557637 bk Wytars US 5/25/06 2:23 PM Page 12 FROM BYZANTIUM Also available: TO ANDALUSIA Medieval Music and Poetry Peter Rabanser • Belinda Sykes • Jeremy Avis Oni Wytars Ensemble 8.553132 8.554837 8.557637 12 557637 bk Wytars US 5/25/06 2:23 PM Page 2 Medieval Christian, Jewish and Islamic Music and Poetry Cuncti ergo precantes sexus utriusque, Mentes nostras mudantes oremus devote Christian-Arabic Tradition, Lebanon Virginem gloriosam, matrem clementie, 1 Kyrie eleison 3:21 In celis graciosam senciamus vere. Laudario di Cortona (Ms. 91, Biblioteca Comunale di Cortona), Italy, 13th century 2 Fa mi cantar l’amor di la beata (Let me sing the love of the blessed one) 6:47 3 De la crudel morte de Cristo (Of the cruel death of Christ) (instrumental) 1:59 % O Maria d’omelia (fragment) Laudario di Cortona, 13th c., Italy 4 Laude novella (A new praise shall be sung) 3:49 Yunus Emre (Ilâhileri), Turkey, 13th century O Maria d’omelia, 5 Sâllâlâhu alâ Muhammed (We salute Muhammed) 4:42 se’ fontana fior e grana, 6 Pecçsrev (instrumental) 1:29 de me aia pietança 7 Ey Dervicçsler (Hey, my Dervish brothers!) 4:59 Gran reina che inchina chiascun regno. Laudario di Cortona Si m’affina la currina quando segno. 8 Plangiamo quel crudel basciare (We mourn that cruel kiss) 4:07 Io non degno ’n cuore tegno 9 Venite a laudare (Come and praise) 2:40 tua figura chiar’ e pura, Traditional Jewish, 12th century ch’ogne mal me’n obliança. 0 Keh Moshe 1:44 Rocca forte sença porte, da’n soccorso, Traditional Sephardic, pre-1492 che la sorte de la morte vien de corso. ! Adon Haselihot 3:21 Io sum smorso sa’l ch’un sorso @ Galeas, mis galeas 3:48 Di savore dal tu’amore Traditional Andalusian School Non me vien, mia dolç’amança. # Jâlla man 4:07 Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, Catalonia, 14th century $ Stella splendens in monte (Star shining on the mountain) 8:23 Laudario di Cortona % O Maria, d’omelia (Oh virgin Mary, spring and flowers) 5:00 Oni Wytars Ensemble Belinda Sykes: voice 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-11, 13-15 Jeremy Avis: voice 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9-15 Peter Rabanser: voice, ud, bagpipe, duduk 1-15 Marco Ambrosini: fiddle, keyed fiddle, rebec, Jew’s harp 1-15 Thomas Wimmer: fiddle, lute, rebec 1-11, 13-15 Michael Posch: recorder, reed-flute 1-11, 13-15 Riccardo Delfino: harp, hurdy gurdy 1-11, 13-15 English translations of some of the sung texts can be Katharina Dustmann: bendir, darabuka, zarb, riqq, davul 1-15 found at www.naxos.com/libretti/byzantium.htm Musical direction: Peter Rabanser • Belinda Sykes 8.557637 211 8.557637 557637 bk Wytars US 5/25/06 2:23 PM Page 10 @ Galeas (Galleons, merchant ships at sea) # Jâlla man Medieval Christian, Jewish and Islamic Music and Poetry from the Mediterranean This song tells of a man who is a prisoner at sea: he trad. Andalusian school dreams of freedom and remembers all the good things The Mediterranean is a meeting place, an inland sea musical instruments, up to that time unknown in the he used to have when he was on land and young. Jalla man qad sa’a badran that, on its shores, is home to the peoples and cultures of West, introduced into Christian music, but also very A Sephardic romance from Thesaloniki, collected by Fii hulaa ‘insen the East and the West. Over centuries it has provided different forms of poetry, an art then at its height in the singer Esti Knaan Offri from a woman with Greek and Min lemahu zedr sukran opportunities for encounters, whether in war or in peace, cultural centres of the East. Music, in Christian Europe Turkish Jewish ancestry. wa ‘intena neshwen or in trade. principally the preserve of the clergy, enjoyed high The ideas of East and West, Orient and Occident, prestige as an art-form of poetry in the East. Galeas las mis galeas have always been symbols of the rising and setting of It may seem difficult to find intercourse between No las puedo sonportar $ Stella splendens in monte the sun, and are still associated today with light and these three great cultures in the thirteenth and fourteenth Aman, aman de mi! Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, 14th c., Spain dark, but unfortunately also with right and wrong or centuries, a time of conquest and crusades. Yet closer No las puedo sonportar good and bad, a sad reflection of the centuries old inspection reveals links between all three, something Stella splendens in monte ut solis radium struggle between Judaism, Christendom and Islam in that has not changed up to today; with great intellectual Poco pan, mucho travajo, Miraculis serrato, exaudi populum. matters of ideology. Nevertheless there were always curiosity each investigates the other and learns from it, Kon palos, i non dormir. Concurrunt universi gaudentes populi. places where these three great Mediterranean cultures even if they are not too ready to admit it. Aman, aman de mi! Divites et egeni grandes et parvuli. co-existed peacefully and fruitfully. In the Middle Ages Kon palos, i non dormir. the most important example of such a multicultural and On the sources Principes et magnates extirpe regia, multireligious exchange was, paradoxically, the Palos, yevi setesientos Seculi potestates optenta venia, Moorish Andalusia in the West and, competing with Known as the Disciplinati di Gesù Cristo, Confraternità Ke los lados no me siento Peccaminum proclamant tundentes pectora, Rome, Christian Byzantium in the East. The distinctive di Santa Maria delle Laudi or Compagna di Sancto Aman, aman de mi! Poplite flexo clamant hic: Ave Maria. ideas of Orient and Occident seem here to be blurred. Spirito people would go in procession through the Ke los lados no me siento ‘Christians, Jews and Heathen’, as it says in one streets of Umbria, singing songs of praise to God, Our Ke me vendan el asiento Prelati et barones, comites incliniti, crusader song, lived there in more or less adequate Lady and all the saints. The message of spiritual renewal I ke me rezgaten d’aki Religiosi omnes atque presbiteri, mutual respect, each following their own religious of St Francis of Assisi had touched the hearts of these Aman, aman de mi! Milites, mercatores, cives marinari, traditions in accordance with their beliefs 1. It is known generally simple people and they formed religious I ke me rezgaten d’aki Burgenses, piscatores premiantur ibi. that Alfonso the Wise, King of Castille and León, had a fraternities, the so called Laudesi. The great demand of court chapel with musicians and poets from all three these fraternities for new songs and the desire to enlarge Ke me vendan takum de panio Rustici, aratores, nec non notarii, faiths. In Andalusia (al-andalus in Arabic), under their own repertoire brought about the compilation of Ke una ves me los visti Advocati, scultores, cuncti ligni fabri, Islamic domination for over seven hundred years, there songs of praise into Laudari. Only two of these Laudari Aman, aman de mi! Sartores et sutores, nec non lanifici, were Jewish scholars holding high official positions survive complete with text and music, Codex 91 of the Ke una ves me los visti Artifices et omnes gratulantur ibi. under the Caliphate. The Ottoman Empire too, at the Accademia Etrusca of Cortona and Codex other side of the Mediterranean, was decidedly Magliabechiano BR 18 in the National Library in Keme vendan kavayo blanko Regine comitisse, illustres domine, heterogeneous in language, religion and culture. The Florence. The Laudae in the Cortona manuscript K’una ves lo benyi Potentes et ancille, iuvenes parvuli, majority of the people in the European provinces were represent the first document known to us that offers Aman, aman de mi! Virgines et antique, pariter vidue, Orthodox Christians. The Jewish, Greek Orthodox, evidence of the use of the Italian volgare, the regional K’una ves lo benyi Conscendunt et hunc montem, et religiose. Roman Catholic, Armenian, Gregorian and Moslem dialect, and not only Latin, in music. The strophic form communities enjoyed a certain religious and cultural of these Laudae depends indirectly on the Ke me bezen al behoriko Cetus hii aggregantur, hic ut exhibeant autonomy, allowed a free hand by the state in regulating Arabic/Andalusian zejel, which varies the musical form Ke kriando lo deshi Vota regreciantur, ut ipsa et reddant their own affairs. Already at the beginning of the Middle and often influences the strophic structure of the song. Aman, aman de mi! Aulam istam ditantes, hoc cuncti videant, Ages there was a lively cultural exchange between these The poets and composers are almost always anonymous, Ke kriando lo deshi Iocalibus ornantes soluti redeant. apparently so diverse cultures, each learning from the and the Laudae generally use melodies from secular other. It came about, therefore, that not only were many Ballata. The Ripresa (refrain) is sung by the chorus, (Thanks to Esti Knaan Offri & Jeremy Avis) 8.557637 10 3 8.557637 557637 bk Wytars US 5/25/06 2:23 PM Page 4 while the stanza is sung only by the principal singer how to ‘hear music’ can experience the highest truth in Pietosa regina sovrana ! Adon Haselihot 349and %. The melodies are always written in divine ecstasy. Dervish fraternities even today use conforta la mente ch’è vana Roman choir notation. The account books of the music and dance 6 to reach a state of hypnosis and grande medicina ke sana Adon haselihot fraternities show that professional musicians were paid religious sublimation. Reports of people who found aiutane per tu cortisia Bohen levavot to accompany the singers.