rio of the languishing soul. culture, habits and spiritual beliefs of Turkey, Persia cardinal nephews, Francesco and Antonio Barberini. Già v’impresse d’Inferno il crudel’ angue, The wicked tooth of hell’s cruel serpent has left its mark, and India; he collected artifacts and curiosities, books E mortifera piaga, ohimè, v’aprio. and, alas, has opened a deadly wound. The Barberini family academies flourished into and manuscripts on the arts and sciences; and he the 1650s, and the exceptional productivity of the Ben vuol sanarla il redentore esangue, The bloodless Redeemer truly wishes to heal it, brought back mummies and live animals (Persian cats composers associated with them set a labyrinthine Ma indarno sparso il pretioso rio but the precious stream of that blessed blood and white monkeys) for his private museum, to the task for scholars today in terms of sorting, classifying, Sarà per lei di quel beato sangue would be shed in vain without delight and amazement of his compatriots. attributing and editing. Each Barberini or Chigi Senza il doglioso humor del pianto mio. the sorrowful liquid of my weeping. Rome in the 1600s was home to others like manuscript in the Vatican Library contains over 50 Della Valle: noblemen collected, discussed and spiritual and secular cantatas, and there are huge Su dunque amare lagrime correte Therefore, bitter tears, flow ceaselessly, corresponded with learned authorities all over numbers of volumes, mostly unindexed. Very rarely are A gl’occhi ogn’hor da questo cor pentito, from this repentant heart up to my eyes, Europe and the east. The Jesuit movement was in composers’ names given; more likely to be named are Versate pur, che di voi sole ho sete. flow forth, for I thirst only for you. poets, especially if they are members of the nobility or full swing, too, training priests at their new learning Se tanto il liquor vostro, è in ciel gradito, If your liquid is so valued in Heaven, of the curia, like Antonio Barberini or indeed the pope.