Here we have twenty pieces, several of which, the ones in two parts
in fact, come from a single manuscript ‘The Segovia (Cathedral)
Codex’. The interesting and detailed booklet notes by Fabrice
Fitch describe it as “ one of the most idiosyncratic and fascinating
witnesses to the music of the late fifteenth century”. Its contents
feature the master composers from Flanders. Many of these composers
had Spanish connections through the mingling of marriages in the 1490s
of the house of Aragon with the children of Maximilian I and Mary
of Burgundy. All of them were of the very musical nobility and the
music reflects this cultural interchange.
The CD offers only instrumental performances as composers “frequently
took a voice from an existing polyphonic chanson as the basis of a
new work”. The Segovia manuscript has several works which consist
of a single line, or two lines as in the pieces drawn from other sources.
These have been added to an already existing voice. The other sources,
listed in the booklet, include two from the Florence Bibliotheca from
which comes the Tinctoris arrangement of Ockeghem’s popular
D’ung aultre amer.
The group Qualia is made up of only three performers. They play fiddle,
organetto, recorders and cornetto (all modern copies). In other words
we hear some of the most expressive instruments of the middle ages.
These three musicians are really sensitive players responsive to the
general style of the mid-renaissance and to each other. The cornetto
was thought to be the nearest thing to the human voice. When played
so beautifully as this by Lambert Colson - note especially Compère’s
Le Grant desir, - one can see why. The instrumentation varies
from track to track.
The composers represented include the extraordinary Alexander Agricola
with five compositions. He always seems to stand out in such a context.
His sense of fantasy and his contrapuntal skill sometimes leave me
almost breathless as in
Cecus non judicat de coloribus. Other
pieces sound somewhat old-fashioned. Curiously this applies to
Tout
a par moy by that arch-theorist Johannes Tinctoris. It’s
good to have so many pieces by him available here.
You will have noticed from the titles that we are mixing sacred and
secular repertoire. Fray Benito’s
Kyrie and Gloria rubs
shoulders with Tinctoris’s take on Robert Morton’s famous
song
Le souvenir and the neo-erotic song
De tous bien playne
originally by Hayne van Ghizegen. There is even an example of a basse-danse
using the
La Spagna tenor by one Magister Guliemus. In all
of these either the plainchant, or the original tune are embedded
in the texture either as a
cantus firmus or as the basis of
an improvisation, captured in the manuscript. In Brumel’s
Tandernac
the fiddle opens up alone with the sustained line around which the
piece is based. Then the organetto and treble recorder dance ecstatically
around it with their happy counterpoint. Of the twelve two-part pieces
from Segovia mention should be made of the secular song
Comme femme
and the Latin-texted
Gaudeamus omnes. Both are by Agricola
and, invariably, the tenor notes are given to the fiddle, which after
all is best at sustaining long pitches.
Most of the composers are well known but Bartolemeus Ramis de Pareia
is a new name I think. He was a Spanish mathematician as well as a
music theorist. Fray Benito, also a Spaniard, is a composer of whom
I can tell you nothing.
It must be agreed that this is a somewhat specialist CD. It’s
possible that, at fifty-three minutes, you might feel somewhat short-changed
by this disc but the playing is so fine and the repertoire so rare
and pleasing that you could almost play the disc right through again
without feeling all that bleary-eyed.
Gary Higginson
Track listing
Antoine BRUMEL (1460-1512)
Tandernac [2.58]
Alexander AGRICOLA (1445-1506)
Gaudeamus omnes in Domineo [2.57]
Alez Regretz (after Hayne von Ghizegen) [5.52]
Comme femme [2.05];
Cecus non judicat de coloribus [5.02]
Princesse de toute beaulte [1.58]
Bartolomeus RAMIS DE PAREIA (1440-1522)
Mundus et musica et tortus concentus [2.02]
Johannes TINCTORIS (1435-1511)
Le Souvenir [1.48]
D‘ung aultre amer (after Ockeghem) [2.14]
De tous bien playne [1.46]
Elaes Abrayam [2.16]
Aleluya [1.33]
Fray BENITO (c.1500)
Kyrie [3.15]
Gloria [3.42]
Tout a par moy [2.54]
Loyset COMPÈRE (1445-1518)
Beaulte damours [2.05]
Le grant desir d’aymer m’y tient [1.33]
Anon
Canon Undecim apstoli secure sunt Petrum [1.30]
Ave Sanctissima [2.33]
Magister GULIEMUS (Gugliemo Ebreo de Pesaro)
La Spagna/Falle con misuras [3.03]
