In the beginning
of the 20th century Pope Pius X
(1903-1914) took the initiative
to reform the liturgy of the Roman
Catholic Church. He wanted to put
an end to the decline of church
music which was much complained
about in the 19th century. The result
of his reforms was a regimentation
of the repertoire and of the way
it was performed. This put to an
end a long history of richness and
variety in liturgical music and
its performance practice. In particular
during the renaissance many regions
in Europe had their own repertoire
and their own liturgical habits.
For more than twenty years the Schola
Hungarica has explored the historical
sources of religious, and in particular
liturgical, music of what is now
known as Hungary and of the regions
connected to it. This new recording
is the latest addition to an impressive
list of recordings of such music.
This disc brings
together liturgical music, both
plainchant and polyphony, for the
feasts of St Michael and St Martin.
The polyphony comes from a manuscript
which a widow called Anna Hannsen
Schuman donated to the collegiate
chapter of Pozsony in 1571. At that
time Pozsony was the most important
city of Hungary not under Turkish
domination; today it is Slovakia's
capital Bratislava. This manuscript
contains no less than 239 polyphonic
works, mostly written for the evening
office of Vespers. The annotations
in the manuscript show that it has
actually been used.
The polyphony,
mostly anonymous, evinces variety
in complexity as some settings are
rather simple where others are more
elaborate. There are pieces which
contain some imitation, but the
imitation techniques we know from,
for instance, the Franco-Flemish
school are absent here.
The Vespers begin
with the versicle and response 'Deus
in adjutorium', followed by five
Psalms, each preceded by an antiphon
which is repeated after the Psalm.
Then a capitulum - a reading from
the Bible - follows, after which
a responsorium and a hymn are sung.
This is followed by the Magnificat,
again preceded and followed by an
antiphon. The service ends with
prayers and the 'Benedicamus Domino'.
In this recording the music from
the abovementioned manuscript is
sung in a liturgical setting. The
disc opens with the Vespers for
St Michael's Day (29 September)
and closes with the Vespers for
St Martin's Day (10 November). In
between four sections of the Mass
for St Martin's Day are sung. Considering
the short playing time of this disc
one will immediately understand
that these liturgical events are
not recorded complete. The opening
versicle and response have been
omitted, only the first line of
the antiphons before the Psalms
are sung, and only a couple of lines
from the Psalms are performed. As
a result one certainly gets an impression
of the way the music in the manuscript
was used, but I find this practice
of cutting most of the music rather
unsatisfactory. It would have been
preferable if the performers had
focused on one of the feasts and
then performed its Vespers - and
if possible also the Mass - complete.
Apart from that
there can't be enough praise for
an undertaking like this. Our picture
of the 16th century is strongly
determined by the rich polyphony
of the great masters of the time.
We don't always realise that this
repertoire was only performed in
the largest and richest churches
and convents and in royal or aristocratic
chapels. Elsewhere the liturgy mainly
consisted of plainchant - often
originating from the region where
a church or convent was situated
- and a little bit of (mostly simple)
polyphony. Recordings like this
help to broaden our picture of that
era, and are therefore highly valuable.
In addition the
Schola Hungarica is a splendid ensemble
which easily outstrips any other
ensemble of this kind. It has a
great quality of naturalness, partly
due to the use of young voices,
both boys and girls (although I
think most are girls) some of whom
also sing short solos and do that
quite well. The ensemble wouldn't
be my first choice to sing elaborate
polyphonic masses and motets by
- say - Josquin or Lassus, but it
is excellently suited to liturgical
music like this. One gets the impression
that this is the way this music
could have been sung in the late
16th century.
Anyone interested
in liturgical music and curious
to expand his horizons in that regard
should look for this disc, as well
as previous
recordings by this ensemble.
Johan van Veen
Schola Hungarica/Janka Szendrei, László
Dobszay 
