If I may I’d like to give you what one might almost call a ‘Jesse’
tree of composers so that the importance of the composer under the
microscope can truly be seen.
We begin with Jean Mouton (1459-1522) who was possibly a pupil of
Josquin who in turn had been a pupil of Ockeghem. Then comes Adrian
Willaert who worked at St. Marks, Venice from 1527 to the end of his
life and helped to establish the tradition called ‘cori spezzati’.
Then there are Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi
and Heinrich Schutz, all teacher/composers. We could arguably follow
on with J.S. Bach, thinking for instance of the opening double chorus
number of the St. Matthew Passion. Then we move onwards to his sons
and other relations. Musical history has a way of connecting us all.
In addition, as you can see above, many of his contemporaries thought
highly enough of Willaert to make arrangements of and write divisions
upon many of his songs.
The joy of this disc is its variety. It isn’t just Willaert’s St.
Mark’s music that is important - but little known. Oddly enough Willaert’s
secular pieces are the most often heard in programmes and in madrigal
anthology collections. For instance two chansons feature in the Oxford
Book of French Chansons and three in the Italian volume. It’s
quite clear from Piet Stryckers useful and interesting booklet notes
that we should regard Willaert as a very significant and perhaps undervalued
figure.
Jerome Roche in his famous book ‘The Madrigal’ (London’s Hutchinson
University Library, 1972) devotes four pages to Willaert, reminding
us that his four-part madrigals “belong to the earliest decade of
madrigal publication”. Here is a composer striving to write music
to match the beauty and seriousness of Petrarchan poetry. Such an
approach can be heard in Qual dolcezza giamai. It should
also be remembered that Willaert is probably better known for his
villanelles. These are a lighter form often connected with special
entertainments. An example is O bene mio famm’uno favore,
heard here in an arrangement by the Spanish composer, Pisador. This
is a somewhat polite performance of a distinctly suggestive poem.
In Vecchie letrose the whole group let their hair down as
they also do for the last track Sempre mi ride sta and really
capture a mood of suitable abandonment.
Another form represented here is the canzone - not the instrumental
form associated with a later period. Zoia zentil is an example
that reverts to a more serious genre. It may seem odd that a confirmed
churchman of masses and motets should spend so much energy on populist
and often quite lewd music for the outside world. That said, there
is much in the ways that the voice parts are deployed which enables
us to see connections between Willaert’s sacred and secular worlds.
Romanesque in this 1994 recording consisted of six instrumentalists
and one singer, the sweet toned Katelijne Van Laethem. Their approach
is to move between songs and instrumental pieces. They put Willaert
in the context of his contemporaries. In some cases, like Dessus
le Marché d’Arras, we get the original and straight afterwards
an instrumental variant of it - in this instance by the composer himself.
To demonstrate the group’s approach lets take the example of Chi
la dira - in conventional French Qui la dira, which
is in the Oxford Book mentioned above. This is in five parts with
the lower four played by recorder and three viols; Van Laethem is
on the top part - the superius. This is polyphonic music. There is
almost no word-painting and as a madrigal all parts are texted and
are therefore of equal importance. No matter how you look at it, if
only the top part is vocal and texted we, in modern times hear it
as a tune with accompaniment. This was not the composer’s intention,
I’m sure. In addition the tessitura of this part is as low as the
A below middle C and then rises an 11th. It’s quite challenging
for a singer who is credited as a soprano to be consistent across
this full range or at least successfully to achieve a balance. However
a plus side to this is that Van Laethem can gently ornament her line
without disrupting another voice. There is some feeling that Willaert,
more than any of his contemporaries, often thought vertically rather
than horizontally. I do feel that this is a disc, no matter how much
I enjoyed it, for which I so wish that at least one other singer,
preferably a man, had been used - not least to offer a change of colour
and timbre.
Other instruments employed include the lute and harp. Immediately
after the above song we are treated to Valente’s lovely version of
it with divisions. We are also given purely instrumental pieces such
as A la fontaine by Giovanni Bassano in which Romanesque
employ recorder, harp and chitarrone. By the way, Bassano may well
have been the father of the dark lady of the sonnets. A cittern is
used in the last track, Sempre mi ride. Sometime percussion
appear as in Cingari simo.
You will notice that some pieces are French and some Italian.
Willaert was from the Low Countries and has been much associated with
Bruges. Chansons were published by the hundred in the 1520s and 1530s
by such figures as Sermisy, Passereau even Gombert and Josquin. After
his appointment in Venice it was the Italian madrigal of Arcadelt
and Costanzo Festa that were Willaert’s immediate models. He was able
to develop theform into something sometimes more serious and sometimes,
especially in the villanelle, memorably melodic.
There is some really sensitive playing from all throughout this disc.
I enjoyed very much the lovely dynamic shading and persuasive phrasing
of Sophie Watillon in Bonizzi’s Joyssance on the viola bastarda
which is not a separate instrument so much as one which allows and
has been adapted to a style of virtuosity which takes a polyphonic
piece and enables it to be presented monophonically.
All texts are provided and the recording is spacious and clear.
Gary Higginson
Track Listing
Adrian WILLAERT (c.1490-1562) Qual dolcezza giamai
[4:27]; Zoia zentil [1:48]; Dessus le marché d'Arras [1:06];
Allons, allons gay [2:52]; Quante volte diss'io [3:14]; Vecchie
letrose, non valete niente [1:39]; Chi la dira [2:11]; Chi la dira
disminuita [2:39]; E se per gelosia [1:40]; Un Giorno mi pregò [1:51];
Cingari simo [2:12]; Joyssance vous donneray [2:33]; Arousez vo violette
[1:23]; Ricercar 10 [3:39]; Occhio non fu gamai [2:39]; Sempre mi
ride sta [2:15]
Qual dolcezza giamai [4.28]; Zoia zentil [1.48];
Allons, allons gay [2.52];
Quante volte dissio [3.14]; Vecchie letrose, nonvalete
niente [1.39]; Chi la dira [2.12]; E se per gelosia
[1.40]; Cingari simo [2.12]; Joyssance vous donneray
[2.34]
Pierre ATTAIGNANT (c.1494- 1562) Dessus le marché d'Arras
[1:19]
Giovanni TERZI (fl.c.1590 ) Canzon Allez mi faut di Adriano
[4:51]
Antonio de CABEZON (c.1500-1566) Tiento 4 sobre Qui la dira
[2:33]
Giovanni BASSANO (1558-1617) A la Fontana [4:54]
Giulio AABONDANTE (fl.1580)/Adrian WILLAERT O quando a quando
havea [5:24]
Vincenzo BONIZZI (d.c.1630) Joyssance [5:23]
Diego PISADOR (c.1509-1557)/Adrian WILLAERT O bene mio famm'uno
favore [2:33]
Antonio VALENTE (fl.1565-1580) Chi la dir disminuita
[2.39]
