Renaissance Pop
Renaissance and Pop? How
could these two concepts which could not be farther apart in time or
space be brought together? Renaissance in a pop version? That is
bossanova, or, god forbid, disco rhythm added to a couple of dances
from the Renaissance era? Had that been our intention, we would have
formed a rock group and used synthetizers and other electronic
instruments.
Our aim has been simply to collect the most popular pieces we have been
playing on concert platforms and in recording studios for over ten
years, which are our personal favourites and are generally liked by
today's audiences, being also most widely-known in their day; in short,
to present our listeners with a careful selection.
Renaissance here is taken in a broad sense, since John Dowland,
a contemporary of the great Baroque master, Monteverdi
is treated as a Renaissance composer on this record, similarly to Sigismondo
d'lndia. Masters from the Low Countries are also included,
like e.g., Jacques Barbireau, whose music and
influence extends beyond the fifteenth century. But we also look back
to earlier times. There are dances among the Hungarian tunes from the
14-15th centuries. What we play is not a modernised version of old
music but we are trying to interpret old music in a modern way.
The pieces in our programme can be divided into two groups: Hungarian
dances and Western European tunes. The music of the Neusidler
brothers, who moved to Western Europe from the Lake
Neusiedler region, is a border case between the two styles. Their
oeuvre shows most clearly the signs of the peaceful coexistence of pop,
folk music and we could say, classical music. Hans Neusidler
wrote polyphonic phantasies and at the same time he composed everyday
dance tunes too, scorned by certain circles, street music
(Gassenhauer), but also character pieces like Gypsy dances, beggar's
dances, Jewish dances, etc. The works performed have been adapted
contrary to Renaissance custom. According to the general practice of
that age, the dances which were transcribed in four or five-part scores
or more precisely – since scores did not exist – in part-books, were
put into tablature by contemporary lute players: they transcribed the
pieces for their own instruments and added their own ornamentation. But
the Neusidler brothers composed for the lute and then we transcribed
these lute pieces into many-part versions, and according to the
character of the individual dances, we added arrangements for both East
and West European instruments. Nobody should be surprised to hear
instruments like the Turkish pipe, the bombardon, the twin pipe (the
first Hungarian instrument from the Avar times), and the cog rattle,
etc.
A block of the music of each of the great cultural centres of Western
Europe are included. Elizabethan England, Venice and other parts of
Italy, Germany and the Netherlands are all represented. Jacke
and Jone by Thomas Campion is also a pop
piece. This version is reminiscent of the slightly uncoordinated
performance of rural bands. The five-part Novel's Gaillard
by Anthony Holborne is one of the most inspired
pieces of the Elizabethan Age – it appears later with a different
rhythm on the harpsichord. The works of John Dowland,
one of the greatest masters of the age, are represented by a madrigal
and a dance. The dance composed for two lutes was written on the return
home of a certain Lord Willobies from battle.
Around 1600 the most popular pieces in Italy were composed by Orazio
Vecchi and Giovanni Gastoldi. With but a
brief interruption they have remained popular to our day. Most choirs
and instrumental ensembles sing Gastoldi's three or five part Ballets
or keep them on their repertoires. The works of Claudio
Monteverdi and Sigismondo d'India who
were active a few decades earlier, however, are heard less frequently.
Their performance with the original ornamentation prescribed by the
composers, poses formidable difficulties for interpreters and singers
alike. Even more so when, following the tradition of that age, as we
did, Andrea von Ramm adds increasingly virtuoso and rich ornamentation
to every new verse. In accordance with tradition, these pieces are
accompanied by a single lute. Dances from Germany and the Low Countries
have been combined. The pieces of Jacques Barbireau,
Tylman Susato and Claude Gervaise
have been placed side by side, due to aspects of editing. Susato's
Bataille (Battle), one of the most popular dances of
the end of that century is performed here as a real battle, two groups
of instruments facing each other, brass wind instruments and double
reed woodwind instruments, and bombardons, respectively, both backed by
a rich percussion accompaniment. Following the custom of the age,
"Proportio" follows the four-in-a-measure dance.
Hungarian dances were not unknown to 16th century
Western European publishers. In Phalčse's oeuvre we
can find an Allemand de Ungrie, Jobin has a
Passamezzo Ungaro, and Dlugorai, a Hajdú Dance. Heckel
composed an Ungarischer Tanz. From the Netherlands to Venice and from
Strassbourg to Danzig, these Hungarian dances are found in many
sources. Three main groups are most widely-known: Hajdú dance,
passamezzo ungaro and ungaresca.
The song "Bátya, bátya", which is one of the very
first Hungarian folk songs, points back to a much earlier period. But
just as the earliest dances influenced the Renaissance, later dances
are organically related to the age of the Renaissance in the case of
Hungarian music. The Ötödik tánc hatodon, the Apor
Lázár tánca, the Pajkos tánc are all from
the 1680s. The Bergamasca from the Vietórisz
Codex also dates from the same decade. Because the Turkish
conquest retarded Hungarian musical life on the whole by about one and
a half centuries, these pieces have a Renaissance rather than Baroque
character. In our performance of these dances, we did not hesitate to
use folk instruments apart from the classical Renaissance instrument
which are well-known everywhere in Europe. The Jew's harp and the cog
rattle are both used by Praetorius. But in his
works, to our great surprise, we discovered percussion instruments
which have been used since his time only in jazz or in symphonic
orchestras. In this era, though, they were employed together. Among the
wind instruments, we can find the Turkish pipe, the twin pipe, or the
Hungarian folk bagpipe, and the Hungarian hurdy-gurdy; the last two
were court instruments in Western Europe.
Dániel Benkő és László Czidra
The Bakfark
Consort was founded in 1972. At that time we played old
Baroque music exclusively. But to interpret more authentically the
music of the Baroque and the preceding Renaissance eras, to give
listeners, brought up on, and already familiar with, the music of Bach,
Beethoven and Bartók, a sense of authenticity, we had to expand our
repertory. It is not surprising that each member of our ensemble works
in a different area of musical life: folk musician, jazz musician etc.
On our records and our concerts we play altogether some eighty
instruments. The Bakfark Consort, completed with fellow musicians and
with a small ensemble, respectively, is known in several countries
under the name Benkő Consort or The Céh
(The Guild), respectively. To make this release more varied, we asked
three world-famous artists to cooperate: Toyokiho Satoh
who was born in Japan but presently teaches in the Netherlands, at the
Hague Academy of Music, Andrea von Ramm, former
singer of the Studio der Früher Musik (Early Music Quartet), as well as
Alastair Thompson of the King's Singers fame.
