Music between Heaven And Earth
Music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is a play of time and space, the movement between suggested contrasts; vocal-instrumental, melody-tone, spiritual-materialistic, heaven and earth. Our journey through various cultures and dimensions of sound from these epochs in France, Italy, Germany and Spain will help to explain this interplay of connected contrasts.
None other than Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179) regarded these supposed contrasts within her lifework as an integrated whole.
She uses the term "symphonia" to describe the heavenly harmony, the inner harmony of mankind, the harmony of the sounds produced by voices and instruments. The soul of man is meant to represent symphonia and harmonia within itself. Hildegard sees man in the wholeness of his nature, of his being, and therefore transfers to him analogous tonal and musical illusions.
For this and other reasons the CD simply must begin with the music of this mystic.
Some might wonder whether the Erdenklang Label is the proper place for this Ancient Music.
Erdenklang has a history of exploring sound worlds beyond the bounds of musical genres. The challenge of presenting Ancient Music in terms of contemporary sound design coincides well with the philosophy of the label.
There is no contradiction in the VOX ensemble using electronical sound devices to create an authentic interpretation, and it succeeds in bringing the sensitive wholeness of Hildegard´s visionary, apocalyptic and mystical music into the here and now.
track 1: O pulchrae facies (Hildegard von Bingen/V. Ivanoff) 6:50 - VOX
taken from CD "Diadema" (Erdenklang 90343)
We are in the 12th century, the heyday of the Gregorian Chant. It was Pope Gregory the Great ( 604) who made the liturgical songs of the Catholic Church universally valid. The early music ensemble HORTUS MUSICUS from Estonia performs the „Alleluja in festo Sancti Nicolai from the Missa Dubrovnik in the Dalmatic dialect chant.
Track 2 Alleluia (DP) 2:03 – HORTUS MUSICUS
taken from the CD “Plainchants” (Erdenklang 40712)
We travel even further back, into the early and bloody Middle Ages of Spain, the time of the Catholic Reconquista who since the takeover by the Moors 700 years after Christ had been trying to hold out European arts, sciences and music towards the Islamic influences. At the Arab courts of Córdoba and Granada artists from both the Orient and the Occident are writing their poetry and music, but around 1031 in the north of Spain the counteroffensive in the name of the Virgin Mary is only waiting for the starting signal.
The "Cantigas de Santa Maria" encompass both the most powerful and the most intimate music of the Middle Ages. We can detect within them the nucleus of the melting pot which makes up Spanish music: old Indian gipsy tradition, musical traces of the Arab conquerors, the flamenco and a good deal more. With the return of the Spanish Arabs to North Africa and Spain´s occupation of South America, these traditions became a part of the music of three continents.
VOX’s new creation of the medieval cantigas, with old European and Arab instruments, traditional singers from Spain, Portugal, North Africa and Lebanon, and also featuring the electric Rai from Morocco, the vibrating living heirs of this tradition, as well as Brazilian rhythm, transforms them into a virutal reality with the application of computer acoustics. The music of three continents and the history of Spanish music are united to provide a simultaneous experience of various cultures and ages.
track 3: Bells for the Virgin (DP-from Cantiga No. 32/V. Ivanoff) 6:00 – VOX
taken from CD "From Spain To Spain" (Erdenklang 20562)
Musica humana, meaning the harmony of the microcosm which manifests itself in the relationship between the body and the soul, and also between the "mental and spiritual powers". According to Pythagorean and Platonist ideas, the soul is based on consonant numbers and can be influenced ethically by music (Boethius).
track 4: Ave Maria (Anonymus 15th cent.) HORTUS MUSICUS
taken from the CD “Ave…” (Erdenklang………..)
The counterpart of music as an expression of Christian and church strictness is a secular music making use of a powerful, sensuous and even crude metaphorical language. Love (courtly and otherwise), Eros, happiness, dance and myth provide plenty of topics "settled" between "heaven and earth". The end of the ancient Roman world rang in the search for substantiality, the meaning of life and true existence.
12th, 13th and 14th century: „Carole“ (round dance), „Danza“ (pair dance), „Saltarello“ (leaping) or „Trotto“ (stamping) are popular, rather bourgeois dances. Courtly dancing was stylized in the form of the „Basse Danse“ („Bassa Danza“, ital.), earthy rustic dancing in the form of the „Bransle“. However, since the court ceremonies had long ago become rigid with fossilized forms, the "folksiness" of the bourgeois dances was welcomed at the courts with open arms.
track 5: Danse (Anonymus) 2:45
track 6 Saltarello (Anonymus) 1:06
track 7 Trotto (Anonymus) 1:37
track 8 Tanzsuite a) Branle b) Galliarde (Pierre Attaingnant)
The lover worships the woman be adores with an almost mystical intensity; adoration as that of the spiritual song writer for the virgin Mary. Just as Mary in her heavenly sphere never can reached by the mortal worshiper; so also is the courtly woman beyond their grasps. This is because she must always be married in accordance with the chivalrous code of homor. This idealistic picture of the woman, if in a spiritual or a worldly sphere, gave the worshiper/believer the possibility to mature personally through abstention.
However, hundreds of secular songs testify that in this era of metaphysical, heaven-like worship, there was more than enough space for a through and through earthly eroticism.
track 9: Onques n’amai-Sancte Germane (Richard de Fournival) 4:06 –
track 10: L’ultimo di de maggio (Sebastiano Festa) 2:03
track 11: Iamais on n’a que tristesse (Anthoine de Bertrand) 1:46
Taken from the Double CD 1200 – 1600 Medieval Renaissance –
HORTUS MUSICUS (Erdenklang 40692 1 2)
The personal union of the kingdoms Aragon and Castilia in 1474, the conquest of Granada in 1492 and the discovery of the New World in the same year inaugurated a new era of Spanish politics, Spanish culture and, in turn, of Spanish music.
This so-called "Golden Age", ´siglo d´oro´, - after the "cleansing" of the Iberian peninsula of Muslims and Jews - promoted a specific, nationally oriented form of the arts. The aggressive Spanish domestic and foreign policies - inquistion, expulsion of undesired ethnic and religious minorities - is the historical background which gives this music and this CD a most interesting point of view as far as our daily political situatin is concerned. Above all Juan del Encina was the most important Spanish musician, composer, author and actor of that period.
Hardly influenced by the musical customs prevalent in other European countries, these artists created songs and instrumental pieces which impress even the modern audience with their extraordinary freshness and spontaneity. They are frequently adaptions of simple folk melodies. Encina did not leave us a single truly religious or liturgical piece of music, however, numerous emotional songs: his own expressive, roguish or erotic texts set to music.
track 12: Recercada primera (Diego Ortiz) 2:26
track 13: Si habrá en este baldrés (Juan del Encina) 1:43
track 14: Todos los bienes del mundo (Juan del Encina) 1:24
taken from the album “Vuestros Amores, He Señora” – HORTUS MUSICUS (Erdenklang 50792)
This record presents the music that Hortus Musicus most often plays on tours, i.e. society music from the late Renaissance or Humanist age (ca 1520-1620) which at that time spread extensively across Europe. This is not the dignified and ascetic ars perfecta which was characteristic of the Netherlands church music, and which had strong spiritual links with medieval liturgical music. It belongs to the world of the modern man, a man free and cheerful in spirit, who delights in creating beauty in his environment.
This music is a genuine expression of the Renaissance spirit and embodies the sensuality of man in harmony with the universe. In its time it was like an axis mundi - the axis of the world - demonstrated in ancient fertility rites by the Maypole; a tree trunk trimmed of its foliage and topped by a wheel to which rainbow-coloured ribbons were fastened. A ritual dance around this symbol signified the male and female principles and represented the renewal and rebirth of life.
track 15: Intrada 1 (Christoph Demantius: Conviciorum Deliciae, Nürnberg 1608) 2:16
track 16: Ad altre le voie dare (Orlando di Lasso: Libro de Villanelle, Paris 1581) 1:36
track 17: The Standing Masque (Anonymus: Gray`s Inn Masque, London, ca. 1600) 1:36
track 18: Come, My Children Dere (Anonymus: Gray`s Inn Masque, London, ca. 1600) 2:02
track 19: Branle IV(a) (Pierre Phalèse: Recuel de danscries, Anvers 1583 1:46
taken from the CD “Maypole” – HORTUS MUSICUS (Erdenklang 70982)
The blind Dutch recorder-player Jacob van Eyck (1589/90 - 1657) left us a collection of music called "Der Fluiten Lusthof" for unaccompanied soprano-recorder. Nearly all of the 144 pieces are variations on the popular melodies of that time. Besides folksongs, he used the more popular themes by current composers of his time and church melodies from the Geneva Psalter.
On this album the Estonian flutist Neeme Punder improvises on the variations by Jacob van Eyck in quite the same way as van Eyck himself improvised on folk melodies. And on this track he does it in a jam-session with a nightingale from the forests of northern Estonian.
track 20: Engels Nachtegaltje (J.van Eyck/P. Vähi/N. Punder 5:47
taken from the CD „The Flutish Kingdom“ – NEEME PUNDER (Erdenklang 60932)
The proud, bold PARZIVAL has to endure many tests before he receives his initiation in the Grail Castle of Munsalvaesch. ROLAND KROELL is a Celtic bard and over-tone singer. His experiences of this genre are embedded in the heroic epic "Parzival".
The mystical sound of the Middle High German language, supported by violin, dulcimer, epinett, uileann pipes, gong, musical glasses, flutes and drums sound like magic formulas and have meditative effects. Elements from Celtic folk music and archaic vocals give the legend a mysterious quality.
The starting point of my musical arrangement was the "Melody of Titurel" composed by Wolfram von Eschenbach, which has been handed down from the beginning of the 13th century.
Track 21: Bea Fiz (R. Kroell) 2:38 Taken from the CD “Parzival” – ROLAND KROELL (Erdenklang 60912)
Track 22 Titurelmelodie (DP) 1:15 Taken from the CD “Parzival” – ROLAND KROELL (Erdenklang 60912)
At the end of this musical journey through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance we leave the secular music behind and devote ourselves to the old Christian-Arab traditions. And once more it is the VOX ensemble who conceives of archaic music as the universal language of understanding, from ancient times to our complex present, and interprets this music with the means of our time.
It has taken us "westeners" a few centuries to win this freedom.
On this CD the Ensemble VOX leads us to the musical and spiritual origins of early Christianity. Chants from the early Christian Middle East tradition come face to face with a surreal landscape of sound and with the warm voice of FADIA EL HAGE, born and living in Beirut/Lebanon.
Thus a dialogue has been created with the intention to comment on the changes which the many ideas, stated beliefs and hopes expressed in the songs had to undergo in the course of history.
track 23: Göttliches Grab/Holy Sepulchre (based on ’Ya Yassou ‚ou’-part of the Kanon on Easter Sunday/Revelation – John 1,4/Vladimir Ivanoff) 4:23
taken from the CD “X Chants” – VOX (Erdenklang 71002
© 2006 Ulli A. Ruetzel
