medieval.org
bostoncamerata.org
amazon.com
arkivmusic.com
Warner "Classics" 2564-62560-2, 2005
Cybercentaur, 2013
I. The Sign of Judgement
1. [3:58]
Taksim Farahfaza —
Kareem Roustom
Respondemos —
Sephardic, Balkans |
Equidad Barès
2. Madre de Deus [3:25]
CSM 422
ALFONSO el SABIO, King of Castille, 1221-1284 |
Hayet Ayad, ensemble
II. The Dawn Approaching
3. Gregis pastor [3:08]
Southern France, 12th century |
Anne Azéma, Anne Harley, ensemble
4. Gloria' n cielo [2:38]
Tuscany, 13th century | Anne Harley, ensemble
5. [3:46]
Senher Dieus —
Folquet de MARSEILLE (text) | Equidad Barès
Lux refulget —
Limoges, 12th century | Anne Azéma, Anne Harley
III. Star of the Day
6. Santa Maria, strela do dia [3:49]
CSM 100
ALFONSO el SABIO, King of Castille, 1221-1284 |
ensemble
7. Polorum regina [2:23]
LV 7
Montserrat, 14th century |
Hayet Ayad, ensemble
8. Como somos per conssello [5:57]
CSM 119
ALFONSO el SABIO, King of Castille, 1221-1284 |
ensemble
IV. The Birth of Jesus
9. [4:15]
Ave maris stella — Gregorian
O Maria, Deu maire — Occitan, 12th century
Anne Azéma, Anne Harley, instruments
10. Mei amic e mei fiel [2:45]
Occitan, 12th century | Anne Azéma, Anne Harley
11. [5:36]
Todo logar mui ben —
ALFONSO el SABIO, King of Castille, 1221-1284
CSM 28
Taouchia — from Nouba Gribt Lahcine · Arabo-Andalusian, Morocco
instruments
12. Noi siamo i magi [2:07]
Istria, 19th century | ensemble
13. Quando el rey Nimrod [4:37]
Sephardic, Balkans | Boujemaa Razgui, ensemble
14. Heu! heu! [1:57]
France, 13th century | Anne Harley, instruments
15. Pastres, placatz vostre troupèu [3:48]
Avignon, 17th century | Anne Azéma, Joel Cohen, instruments
16. En Belén tocan a fuego [4:30]
Andalusia | Equidad Barès, Anne Harley, Hayet Ayad, instruments
V. Mother and Child
17. Duérmete, niño, duerme [1:48]
Andalusia | Equidad Barès
18. Nani na ya srira [1:19]
Egypt | Hayet Ayad
19. [9:33]
Borea — (prelude) from Nouba Ram al Maya · Arabo-Andalusian, Morocco
Tant' aos peccadores —
ALFONSO el SABIO, King of Castille, 1221-1284
CSM 315
ensemble
THE BOSTON CAMERATA
Joel Cohen, director
assisted by
THE SHARQ ARABIC MUSIC ENSEMBLE
Karim Nagi, director
Hayet Ayad, Anne Azéma, Equidad Barès, Anne Harley — voice
Hazel Brooks — vielle
Joel Cohen — lauta, guitar, voice
Steven Lundahl — recorders, slide trumpet, shofar, voice
Karim Nagi — percussion (riqq, tar, darabuka, duff), chifonie, voice
Boujemaa Razgui percussion (tar, darabuka), nay, raita, voice
Kareem Roustom — oud, guitar, voice
A Mediterranean Christmas
It
began, after all, in the Mediterranean basin, in a corner of the world
inhabited by highly strung, passionate, God-intoxicated Semites. And
their burning desire for transcendence, for union with the source of
Being, took form in at least three world religions, not to mention
innumerable heretical sects and schismatic communities. Yet for those of
us whose lives are rooted in Northern Europe and North America,
Christmas has other associations — not with the Middle-Eastern desert,
but with snowy winters, pine forests, and the comfortable, inviting form
of Anglo-Saxon or Germanic traditions.
Our intention in this
musical program is, however, to savor Christmas in places further south,
beginning first with the Latinized areas of southern Europe. For if
Spain, Italy, and southern France belong to our western, Euro-American
heritage, they are also places that have maintained a certain continuity
of being with the cultures of the Near-East. As we explore these links,
we have chosen not to limit our choice of music to one century or
generation, and to move beyond the so-called "early music" repertoire.
And so some of these works are drawn from medieval manuscripts, while
others come from more recent, though still archaic, folklore and oral
tradition.
The spoken and sung languages of those southern places
were, in the Middle Ages, mainly various dialects of Latin — including
the early versions of Spanish, Judaeo-Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and
Occitan/Provençal that you will hear at various moments on this
recording — as well as the Semitic languages Hebrew and Arabic, both
very much alive in medieval Iberia. Similarly, the music of these
places, transmitted both in manuscript sources and (in the case of the
Arabo-Andalusian melodies, and the more recent folksongs near the
program's end) from oral tradition, offers a rich mix of melodic styles.
Within
this diversity there is also a great deal of common ground, allowing
our performers of varying backgrounds to share and interact with each
others' traditions, just as, in history, the various peoples of the
Mediterranean basin influenced each others' modes of expression. For
instance, the technique of florid melismatic song, still present all
over the Near East, left its mark in the Christian music of southern
Europe. The solo singer who performed the upper part of Lux refulget at some medieval abbey in the Limousin region was a master of this style.
Not
all our Mediterranean-area music is free and florid in its gestures. In
fact, the bulk of the works we have chosen here are quite
straightforward melodically, in keeping with the "popular" flavor of the
Christmas holiday. A number of these pieces simply tell a story to an
attractive tune. Narration and storytelling are central to these
cultures. Mediterranean peoples typically love theatrical gesture (after
all, opera was born in Italy) and dramatic dialogue has always been
important. Compare the 12th-century Mei amic and the 17th-century Pastres, placatz
— both from the Occitan/Provençal south, both creating mini-dramas
within one song — to sense the continuity. The wonderful, 13th-century
cantigas of King Alfonse the Wise bring this narrative tradition — a
simple melody, a good story, a choral refrain — to a summit of
excellence.
A recording such as this cannot hope to replicate
every historical nuance of these various musical practices. But, by
incorporating into our team a number of musicians whose here-and-now
skills reach back into the roots of Mediterranean civilization and
musical culture, we attempt to do justice to at least some core aspects
of the underlying material. All of us in this cast share a love for the
Mediterranean world and its music, and a desire to make the Christmas
vision of peace and reconciliation strong in our hearts. This music of
hope and renewal, coming, it would seem, from distant places, is after
all quite near. And, like all important art, it is an expression of our
common humanity, a gift for all of us to share.
© 2005 Joel Cohen
THE BOSTON CAMERATA is America's preeminent early-music ensemble.
Founded in 1954, The Boston Camerata was associated until 1974 with the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Since 1968, Joel Cohen has directed the
ensemble's teaching, research, recording and concerts, overseeing major
national and international growth in the group's activities. In recent
seasons, Camerata has been heard in the United States, Canada, England,
Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Singapore,
Israel, Mexico, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Japan.
Media
appearances by The Boston Camerata have included a nationally syndicated
radio series in the US and numerous broadcasts on French, English,
Canadian, Dutch, Spanish, Swiss, Norwegian, and Swedish radio.
The
Boston Camerata's numerous recordings on the Erato, Harmonia Mundi,
Nonesuch, Telefunken, and Warner Classics labels have received worldwide
distribution. In 1989, Joel Cohen and Camerata were awarded the coveted
Grand Prix du Disque for their recording, based on original sources, of
the medieval Tristan and Iseult legend. "Simple Gifts", a recording of
Shaker spirituals and chants, was the bestseller on the national
Billboard magazine classical chart when it was released.
Highlights
of Camerata's fiftieth anniversary season 2004/05 included high-profile
concerts in Paris (Théâtre de la Ville) and Boston (Boston Early Music
Festival).
The Boston Camerata is honored by the collaboration on this recording of the SHARQ ARABIC MUSIC ENSEMBLE.
Sharq is dedicated to preserving and presenting traditional and
classical Arabic vocal and instrumental music. It chooses vocal and
instrumental pieces that illustrate the rich and buoyant possibilities
of the genre, without fixating on the popular or commercial versions.
Sharq
consists of young professional musicians from several cities in the
Arab world and Turkey, performing on original and authentic acoustic
instruments. Their musical repertoire ranges from suites and songs from
the Andalusian period up to modern Egyptian classical music of the mid
1900s. The musicians' geographic diversity demonstrates the variety of
styles and heritages of the Near East. Their education and cosmopolitan
attitudes serve as a representation of the modern and artistic Arab
individual, helping to dissolve the fictitious dichotomy between the
Arab and Western worlds.
JOEL COHEN is a leading
authority in the field of medieval and Renaissance musical performance.
He has received widespread acclaim as a performer, conductor, and
writer/ commentator in his chosen field, and his unique style of
program-building has made The Boston Camerata famous on five continents.
Cohen
studied composition at Harvard University. Awarded a Danforth
Fellowship, he spent the next two years in Paris as a student of Nadia
Boulanger. He has taught and lectured at many universities on the east
coast of the US, including Harvard, Yale, Brandeis, and Amherst. Abroad,
he has given seminars and workshops at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, at
the Royal Opera of Brussels, in Spain, Singapore, and Japan. With
soprano Anne Azéma, he co-directs an annual workshop in medieval song in
Coaraze, France. His professional honors include membership in Phi Beta
Kappa, the Erwin Bodky award in early music, the Signet Society medal
from Harvard, the Georges Longy Award, and the Howard Mayer Brown Award
for lifetime achievement in early music, the Grand Prix du Disque, and
the Edison Prize. He is an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
of the French Republic. He was appointed Artist in Residence in the
Netherlands during 2000, the first American musician to be so honored.
Cohen's
chosen repertoires span many centuries and countries. He has, however,
taken a special interest in French music of the Middle Ages,
Renaissance, and early Baroque. Thanks to a series of CD recordings,
concerts, and publications, his pioneering work in the roots of early
American music has also won extensive praise.
In 1990, Cohen
founded a new ensemble, the Camerata Mediterranea, devoted to the
performance of early-music repertoires from the Mediterranean basin. His
cross-cultural collaborations with Middle Eastern musicians have taken
an increasingly central role in his activities and musical thought since
the mid-1990s.
Joel Cohen is well-known in Europe and America as a radio commentator on early music. His first book, Reprise,
was published in 1985. An anthology of Shaker songs featuring many of
his transcriptions appeared in 2003. His arrangements of early American
tunes provided the inspiration for much of the score to the film Geronimo (1994). His close collaboration with Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen resulted in the important dance production Borrowed Light, based on original Shaker music, and first seen in Le Havre, France in October 2004.
Special thanks to the Marco Institute of the University of Tennessee and Robert Bast, director, for project support.
Our
further thanks to the following individual donors to The Boston
Camerata for their help in making this recording possible: Ruth &
Kelly Bogan, Charlotte Brown, Erik & Terri Payne Butler, Susan
Carter, Leo & Adele Cohen, Leonard Connolly, Fay Dabney, Charles
& JoAnne Dickinson, Robert & Dianthe Eisendrath, Ariadne Forbes,
Fred Franklin, Cynthia Gilles, Joseph Hill, Paul & Jean Humez,
Joanne Klys, Paul & Jane Kyte, Benjamin & Linda Labaree, Dalton
& Noreen Labaree, Robert LaFortune, Annick Lapôtre, Amelia LeClair,
David Levine & Christine Kirk, Lorraine Lyman,
William O. Lytle,
Keith Ohmart & Helen Chen, Eda & Leo Rabinovitz, Dean Stuart
Riggsby (University of Tennessee), Jennie Rawski, Susan and Geoffrey
Rowley, Patrick Tynan, David Wahr, Ruth Westheimer, Kouichi Yoshino.
Recording engineer: David Griesinger
Producer: Joel Cohen
Digital editing: Trobador
Recording location: Church of the Covenant, Boston, 29 June-3 July 2005
Musical arrangements: Joel Cohen (SACEM)
"Taksim Farahfaza" by Kareem Roustom (Layali Music Publishing, B.M.I.)
Production coordinator: Kati Mitchell
Travel coordinator: Annick Lapôtre · Fundraising coordinator: David Levine
Treasurer: Jane Kyte · Legal services: Thomas Carey · Hospitality: Lisa Clarke, Sheri Flagler
Introductory note © 2005 Joel Cohen. Translations © 2005 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd
Cover:
King Alfonso X with musicians and dancers, illumination from the
Cantigas de Santa Maria, no. 170v,
Biblioteca del Escorial, Madrid,
Photo: Archivo Oronoz
Editorial: WLP Ltd Design: Matt Mayes for WLP Ltd
All rights of the producer and of the owner of the work reproduced reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending,
public performance and broadcasting of this record prohibited. Made in the EU.
℗ 2005 Boston Camerata Inc.
© 2005 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd.