glossamusic.com
Glossa GCD 922305
2011
1. Sacris solemniis · hymn, "in festo Corporis
Christi" [5:15]
2. Memorare Piissima · motet [5:28]
3.Missa Nunca fue pena mayor. KYRIE [3:36]
4. Missa Nunca fue pena mayor. GLORIA [6:16]
5. Julius de MODENA. Tiento XIX [2:16]
Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, arpa y vihuela — Luys Venegas de
Henestrosa, 1557
6. Missa Nunca fue pena mayor. CREDO [8:11]
7. O bone Iesu · motet [2:48]
8. Tribularer · motet [3:06]
9. Missa Nunca fue pena mayor. SANCTUS [3:40]
10. Ave vera caro Christi · motet [3:33]
11. Missa Nunca fue pena mayor. AGNUS DEI [5:17]
12. Transeunte Domino · motet [3:30]
13. Tres II · anonymous [1:41]
Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, arpa y vihuela — Luys Venegas de
Henestrosa, 1557
14. In passione positus Iesus · motet [4:03]
Ensemble Gilles Binchois
Anne-Marie Lablaude, soprano
David Sagastume, alto
David Munderloh, tenor
Dominique Vellard, tenor
Tim Scott Whiteley, bass
Les Sacqueboutiers
Jean-Pierre Canihac, cornett
Philippe Canguilhem, shawm
Daniel Lassalle, sackbut
Laurent Lechenadec, dulcian
Dominique Vellard, direction
Recorded in the
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Maguelone, France, in
October 2010
Engineered and produced by Aline Blondiau
Executive producer & editorial director: Carlos Céster
Editorial assistance: María Díaz, Mark Wiggins
Design: Valentín Iglesias (www.valentiniglesias.com)
On the cover: Pedro Machuca (c.1490-1550), El descendimiento de la cruz (c.1520, detail)
Museo del Prado, Madrid
© 2011 MusiContact GmbH
Francisco de
Peñalosa
Missa Nunca fue pena mayor
Muy poco há que murió aquel famoso varón don
Francisco de Peñalosa, Maestro de capilla del cathólico
Rey don Fernando, el qual en la Música en arte y boz
escedió á Apolo su inuentor
("Not long ago died that celebrated master, Francisco de
Peñalosa, chapelmaster of King Ferdinand the Catholic, who in
both singing and composing surpassed even Apollo, the inventor of
music.")
So wrote Cristóbal de Villalón in his Ingeniosa
comparación entre lo antiguo y lo presente (1539).
Villalón's rhetoric tends to hyperbole, as can be seen from this
quotation in which Francisco de Peñalosa is held to surpass
Apollo, but the composer undoubtedly had an illustrious career in three
of the most important musical institutions of the period: the Aragonese
royal chapel, Seville Cathedral and the papal chapel of Leo X.
Pefialosa was clearly highly esteemed at court and in Rome where he
served in the papal choir, yet surprisingly little is known about his
early biography and training. The place of his birth — Talavera
de la Reina — is documented, but not the date, but is assumed to
have occurred around 1470. Although it remains to be proven through
more research, it would appear that his father, also Francisco de
Peñalosa, was a servant — contino — in the
household of Queen Isabella, and was captain of the guard on Columbus's
second voyage to the New World in 1493. Information on the esteem in
which Francisco de Peñalosa père was held at
court comes from the writings of his nephew, fray Bartolomé de
las Casas (1484-1566), the intrepid Dominican chronicler of the New
World and apologist for the Indians; Las Casas was, therefore, a cousin
of Peñalosa fils. According to Las Casas, the composer's
father died at the end of 1499 or early in 1500, and it would appear
that the young musician was raised in Seville, or at least spent a good
part of his time there, before he entered the service of the Aragonese
royal chapel in May 1498.
This Sevillian background would certainly explain Peñalosa's
desire to hold a benefice in that great city's cathedral. In December
1505 he was presented to a canonry at the behest of King Ferdinand, but
the cathedral chapter, as customarily occurred, resisted this
appointment, and it was several years before the case was decided in
his favour. As was customary in the royal chapel, he was granted leave
to visit Seville on a regular basis, and after Ferdinand's death in
January 1516 took up residence there. Not only was Peñalosa the
most important composer in the Aragonese royal chapel for the best part
of twenty years, but in 1511 he was also appointed chapelmaster to
Ferdinand's grandson and namesake, prince Ferdinand, second son of
Philip the Fair and Juana la Loca, who was brought up and educated in
Spain. Indeed, Peñalosa's reputation was such that in the autumn
of 1517 he was invited to Rome and sang in the papal choir until Pope
Leo X's death in December 1521. The prospect of another extended
absence from Seville meant that he was forced by the cathedral chapter
to exchange his canonry for the position of Archdeacon of Carmona,
which he held until his death ten years later. Although his absences
from Seville resulted in a difficult relationship with the cathedral
chapter, he was clearly also held in esteem there: in 1510-11 his works
were copied for the cathedral, possibly the book referred to as a "libro
de misas de Peñalosa, arcediano de Carmona, puntadas en
pergamino en marca mediana, viejo" in an inventory of the cathedral
music books dated 1588. However, other sixteenth-century inventories
reveal that much of Peñalosa's music has been lost, and that his
works circulated widely throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
Peñalosa was clearly among the more prolific of the composers of
his time: his extant works include six Masses, a few separate Mass
movements, six Magnificats, about two dozen motets, five hymns, three
Lamentations and eleven songs. In all these works he displays his
considerable skills as a composer, though he adopts different styles
according to genre: for example, the settings of liturgical texts
— the Magnificats, hymns and Lamentations, together with a few of
his motets — use the relevant chant as a cantus firmus which is
embedded in counterpoint that is sometimes, but not always, imitative.
The devotional motets alternate contrasting textures to articulate the
text and highlight key passages in homophonic declamation. Technical
feats are to be found in the Masses, notably in the final Agnus Dei of
the Missa Ave Maria peregrina, which combines the chant for the
Salve regina with the tenor of Hayne van Ghizeghem's De tous
biens plaine in retrograde. Another Mass, his Missa Adieu mes
amours, is based on Josquin's widely diffused chanson, and also
features a canon in the final Agnus Dei, while a third adopts the
ubiquitous L'homme armé melody. It is tempting to follow
a Darwinian line of evolution and suggest that these more complex and
extended Mass settings based on Franco-Netherlandish songs must have
been composed later than his two more succinct and straightforward
Masses on Spanish themes, the Missa El ojo and the Missa
Nunca fue pena mayor, although whether this is in fact a question
of chronology or of the different nature of the borrowed material is a
question that needs to be addressed.
Peñalosa was one of a number of composers to base a work on Juan
de Urrede's Nunca fue pena mayor, one of the most widely
disseminated of all Castilian-texted songs from the period. There can
be little doubt that his choice of melody in his Mass was anything but
fortuitous. The canción Nunca fue pena mayor, with text
almost certainly by the Duke of Alba, García Álvarez de
Toledo and music by his Flemish chapelmaster of the mid-1470s survives
in various versions in almost twenty musical sources, printed and
manuscript, and was also cited in a number of other works, both
literary and musical. In addition to two cantus-firmus Mass cycles by
Pierre de La Rue and Peñalosa, the tenor of Urrede's song is
used as a cantus firmus in an extended motet by Matthaeus Pipelare,
Memorare mater Christi, significantly a work that develops the
theme of the compassio Mariae, the identification with the
suffering of the Virgin Mother at the foot of the Cross. This notion of
gaining understanding of the meaning of the Crucifixion through
contemplation of the Virgin's suffering was widespread throughout
Europe thanks to spiritual movements such as the devotio moderna
and confraternities dedicated to the Sorrows of the Virgin. Isabel the
Catholic was particularly devoted to the quinta angustia, the
moment when the Virgin held her dead son in her arms, and the composers
of the royal chapels set texts in Latin and the vernacular that
reflected this devotion.
It is possible, then, that in choosing this song as the basis for a
Mass setting Peñalosa was applying a Marian interpretation to
it, but it is also possible that his choice reflected the connections
between the courts of the Duke of Alba and that of his cousin
Ferdinand, a closeness consolidated in 1477 when Urrede became
chapelmaster of the Aragonese chapel. It is also worth remembering that
Urrede's song opens the so-called Palace Songbook (Cancionero
Musical de Palacio), although whether the original compilation of
this volume of hundreds of polyphonic songs was intended as a gift for
Ferdinand from his cousin is still a matter for debate. Certainly,
there is no concealing of the melody by placing it in an inner voice in
long note values; rather, it is presented almost exactly as found in
the canción in the superius of Kyrie I, and is thus
easily discernible. There is little or no use of imitation between the
voices, so that the purity of its presentation in the upper voice is
unsullied; furthermore, Peñalosa preserves the Phrygian mode of
the song throughout the Mass so that it is imbued with a sense of
melancholy. The three-voice Christe, by way of contrast, alludes only
in a generalized way to the song; indeed, it is rather as if
Peñalosa is composing his own, self-contained canción.
Such creative freedom is short-lived, however; the Kyrie II uses part
of the tenor line of the estribillo or refrain of the song as a
cantus firmus also placed in the tenor, while the superius elaborates
on the melody line almost in the manner of a riff.
This variety of approach to the borrowed material of the canción
characterizes the Mass setting as a whole. In the first section of the
Gloria, the melody is again stated in the superius, but at first in
longer notes; only from "Domine Deus" is it presented in the original
values, and a similar procedure is adopted for the "Qui tollis". Yet
here the song melody is combined with the chant for the Gregorian Mass
XV (a chant also used by Peñialosa in his Missa Ave Maria
peregrina), which drifts into and out of focus in the tenor and
bass parts throughout. In the Credo, as in the Christe section of the
Kyrie, Peñalosa adopts a much more allusive approach: references
to the song melody and snippets of the Gregorian Credo I emerge and
fade into the overall texture, at times generating or informing the
counterpoint, but never adopting a structural role. The words "Qui
propter" are set as an imitative duo which serves to highlight the
musical rhetoric of the homophonic chords at "Et incarnatus est". The
Sanctus again makes use of the song melody, presenting it in varying
note values as in the Gloria, the second statement being in values
twice the length of those of the first statement, as indicated by the
canon or rubric in the manuscript: "Canon prima ut iacet / Secunda in
duplo". The three-voice "Pleni sunt caeli" exploits, for the first
time, a truly equal-voiced, imitative texture, the material once again
based on the song melody while the "Osanna" affords a complete contrast
with a succinct sequence of declamatory chords. The Benedictus (sung on
this recording in plainchant) is missing from the single surviving
source for this Mass, and only one polyphonic setting of the Agnus Dei
is included. In this, the composer uses the tenor of the estribillo
of the canción in long note values in the alto, while
the other voices weave an imitative, but sparsely textured counterpoint
around it. Possibly a further setting of the Agnus, perhaps based on
the melody of the verse of the song has, like the Benedictus, been
lost. Overall, this Mass shows Peñalosa experimenting with the
concept of the cyclic Mass based on a polyphonic song, borrowing its
material and presenting it in constantly changing and highly inventive
ways.
Few of Peñalosa's motets make use of borrowed material or cantus
firmus technique, reflecting the non-liturgical, devotional nature of
the texts he generally set. Ave vera caro Christi is typical of
his highly dramatic and emotional motet style. Its text, drawn from a
hymn that is also found in the thirteenth-century Las Huelgas
manuscript, is a prayer to the crucified Christ that ends with a plea
to Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary to take pity on mankind: "O Iesu, o
pie, / o dulcis fili Mariae, / miserere nobis". After the
characteristic opening exordium, certain phrases or words in the text
are singled out for special treatment: the word "Salve", for example,
is offset by a full cadence at "dereliquisti", and introduces the
striking opening notes of the Salve Regina chant melody.
Similarly, the invocation to Jesus towards the end of the motet, "O
Iesu", is preceded by rests in all four voices and a sustained chord on
the exclamation itself.
The structure of the hymn text as a whole is articulated by changes of
vocal scoring and texture so that the individual lines of each verse
can be readily followed by the listener. A very similar pattern is
followed in In passione positus in which Christ's words in the
Garden of Gethsemene and on the Cross are presented within a succinct
narrative that leads to a concluding prayer. Only at his final words,
"Consumatum est", do the four voices come together in an affective
sequence of chords. The motets Memorare Piissima and O bone
lesu are also attributed to composers other than Peñalosa,
though they fit squarely into the devotional motet genre cultivated by
him. O bone lesu, like In passione positus, introduces
Christ's last words, and, like Ave vera caro Christi, makes use
of an opening exordium and declamatory homophony to enhance the drama
of the Crucifixion and move the listener to contemplation of its
meaning for mankind.
Tribularer si nescirem is not a Passion text, but a penitential
prayer linked liturgically to the Lenten period, during which it was
sung as a responsory; it is found, with some textual variants, in the Processionale
Monasticum. The less overtly dramatic nature of the text inclines
Peñalosa to a more generalized setting, with successive points
of imitation and the use of contrasting duos and changes of texture to
articulate the structure. The word "misericors" is singled out for
homophonic treatment, emphasizing Christ's merciful nature, but is
quickly developed into a more contrapuntal build-up to the final
cadence. Transeunte Domino is likewise a work with a
liturgically derived function — a variant of the text set by
Petialosa is found as an antiphon for Quinquagesima Sunday — and
it, too, deploys a more continuous contrapuntal texture. It is
Peñalosa's only work for five voices, although he carefully
avoids using all five until the final section beginning "Et omnis
plebs" ("And all the people"). Peñalosa's compositional
techniques are essentially those of Josquin and the contemporaneous
generation of Franco-Netherlandish composers, but used to create a more
succinct and dramatic kind of motet that draws the listener in through
a subtle musical and textual rhetoric.
Peñalosa's setting of the Corpus Christi hymn Sacris
solemniis, like all his hymns, draws on the corresponding chant as
a cantus firmus, in this instance the distinctive triple-time melody
found in the Intonarium Toletanum printed in 5515. The lilting
rhythmic character of the melody, which is placed in the tenor, is
preserved, while the other three voices weave a contrapuntal web around
it, seemingly without reference to it. It is in Peñalosa's
chant-based works that the semi-improvised tradition of contrapunto,
so widely practised in the cathedrals and churches of the Iberian
Peninsula, can be most clearly appreciated. This technique, learnt and
acquired by all professional musicians, whether through the cathedral
schools or university music courses of the period, resulted in a more
or less elaborate accompaniment to the chant that was prized for the
way in which the celebration of the liturgy was thus enhanced and
solemnified.
Tess Knighton