Fortuna Antiqua et Ultra
Medieval Songs of Fate, Fortune and Fin’amor
Concordian Dawn/ Christopher Preston Thompson
rec. 2021, First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Kisco, New York
MSR CLASSICS MS1805 [63]
This is as good a disc of medieval music as I have come across for some time, both in choice of music and in performance and presentation. Like with many other discs that have been coming our way lately, Covid-19 has played quite a part.
In his rather brief booklet essay, the group’s director Christopher Preston Thompson writes that the pandemic has “presented many of us with large-scale difficulty for the first time in our lives”. He notes, however, that such challenges, and worse, were all part of life for the medieval composers, as they were for everyone in the Middle Ages.
This programme, first performed in 2018, seeks to ask through the texts and music: how do we deal with unpredictable hardships? Fortuna signals the life’s ups and downs, especially in the world of love but also faith and hope (and now, we would add, health). So, in the 14th century anonymous song Qui de Fortune atende we hear, in this excellent translation: “Whoever expects to gain much from Fortune / and depends at all upon her gifts / may very well fall frequently from on high.”
The ensemble’s quest leads them from the St. Martial School of the early 12th century (De monte lapis), the late 12th century and the world of the troubadours and trouvères such as the jongleur Gaucelm Faidit, past Vitry’s Ars Nova and the satirical polytextual motets known as Le Roman de Fauvel, into the late 14th century and the ars subtilior, all the way to Guillaume Dufay. A bit of a dog’s dinner, yet it works, and all is aided by lovely performances. But what do I mean by that?
A good example is Machaut’s three-part Dame, mon cuer en vous remaint. Let’s face it, Machaut’s music is not always easy listening. But here we find a fine sense of vocal balance, an attention to textual detail and clarity (with clear consonants), and a sense that every rhythm is significant. There are far too many Machaut performances which make the music tedious, unvaried in dynamic with little give and take. Such singing seems to drag on, and it makes one glad when it is over. Concordian Dawn’s rendition of this piece left me wanting to hear it again.
The instruments used are few. Christopher Preston Thompson plays the harp. David Dickey and Clifton Massey are outstanding counter-tenors, and Dickey also plays the recorder. Niccolo Seligmann contributes much on the vielle. Karin Weston with her tangy soprano and Andrew Padgett add fine voices to the group. But if you feel that instruments should not be used in a great deal of ancient music, then I refer you to Christopher Page in his ground-breaking book Voices and Instruments in the Middle Ages (J. M. Dent and Sons 1987). He clearly maintains that string instruments and limited winds were used throughout the period, even, many say, into the fifteenth century. It is worth adding that the Machaut and Dufay pieces are sung a capella.
In the music of the troubadours and trouvères, only the melodic line exists but we know that instruments were employed. They are used here to act often as an introduction to a song, then between the verses, and finally as a postlude improvising around the vocal melody. Drones are especially effective on the vielle.
This brings us to an understanding of Fin amor. Here it may be helpful to quote from the translation of Andefroi le Bastart’s song Fine amours en Esperance. The last verse reads “He who loves honestly / may expect a fair reward when he loves a worthy one” – but the composer tells us at the end that he has “served so long for nothing”. The soprano is accompanied by the harp, which is ideal for the ‘high style’ songs composed by many of the thirteenth-century troubadours.
Preston Thompson and his group opt for a freedom of rhythm. They are not tied to modal rhythms, that is, triple or compound presentations of this earlier repertoire. Whilst this works for De monte lapis and even for most of the secular 12th-century songs, I feel less happy about Adam de la Halle’s Je n’ai autre retenance from the later 13th century.
All original texts come with a good translation beside. The booklet cover is, very aptly, of a manuscript illustration of the wheel of fortune, one man rising and one falling on his head; politicians beware!
Gary Higginson
Contents
Anonymous 13th century
La Septime Estampie Real [3.03]
Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361)
Tribum que/Quoniam secta/Merito hec patimur (Roman de Fauvel) [2.17]
Anonymous 13th century
O varium fortune lubricum (Carmina Burana) [5.39]
Blondel de Nesles (c.1155-1202)
L’amour dont sui espris [5.53]
Anonymous
Procurans odium (Carmina Burana) [2.48]
Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300-1377)
Dame, mon cuer en vous remaint [4.47]
Anonymous 14th century
Qui de fortune atende asses avoir [2.34]
Gaucelm Faidit (c.1155-1205)
Jamais rien tal mon porroit far amor [3.10]
Audefroi le Bastart (early 13th century)
Fine amours en Esperance [4.59]
Anonymous 14th century
Heu, Fortuna subdola/Aman novi probatur/Heu me (Roman de Fauvel) [2.05]
Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474)
De ma haulte et bonne aventure [4.30]
Adam de la Halle (c.1220-1288)
Je n’ai autre retenance [3.36]
Anonymous 12th century
De monte lapis (St. Martial) [3.55]
Anonymous 13th century
Hypocritae, pseudopontifices/Velut stellae firmament/Et gaudebit [2.01]
Anonymous 14th century
Thalamus puerpere/Quomodo cantabimus (Roman de Fauvel) [2.27]
Guillaume de Machaut
Dame, de qui toute ma joye vient [5.33]
Gace Brulé (c.1160-1213)
Quant voi la flour boutener [4.01]
