Crossing The Channel
ANONYMOUS
Christus resurgens [3.47]
Deus in adiutorium [2.03]
Te laudant angeli [3.06]
Alleluia V Nativitas [7.44]
Bien deust chanter [7.27]
Eclipsim patitur [7.40]
Ex semine [2.51]
Worldes blis [7.33]
Salve mater misericordiae [2.56]
Au queer ay un maus / Ja ne mi repentiray de amer / Joliettement [3.40]
Hare, hare, hye! / Balaam goudalier / Balaam [3.24]
O labilis [1.58]
Veine pleine de duçur [3.20]
Qui bien aime / Cuer qui dort / Omnes [2.30]
Ensemble Providencia (Maria Andrea Parias and Sarah Richards (sopranos): Stéphanie
Leclerq and Hanna Järveläinen (mezzos))
rec. Abbatiale of Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, May 2011
TACET 201 [61.12]
This disc provides a survey of the gradual development of polyphonic music
from Gregorian chant in England and France during the period from the tenth
to the thirteenth centuries. Two of the four singers here – Maria Andrea Parias
and Sarah Richards – were responsible for the selection of the pieces, derived
from manuscripts from as far afield as Worcester, Cambridge, Oxford, London,
Montpellier, Bamberg and Wolfenbüttel, and for the extremely informative and
extensive booklet notes: six pages analysing the music in its historical context.
The booklet notes quotes an account of the tenth century monk Thierry of Amorbach
of performances given by four brothers of the Abbey of Saint-Benoit de Fleury,
“two of whom kept to the ‘usual singing’ while the other two ‘provided the
accompaniment’.” This account was used as the basis for reconstructing some
of the organa given here from the Winchester Troper preserved in
the Corpus Christi College library in Cambridge. Very convincing these reconstructions
sound too – although, as is always the way with students of mediaeval music,
there will be as many different views on the merits of any reconstruction
as there are musicologists to provide it. The later works given here are based
on manuscripts which require a lesser degree of editorial intervention, although
again there may be disagreements as to the style of performance. Those here
are based on Thierry of Amorbach’s account, with two voices to a part in the
earlier polyphonic pieces.
The only real point of disagreement with these performances will therefore
lie with the use of female voices – which will certainly not be what the mediaeval
monks would have expected. However, since two of the performers here are also
the editors of the works, it would be churlish to complain, especially when
they sing so well. We have become accustomed to hearing women singing in pieces
of this period as a result of recordings of the music of Hildegard of Bingen,
but these rather plainer and earlier pieces benefit from the same sort of
treatment. The gently clashing ‘harmonies’ in such pieces as the opening Christus
resurgens reach out across the centuries to join hands with Tavener -
the modern one, that is - and time is annihilated.
Most of the music here is anonymous, but it is interesting to come across
a contrafactum - new words set to an existing song - based on the
love song Bien doit chanter by the Blondel de Nesle familiar to history
students as the troubadour who supposedly rescued Richard Coeur de Lion from
captivity. This ‘pious’ version is sung unaccompanied, and rather charmingly
spends half of its first verse decrying Blondel’s more conventional version
of passion before getting down to the more serious business of praising the
Virgin Mary. The song Worldes blis begins unaccompanied, but then
expands to include the whole ensemble.
With the later works on this disc we enter into more familiar territory, and
in the ‘motet’ Hare, hare, hye we find a drinking song of the sort
encountered in such works as Carmina Burana and which David Munrow
first introduced to the modern world some forty and more years ago. The words
include such lines as “It is a miracle that those Normans haven’t thrown up.”
The final cadence of the Alleluia Nativitas is borrowed from a similar
piece by Pérotin, and pieces like this bear more than a passing resemblance
to music from the Notre Dame school. It is with the rise of the music of this
school from 1275 onwards that this fascinating and rewarding survey comes
to an end.
The singing, as has been observed, is extremely good. The recording is also
excellent, with plenty of echo but without excess resonance to cloud the crystal
clarity of the individual voices. The booklet note draws attention to distant
bird noises from outside the church, despite the recordings being made late
in the evening and at night. One would like to think they were attracted by
the music. In any event their vocal contributions are hardly detectable and
need no excuse.
The booklet provides full texts in the original languages – not only Latin,
but mediaeval French and English as well – with excellent translations into
modern English, modern French and German. The sleeve-notes were originally
written in French, but the English translation is both idiomatic and informative,
and give a very full and detailed list of all the sources employed. A model
of how such material should be presented.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
The singing is extremely good and the recording excellent.