medieval.org
outhere/phi 017
2015
1. Virgen Madre groriosa [4:51]
CSM 340
soprano, Gothic harp HB | dulce melos MÜ
2. Des oge mais quer’ eu trobar [5:44]
CSM 1
sopranos, Gothic harps HB BK | dulce melos MÜ | percussion MN
3. Quen as sas figuras da Virgen partir [4:38]
CSM 76
THE IMAGE OF THE CHRIST CHILD THAT WAS HELD FOR RANSOM
soprano, Gothic harp HB
4. Por nos de dulta livrar [2:58]
CSM 18
THE SILKWORMS THAT WOVE VEILS
Romanesque harp HB | psaltery BK | dulce melos MÜ
5. Entre Av'e Eva [2:43]
CSM 60
soprano, Gothic harp BK
6. Santa Maria leva [5:14]
CSM 320
soprano, Gothic harp HB
7. Quen bõa dona querrá [2:18]
CSM 160
sopranos HB BK | percussion MN
8. Gran piadad’ e mercee e nobreza [4:35]
CSM 105
THE MAID OF ARRAS
soprano HB
9. Rosa das rosas, fror das frores, [1:15]
CSM 10
Romanesque harp HB
10. Santa Maria amar [6:07]
CSM 7
THE PREGNANT ABBESS
sopranos, Gothic harps HB BK | dulce melos MÜ | percussion MN
11. O fondo do mar tan chão [5:07]
CSM 383
THE PILGRIM WOMAN SAVED FROM DROWNING
soprano, Romanesque harp HB
12. Pera toller gran perfia [2:21]
CSM 85
THE JEW WHO WAS DELIVERED FROM THIEVES
Gothic harp HB | dulce melos MÜ | percussion MN
13. U alguen a Jesucristo [5:03]
CSM 281
THE KNIGHT WHO BECAME THE DEVIL’s VASSAL
sopranos HB BK
14. Non pod' ome pela Virgen [2:00]
CSM 127
THE YOUNG MAN WHO KICKED HIS MOTHER
Gothic harp HB | dulce melos MÜ
15. Quen serve Santa Maria [2:57]
CSM 213
THE INNOCENT MAN WHO WAS EXONERATED
sopranos, Gothic harps HB BK | percussion MN
16. Sen calar [4:49]
CSM 380
sopranos, Gothic harps HB BK | percussion MN
17. Que por al non devess’ ome [2:26]
CSM 295
THE VIRGIN APPEARS TO SOME NUNS
Gothic harps HB BK | percussion MN
18. Rosa das rosas, fror das frores [4:29]
CSM 10
soprano, Gothic harp HB
19. Como poden per sas culpas [2:57]
CSM 166
THE LAME MAN HEALED AT SALAS
sopranos, Gothic harps HB BK | dulce melos MÜ | percussion MN
Hana Blažíková
soprano, Gothic harp1, Romanesque harp2, musical direction
[1, 2, 3, 42, 6, 7, 8, 92, 10, 112, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19]
Barbora Kabátková
soprano, Gothic harp3, psaltery4
[2, 44, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19]
Margit Übellacker
dulce melos5
[1, 2, 4, 10, 12, 14, 19]
Martin Novák
percussions
[2, 7, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19]
1 Franz Reschenhofer, Handenberg, Austria, 2008
2 Rainer M. Thurau, Wiesbaden, Germany, 2014
3 Karel Hanzík, Příbram, Czech Republic, 2005
4 Karel Hanzík, Příbram, Czech Republic, 2002
5 Bernd Maier, Freiburg, Germany, 2003
Hana Blažíková, soprano, harp and musical direction
Hana
Blažíková was born in Prague. In 2002, she graduated from Jiří Kotouč’s
class at the Prague Conservatory and went on to further study with
Poppy Holden, Peter Kooij, Monika Mauch and Howard Crook. Hana
specialises in the interpretation of Baroque, Renaissance and medieval
music, which she performs with ensembles and orchestras around the
world, among them Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe
Herreweghe), Bach
Collegium Japan (Masaaki Suzuki), Sette Voci (Peter Kooij), the
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), L’Arpeggiata, La Fenice, and
Tafelmusik, among others. She appears on more than thirty CDs, including
the well-known series of Bach’s cantatas with Bach Collegium Japan.
Hana
Blažíková also plays the Gothic harp and presents concerts in which she
accompanies herself on that instrument. She is a member of Tiburtina
Ensemble, which specialises in Gregorian chant and early medieval
polyphony.
Barbora Kabátková, soprano, harp and psaltery
Barbora
Kabátková is among the most sought-after Czech singers in the field of
early and contemporary music. Barbora has been making music since her
childhood, having studied the piano as well as singing. She studied
choral conducting and church music at the Faculty of Education of the
Charles University and musicology at the same school’s Faculty of Arts,
where she is now a Ph.D. student specialising in Gregorian chant. Since
2009 she has taught Gregorian chant at the Faculty of Education of the
Charles University. She is intensively involved in the performance of
early solo vocal music, and plays the Gothic harp and the psaltery.
Barbora performs with such ensembles as Collegium 1704, Collegium
Marianum, Musica Florea, Collegium Vocale Gent, Doulce Mémoire, Cappella
Mariana, the Berg Orchestra and Ostravská banda, and is a member of
Collegium Vocale 1704. She is the artistic director of the female vocal
group Tiburtina Ensemble. Barbora has sung at leading Czech and European
festivals.
Margit Übellacker, dulce melos
Margit
Übellacker dedicates herself primarily to the revival of Baroque and
medieval repertories for historical types of dulcimer (pantaleon,
salterio, dulce melos). She received important guidance during her
studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel), Linz and Munich. She
is a founding member of the ensembles La Gioia Armonica and Dulce Melos
and has appeared in many concerts and on recordings for radio,
television, CD and DVD with the ensembles L’Arpeggiata, Shield of
Harmony, Musica Alta Ripa, Les Passions de l’Âme, Musica Fiorita,
Coriandolo, Il Suonar Parlante, Oni Wytars, Tiburtina, the Australian
Brandenburg Orchestra, the Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg, L’Orfeo
Barockorchester Linz, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the
WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne, Zürcher Kammerorchester, I Barocchisti, and
with artists such as Maurice Steger (recorder), Crawford Young (lute)
and Aline Zylberajch (fortepiano). She has performed
and recorded throughout Europe and in South America, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Russia and the USA (including Carnegie Hall).
Martin Novák, percussions
Martin
Novák was born in Ostrava in 1983. He studied the classical violin from
an early age, but switched to drums and percussion at the age of ten.
He studied at many jazz workshops in the Czech Republic, Italy and
Canada. After a period playing in high-school bands, he moved to Prague
to join the leading artists on the Czech jazz scene, among them Yvonne
Sanchez, Najponk, David Dorůžka and Beata Hlavenková. Since 2013 he has
studied with the great John Hollenbeck at the Jazz Institute Berlin.
Apart from the world of improvised music, Martin is also part of the pop
and songwriter scene. He has performed with Lenka Dusilová, Jana
Kirschner, Lanugo, and Sarah & The Adams among others. He has
recorded more than fifteen albums and toured many European countries.
English titles for the tracks 3, 4, 8, 10-15, 17, 19, by Stephen Parkinson.
English translations and summaries by Stephen Parkinson.
English translations nos 1, 2, 10, 14, 18 from Stephen Parkinson (ed.),
Alfonso X The Learned, Cantigas de Santa Maria (MHRA Critical Texts, 40)
© Modern Humanities Research Association. http://cantigas.mhra.org.uk
The text has been reproduced with the permission of the Modern Humanities Research Association.
All other English translations and summaries:
© Centre for the Study of the Cantigas de Santa Maria http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk
Traduction française: Catherine Meeùs
Deutsche Übersetzung: Franziska Gorgs
Recording: May 11-14, 2014 , Church of Our Lady beneath the Chain at the End of the Bridge, Prague (Czech Republic)
Recording, Editing, Mastering: Rainer Arndt
Liner Notes: Manuel Pedro Ferreira
Cover Picture: photo Michel Dubois (Courtesy Dubois Friedland)
Pictures digipack & booklet: Vojteˇch Havlík
Design: Casier/Fieuws
Executive Producer: Aliénor Mahy
Special thanks to PhDr. Mgr. Jan Hricsina, Ph.D.
Special thanks to Dr. Stephen Parkinson and the Centre for the Study of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
THE CANTIGAS DE SANTA MARIA: A UNIQUE MEDIEVAL MONUMENT
The Cantigas de Santa Maria (CSM) is a collection of 419 devotional songs in Galician-Portuguese (cantigas) compiled between circa 1264 or earlier and 1284 at the court of Alfonso X, el Sabio
(‘the Learned’), King of León and Castile. It is the largest medieval
collection of Marian songs written in a vernacular language. It is also
the second largest surviving corpus of medieval songs with musical
notation; it is surpassed only by the end-result of one hundred and
fifty years of trouvère production in both France and England.
King
Alfonso not only ordered this compilation to be made; he also
controlled it, personally contributed texts and music to it, and caused
his piety (and that of his closest relatives) to be featured prominently
in it. CSM 1, Des oge mais quer’ eu trobar [track 2] announces
precisely, using first-person speech, the King’s decision to compose
‘from now on’ songs honouring the Virgin. His care to dress the image of
the Virgin with the most beautiful silk, for public admiration during
Marian feasts, is referred to in CSM 18, Por nos de dulta livrar
[track 4: instrumental version]. Later, when his project was attaining
its final stage, his effort was personally rewarded by miracles
performed by Mary, as is narrated, for instance, in CSM 295, Que por al non devess’ ome [track 17: instrumental version].
These
songs also illustrate the two main categories of CSM composition:
lyrical and narrative. Overall, one song in each group of ten praise the
qualities and deeds of the Virgin Mary (cantiga de loor), while the remaining tell of her miracles (cantigas de miragres). In the present recording, five compositions are of the loor
type: the initial one (CSM 1) and the four with ‘decadal’ numbers (CSM
10, 60, 340, 380). The miracle songs include both short narratives, as
in CSM 166, Como poden per sas culpas [track 19], and very long ones, seldom performed nowadays in their entirety, e.g. CSM 213, Quen serve Santa Maria
[track 15], where, of twenty stanzas, only four (I, IX, XII and XIII)
are included on this recording. The poems tend to adopt the formal
features of the Andalusian zajal, an Arabic song inspired by old
Iberian traditions — strophic rhymed poetry with initial refrain,
followed by stanzas which initially present contrasting rhymes but end
up replicating those of the refrain. Exceptionally, refrainless forms,
following high-register troubadour models, are used: this occurs, for
instance with CSM 1, Des oge mais [track 2] and CSM 400, Pero cantigas de loor,
because they were purposely composed to open and close the collection
(without the appendices), serving therefore as its overall frame.
Despite
this, the collection at first encompassed only one hundred songs; the
King then changed his mind and expanded it to four hundred (plus special
groups meant for liturgical feasts). The selection and distribution of
the pre-existing songs was also changed. This can be still seen in the
extant manuscripts. The first (Madrid, B.N. MS 10 069) was kept in
Toledo in the eighteenth century, hence its siglum *To. It
includes 128 songs. Two other codices, originating in Seville, are found
in the Monastery of El Escorial, north of Madrid. The most outstanding,
being richly illuminated (MS. T. I. 1), is generally referred to as códice rico or *T; it contains 193 cantigas
and was meant to be the first volume of a two-volume set, each with 200
songs, the second volume of which remained incomplete and is now kept
in Florence. It was probably written around 1280-84. The last codex, *E
(MS. b. I. 2), famous for its miniatures with musical instruments, is
slightly later. It contains 407 cantigas (discounting repetitions) and
therefore represents the final stage of the collection; its numbering
has been followed by modern editors.
Besides the total number of
songs, there are differences between the initial and the final stage.
Miracles located in Spain, e.g. CSM 18, Por nos de dultas livrar
[track 4], are rarely found among the first hundred. The narratives were
mainly taken from compilations in Latin that enjoyed international
circulation, and then translated and versified; many of the sources
coincide with those used earlier by Gautier de Coinci in his Miracles de Notre Dame: examples include CSM 7, Santa Maria amar [track 10], on the pregnant abbess, and CSM 105, Gran piadad’ e mercee e nobreza [track 8], on the maid of Arras. Also international in character are the miracles of CSM 76, Quen as sas figuras da Virgen partir [track 3], on the image of the Christ Child that was held for ransom; and CSM 85, Pera toller gran perfia
[track 12: instrumental version], on the vision seen by a Jew in
England. Neither of them belongs to the original hundred songs, but they
retain the general orientation of that group. Two unique stories are
located in France: CSM 127, Non pod’ ome pela Virgen [track 14: instrumental version], on the young man who kicked his mother, and CSM 281, U alguen a Jesucristo
[track 13], about a knight who became the Devil’s vassal. In the later
layers of the collection, however, more and more miracles associated
with the Iberian Peninsula are added. Locations include, in Spain, Salas
(CSM 166, Como poden per sas culpas [track 19]) and Sigüenza (CSM 383, O fondo do mar tan chão [track 11]); and in Portugal, Terena (CSM 213, Quen serve Santa Maria [track 15]).
The
changes also concern musical notation, which belongs to two different
types. *To takes as its basis the note-shapes of Iberian chant sources,
while the notational repertoire of *T and *E is inspired by French,
pre-Franconian mensural notation. In contrast with the more archaic
Toledo type, the Escorial notation permits a relatively confident
rhythmic interpretation. This is, in fact, one of the reasons why the
CSM attract many modern performers. Unlike most sources of
thirteenth-century song, the manuscripts copied in Alfonso’s court
include not only the pitches of a melody, but also their relative
length. This is vital information for musicians; moreover, this kind of
information carries important cultural implications, since rhythmic
models can often be identified and influences detected.
Apparently
these songs are not dissimilar from the European mainstream. They are
predominantly syllabic, with occasional short melismas. Most of the
melodies are compatible with the standard Gregorian eight-mode system,
allowing for some deviation from expected modal behaviour; some melodic
formulas are reminiscent of Gregorian chant, even if borrowing from
liturgical sources is rare. CSM 340, Virgen Madre groriosa [track 1], is actually based on a troubadour song, an alba
by Cadenet. Julián Ribera in the 1920s described the CSM, however, as
being essentially Arabic. Later Higinio Anglés attacked Ribera’s claim
on solid musicological grounds. Both views have recently proved to be
too schematic.
King Alfonso X had a very strong connection with
southern Spain, Al-Andalus, whose territories he helped recover from
Islamic rule, established in the early eighth century. He spent many
months in Murcia when it was still a vassal-state, ruled by a Muslim
king; he befriended the King of Granada and established his court in
Seville, whose impressive mosque became the cathedral where he was
eventually buried. Medieval Andalusian music, between the tenth and
thirteenth centuries, had both Hispanic and Arabic elements: Andalusian
formal features were basically Iberian, while rhythmic features were
basically oriental. The simple virelai form (types like AA/BBAA
or AB/CCAB, the stanza beginning always with a contrasting melody)
probably corresponds to an old indigenous tradition later taken over and
developed by Andalusian musicians; the Andalusian rondeau form (AB/BB[B ]AB) was certainly local. Most of the CSM, as in this recording,
exhibit a virelai form. However, no fewer than eighty-six (21%) adopt
the Andalusian rondeau form, unheard-of in most of Europe. An example is
CSM 295, Que por al non devess’ ome [track 17].
The
Arabic rhythmic tradition has some superficial similarities with the
French system of rhythmic modes, but it includes a few unusual,
characteristic features: the large scale of some rhythmic cycles and
periods, the use of syncopation and the importance given to quaternary
metre. It also uses dotted rhythm and quintuple metre. The rhythm of the
Cantigas de Santa Maria seems generally to be of the simple
Parisian modal type, with frequent modal mixture (acknowledged by
contemporary theorists), as in CSM 7, Santa Maria amar [track 10], and CSM 383, O fondo do mar
[track 11]. However, many songs exhibit characteristics that cannot be
understood in terms of French rhythmic theory, but make complete sense
when compared with Arabic treatises, as in CSM 160, Quen bõa dona querrá [track 7], and CSM 1, Des oge mais
[track 2]. Moreover, some rhythmic patterns that we associate with
medieval France are also described in Arabic treatises, strengthening
the case for possible eastern influence. The performer is confronted
with interpretative options as well. For instance CSM 105, Gran piadad’
[track 8] recalls the Parisian third rhythmic mode, and the second may
also be freely applied; however it could be sung according to quintuple
metre, which survived in Iberian songs from the Renaissance and in some
strands of oral tradition.
Thus the Cantigas are a mixed,
Christian-oriented repertoire, as Anglés observed; but they also
include, as Ribera suspected, some typical Andalusian traits rooted in
the larger Mediterranean culture. This sets them apart from other
medieval European song repertoires, and helps to explain both their
astounding musical variety and their success with modern audiences.
Manuel Pedro Ferreira