The Mellon Chansonnier
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the mellon chansonnier Performed by The Yale Collegium Musicum with Robert Mealy, vielle, harp Michael Rigsby, vielle, viola da gamba Grant Herreid, lute, recorder Steven Lundahl, recorder, sackbut Daniel Stillman, douçaine, recorder, shawm, sackbut Tom Zajak, douçaine, recorder, sackbut, flute, harp, bagpipes Matthew Suttor, live sound processing Richard Lalli, director Robert Mealy, instrumental leader April 30, 2003 Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Lecture Concert An Introduction to Hearing the 15th Century: The Mellon Chansonnier The Mellon Chansonnier and Related Works Craig Wright, Professor of Music The Yale Collegium Musicum is dedicated to the historically informed performance of music. The group was founded in the 1940s by composer Paul Hindemith as one of the first ensembles in the United States devoted to early music. Sponsored by the Department of Music and supported by the Friends of Music at Yale, the Collegium is open to all members of the Yale community. Today we welcome six instrumentalists who specialize in the performance of music from the 15th century; they will be performing on the following instruments. The Program The Soft Instruments The Loud Instruments I Antoine Busnoys (c1430–1492) Lute (Arabic, ud¯ , Fr. luth, Ger. Laute) A plucked string Shawm (Fr. chalemie, Ger. Schalmei, It. ciaramella, some- Bel acueil Mellon 1 instrument from the large family of ‘composite chordo- times piffaro) A double-reed instrument with a pirouette, phones’ - instruments in which strings run parallel to the a small vase-shaped piece of wood against which the lips A vous sans aultre Mellon 42 sound table. Some are bowed, such as the vielle, and some rest. Around 1500 it was called the hautbois, a name that Je ne puis vivre ainsy Mellon 12 are plucked, such as the lute, sitar, ukulele, and guitar. It was altered to hoboys in England and eventually transfer- has been argued that the earliest appearance of the long- rred to a new instument, the oboe, which did not have a In hydraulis necked lute is in the Akkadian period (2370-2110 BC). pirouette. Joye me fuit Mellon 20 Vielle (Fr. vièle à archet, Ger. Fiedel, Eng. fiddle, Sp. vihuela Sackbut (Fr. saqueboute, Ger. Posaune) The precursor to Est-il merchy Mellon 7 d’arco) A bowed string instrument, one of the most the slide trombone, which was a large version of the slide important instruments of the middle ages, and the distant trumpet (It. tromba). Made of wood, bronze, silver, or ancestor of the violin. The bow, or fydylstyk, was originally animal horns, trumpets were straight instruments until curved like its hunting prototype. Strings, usually five in around 1400, when instrument makers learned to bend II Guillaume Du Fay (c1400–1474) number, were tuned in any number of ways, and certain metal tubing. One of the earliest written references recalls strings were designated as drones. a trompette-saicqueboute used at the wedding of the Duke Dona gentile Mellon 33 of Burgundy in 1468. Eventually four sizes of sackbuts Viol (Fr. viole, Ger. Gambe, It. viola da gamba) Medieval developed. Vasilissa ergo gaude fiddles and rebecs were often depicted being played Donnés l’assault Mellon 50 a gamba, that is, between the legs or resting upright on the Douçaine (Ger. Cornamuse, Sp. dulzaina) A straight-capped lap. Viols of the same general type as the Renaissance and shawm with a soft tone, not to be confused with the Baroque viola da gamba appear in paintings from Aragon dulzian, an early bassoon. The douçaines heard today are around 1475, the decade and locale of the Mellon copied after a remarkable instrument recovered from III English Contributors Chansonnier’s origin. Henry VIII's flagship the “Mary Rose.” In England, the douçaine was known as the “still shawm.” Harp (Fr. harpe, Ger. Harfe) The late medieval/Renaissance Walter Frye (d1475?) “Alas, alas, alas” is my chief song Mellon 55 harp typically had up to 24 gut strings, which could be Bagpipes (Fr. cornemuse, Ger. Sackpfeife) Something akin to John Bedyngham? (1422?–1460?) So ys emprentid Mellon 45 tuned to accommodate the increasingly chromatic the bagpipe–a reedpipe blown with air from an inflated demands of polyphony. With the vielle or viol, the harp skin or bladder–is alluded to by Aristophanes. Air is sent Robert Morton? (c1430–1476) Il sera/ L’ome armé Mellon 34 was one of the most important "soft" instruments of this to the bag through the blowpipe, and is then compressed period. It was prized for its delicacy of sound, as well as under the arm to feed both the chanter–a perferated tube for its symbolic associations with divinity and harmony. with a reed–and the drone pipes. IV Josquin Des Pres (c1440–1521) Recorder (Fr. flûte à bec, Ger. Blockflöte, It. flauto dolce) The recorder probably had its origin as an art (as opposed Agnus Dei, from Missa L’homme armé to folk) instrument in northern Italy during the 14th century. Sets, or cases, of Renaissance recorders were often made from a single piece of wood and, because the members of the set would be tuned to one another by V Johannes Ockeghem (c1420–1497) the maker, moveable heads for tuning were unnecessary. Later recorders were made of three joined sections with L’aultre d’antan Mellon 20 moveable heads. Ma bouche rit Mellon 30 Flute (Fr. flûte traversière, Ger. Querflöte) The transverse Introitus, from Requiem flute was contrasted with the recorder as early as the 14th century by Machaut. Its use, however, was probably Petitte Camusette Mellon 4 not widespread until the end of the 15th century, when it is shown in pictures throughout western Europe. Program Notes by Benjamin Brand “It is a matter of great surprise that there is no of her engagement to the King of Hungary in to which we add three songs by their English con- conformed to one of the three formes fixes inherit- composition written over forty years ago which is 1475. temporaries. Four Latin-texted works punctuate ed from the fourteenth century. The rondeau was thought by the learned as worthy of performance. This anthology is none other than the Mellon the succession of secular song, three by the afore- by far the most popular, and was charactacterized At this very time, whether it be due to the virtue Chansonnier (Beinecke Library MS 91), an ele- mentioned composers, and one by the younger by two musical sections (usually denoted A and of some heavenly influence or to a zeal of con- gant and richly illuminated manuscript compris- Josquin des Pres. B). The complete refrain (AB) falls at the begin- stant application I do not know, there flourish, in ing 81 folia. The collection is named after the Polyphonic chansons of the fifteenth century ning and the end, framing a half statement of the addition to many singers who perform most beau- well-known philanthropist and collector Paul were characterized first and foremost by their refrain (A) and additional stanzas (a and b). The tifully, an infinite number of composers such as Mellon, with whose financial assistance Yale pur- texts. These texts almost always dealt with love full rondeau form can be represented thus: AB a Johannes Ockeghem, Johannes Regis, Antoine chased the manuscript through the London firm and the relationships between men and women. A ab AB. A less common option was the ballade, Busnoys, Firminus Caron, and Guillaume A. Rosenthal, Ltd. in 1940. Unlike most extant Within this limited theme, however, there was a a strophic form that followed the pattern AAB. Faugues, who glory that they had as teachers in fifteenth-century sources, all indications suggest wide range of expressive possibilities. A common When setting a given text, a composer almost this divine art Johannes Dunstable, Egidius that this one survives today in its original state, topic was the pain and suffering of unrequited invariably respected the form of the poem, pro- Binchois and Guillaume Du Fay, all recently with no missing or rearranged pages. Only the love or relationships past. In Busnoys’ Je ne puis viding the A and B sections with different music. passed from life. Almost all these men’s works modern binding, undertaken during the late nine- vivre ainsy, for instance, the protagonist asks for Indeed, the formes fixes were so prevalent that exhale such sweetness that, in my opinion, they teenth century at the behest of the Parisian bib- mercy from the otherwise indifferent object of his poets and composers often invoked them while should be considered most worthy, not only for liophile and former owner, Baron Joseph Vitta, affection. That the poem had particular signifi- working in languages other than French. For men and heroes, but even for the immortal gods.” shows evidence of a later age. cance to the composer is suggested by the acrostic instance, Du Fay’s Italian Dona gentile is a rondeau So wrote Johannes Tinctoris to his patron, King That an anthology such as this would have embedded in the opening letters of each line, and the English Alas, alas, alas and So ys emprentid Ferrante I of Naples, in the preface to his Liber been considered appropriate for a young bride spelling out the name “Jaqueline d’Aqueville,” a are ballades. de arte contrapuncti (The Art of Counterpoint) of speaks to, among other things, the popularity of lady-in-waiting at the French royal court and If the musical and poetic form of the chanson 1477. Here Tinctoris, undoubtedly the most elo- French, or more precisely, Franco-Flemish music evidently more than a passing acquaintance. The was largely governed by convention, composers quent writer on the music of his time, described and literature among Italian aristocrats during the poet of Ockeghem’s L’aultre d’antan similarly turned to other musical features in order to infuse two generations of composers whose art embod- latter half of the fifteenth century.