Grégoire Brayssing (fl. 1547-60)
Complete Music For Renaissance Guitar
Federico Rossignoli (Renaissance guitar)
rec. 2021, Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, Slivia, Italy
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 96448 [60]
The Renaissance guitar was a small, four-course instrument that flourished for a short time in the middle of the sixteenth century. Although it could be found throughout Europe, it was most prominent in France, where all the major books for Renaissance guitar were published. Grégoire Brayssing was born in Germany but like many Lutherans he fled to France following the victory of the Holy Roman Empire over the German princes. Brayssing seems to have had an active musical life in Paris, but his only extant work is the 1553 book, Quart livre de tablature de guitare. Most of the pieces in the book have not to my knowledge been recorded until the release of this album, which contains all twenty works found in the book.
Federico Rossignoli is an excellent advocate for Brayssing's music. The works are mostly in a similar style – contrapuntal fantasias and intabulations (arrangements into tablature) of psalms and chansons. They are attractive and mellifluous, and the fantasias in particular give a sense of Brayssing’s musical individuality. I particularly recommend the first fantasia (track 2), which develops in beautiful and harmonically-interesting ways. Some of the intabulations are impressive as a technical feat, such as the eight-minute arrangement of Josquin’s In exitu Israel, but to me they are not as musically satisfying as the Brayssing’s original compositions.
The two works that open and close the album (both original compositions) are rather different in style. L'alouette is ambitious in form, its motifs and harmonies unexpected – playfully so – and showcases what seems to me Brayssing’s best musical trait, his melodic imagination. It is remarkable what he can achieve within the confines of this small instrument. The second work, La guerre, faitte à plaisir, is a virtuosic piece that at first moves with quick harmonic rhythm, before launching into a strummed evocation of battle – an enjoyable way to end the album.
You may not want to listen to the entire hour of music in one sitting, unless you have a particular interest in the style or instrument. Anyone more generally interested in the Renaissance guitar may want to seek out Michael Craddock’s album Tabulatures de Guiterne (Catalogue No: C9632), which contains a wide selection of music written for the instrument, but for those who want to go deeper into this repertoire, Brayssing’s music stands out as rich and inventive. Rossignoli’s playing is superb, aided by a pleasing and resonant recorded sound.
Steven Watson
Contents
L'Alouette
Fantasie, des grues
Verba mea
Voulant honneur
La seconde fantasie
Cum invocarem
Ie cherche autant amour
La troisième fantasie
Beati quorum
Au temps heureux
La quatrième fantasie
Super umina Babylonis
Qui souhaitez
La cinquième fantasie
Hélas mon Dieu
Un meisnagier viellard
O passi sparsi
In exitu Israel
La sixième fantasie
La guerre, faitte à plaisir
