1 We're Grounded! : Works with Ostinato Basses & Other Favorites Early Music Ensemble | November 14, 2020 | 2:00pm | https://music.utah.edu/libby-live/index.php Notes & Texts Welcome to our fall semester concert—our celebration of some early music favorites as well as pieces that feature an ostinato (or "ground") bass. The concert today spans the 13th through the 18th centuries and a fair amount of geography. While remaining mostly in place through the pandemic, EME has explored a variety of ground bass works that we offer for our semester-ending concert. To round out the romanesca, passamezzo, and descending tetrachords, we'll play a selection of pieces from Spain, England, Italy, and France that reaffirms the triumph of music and the cosmic travel it affords to all of us even if we must remain in one place. “Rosa das rosas” from the Cantigas de Santa María The Cantigas, dating from the mid-13th century, are 420 poems with music that are attributed to Alfonso X, “el Sabio,” (“the Learned”), King of Castile, León, and Galicia from 1252 to 1284. It is possible that contemporary poets could also have written some of the song texts. The cantigas are written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language that developed from both Latin and the spoken language of the local geographic area. "Rosa das rosas" is a song of praise for the Virgin Mary. All of the cantigas are monophonic (one melodic line with no written accompaniment or other parts). Our version of this cantiga’s monophonic melody has been arranged for three voices, hurdy gurdy, viol, and percussion by Haruhito Miyagi. Rosa das rosas e Fror das frores, Rose of roses and flower of flowers, Dona das donas, Sennor das sennores. Woman of Women, Lady of ladies. 1. 1. Rosa de beldad' e de parecer Rose of beauty and fine appearance e Fror d'alegria e de prazer, And flower of happiness and pleasure, Dona en mui piadosa ser lady of most merciful bearing, Sennor en toller coitas e doores. And Lord for relieving all woes and cares; Rosa das rosas e Fror das frores, Rose of roses and flower of flowers, Dona das donas, Sennor das sennores. Woman of women, Lady of ladies. 2. 2. Atal Sennor dev' ome muit' amar, Such a Mistress everybody should love, que de todo mal o pode guardar; For she can ward away any evil e pode-ll' os peccados perdõar, And she can pardon any sinner que faz no mundo per maos sabores. To create a better savor in this world. Rosa das rosas e Fror das frores, Rose of roses and flower of flowers, Dona das donas, Sennor das sennores. Woman of women, Lady of ladies. 2 3. 3. Devemo-la muit' amar e servir, We should love and serve her loyally, ca punna de nos guardar de falir; For she can guard us from falling; des i dos erros nos faz repentir, She makes us repent the errors que nos fazemos come pecadores. That we have committed as sinners: Rosa das rosas e Fror das frores, Rose of roses and flower of flowers Dona das donas, Sennor das sennores. Woman of women, Lady of ladies. 4. 4. Esta dona que tenno por Sennore de que quero This lady whom I acknowledge as my Master seer trobador, And whose troubadour I'd gladly be, se eu per ren poss' aver seu amor, If I could in any way possess her love, dou ao demo os outros amores. I'd give up all my other lovers. Rosa das rosas e Fror das frores, Rose of roses and flower of flowers, Dona das donas, Sennor das sennores. Woman of women, Lady of ladies Translation from Lyrics of the Middle Ages, ed. James J. Wilhelm. NY: Garland Publ., 1990, 244. (Additional translation support for “Sennor das sennores,” correctly as “Lady of ladies” rather than “Lord of lords,” from Andrew Casson, “Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers.”) Diferencias sobre las Vacas (selections) from Obras de musica para tecla, arpa y vihuela Antonio de Cabezón (1510–1566) Cabezón’s set of diferencias (variations) is one in a long line of many variation sets on the same harmonic progression, which became known as the Romanesca. “Vacas” refers to the tune that began it all: “Guárdame las vacas,” or “Look out for the cows.” The Romanesca progression is very similar to that of the Passamezzo antico (which we’ll hear in the Mainerio dances later in the program). A combination of both the Romanesca and Passamezzo antico bass progressions is the source of one tune that has become very familiar to us in many guises: Greensleeves. Green-Sleeves and Pudding-Pies The Old Mole John Playford (1623–1686/7) John Playford’s The Dancing Master, a very popular compilation of English country dances, was published in England in several volumes and numerous editions from 1651 through to 1728. Playford’s dances provided music and dance for many dance parties and social occasions. Many young people in the eighteenth century would have been taught to dance because it was a very vital skill to learn to assist one to negotiate the world and find a romantic partner, for example. The most popular dances were called “longways” dances because they allowed for as many couples to line up to dance as wanted. Playford’s book includes only the melody—which would usually have been played by a single fiddle—and the dance steps. Our performance of Playford’s Green-Sleeves and Pudding-Pies includes an added bass line and inner voices to support and fill out the original melody. Similarly, The Old Mole is also enhanced with other parts, and will serve the purpose to demonstrate the krumhorns in 3 the ensemble. We begin with a tuning chord, before playing the piece with the two upper parts only, and then finishing with a repeat of the piece with the entire krumhorn consort. “Next, Winter, comes slowly,” from The Fairy-Queen Henry Purcell (1563-1626) This moment occurs in Purcell’s semi-opera, the The Fairy-Queen (an adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), during the masque of the Four Seasons ending Act IV. Each season sings and Winter is the final one, before an ending chorus and a dance of all of the seasons together. Winter’s song opens with a descending chromatic line that echoes the piece’s opening by the instrumental ensemble. Purcell emphasizes certain aspects of the text throughout: the musical lines descend slowly as Winter descends, “pale” and “old.” Dotted passages accompany the “quiv’ring” cold. There is a dramatic change, however, as the final vocal phrase begins: Winter prays to be restored by the sun as the vocal line begins to rise chromatically, triumphantly, even as the instrumental parts, in contrast, descend chromatically. It is quite striking. Winter sings: Next, Winter, comes slowly, pale, meager and old, First trembling with age, and then quiv’ring with cold; Benumb’d with hard frosts and with snow cover’d o’er, Prays the Sun to restore him, and sings as before. Passe’mezzo antico & Saltarello Giorgio Mainerio (c. 1530-1540–1582) These are just two of the dances from a popular collection published by Mainerio in Venice in 1578. We have scored them for the entire instrumental ensemble with doublings on some parts. As with most Renaissance and some Baroque music, the instrumental forces are not specified in the notated score: only range is given; in this case, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. The Passe’mezzo antico is a duple dance of a processional nature and contains six sections that repeat the Passe’mezzo antico harmonic progression. While the harmonic progression remains a solid constant, the upper three voices vary the melodic gestures, rhythms and motifs. Our recorded performance of the Passe’mezzo includes a surprise! The Saltarello also uses the same harmonic progression, but it is a quicker dance in triple time; it’s a fitting end to our concert. “Che si può fare” Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) “Che si può fare,” a lament, is from Strozzi’s last book of songs, her eighth, published in 1664. Laments were all the rage at this time in Italy. They were often the centerpiece in an operatic scene where the heroine took time to reflect on her sorrow or loss. As such a Lament offered an opportunity to the composer to create a very dramatic moment through the representation of the feelings and psychological journey of the heroine, as she processes wide-ranging emotions like desperation, anger, and self-pity; often ending quietly with a recognition of the futility of her own emotion. Laments achieved their own formal identity; and while musical history has lost entire operas, we know the operas existed because the lament was preserved. 4 Composers often selected classical subjects or characters from epic romances as inspiration for operatic laments: Dido, abandoned by the Trojan Aeneas; Ariadne, of Crete, who—upon awaking from a nap—discovers that Thesus (whom she helped to slay the Minotaur, I might add) has left her. Through time laments were taken out of the context of opera entirely. Barbara Strozzi published a number of laments in her eight books of song. Without any preceding actions or interactions with characters to tell us the story, we (and audiences before us) must deduce what has befallen the heroine prior to the lament. What sets the scene in this case is the descending bassline that opens the aria. You’ll hear this repeated many times, 34 to be exact. It’s the stable foundation over which the heroine can express herself very freely, making for a very powerful musical moment.