Jacobus REGNART (c.1540-1599)
Missa Christ ist erstanden
and other works
Anon.
Christ ist erstanden
(Innsbruck 1588) [1:42]
Jacobus REGNART
Missa Christ ist erstanden
[26:09]
Rühmbt alle Werck deß Herren
[1:41]
Wann ich nur dich hab
[3:36]
Maria fein, du klarer Schein
[3:36]
Anon.
Freu dich, du werthe Christenheit
(Innsbruck 1588) [1:36]
Jacobus REGNART
Missa Freu dich, du werthe Christenheit
[26:07]
Cinquecento
Renaissance Vokal
rec. Kartause Mauerbach, Vienna, 30 June – 2 July 2020.
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as downloaded with pdf booklet from
hyperion-records.co.uk
HYPERION CDA68369
[64:45]
With great prescience, Regnart composed these two masses for Cinquecento to
sing more than four centuries after his death. I’m slightly exaggerating
the publicity claim that it’s ‘as though’ he ‘might have’ done so, but I
have to admit that the music seems almost tailor-made for this
distinguished group’s latest recording. Didn’t I say something very similar
about their earlier offerings, including Regnart’s Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae (CDA67640)? Actually, I didn’t
because Dominy Clements’
had said it all so well that I simply added a link to his
review
and the words
‘very fine’ in
June 2011/1.
I did, however, write more fulsomely about their recording of music by
Vaet, making it Recording of the Month –
review.
Ignore the reference to the inferior iTunes mp3, however; if you choose
to download, do so from
Hyperion
in 16-bit lossless quality or superior 24-bit – even the latter, at £7.30
when I checked, is less expensive than the iTunes. The new recording costs
rather more than that, but, at £8.99 (16-bit) or £13.50 (24-bit) compares
not unfavourably in price with the 16-bit CD. Now that very few record companies are
offering SACD – Hyperion gave up some time ago – 24-bit is the
version of choice for audiophiles. More recently – just months ago, in
fact – they have given us a fine recording of Isaac: his Missa Wohl auff
and other works (Hyperion CDA68337 –
review; Recommended –
review –
Baroque and Before).
The new recording serves to remind us that our neat summary of the
reformation, like so many aspects of history, is far from the whole
picture. Regnart, a devout Catholic from the Netherlands, welcomed into the
Imperial service, would not have known the two Easter hymns in German which
form the basis of the two Masses here recorded. Instead, he seems to have
sought them out in a collection of vernacular hymns published in Innsbruck
in 1588 specifically as a reminder that pre-reformation Germany and Austria
had allowed the singing of vernacular music in the liturgy.
In England the pre-reformation church was less inclined to welcome the
vernacular, probably because it was associated with the Lollards, the
followers of the reformer Wycliffe. Thomas More, friend of Erasmus and,
like him, a liberal thinker, wasted time and ink on an angry debate with
William Tyndale, whose translation of the New Testament and part of the Old
would form the basis not only of the much-loved King James version but also
of the Catholic Douay version.
The fact that in German-speaking areas vernacular hymns seem to have been
incorporated into the liturgy means that Luther’s chorales didn’t spring up
from nowhere: one of the best known because it was set by Bach, Christ lag in Todesbanden, was an adaptation of the Easter tune
which underlies the first of these Masses. Regnart’s choice of these tunes
as the basis of these settings may well have been a case of pinning his
denominational colours to the mast. Conversely, the use of Latin in the
Lutheran ‘short’ Mass on high days continued until Bach’s time and after,
so sections of Regnart’s Masses could have been used in the Lutheran Hauptgottesdienst – usually just the opening Kyries and Gloria, sometimes the Sanctus and Benedictus.
The other misconception punctured here, if it still exists, is that secular and sacred music
were separate things. The Council of Trent forbade the use of secular
themes as the basis or cantus firmus of Mass settings, but only because it had been such a common practice: the Masses based on the
English love song Western Wind are the best-known examples. Two of
the pieces on the new Hyperion recording are adaptations of what Regnart
had originally composed as Italian love sings, with new religious texts
substituted. The technical term is contrafactum (plural contrafacta).
The hymn tunes themselves are simple affairs, suitable for congregational
singing, but Regnart turns them into very fine examples of choral music;
from the very first Kyrie eleison, only the opening notes of each
section present the underlying tune, with the rest of the music weaving it
into a fabric as complex – and fascinating – as those English masses based
on the simple tune of Western Wind, or Vaughan Williams’
entrancing take on one of the simplest works that Tallis ever composed,
also intended for congregational singing, from Archbishop Parker’s Hymn
Book. It’s always helpful when we have the underlying tune before the music
based on it, rather than after, as is sometimes the case.
Until Cinquecento and Hyperion took up his cause, Regnart’s music was
almost a closed book. The Oxford Companion to Music mentions only “some
charming songs in the style of the Italian villanella”; here they
are in their contrafacta forms, providing variety in a programme
devoted to his music in a higher style. Before these performers included
some of the songs in their original garb in Amorosi pensieri
(CDA68053) and recorded the Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae, the only
substantial recording of his work that I know came from a set of his Marian
motets: the Weser-Renaissance Ensemble and Manfred Cordes, released in 2000
on CPO (999507-2).
I doubt that Regnart could have better advocates than Cinquecento, or ever
will. To return to my opening words, the claim that they are ideally suited
to this music is fully borne out by the performances, and the recording,
especially in 24-bit format, and the presentation could hardly be bettered.
As usual with Hyperion, the booklet, which comes with the download is an
important factor in my recommendation – a few select labels match them
in this, but others, contemptuous of those who buy their music,
don’t think it important to include the booklet, even for music with
unfamiliar texts. Lovers of the music of this period need not hesitate,
especially those who have already chosen one or more of Cinqucento’s
earlier recordings.
Brian Wilson
Cinquecento:
Terry Wey (countertenor);
Achim Schulz, Tore Tom Denys (tenor);
Tim Scott
Whiteley (baritone);
Ulfried Staber (bass)
