I have learned a great deal about the ud in recent years since
becoming a member of an ensemble which plays traditional music
from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. One of the ensemble
members actually makes his own ud, and remarkably beautiful
instruments they are indeed. He’s also a former primary school
teacher, so each concert we do includes a brief and informative
lecture on the history of the ud, and how easy it is to ruin
a soundboard just when it’s nearly finished; after hours and
hours of painstaking paring and planning.
If you look at the cover picture for this CD, you’ll see the
ud in front and the lute behind. The ud is a forerunner of the
lute, and, having no frets and more frequently played with a
plectrum, is suited to playing expressive melody as well as
strumming chords. On the CD this can be heard in the right channel,
with the ud taking most of the melodic material, the lute providing
harmony or the second voice in places with two-part counterpoint,
such as the Estampie Fragment on track three. The roles
can be reversed however, and the distinctive contrast in colour
of sound is heard clearly where the lute takes on the melody
in Diego Ortiz’s Recercada I. The CD booklet notes succinctly
summarise the historical path by which it is thought that the
lute emerged from the ud. Moorish musicians brought the ud to
Spain where it would have become familiar in the royal courts
as well as in popular culture, and it is also possible that
Europeans may have heard it on the Crusades of the 13th century.
Lute players began by using the plectrum with its emphasis on
single melodic lines in a similar way to the ud, and then moved
away from it as music developed in polyphonic complexity in
the later medieval period, creating the multi-fingered renaissance
effects we are familiar with today. Münir Nurettin Beken and
August Denhard explore both aspects of these performance traditions,
showing where they meet and diverge during the Middle Ages and
Renaissance in a programme which has plenty of variety.
As you can imagine, this music is relatively simple on first
impression, with open harmonies, and gently undulating melodies
which reflect the vocal style of the era. Each piece shows different
nuances and possibilities from the instruments, and the programme
has been well chosen. Estampie IV for instance, has both
instruments playing a single melody in unison, something which
creates a fascinatingly timeless and universal effect. The ear
is led into these sonorities gently, opening with the famously
familiar Greensleeves; given contrast of texture in pieces
like da Bologna’s Aspire refus contre doulce priere with
its atmospheric tremolo effects, and introduced lively to dances
such as the Saltarello as well as more frequent lyrical
pieces. The programme is brought right up to date with a contemporary
finale, Buselik Saz Semaisi by Mutlo Torun, which combines
lyric charm with a gently Turkish frisson of mildly non-Western
but attractive tonality and rhythm.
There are too many genuinely beautiful works to name on this
CD, each played with sensitivity and improvisatory freshness
by both players, and recorded with intimate clarity in a pleasant
acoustic. This is the kind of recording which will create atmosphere
for your candle-lit dinner and pour balm on your fevered high-tech
21st century soul, but is far more than just consumer-fodder.
The sense of falling backwards into a lost era of human communication
through music is very strong here, and these musicians have
indeed created a genuine ‘meeting place’ for two delicious sounding
instruments and us, the meltingly appreciative audience.
Dominy Clements
Track-listing
Anonymous (16th century)
Greensleeves [2:12]
Joanambrosio DALZA (fl.1508)
Piva [2:33]
Estampie Fragment – anonymous in Robertsbridge Codex
(c. 1360) [1:39]
Diego ORTIZ (c. 1515-60)
Recercada I [3:23]
Nota I – anonymous in British Lib. Harley 978 (13th century)
[1:35]
Estampie – anonymous in Robertsbridge [3:36]
Estampie IV – anonymous in Chansonnier du Roi (13th century)
[3:12]
Lamento da Tristano, Rotta – anonymous in British Lib.
29987 (c. 1400) [2:45]
Francesco Canova da MILANO (1497-1543)
Spagna for two lutes [2:10]
Jacopo da BOLOGNA (fl. 1340)
Aspire refus contre doulce priere – Faenza Codex (15th century)
[4:17]
Notas II and III – anonymous in British Lib. Harley 978
[2:12]
La Manfredina Estampie – anonymous in British Lib. 29987
[1:06]
Guillaume de MACHAUT (ca. 1300-77)
Douce Dame Jolie [3:32]
Belle Fiore Dansa – anonymous in Faenza [2:36]
Untitled – anonymous in Faenza [1:35]
Antonio Zacara da TERAMO (fl.
1390)
Un fiore gentile m’apparse, Faenza [2:08]
Joanambrosio DALZA
Calata ala Spagnola [1:59]
Saltarello – anonymous in British Lib. 29987 [1:29]
Mutlu TORUN (b.1942)
Buselik Saz Semaisi (1972) [6:16]
Münir Nurettin Beken (Ud) 
