Early Music Consort of London · David Munrow - The Art of the Netherlands
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EMI His Master's Voice BOX: SLS 5049 · 3LPs
EMI LPs: OC 189 06202-4Q or ASD 3229-3231 · 3LPs
Seraphim SIC-6104 · 3LPS
grabado en febrero y abril de 1975
Abbey Road Studios, London
publicado en 1976
1992: compilation & remastering 1992 · EMI Classics CMS 7 64215 2
medieval.org
1997: Virgin Edition 7243 5 61334 2 6
medieval.org
reeditado en 2010 como
Virgin classics «Veritas X 2» 628497-2
distribución en las compilaciones:
solo EMI
solo Virgin
ni EMI ni Virgin
EMI & Virgin
CD1
LP1. Secular Songs
A
JOSQUIN · c1440-1521
01 - Scaramella va alla guerra · villotta [2:11]
James Bowman • Martyn Hill, Paul Elliott • Geoffrey Shaw
AL, AvdB · alto recorder • OB · bass viol
JT · Renaissance guitar • CH · harp • DC · tambourine
JOSQUIN
Allegez moy, doulce plaisant brunette
02 - Original six-part chanson [2:06]
James Bowman • Paul Elliott, Rogers Covey-Crump, Martyn Hill • Maurice Bevan, Geoffrey Shaw
03 - Lute duet · anon. early 16th century [2:14]
Hortus musarum, Louvain, 1552
JT, RS
JOSQUIN (?)
04 - El grillo è buon cantore · frottola [1:47]
James Bowman • Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
Heinrich ISAAC · c1450-1517
05 - Donna di dentro della tua casa · quodlibet [1:39]
Sally Dunkley, Rosemary Hardy • David James
Martyn Hill, Paul Elliot, Leigh Nixon, John Potter • Geoffrey Shaw, Maurice Bevan
Hayne van GHIZEGHEM · c1445-between 1472 & 1497
De tous biens plaine · rondeau
06 - Original three-part chanson [6:46]
with additional si placet part from Harmonice musices odhecaton A, Venice, 1501
James Bowman
NN · tenor rebec • TJ, OB · bass rebec • CH · harp
07 - Four-part instrumental version, with canon a 2 · JOSQUIN [1:39]
DM · bass recorder • OB · fiddle • TJ, JT · tenor viol
08 - Three-part instrumental version I · Alexander AGRICOLA, ?1446-1506 [1:15]
JT, RS · lutes • OB · fiddle • CH · harp
09 - Three-part instrumental version II · AGRICOLA [1:27]
DM · treble recorder • JT · lute • OB · fiddle • CH · harp
Antoine BRUMEL · c1460-c1515 after Johannes OCKEGHEM · c1410-1497
10 - Du tout plongiet~Fors seulement l'attente [10:33]
Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
TJ, OB · bass viol
B
anon. c1500
11 - Mijn morken gaf mij een jonck wijff · quodlibet [1:41]
Charles Brett • Leigh Nixon • Geoffrey Shaw • Terry Edwards
Johannes GHISELIN (VERBONNET) · fl early 16thC
12 - Ghy syt die wertste boven al [2:09]
Charles Brett • Martyn Hill, Paul Elliot • Geoffrey Shaw
Jacques BARBIREAU · c1420-1491, Heinrich ISAAC · c1450-1517 or Jacob OBRECHT · c1450-1505
Ein fröhlich wesen
13 - Original three-part chanson [2:33]
British Library, MS Add.31922
James Bowman • Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
DM · alto recorder • JT · lute • OB · bass viol
14 - Keyboard solo · ascribed to Paul HOFHAIMER · 1459-1537 [1:37]
Berlin, Preussische Staatsbibliothek, MS 40026
CH · regal
15 - Four-part chanson · Jacob OBRECHT [3:42]
James Bowman • Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
ML · cornett • AL · tenor sackbut • AvdB · bass dulcian
Johannes OCKEGHEM
16 - Prenez sur moi · canon a 3 [1:57]
James Bowman • Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
Johannes OCKEGHEM
17 - Ma bouche rit · virelai [5:52]
James Bowman
TJ · tenor viol • OB · bass viol JT, NN · lute • CH · harp
anon., formerly attrib. JOSQUIN
18 - Guillaume se va chaufer [1:06]
James Bowman, Charles Brett • Geoffrey Shaw
lute · bass viol · harp · bass dulcian
JOSQUIN
Adieu mes amours
19 - Original four-part chanson [2:04]
Harmonice musices odhecaton A
Martyn Hill
NN · treble viol • TJ · tenor viol • OB · bass viol • CH · harp
20 - Keyboard solo · anon. 16th century [2:19]
Basle, University Library, MS F.IX.22
CH · organ
Antoine BRUMEL
Fortuna desperata
21 - Original three-part chanson [1:39]
James Bowman • Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
22 - Six-part version · AGRICOLA [1:50]
James Bowman • Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
TJ · tenor viol • NN · bass viol • OB · bass viol
23 - Three-part instrumental version · anon., formerly attrib. JOSQUIN [1:19]
DM · tenor dulcian • ES · treble rebec • TJ · tenor rebec • TJ · tenor rebec • JT, NN · lute
LP2
A. Instrumental Music
anon., late 15th c.
Heth sold ein meisken garn om win
Heinrich ISAAC
A la battaglia
anon., ca 1500
T'Andernaken
Hayne van GHIZEGHEM
01 - A la audienche [2:35]
with additional si placet part from Harmonice musices odhecaton A
PW · treble rebec • NN · tenor rebec • TJ, OB · bass rebec
Antoine BRUMEL
Vray Dieu d'amours
anon., early 16th c. · Two lute dances
02 - Ain niederlandisch Runden Danz [1:05]
pubd by Hans Judennkunig, 1523
03 - Ein Niderlendisch Tenzlein [1:21]
pubd by Hans Newsidler, 1544
JT · lute
anon., late 15th c.
La guercia
Alexander AGRICOLA, after BINCHOIS, c1400-1460
04 - Comme femme desconfortée [2:37]
ES · treble rebec • TJ · tenor rebec • JT · tenor viol OB · bass rebec • CH · harp
JOSQUIN
Vive le roy
anon. · form. ascr. to JOSQUIN
05 - La Spagna [3:34]
ML · cornett • DM · alto shawm • RB · alto sackbut PG · tenor sackbut • AvdB · bass dulcian • DC · tabor
Jacob OBRECHT
Tsaat een meskin
anon., 16th c.
06 - Est-il conclu par un arrêt d'amour? [1:21]
Basle, University Library, MS F.IX.22
CH · positive organ
JOSQUIN
La Bernadina
07 - Instrumental tricinium [1:08]
ML · cornett • DM · tenor dulcian • RB · tenor sackbut
08 - Lute duet · Francesco SPINACINO [1:19]
Intabulatura de lauto · Venice, 1507
JT, RS
B. Mass Movements
CD2
Johannes TINCTORIS (c1435-?1511)
01 - Missa sine nomine a 3 (i). Kyrie [2:35]
Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw • Terry Edwards
Antoine BRUMEL
02 - Missa 'Et ecce terrae motus'. Gloria [1:05]
David James, Charles Brett, James Bowman
Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill, Leigh Nixon, Rogers Covey-Crump, Ian Thompson, John Potter
Maurice Bevan, Geoffrey Shaw • Terry Edwards
JOSQUIN
03 - Credo super 'De tous biens' [1:21]
James Bowman, Charles Brett
Paul Elliott, Leigh Nixon, Martyn Hill, John Potter • Maurice Bevan, Geoffrey Shaw
Pierre DE LA RUE (c1460-1518)
04 - Missa 'Ave sanctissima Maria'. Sanctus [2:37]
James Bowman, Charles Brett • Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill • Maurice Bevan, Geoffrey Shaw
Heinrich ISAAC
05 - Missa 'La bassadanza'. Agnus Dei [3:34]
James Bowman, Charles Brett • Paul Elliott, Leigh Nixon, Martyn Hill, John Potter
Geoffrey Shaw, Maurice Bevan
LP3. Motets
A
Jacob OBRECHT
01 - Haec Deum caeli [1:32]
Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw • Terry Edwards
Loyset COMPÈRE, c1445-1518 ·or· Juan ANCHIETA, 1426-1523 ·or· Francisco de PEÑALOSA, c1470-1528
02 - O bone Jesu [3:16]
James Bowman • Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill • Geoffrey Shaw
JOSQUIN
03 - De Profundis à 5 [5:03]
James Bowman • Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill, Geoffrey Shaw • Terry Edwards
JOSQUIN
04 - Benedicta es caelorum regina [5:39]
Charles Brett • Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill, John Potter • Maurice Bevan, Geoffrey Shaw
Jean MOUTON
05 - Nesciens mater virgo virum [4:19]
David James, Charles Brett, James Bowman • Martyn Hill, Paul Elliott, John Potter Maurice Bevan • Terry Edwards
anon., form. attr. to JOSQUIN
06 - Inviolata, integra et casta es, Maria [3:28]
Sally Dunkley, Rosemary Hardy • James Bowman, Charles Brett
Martyn Hill, Paul Elliott, John Potter, Rogers Covey-Crump, Ian Thompson, Leigh Nixon
Geoffrey Shaw, Maurice Bevan • Terry Edwards
B
Johannes OCKEGHEM
07 - Intemerata Dei mater [7:54]
Paul Elliott, Martyn Hill Geoffrey Shaw, Maurice Bevan • Terry Edwards
Jacob OBRECHT
08 - Laudemus nunc Dominum [8:03]
Charles Brett, David James • Martyn Hill, Leigh Nixon, Paul Elliott, Ian Thompson, John Potter
Maurice Bevan, Geoffrey Shaw Terry Edwards
Pierre DE LA RUE ·or· Philippe VERDELOT, died before 1552
09 - Ave sanctissima Maria [3:57]
James Bowman, Charles Brett • Paul Elliott, Leigh Nixon, Martyn Hill, John Potter • Geoffrey Shaw, Maurice Bevan
Early Music Consort of London
David Munrow
SINGERS
Sally Dunkley • Rosemary Hardy · soprano
James Bowman • Charles Brett • David James · countertenor
Martyn Hill • Paul Elliott • Rogers Covey-Crump, Leigh Nixon • John Potter • Ian Thompson · tenor
Geoffrey Shaw • Maurice Bevan · baritone
Terry Edwards · bass
INSTRUMENTALISTS
David Munrow, soprano recorder, treble recorder, alto recorder, bass recorder, tenor dulcian
Alan Lumsden, alto recorder, tenor sackbut
Andrew van der Beek, alto recorder, bass dulcian
Michael Laird, cornett
Roger Brenner, alto sackbut
Peter Goodwin, alto sackbut
Eleanor Sloan, treble rebec
Polly Waterfield, treble rebec
Nigel North, tenor rebec, bass viol, lute
Trevor Jones, tenor rebec, bass rebec, tenor viol, bass viol
Oliver Brookes, fiddle, bass rebec, bass viol
James Tyler, tenor viol, guitar, lute
Robert Spencer, lute
Christopher Hogwood, harp, regal, organ
David Corkhill, tambourine
THE ART OF THE NETHERLANDS
The Art of the Netherlands is a collection of early Renaissance secular and sacred vocal music. Certain aspects of Flemish culture from this time remain familiar today — particularly the paintings by the Van Eyck brothers, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel — yet many of the composers are little more than obscure names despite their collectively being the first really international school of composers. Their style was universally accepted, and their impact on the development of music between about 1450 and 1520 was enormous.
This two-disc set falls into three sections. The first disc is devoted to secular songs, while the second disc examines Mass movements and motets. The collection provides a survey of one of the most fascinating periods of the early Renaissance, contrasting the age-old preoccupation of love in all its aspects with the fervour of the new style of Church music and the cult of Me Virgin Mary.
I. Secular Songs
During the period from 1450 to 1520 the Italian language challenged the pre-eminent position which French had held since the time of the troubadours. Although French texts continued to be the most common, Flemish composers also wrote songs in Italian and German as well as a few in their own native tongue. Because few of their royal patrons actually spoke Flemish, composers felt discouraged from setting Flemish texts. Jacob Obrecht, who produced as many as sixteen or seventeen Flemish songs, is the exception rather than the rule. Nevertheless, the style and form of song composition was nothing if not varied.
It is fascinating to observe the way in which some musical material was used and re-used over and over again. Not just anonymous popular times like L'homme armé or T'Andernaken but complete chansons by known composers became the subject for all lkinds of re-working. The more popular a particular chanson, the greater was the desire of other composers to have a go at it too, and a handful of songs achieved the status of international hits.
Josquin Desprez, like the other migrant Franco-Flemish composers, mastered most of the foreign styles of the day. Scaramella is a street song of the villotta type, and its references to the accoutrements of war have the usual amorous doubles entendres. The popular melody (which Josquin places in the tenor part) also took the fancy of other composers such as Loyset Compère and Ludovico Fogliano. The refined and languorous mood of Allegez moy lends an extraordinary intensity to the frank sexuality of the text. El grillo è buon cantore, a delightful frottola, dates from the 1570s and was written in Milan while Josquin was working for Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. Besides imitating the cricket, it contains what is probably a surreptitious dig at the cardinal himself who was renowned for his meanness. Through a misreading of the treatise Dodecachordon (1547) by the Swiss monk and theorist Heinrich Glarean (1488-1563), it was once thought that the brief chanson Guillaume se va chaufer was by Josquin, but its authenticity is now questioned. The lovely Adieu mes amours, however, is without doubt by Josquin but has an unusual layout. It is based on a pre-existent melody heard (in rather free canon) in the lower two parts. The upper parts are more instrumental in character, although provided with independent texts in some sources. The version in this performance is based on that published by Petrucci in 1501.
Heinrich Isaac arrived in Florence around 1484 and was organist at several churches. He also served Lorenzo de' Medici ('il Magnifico'), contributing a number of canti carnascialeschi to his magnificent carnival seasons. Under Lorenzo's patronage the carnival became a lavish spectacle with all manner of processions and masquerades. Unfortunately none of Isaac's carnival songs has survived complete, though this quodlibet belongs to the same genre. Among the melodies include are Fortuna d'un gran tempo and Dammene un pocho di quella maza crocha.
Hayne van Ghizeghem, who may have come from the village of Gijzegem (near Ghent), served Charles the Rash, Duke of Burgnmdy, for whom he fought at the siege of Beauvais in 1472. Although he may have died there, it seems more likely that he survived for a further twenty or more years. The rondeau De tous biens plaine was by far his most popular chanson, and was used by many other composers including Busnois, Compère, Agricola, Obrecht and Josquin. The recorded version of the chanson is the 'modernised' one with an additional fourth part, printed by Petrucci in 1501.
Antoine Brumel is much less well known today than Ockeghem, Obrecht or Josquin, yet his music is often of the highest quality. After service in Chartres, Laon and Lyons he eventually became maestro di cappella to Alfonso I, Duke of Ferrara. His gloomy love song Du tout plongiet, one of the finest of all medieval rondeaux, is remarkable for its expressive and wide-ranging upper voice part as well as for the low tessitura of the accompanying parts. The second text is in fact the superius part of Ockeghem's famous chanson Fors seulement l'attente, but used by Brumel as an inner part. In this song, Brumel trascends the limitations of the formes fixes to achieve a timeless quality.
Another composer to spend some time at the court of Ferrara was Johannes Ghiselin, also known as Verbonnet. The register of the St Annunziata in Florence bears a signature confirming the common identity of the two names: 'Johannes Ghiselin alias Verbornnet'. When the plague struck Ferrara in 1505 Ghiselin and Josquin returned to the Netherlands unlike Obrecht, who remained in the city and succumbed.
Jacques Barbireau was Obrecht's predecessor at Antwerp Cathedral, where he was magister choralium for forty-three years until his death in 1491. Unlike many of his contemporaries he travelled little, apart from a diplomatic mission to Hungary in 1490. By far the most popular of his chansons was Een vroylic wesen, though the possibility remains that the original might either be by Isaac or Obrecht. The piece survives in over forty sources, more often in French or German than the original Flemish. Of the three contrasted versions presented here, the two vocal ones are sung to the more commonly known German text. The virtuoso keyboard version bears the initials 'P.H.' probably referring to Paul Hofhaimer who was organist to the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I. The additional fourth part in Obrecht's version gives an added dimension to the piece, converting the intimate chamber style into a more robust, ceremonial one.
Johannes Ockeghem delighted in the most complex musical devices of the time, particularly in the intricacies of canonic writing. Compared with some of his pieces, Prenez sur moi is relatively simple, yet Ockeghem still works out a subject that is both melodically and rhythmically quite involved. It impressed the great Italian patroness Isabella d'Este so much that she had the canon inlaid in marquetry on the wall of her study in Mantua. A simple flowing melody, however, is just as much an attribute of Ockeghem's style as mastery of technical devices. His chansons reveal the legacy of Binchois, Dufay and the other composers of the earlier generation. Ma bouche rit is old-fashioned in form and sentiment, adhering to one of the old formes fixes of the Middle Ages, the virelai. It describes that familiar plight of amour courtois poetry, the pangs of unrequited love.
Antoine Busnois was a poet and priest as well as a musician and held several church posts during his career; at the time of his death he was rector cantoriae at St Sauveur in Bruges. Fortuna desperata, one of his two Italian songs, inspired arrangements and other compositions of all kinds. Both Josquin and Obrecht based complete settings of the Mass upon it, Agricola added three extra instrurnental parts to produce a sonorous six-part texture, while Josquin's instrumental arrangement adheres to the original superius and tenor parts of Busnois but provides a new and wittily decorated bassus. The almost comic effect of this version is in marked contrast to the suave melancholy of the original, so typical of Busnois.
II. Mass movements
In his Liber de arte contrapuncti of 1477 Johannes Tinctoris makes it clear that the Mass was considered to be the highest category of composition. From Dufay's time onwards polyphonic settings of the Mass became a principal concern of most composers. No single Mass setting can truly represent so rich and fruitful a period, so the movements recorded here have been selected from different composers to reflect something of the range of techniques that were then in use. Five different types of Mass composition are illustrated: free composition without any borrowed material (Tinctoris), use of a plainsong cantus firmus (Brumel), use of a secular cantus firmus (Josquin), parody technique (La Rue), and use of a secular cantus firmus coupled with large scale borrowing of pre-existing material (Isaac). The style of the music is on the whole conservative, and although the Flemish composers were quite capable of expressive word-setting they generally preferred to reserve it for their motets. Tinctoris believed varietas to be the main critical principle in judging the worth of a piece of music, and in this respect the Flemish composers demonstrated an amazing technical flexibility in handling their material.
Tinctoris evidently came into contact with both Dufay and Ockeghem, and like the latter seems to have had a fondness for the lower regions of the human voice. The manuscript of the Missa sine nomine (i) also contains a verse praising the 'pious godly Ferdinand' (i.e. King Ferdinand of Sicily and Aragon), whom Tinctoris served from about 1475 onwards. The work is freely composed throughout, and makes no use of cantus firmus or paraphrase techniques.
Brumel's Missa 'Et ecce terrae motus', written in twelve parts throughout, is an astonishing work for its time and no other contemporary work on such a grand scale is known to survive, although in Leipzig the theorist Georg Rhau (1488-1548) reportedly wrote a twelve-part Mass for the service that sparked off the disputation between Martin Luther and Johann Mayer von Eck in 1519. The sumptuous magnificence of Brumel's Mass evidently endeared it to succeeding generations, and it was performed at Mumich under Orlande de Lassus around 1570.
Josquin's Credo super 'De tous biens' is an isolated Mass movement, with the tenor of Hayne van Ghizeghem's famous chanson as its cantus firmus. The melody, which lies in the tenor part, is heard three times altogether. There is one section without a cantus firmus, a duet starting at the words 'Et in Spiritum Sanctum'.
Pierre de la Rue (also known by the Flemish equivalent of his name, Peteren van Straeten) was a tenor in the cathedral at Bois-le-Duc ('s-Hertogenbosch). In 1492 he entered court employment, serving under Maximilian, Philip the Fair, Marguerite of Austria and Charles V, before retiring to Courtrai in 1516. The Missa 'Ave sanctissima Maria' is the oldest six-part Mass setting known, and the first to use a canon à 6. It is in fact a parody on a motet similarly written for three voices expanded into six, published in 1534 by Pierre Attaignant, with an attribution to Philippe Verdelot.
Isaac seemed to enjoy converting totally secular material into Mass settings. His Missa 'La bassadanza' consists of nothing more nor less than a suite of basses danses all based on the tenor 'La spagna'. The three-part Agnus Dei II is identical to one of the few polyphonic basse danse settings to have survived. The extent to which Isaac may have composed some of the settings himself is uncertain. The Missa 'La bassadanza' may well preserve a number of other real basses danses which would otherwise not have survived. Although the idiom is very instrumental, with the rigorous syncopations so typical of the fifteenth-century basse danse style, it does also make very effective vocal music, though demanding a quite different approach from that normally associated with church music of this period.
III. Motets
It was on their motets that the Flemish composers lavished their most expressive and ingenious musical devices. Again and again the most recondite structural techniques are effectively concealed by the direct emotional appeal of the music. Through being able to choose his own text — instead of being tied to the same set of words, as in the Ordinary of the Mass — the composer felt able to respond more freely both to the general mood and to individual phrases. Many motets were conceived on a grand scale in two or three separate sections, sometimes (as in Josquin's Benedicta es caelorum regina) employing the same sort of solo sections à 2 as are commonly found in the Masses. It will be noted that six of the nine motets recorded here are concerned with the Virgin Mary. It was above all in the Marian motets that the Flemish composers found their most eloquent and most personal expression.
Obrecht's brief motet Haec Deum caeli, marked 'In Purificafione Mariae', achieves considerable impact by a concentrated presentation of cantus firmus material. Based on the plainsong hymn 'Iste confessor', the main cantus firmus statement occurs in two inner voices, whilst the uppermost part, although a freer treatment, almost constitutes a third voice in canon. At the last word of the text the canon is broken, the melody is ornamented and the piece ends with a free cadential extension. Laudemus nunc Dominum is a large-scale motet evidently designed for the dedication of a church. Obrecht maintains a joyful mood throughout and makes extensive use of syncopation. There is a mixture of strict and ornamented cantus firmus: the antiphon 'Non est hic aliud' is given twice in differently ornamented forms, and is followed by the strict cantus firmus of 'Vidit Jacob scalam' and 'Erexit Jacob lapidem'.
Once thought to be by Loyset Compère, the beautiful penitential motet O bone Jesu, published by Petrucci in 1519, is most likely to be the work of Francisco de Peñalosa, a Spanish composer described by the Sicilian humanist Lucio Marineo (c1460-1533) as 'the prince of musicians'. Some scholars, however, have attributed it to Juan de Anchieta, a compatriot of Peñalosa. Regardless of who actually composed it, this motet adopts a clear four-part texture similar to that established by the Flemish composers as their norm. Its developed sense of chordal writing and harmonic progression are also characteristics in common with the Flemish school.
Josquin twice set the famous text from Psalm 129 (130), De profundis. In this five-part setting the gloom rarely lifts and the texture rarely changes except for one short example of the composer's habitual 3 against 2. The ingenious canon à 3 imparts an inner drive to the piece, however, and adds considerable intensity to certain carefully placed key phrases, such as 'clamavi ad te', 'speret Israel' and 'Kyrie eleison'. The splendid Benedicta es caelorum regina, based on the plainsong sequence of the same name (one of the melodies eliminated from use at Mass by the Council of Trent), employs both cantus firmus and canon, though in a very flexible manner. Three fingerprints of Josquin's style may be mentioned: the joyful triplet figure which bursts out on the word 'illuminaris', the close imitation of the middle section à 2, and the beautifully drawn out codas to both sections of the words 'Ave plena gratia' and 'Amen'. The authorship of the splendid motet Inviolata integra et casta es Maria, formerly attributed to Josquin, is uncertain. Nevertheless, the work shows confident handling of eleven independent voices round the plainsong fragment 'O Maria flos virginum', heard as a cantus firmus in the final section.
Jean Mouton was in charge of music at the collegiate church of St André in Grenoble when he came to the attention of Louis XII who visited the city in 1502. He eventually became a member of the king's chape. Heinrich Glarean praised Mouton highly on account of his gift for flowing melody which is illustrated in Nesciens mater virgo virum. The motet also offers an example of a superbly worked-out canon. The overpowering mood of rapt devotion, effortless movement of individual voices, and wonderful richness of vocal texture lull the ear into forgetting that this motet is a compositional tour de force. Both intellectually and emotionally, this is one of the sublime achievements of the period.
Ockeghem is often regarded as a somewhat cerebral composer, disinclined to wear his heart on his sleeve. Yet in Intemerata Dei mater he dispenses with any kind of canon or pre-existent material, providing instead one of the most extended free-compositions of the time. The dark, sombre, low tessitura explores the lower ranges of male voices, and each of the three sections reveals a careful sense of symmetry. The control of pace and texture, too, is masterly, varying complex polyphony with simpler chordal movement.
Although Pierre Attaignant attributed the motet Ave sanctissima Maria to Philippe Verdelot, it seems likely that Pierre de la Rue was the actual composer. This view is supported by the disparity between the apparent ages and careers of Verdelot and La Rue, for it is improbable that La Rue, the older and more famous of the two men, would base his work on that of a relatively obscure younger composer. This motet forms the basis of La
Rue's own parody Mass the Missa 'Ave sanctissima Maria'.
David Munrow
In The Art of The Netherlands David Munrow created what few other musicians of his day could have had the invention or energy to achieve: a tightly compact yet encyclopaedic overview of one of Western music's most innovative epochs. That the recording still justifies its place in the catalogue, after two decades of research that have shifted our perception both of Renaissance music and of its performance practice, bears eloquent testimony to the quality and durability of Munrow's work. How many other early music anthologies have stood the test of time so well?
The title he chose calls for some comment. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, composers born and trained in the Low Countries —Munrow's 'Netherlands'— were prized in all parts of the Continent. Some lived and worked in or near their homeland; others made their fortunes abroad, most conspicuously in the employment of Italian patrons. To that extent, the works featured in this recording represent the art music of international currency, enjoyed at the courts and in noble houses not only in the Low Countries but across Europe.
Other than their place of birth, what bound the Netherlanders into a cohesive group was their shared reputation for craftsmanship. Composers trained in the Low Countries were prized above all for their ability to devise elaborate polyphony, music of such complexity that it demanded painstaking calculation in writing before it could be performed. In that respect, musicians such as Johannes Ockeghem, Jacob Obrecht and Josquin Desprez conform to the Western image of the composer as a man of genius, fashioning works of artifice, intelligence and imagination in the privacy of his workshop. The art of the Netherlands differed fundamentally from the simpler forms of music that formed what we might call the common currency of the Renaissance. Such modest, functional music could be improvised or worked out in the head, memorised, taught by one musician to another, all without the need for musical notation. Unwritten traditions naturally die out without trace, and precisely such a fate has deprived us of so much of the ceremonial and dance music, plainer forms of art song, instrumental solos, and popular and folk music that formed the substance of musical experience in the Renaissance.
All of these have vanished into the ether; but the art of the Netherlands survives in reasonably copious quantity. By virtue of its written state, it could be re-copied and passed from one group of performers to another, from town to town and from country to country. It also stood a good chance of surviving to the present time. Once merely the cream of its day, it is now all that we have left.
In geographical terms, David Munrow's anthology takes us far afield from the Netherlands. Chronologically, however, it is much narrower than it might have been. The founding fathers of the Netherlands tradition —Ciconia, Dufay and Binchois, for example— lived in the early 15th century. Two hundred years later, even after the stream of talent had reduced to a trickle, that tradition could still produce composers of such eminence as Lassus, Monte and Sweelinck. Munrow had the pick of two centuries' worth of music, yet The Art of the Netherlands focuses exclusively on composers from the heart of the epoch, a span of about 70 years that corresponds roughly to the life of Josquin Desprez. Why that period in particular?
The answer must surely lie in the personality of the man who devised the project. David Munrow will be remembered above all as a champion of old and long-forgotten instruments, and of works that stand out for their curiosity value no less than their intrinsic quality. Himself a virtuoso player, he was drawn towards glittering music that called for deftness of hand and lip. No other period of early music offered such rich pickings of challenging music that would show off the vivid, unexpected colours of pre-Baroque instruments, and the skills of his specialist performers. The result is a kaleidoscope of scores that are individually brilliant and demanding by the standards of their day. Not everyone will agree that Munrow's vision of the art of the Netherlands offers a fair conspectus of the repertoire: but even the sceptic must stand in awe of such an exhilarating and characterful recital.
In the 16 years since these recordings were first issued, several pieces have had their attributions challenged or changed. No composer has been so markedly affected by this as Josquin Desprez. Highly respected in his lifetime, and still seen today as the towering musical talent of the Renaissance, Josquin was perceived by Munrow as central to his project, and more works attributed to him were included in The Art of the Netherlands than by any other composer. But for every authentic work by Josquin there is a spurious or misattributed piece, and Munrow unwittingly chose a number of the latter. Here as in other aspects of the project, his eye was caught by novelties: who could resist the striking basse danse La Spagna, for example, or the weird Inviolata, integra et casta es, Maria for 12 voices? Both pieces have since been rejected from the Josquin canon: German composers of the early 16th century are now thought more likely to have been their authors. What matters, of course, is that the pieces should be worth hearing in their own right, which they are. But the true voice of Josquin, rather than emerging as intended by Munrow as the dominant personality of the anthology, is in fact rarely heard.
Other aspects of the project are as fresh —and musicologically as solid— as the day they were devised. By juxtaposing various members of compositional 'families', Munrow exactly captured the spirit in which they were conceived. Typically the story unfolds as follows. One man composes a polyphonic song, such as De tous biens plaine, by the Burgundian court musician Hayne van Ghizeghem. It circulates, becomes fashionable, and soon forms the subject of all manner of adaptations. Josquin Desprez, for example, leaves two of Hayne's three original voices intact, and adds to them two new parts, a tight little canon for bass instruments. Alexander Agricola makes no fewer than five arrangements of the original song. Each new version nods respectfully to Hayne, and at the same time adds a further twist to what was seen as a splendid game, as each composer tried to match or outwit the cunning of his colleagues by dressing the song in unexpected and delightful new clothing. The need to compete, to emulate, to pay homage constantly fired the Renaissance composer's imagination.
The largest musical task a 15th-century composer could undertake was the writing of a Mass; and since complete Masses are substantial works, Munrow devised an ingenious scheme by which the five movements of the Mass are represented by selections from five different compositions. Here more than in any other part of the project, his choices are quirky, even uncharacteristic of the repertoire they represent. Brumel's Missa 'Et ecce terrae motus', for example, is a one-off experiment, a 12-part monster that must have taken every Renaissance musician by surprise. The Missa 'Ave sanctissima Maria' by
Pierre de la Rue is an unusually elaborate canon, in which three voices are echoed throughout by a second trio singing identical music at a different pitch —a mind-boggling feat of ingenuity, and again not at all typical. And the Missa 'La bassadanza' by Heinrich Isaac goes further than any other Mass-setting of its age by infusing its devotional world with the sounds of fashionable courtly dance. For all its fun and compositional virtuosity, Munrow's cross-section of Renaissance Mass-movements is unquestionably something of a freaks' roll-call.
The same cannot be said of the marvellous group of motets that rounds off the anthology. Here Munrow pioneered not only music that at the time of recording was still almost totally unexplored, but also a cool, refined performing style that has since become fashionable. Instruments correctly have no place here, and the decision to allocate each polyphonic part to a single singer also has a stamp of authenticity about it. But it is the music itself, no less than the manner of performing it, that lingers in the mind long after the record has ceased to play. In motets such as Ockeghem's Intemerata Dei mater, Josquin's Benedicta es caelorum regina, Obrecht's Laudemus nunc Dominum and Mouton's Nesciens mater, David Munrow brings before us what is arguably the highest art of the Netherlands.
(C) JOHN MILSOM, 1992
