Renaissance Devotion

 

Concerto Classics presents an exclusive recording project “Willaert e la Scuola Fiamminga a San Marco”, with music especially conceived for the exhibition “Da Tiziano a Rubens. Capolavori da Anversa e da altre Collezioni Fiamminghe” at Palazzo Ducale in Venice from 5th September 2019 to 1st March 2020. La Pifarescha was originally conceived as an alta cappella ensemble, a configuration of wind and percussion instruments that was immensely popular throughout medieval and renaissance Europe. This type of group enjoyed such widespread popularity for its unique ability to function both on its own and in supporting roles with other instrumental ensembles, vocal ensembles, and dance companies. La Pifarescha incorporates a fascinating and diverse selection of instruments. Shawms, sackbuts, cornetts, trumpets, bagpipes, dulcians, flutes, fiddles, lutes, viols, percussion, and many others, join together to alternate the sounds of “alta” with the “bassa cappella”, offering a highly variable sonority unique to this group. 

 

For more information: https://bostoncamerata.org/

 

 

This collection of early Renaissance spiritual pieces (and their related secular songs) were intended not for grand cathedrals or public ceremony, but for personal meditation, private chapels and rooms, family houses and assemblies. Directly inspired by the examples of intricately carved boxwood devotional objects housed at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, these contemporaneous musical works are precise in their craftsmanship, rich in subtle details, and lead us to wonder and to contemplation.

 

Few things small enough to fit in the palm of the hand can inspire wonder about the limitless potential of human creativity. A collection of early Renaissance devotional objects—elegantly precise boxwood carvings of miniature rosaries, prayer beads and altarpieces, on display as part of a major international exhibition—served as the direct inspiration for this musical program.

These objects draw viewers into a private and intimate world of meditation; religious scenes carved with precision and poetry evoke a bygone world of intense spiritual devotion—sometimes tormented, sometimes luminous, but always fascinating. 

The music in this program is designed to elicit similar sensations in listeners. Originating in northern European circles, contemporary with those who produced these boxwood carvings, these spiritual pieces are not intended for grand cathedrals or public ceremony, but for personal meditation, private chapels and rooms, family houses and assemblies. Like the beads and rosaries, their craftsmanship is precise, superb; rich in subtle details, they lead us to wonder, and to contemplation.

1. 1. Fortuna Desperata/Sancte Petre/Ora pro nobis Heinrich Isaac (ca 1450-1517)  - Barrett, Hershey, Kammen, Lewis, Arceci                
   2. Fortuna Desperata/O morte, dispietata Alexander Agricola (1446-1506)  - Azéma, Barrett, Frederiksen, Kammen, Lewis, Arceci      
   3. Herre lieve Herre  Jacob Clemens non Papa (1510-1555) –  Kammen, Lewis, Arceci, Hershey, Barrett, Frederiksen                            
   4. De tous biens plaine Hayne van Ghizeghem (ca 1445- after 1476) - Kammen, Lewis, Arceci   
   5. Maria Zart Arnold Schlick (1455-1525) Hershey, Lewis (trebble viol), Frederiksen (lute)    
   6. De tous biens plaine Alexander Agricola (1446-1506) – Kammen, Lewis, Arceci   
   7. De tous biens plaine Josquin Desprez (ca 1450 - 1521)  - Barrett, Kammen, Lewis, Arceci  
   8. De tous bien plaine  Alexander Agricola  (1446-1506) – Frederiksen (lute), Kammen, Barret (lute), Lewis, Arceci                              
   9. Chantons Noël, menons joyeuse vie Pierre Certon (d.1572) & Jean Daniel (ca 1520) -  Tutti 
   10. Premier Branle de Bourgongne Adrian le Roy (1551) – Frederiksen (lute), Accurso                  
   11. Or vous tremoussez, pasteurs de Judée Anonymous (15^th c.) & Jean Daniel (ca 1520) Azéma, Hershey, Barrett (lute and voice), Frederiksen (lute and voice), Kammen, Lewis, Arceci     
   12. Et d'où venez vous Madame Lucette  Pierre Moulu (ca 1540) – Kammen, Lewis, Arceci           
   13. Amy souffrés Pierre Moulu ? (1484-1550) (in: Attaignant, 1519) – Frederiksen, Barrett (lute), Acurso                                                  
   14. Pêcheurs souffrez  Pierre Moulu ? (1484-1550) & Jean Daniel  (ca 1520) – Azéma, Kammen, Lewis, Arceci                                       
   15. Ewiger Gott, aus des Gebot Ludwig Senfl (1486-1543) – Barrett, Kammen, Lewis, Arceci    
   16. O bone Jesu Francesco Canova da Milano, after Compère (1497-1543) – Accurso 
   17. O bone Jesu  Loyset Compère (1445-1518) – Azéma, Hershey, Barrett, Frederiksen        
   18. Tant que vivray Claudin de Sermisy (1490-1562)   & Clément Marot (1496-1544) – Hershey, Barrett, Frederiksen     
   19. Tant que vivray Claudin de Sermisy (1490-1562) & Eustorg de Beaulieu (ca 1495-1552), after Marot – Azéma, Kammen (vielle and harp), Lewis, Arceci, Frederiksen (lute), Barrett (lute)     
   20. Het daghet Anonymous (in: Antwerp Songbook, 1544) – Barrett   
   21. Als ick riep met verlangen Jacob Clemens non Papa (1510-1555) – Hershey, Barrett, Frederiksen, Azéma,  Kammen, Lewis, Arceci 
   22. Christe eleison (from: Missa Carminum) Heinrich Isaac (ca 1450-1517) - Azéma, Hershey, Barrett, Frederiksen      
   23. Innsbruck ich muss dich lassen Heinrich Isaac (ca 1450-1517)  - Frederiksen, Barrett (lute), Accurso (lute)           
   24. Loven so wilt Jacob Clemens non Papa (1510-1555) – Hershey, Barrett, Frederiksen     
   25. In te Domine speravi Josquin Desprez (ca 1450 – 1521) – Tutti         

The recording centers around the prophecies of Jeremiah, and will be distributed in more than 28 countries around the world.  It is number 60 in a benchmark historical music formation, an ensemble with a 33-year presence on the international scene. The recording includes 6 works in which Carles Magraner rediscovers this repertoire according to the musical practice of the Royal Chapel of Emperor Charles V, in which the Lamentations were sung polyphonically with instrumental accompaniment of violons or bow violins, as he presents in the notes from Professor Manuel del Sol (University of Valladolid).

 

Del Sol assures us that due to its musical quality, talent and sound, these works " should be considered masterpieces of the history of western music" so "the recovery of this heritage will make us understand why Cristóbal de Morales is one of the most admired composers of the Modern age, and enjoys  a privileged position within the historical canon of European cultured music of the 21st century ”. The researcher also points out that Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria, among others, introduced, in the composition of their own versions of the Lamentations, “explicit polyphonic references extracted from these  Super Lamentations ”.

Morales's Lamentations were, together with his masses and magnificats, the composer's best-known works and managed to be widely disseminated in Germany, France, Italy ... through prestigious publishers in cities such as Alcalá de Henares, Antwerp, Lyon, Milan, Nuremberg , Paris, Rome, Seville and Venice, among others. The Sevillian musician was the master of the Chapel of the Cathedral of Ávila, the Cathedral of Toledo and Malaga.

Super Lamentationes Hieremiae Prophetae

Cristóbal de Morales (c. 1500 - 1553)