TEXAS ARLY MUSIC PROJECT E DANIEL JOHNSON, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Monteverdi 1610 In memoriam Joyce Messina-Garrison Programme Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers of 1610) Claudio Monteverdi, 1567-1643 I. Psalm 69 (70):2 Versicle & Response: Deus in adiutorium meum All II. Psalm 109 (110): Dixit Dominus All III. Motet: Nigra sum (Song of Songs 1:5; 1:4; 2:10-12) Ryland Angel, soloist IV. Psalm 112 (113) Laudate pueri Choir & Continuo V. Motet: Pulchra es (Song of Songs 6:4-5) Gitanjali Mathur & Jenifer Thyssen, soloists VI. Psalm 121 (122) Lætatus sum Choir & Continuo VII. Motet: Duo Seraphim (Isaiah 6:3 & 1 John 5:7) Temmo Korisheli, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, & Ryland Angel, soloists VIII. Psalm 126 (127) Nisi Dominus Choir & Continuo Intermission IX. Motet: Audi cœlum Temmo Korisheli & Brett Barnes, soloists X. Psalm 146 (147):12-20 Lauda, Ierusalem Choir & Continuo XI. Sonata sopra Santa Maria Sopranos & Instruments XII. Hymn: Ave maris stella Sean Lee, Shari Alise Wilson, & Brett Barnes, soloists All XIII. Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) Magnificat (All) Et exultavit (Ryland Angel & David Lopez, soloists) Quia respexit (Ensemble) Quia fecit (Tim O’Brien & Peter Walker, soloists) Et misericordia (Ensemble) Fecit potentiam (Ensemble) Deposuit (Ensemble) Esurientes (Ensemble) Suscepit Israel (Jenifer Thyssen & Shari Alise Wilson, soloists) Sicut locutus (Ensemble) Gloria Patri (Ryland Angel & Temmo Korisheli, soloists) Sicut erat (All) Finis Monteverdi 1610 TEXAS EARLY MUSIC PROJECT SPECIAL GUESTS & SOLOISTS Ryland Angel, tenor Douglas Kirk, alto cornetto Nathaniel Cox, cornetto Temmo Korisheli, tenor Stephen Escher, cornetto Phillip Rukavina, chitarrone Singers Brett Barnes, baritone Tim O’Brien, bass Erin Calata, mezzo-soprano Steve Olivares, bass Cayla Cardiff, mezzo-soprano Michael Patterson, tenor Tom Crawford, alto Stephanie Prewitt, alto Don Hill, tenor Susan Richter, alto & recorders Jenny Houghton, soprano Meredith Ruduski, soprano Eric Johnson, bass Thann Scoggin, bass Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, tenor Lisa Solomon, soprano Robbie LaBanca, tenor Jenifer Thyssen, soprano Sean Lee, alto Peter Walker, bass David Lopez, tenor Shari Alise Wilson, soprano Gitanjali Mathur, soprano Gil Zilkha, bass Instrumentalists Philip Arno, bass sackbut Jane Leggiero, cello Elaine Barber, Renaissance harp & triple harp Stephanie Raby, violin Nathaniel Brickens, tenor sackbut Frank Shirley, recorders Bruce Brogdon, theorbo Mary Springfels, tenor viola da gamba Bruce Colson, violin Billy Traylor, harpsichord David Dawson, bass John Walters, cello Steven Hendrickson, tenor sackbut Keith Womer, portative organ Scott Horton, chitarrone Please visit www.early-music.org to read the biographies of TEMP artists. 2 DIRECTOR’S NOTES With this, our final concert of our 18th season, we once again highlight our “impetus” theme of movement, change, and development throughout the centuries. Our opening concert of the season, Pathways to Bach, was about the musical transition from the early Baroque to the late Baroque; our final concert is about the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque. Claudio Monteverdi was a major figure in this transition and to celebrate his 450th birthday (May 9, 1567), we are fortunate to perform his Vespro della Beata Vergine, also known as the 1610 Vespers. A work that includes elements of both musical eras, the Vespers is a monumental powerhouse of diverse styles from beginning to end, exhibiting a glorious fusion of the best of late Renaissance and early Baroque styles. It is not surprising, then, that Monteverdi is ubiquitous in discussions of late Renaissance and early Baroque music. He absorbed the musical style of the late Renaissance and helped bring it to its highest expression; he was also a major influence in the early stages of the Baroque, leaving his imprint on a generation of subsequent composers. Beginning around 1590, he worked as a vocalist and viol player at the court of Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua. Some of the finest performers and composers of the time were also there, including the Flemish composer Giaches de Wert, who was maestro di cappella until 1592 and was especially influential on Monteverdi’s compositional evolution. Monteverdi succeeded Benedetto Pallavicino as master of music at the Gonzaga court in 1602. As maestro di cappella under Duke Vincenzo, he wrote mostly secular music to entertain courtiers at the ducal palace, but also provided sacred music for the court church of Santa Barbara. Despite the fame and rank he enjoyed, Monteverdi was frustrated with the drama and political strife within the Gonzaga court. He had financial quarrels with his employer, and the death of his wife in 1607 had left him a widower with two young children and in a state of depression. In his despair, he nonetheless created some of his finest works, including the opera L’Arianna, lost except for the opening recitative, which is known as the Lamento d'Arianna, and later the five-voiced madrigal set based on L’Arianna. He also began working on some sacred music in a more dynamic style, which were probably meant to serve as “audition” pieces. He was looking to secure a post in Rome or Venice, the most likely places that could possibly offer him a position better than the one in Mantua. This sacred music was published in Venice in 1610, and it included a mass in the old style along with a set of vespers music demonstrating his mastery of the new style with figured bass, voices and instruments in combination, dance forms, virtuoso solo singing, and declamation in the style of the Florentine camerata. He also used elements of the old style, such as cantus firmus technique, double choirs, and moderate imitative polyphony, instead of the flowing, seamless counterpoint of the preceding generation. It is unclear whether the 1610 Vespers was actually performed in Mantua or even if it was performed in the composer’s lifetime; there is speculation about possible performance dates in Mantua and Venice. There is even the question whether it is, in fact, a complete work to be used at a specific service or if it is just a fantastic collection from which churches and courts could select a movement or two as their needs dictated. In any case, it seems to have served Monteverdi well when he applied for and eventually won the prestigious post of maestro di cappella at the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice in 1613. He remained in service there until he died in 1643. The term vespers (from Greek hespera and Latin vespera meaning “evening”) refers to a set of daily evening prayers composed around several Biblical texts traditionally used for Marian feasts in the Roman Catholic church. The liturgy for the Vespers service consists of the introductory Deus in adjutorium, five Psalm settings, sacred motets (called concerti) between the psalms, a traditional hymn, and a setting of the Magnificat. Monteverdi did not specify a set of plainchant antiphons to insert before each psalm and the concluding Magnificat. This allows the performers the flexibility to tailor the music according to the date of the performance: A particular feast day’s liturgy would have suggested specific antiphons to be chanted before the settings of the psalms. We have opted to omit the chanted antiphons in keeping with the ambiance of our concert setting. There is debate whether the solo motets are intended as substitutes for the plainchant antiphons, or as independent, non-liturgical additions that could be used separately for any number of occasions. For our purposes, the motets alternate with the psalms to create an enchantingly varied program, suitable for a modern concert. Monteverdi’s orchestra consists of three more or less equal sections. The string section contains violins, cellos, tenor viol (standing in for the viola da brazzo) and violone (bass); the winds are three cornetti, three sackbuts (early trombones), and Renaissance recorders. The continuo section, which plays the entire piece unlike the strings and winds, is responsible for playing the bass line and improvising the harmonic accompaniment. For this, our performance uses an organ, a harpsichord, a triple harp, and three large lutes: two chitarroni and one theorbo. 3 The 1610 Vespers can vary greatly from one ensemble to another, as there is actually much that is not specifically designated in the score. Each ensemble or music director must determine the orchestration (exact instrumentation is noted in very few of the movements) and whether to double voice parts with instruments and, if so, where to double. Other considerations include whether to assign some passages in the choral movements to solo singers and how to distribute the continuo group in each piece for maximum efficiency. Rather than having the orchestra double the vocal lines in the psalms, our cornetti, sackbuts, and bowed strings play only where specifically called for by Monteverdi, allowing the texts of the psalms to maintain priority. (The one exception to this is in Nisi Dominus, where two tenor sackbuts double the tenor cantus firmus line, one for each of the choirs.) After more than 400 years, there is still much to learn from and about Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers: It is a fascinating work not only in what it unambiguously presents, but also in the many questions it raises. There are multitudes of articles, some very helpful books, and a wide variety of recordings to turn to in trying to answer some of these questions that, beguilingly, generate still more questions and puzzles in their place. Nevertheless, there is nothing that compares to performing Monteverdi’s enthralling masterpiece. We are fortunate to have this opportunity and to have your patronage. On a more personal note, this work wasn’t something I studied in undergraduate or post-graduate studies; I knew about it mostly through its kinship with Orfeo and Monteverdi’s troubles in the Mantuan court. I became aware of its brilliance by way of Douglas Kirk (of the UT Early Music Ensemble and Clearlight Waites) in 1985-86, when he was touring the Vespers with a Canadian ensemble.