À mon professeur, Randall Cook Recordings: May 2012: Beugen, Schloßkirche Artistic direction, recording & editing: Jérôme Lejeune Photos: © C. Lesaulnier Cover illustration: Gaudenzio Ferrari (c. 1475-1646), Angels playing music. Saronno, Sanctuary © 2012. Photo Scala, Firenze THE BIRTH OF THE VIOLIN — LE MIROIR DE MUSIQUE Sabine Lutzenberger: voice Elizabeth Rumsey: viola d'arco Kirsty Whatley: harp Tobie Miller: recorder Marc Lewon: lute, viola d’arco & renaissance guitar Uri Smilansky: viola d'arco Baptiste Romain: renaissance violin & direction 1. Recercar ‒ La stangetta Jacob Obrecht 3'13 Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A ‒ Ottaviano Petrucci, Venice 1501 2. Missus est Gabriel angelus (motet) Josquin Desprez 3'19 Motetti C ‒ Ottaviano Petrucci, Venice 1504 3. De che te pasci Amore ‒ Carmen in sol Johannes Ghiselin 3'59 Rome Bibl. Casanatense / Ms. 2856, Copenhagen MS. 1848 Verbonnet 4. Ave Maria Johannes Regis 3'36 Motetti B ‒ Ottaviano Petrucci, Venice 1503 5. Salve Regina Misericordie Enguerandus Juvenis 8'00 Torino Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria Ms. I.27 6. O sacrum convivium (lauda) Bartolomeo Tromboncino 2'58 Laude, Libro secondo ‒ Ottaviano Petrucci, Venice 1508 7.Vigesima settima ‒ Da pacem, Domine Costanzo Festa 2'54 Bologna, Civico Museo, Ms. C36 (Counterpoints on la Spagna) 8.Rosa novum dans odorem Antoine Brumel 5'54 Codex Rusconi, Bologna Civico Museo Bibliografi co-Musicale, Q19 9. La canella ‒ Animoso ‒ Cortesa padoana Anonymus / 2'48 Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Ms. Ital. IV, 1227 / Francesco Bendusi Opera nova de balli ‒ Antonio Gardane, Venice 1553 10. Se'l pensier che mi strugge Sebastiano Festa 2'56 Libro primo de la Croce ‒ Valerio Dorico & Jacopo Pasoti, Rome 1526 11. Ut queant laxis ‒ Settuagesima nona ‒ Costanzo Festa 2'59 Centesima terzadecima Bologna, Civico Museo, Ms. C36 (Counterpoints on la Spagna) 12. Amor che me tormenti Sebastiano Festa 4'18 Libro primo de la Croce ‒ Valerio Dorico & Jacopo Pasoti, Rome 1526 13. La mala vecchia ‒ Il stocco Francesco Bendusi 2'12 Opera nova de balli ‒ Antonio Gardane, Venice 1553 14. Ricercar VII Adriaen Willaert 2'49 Musica nova accommodata per cantar et sonar sopra organi, wwet altri strumenti, Venice 1540 15. Mirabile mysterium Adriaen Willaert 4'05 Musica quatuor vocum, liber primus ‒ Girolamo Scotto, Venice 1539 16. La Rose Adriaen Willaert / 4'32 Motetti, madrigali et canzone francese di diversi eccellenti autori Giovanni Bassano Venice 1591 17. Salve, sacrata Filippo da Lurano 4'53 Laude, Libro secondo ‒ Ottaviano Petrucci, Venice 1508 We would like to thank Richard Earle, Randall Cook, Dorothea & Alex Potter, Véronique Daniels, Jane Achtman, Martine Romain, Giovanni Cantarini, Catherine Motuz, Chani Lesaulnier, Jean-Claude Gonthier, Francesco Pedrini for their support and encouragement. www.miroirdemusique.com www.baptisteromain.com Agence: www.chanilesaulnier.com FR DE THE BIRTH OF THE VIOLIN Th e First Violins and their Repertoire During the fi rst half of the sixteenth century, the smaller members of the bowed stringed instrument family gradually developed into an instrument which would be referred to as a “vyolon” at the court of Savoy in 1523. Not entirely a new invention in itself, it retained characteristics of the rebec, lira da braccio, and the late polyphonic vielle. In its earliest form, the violin was the only instrument of its family; features such as its rounded shoulders appeared on larger instruments a few years later and a consort practice started developing, following the three ranges in use at the time: superius tenor and contratenor altus: approximately one fi fth lower contratenor bassus: approximately one fourth below the tenor Th e fi rst descriptions of these new ensembles in the 1530’s and 1540’s are all tied to northern Italy, more specifi cally to the duchies of Ferrara, Mantua and Milan, as well as to the Piedmont (then a dependant of the duchy of Savoy) and to the city of Brescia (part of the Venetian Republic). In Venice, violins were quickly adopted within lay religious confraternities and the Scuole Grandi of Santa Maria della Misericordia, San Rocco, San Marco, San Giovanni Evangelista and Santa Maria della Carità. Th e violin has long been regarded as an instrument associated with dance music in the sixteenth century, but with this recording, we wish to call this idea into question, particularly in regards to the period during which the instrument fi rst appeared. Under closer inspection, the various sources which provide evidence for the use of the violin in dance music all appear after 1550. Prior to this, there is ample evidence that the violin played both in a liturgical setting and at court, placing it clearly in a context of polyphonic art music stemming from the late-medieval Franco-Flemish school — the “musica perfetta” performed by the Brescian violin bands in the 1530’s. In the case that dance music was performed at court by an ensemble including one or more violins, it also most certainly would have been of a polyphonic nature rather than a monophonic one. Few traces of ensemble dance music survive from the 1520’s and 1530’s, although an improvised practice may well have existed. In the same way that singers were trained to improvise one or more contrapuntal voices against a tenor voice, instrumentalists would have been able to invent spontaneous polyphonic compositions based on basses danses or balli melodies. Th e image of the violin as an instrument for monophonic dance music comes from a later practice, which has nevertheless greatly (and erroneously) infl uenced our vision of the instrument in the Renaissance. Th e two main repertoires presented in this recording are that of the Franco-Flemish school, which fl ourished in Italy from the mid fi fteenth century, and that of the Italian style, which had died out by 1430 but arose out of its ashes before the turn of the sixteenth century. Th e Franco-Flemish instrumental chansons, La stangetta, Carmen in sol and De che te pasci Amore, all of which were published in Ottaviano Petrucci’s Canti (1501-1504), mark the pinnacle of their genre. Th ese chansons employ three-part writing inherited from the Burgundian school. Also belonging to the Franco-Flemish repertoire, motets would have been part of the religious ceremonies in which the violin was used from its beginning. Josquin Desprez’ Missus est Gabriel is heard here in a “mixed” version with voice and instruments. Th e composition is a brilliant paraphrase of two plainchant melodies and is found in no fewer than a dozen sources dating from the fi rst decades of the sixteenth century and spread out across Europe. Th e original three-voice style found in Enguerandus Juvenis’ Salve Regina approaches the style of the instrumental fantasias of Heinrich Isaac and Jacob Obrecht. It is found in the manuscript Turin I.27, which contains repertoire linked to the Piedmont, possibly even to Brescia, as indicated by the annotation “Ex libris fratris brixiani Laparelli Religiosi stapharde”. Th e Rusconi Codex (Bologna Q19) is another important testament to the importance of Franco-Flemish motets in Ferrara and Mantua. Rosa novum dans odorem by Antoine Brumel (c. 1460 - c. 1513) displays a new kind of four-voice writing where all parts are of equal importance. It is composed on the text of a sequence to Saint Stephen and makes use of many two-voice sections. Another popular genre at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the laude, is a strophic, homophonic song intended for devotional offi ces and processions. Filippo de Lurano’s (c. 1470 - c. 1520) homage to the cross, Salve Sacrata, colourfully evoke these religious assemblies. Bartolomeo Tromboncino (c. 1470 - c. 1534), now more known for his frottole, also composed several laude, including the O sacrum convivium performed here as an instrumental duo. Th e madrigal, having faded away by the 1420’s, regained popularity in the early sixteenth century with a renewed interest in classic Tuscan poetry, whose melancholic style contrasts rather starkly with the earlier lighter frottola style. Th is change in musical style occurred gradually, through the genres of barzellette, villanelle and strambotti. Th e collections of madrigals published from 1520 onwards include the Libro primo de la Croce from which Se’l pensier che mi strugge and Amor che me tormenti are taken. Both are compositions by Sebastiano Festa (c. 1485-1524), who was originally from Villafranca Sabauda, in the Piedmont. We have added ornaments to Amor che me tormenti in the style described in Sylvestro Ganassi’s Opera intitulata Fontegara (Venice, 1535). Th is treatise is a systematic manual for diminution, organised by intervals and making use of varied rhythmic proportions in a style inherited from the late fi fteenth century. Th e collection of counterpoints on La Spagna composed by Costanzo Festa (a relative of Sebastiano, perhaps his brother) is noteworthy because of its link to Mantua. Th ese 125 counterpoints were given as a gift by Festa to Ercole Gonzaga, cardinal and bishop of Mantua, son of Isabella d’Este and Francesco Gonzaga, and godfather to Festa’s own son. A letter in Festa’s hand refers to this collection with the phrase: “Le basse sono bone per imparare a cantar a comtraponto a componere et a sonar de tuttj li strumentj…” (“Th e basse are good for learning to sing counterpoint, to compose and to play all the instruments…”) Th e pieces taken from Francesco Bendusi’s Opera nova de balli (Venice, 1553) are the only dances included in this recording. Th ese pieces, Animoso, Cortesa padoana, La mala vecchia, and Il stocco, were written at the time of the fi rst sources describing the use of the violin in dance music, in France. To complete the programme, no music evokes sixteenth-century Venice better than the compositions of Adrian Willaert (c.