The Magic of Polyphony
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THE MAGIC OF POLYPHONY ZAUBER DER POLYPHONIE / L’ENCHANTEMENT DE LA POLYPHONIE Recordings of three days at Festival de Pentecôte 2019 in Talant Aufnahmen von drei Tagen beim Festival de Pentecôte 2019 in Talant Enregistrements de trois jours au Festival de Pentecôte 2019 à Talant ANTOINE BUSNOIS c. 1430–1492 RICHARD LOQUEVILLE c. 1370–1418 1 Bel Acueil, rondeau à 3 5.26 10 Sanctus vineus à 4 3.48 GIOVANNI PIETRO DEL BUONO c. 1640 GIOVANNI DE MACQUE c. 1548–1624 2 Obligo sopra Ave maris stella à 4 3.22 11 Io piango o Filli, madrigal à 5 3.27 NICOLAS GOMBERT c. 1495–ca. 1560 THOMAS CRECQUILLON c. 1505–1557 3 Triste départ, chanson à 5 3.26 12 Andreas Christi famulus, motet à 8 5.07 PIERRE DE LA RUE c. 1460–1518 CLAUDE LE JEUNE c. 1530–1600 4 Sanctus “Sub tuum presidium” à 4 7.40 13 Que null’ étoile sur nous, chanson à 3 & 5 5.31 ANONYMOUS France, c. 1350 MABRIANUS DE ORTO c. 1460–1529 5 Très dous compains, chasse à 3 7.23 14 Agnus Dei “Missa Dominicalis” à 4 5.33 ANONYMOUS Picardy, c. 1520 WILLEM CEULEERS *1962 6 Agnus Dei “Miserere michi Domine” à 8 4.13 15 Voi ch’ascoltate, madrigal à 5 3.50 FRAY JOSÉ DE VAQUEDANO 1642 – 1711 NICOLAS GOMBERT c. 1495–c. 1560 7 Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae à 8 12.18 16 Agnus Dei “Missa Tempore Paschali” à 6 & 8 4.38 8 De lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae à 8 12.24 ANONYMOUS Italy, c. 1380 ANONYMOUS Werden Abbey, c. 900 17 Cum martelli, ballatà à 3 2.47 9 In exitu Israel, organum purum à 2 4.14 ANTON BRUCKNER 1824–1896 18 Virga Jesse, motet à 4 4.11 2 JACOBUS VIDE c. 1395–c. 1441 GILLES JOYE 1424–1483 19 Il m’est si grief, rondeau à 3 5.06 26 Ce qu’on fait à quatimini, rondeau à 3 3.04 CIPRIANO DE RORE 1516–1565 NICOLAS GOMBERT c. 1495–c. 1560 20 Dissimulare etiam sperasti à 5, 6 & 7 7.43 27 Regina caeli, motet à 12 5.26 MIKOLAJ ZIELENSKI c. 1550–1615 THOMAS CRECQUILLON c. 1505–1557 21 Vox in Rama, motet à 4 3.26 28 Pis ne me peult venir, chanson à 5 2.13 PIERRE DE MANCHICOURT c. 1510–1564 ORLANDUS LASSUS 1532–1594 22 Faulte d’argent, chanson à 8 3.21 Lamentationes feria sexta in parasceve à 5 ANONYMOUS Cyprus, c. 1390 29 Lamentatio prima 7.46 23 O radix Yesse, isorhythmic motet à 4 2.48 30 Lamentatio secunda 7.33 ANONYMOUS Germany, c. 1540 31 Lamentatio tertia 7.21 24 Ach Elselein, liebes Elselein, chanson à 2 3.37 PIETER MAESSENS c. 1505–1563 25 Tota pulchra es à 5 4.09 HUELGAS ENSEMBLE Cantus: Axelle Bernage, Rosemary Galton, Helen Cassano, Sabine Lutzenberger Tenor: Olivier Coiffet, Bernd Oliver Fröhlich, Paul Bentley-Angell Adriaan De Koster, Tom Phillips, Matthew Vine Bass: Frederik Sjollema, Joel Frederiksen Artistic direction / Musikalische Leitung: PAUL VAN NEVEL 3 Live recordings: June 7–9, 2019, Pentecost Festival, L’église Notre-Dame de Talant, France Executive producer: Michael Brüggemann (deutsche harmonia mundi) Recording producer, balance engineer, mastering & editing: Markus Heiland, TRITONUS Musikproduktion Stuttgart GmbH Total times: 2:38:38 · Design: Christine Schweitzer, Cologne Cover painting: Hieronymus Bosch: Der Garten der Lüste (Exterior – shutters) P & g 2020 Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH 4 THE MAGIC OF POLYPHONY For several years, the Huelgas Ensemble had been searching for a suit- Buono. An obligo was a widely practised form in Rome, Naples and able place in which to establish its own festival. In 2019 the moment Palermo, in which the composer wrote parts around the Gregorian finally arrived: Talant, a small village situated at an altitude just a few melody ‘Ave maris stella’, sung in long note values that had to comply kilometres from Dijon, the Burgundian capital, turned out to be the with pre-existing rules. In this instance, all the parts had to be treated perfect setting – peaceful (no shops, cafés or restaurants), and with a chromatically and had to evolve rhythmically in the same repeated Romanesque church endowed with heavenly acoustics. order of semibreve-minim. No festival of polyphony would be com- The festival of seven concerts given by the Huelgas Ensemble during plete without the work of Nicolas Gombert. Triste départ (track 3) is the Pentecost weekend was recorded by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. one of his most melancholic chansons, with which he won hearts in the Consisting of a broad selection of works, this release offers a fascinat- sixteenth century. Pierre de la Rue is a well-known name in the canon ing sound journey through the magical world of polyphony, and an of polyphony. His use of never-ending polyphonic lines to create a aural document representing the three pillars of the festival: unknown sense of eternity is exemplified in theSanctus (track 4) from his Missa repertoire, undeservedly obscure composers and experiments that fall Sub tuum presidium, which is also testament to the artistic virtuosity of outside the scope of the normal concert season. singers at the court of Margaret of Austria. A large number of compositions from the fourteenth and fifteenth The first track, Bel Acueil, immediately demonstrates the techniques centuries have been passed down anonymously. Tracks 5 and 6 are two which represent the main components of Renaissance polyphony: the such pieces that are unjustly absent from the concert stage: Très dous use of canon and imitation. The magical power of this beautiful three- compains (track 5) is a highly virtuosic three part canon with imita- part rondeau is determined by recurring imitations in the three voices. tions at breakneck speed; the Agnus Dei (track 6) is a monumental eight The text about the tensions at the Hof der Liefde is also a perfect ex- part composition and a notable exception, in terms of complexity, at a ample of medieval court culture. The second track, Obligo sopra Ave time when four part writing was still the norm. The first album ends with maris stella, is by the almost forgotten composer Giovanni Pietro del the eight part Lamentations – Lamentaçiones Jeremiae Prophetae – 5 by Fray José de Vaquedano (tracks 7 and 8). Here the long melismatically rhythmically complex structure of this piece is built up entirely from late drawn out Hebrew letters (Aleph, Beth…) are magically expressed at medieval isorhythmic motifs. A completely different world is shown in the beginning of each stanza, a unique phenomenon in Spanish poly- the madrigal Io piango o Filli (track 11), in which the text expression phony of the late seventeenth century. comes into its own through the magical use of chromaticism. Three works from this CD show the experimental character of the The two part In exitu Israel (track 9) is one of the earliest examples of festival. An experiment on text underlay was carried out based on the polyphony and is based entirely on the interval of a fourth. Almost Agnus Dei from the four part Missa Dominicalis by the Franco-Flemish unknown is the composer of the four part Sanctus vineus (track 10): composer Mabrianus de Orto (Dujardin) (track 14). What happens if Richard Loqueville was Guillaume Dufay’s teacher in Cambrai. The two or three singers, singing the same line, use differing text place- 6 ments under their notes? This phenomenon certainly occurred with here with great clarity and precision. Special mention should also be polyphonic singers who sang from notation where the text underlay made of the four part anonymous isorhythmic motet O radix Yesse was often very sparse or frequently even omitted altogether from well- (track 23), written at the eccentric French court of Cyprus. The concept known texts, such as that of the Agnus Dei. In our experiment, the of polyphony is foremost here: the two upper voices not only move opening sentence of the upper voice was first sung with the printed independently of one another, in terms of rhythm and melody, but text placement. Next, the sentence was sung again, but this time each also have different texts. Another festival experiment was conducted singer chose his/her own text placement. Finally the four part work during the work Tota pulchra es by Pieter Maessens (track 25). The was performed with the singers of the superius, countertenor and bass listener will notice that the voice parts are not completely balanced lines singing individual text placements; except in the tenor part, where with one another: the accompanying four male voices are more present the traditional Gregorian tones were sung. In Anton Bruckner’s motet than the constantly repeating upper voice. This is because the four Virga Jesse (track 18) the ensemble embarks on repertoire that was sopranos singing the upper voice were scattered among the audience intended for a large Romantic oratorio choir, but is performed here in the church, and thus automatically sound more distant. The first with just eight singers (two per voice). The piece by Willem Ceuleers melody is sung by one soprano and then an upper voice is added to (track 15) is also a surprising element in the repertoire. each of the four repetitions. This spatial effect is of course less audible Special attention should be made of the five, six and seven part Hu- on this album, but we found the composition a tour de force that we manistic motet Dissimulare etiam sperasti (track 20) on a text by do not want to withhold from the listener. Virgil. These are the last words of Dido from the fourth book of his The last tracks of this album (tracks 29, 30 and 31) were reserved for one Aeneid, in which Cipriano de Rore’s homophonic prosodic notation is of the finest compositions of polyphonic music, the Lamentationes reminiscent of the Greek choreutai’s chanted theatre texts: a breath-taking feria sexta by Orlandus Lassus.