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Medieval, Early and Baroque Music

gorgik9

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Heinrich Isaac (1450/55 - 1517)

Like Obrecht and Desprez, Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac belonged to the third generation.

This time I'll post something else than a Kyrie from a Missa L'Homme Armé, since I don't have this with Isaac as composer. Instead I'll post his song "Innsbruck, Ich muss dich lassen" ("Innsbuck, I must leave you"), a song that got spectacularly popular in the early 16th century. Another historical fact to note was that Isaac was one of Martin Luther's favourite composers, Desprez was another.

 

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Pierre de la Rue (1452-1518)

Pierre de le Rue was yet another member of the third generation of the Franco-Flemish school.

 

gorgik9

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Mattheus Pipelare / Mathurin Forestier.

This is a post with the two last members of the third generation I've got on my list, Mattheus Pipelare (1450-1515) and Mathurin Forestier (ca 1500). Very little biographical information seems to be known about Forestier, not more than that he was active at the turn of the century 1500.






After the third generation the typical vocal polyphonic music of the Franco-Flemish school started getting controversial and questioned from various directions and in the next post I'll talk about some of the major reasons for the commotion.
 

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Interlude: Council of Trent and the fate of the Franco-Flemish school

Bernardino Cirillo (1500-1575) was archbishop of Loreto, Italy, and also one of the dignitaries in the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which launched the Catholic counter attack on the Protestant Reformation, kickstarting the Counter-Reformation.

It's often believed that the Tridentine Council was only about doctrinal controversies and controversies about ecclesiastical rules, regulations and constitutions. This is, however, far from the truth: the decisions of the Council affected European culture at large, on many levels, in many aspects: music (which we'll soon talk more about) but also visual arts, drama, theater and the religious and civic festivals.

While there was a fierce theological conflict between catholics and protestants, there was at the same time actually a lot of unity among reformers on both sides of the confessional divide. Catholic and protestant reformers were both engaged in what historian Peter Burke has called the strive to reform the traditional popular culture, an ambition with both negative and positive aspects.

Negative aspects: The ambition to purge the tradition of what the reformers found the least attractive and the most reprehensible.

Positive aspects: The ambition to realize the reformers ideal of a godly and pious popular culture.

So in 1549 Cirillo wrote a long letter on - among other things - his opinions on contemporary music and gave a scathing critique of the Franco-Flemish school. He wrote:

"In the same way he [= musicians of ancient traditions] would have applied the modi corresponding to the WORDS for - respectively - Kyrie and Agnus Dei, Gloria and Credo, Sanctus and Pleni, psalm and motett. Nowadays they sing all of this just any way they like, mixing it up in an indifferent and vacillating way.

They say: "Oh, what a beautiful mass that was sung in the chapel!" And pray, what is that!?! It is "L'homme Armé" or "Hercules Dux Ferrariae" or "Philomela". What - by the Devil! - does the mass got to do with the armed man or with Philomela or with the Duke of Ferrara? Which tacts, intervals and sounds, which spiritual movement of devotion and piety can be clarified through them and how can music correspond to such subjects as the armed man or the Duke of Ferrara?"

Somewhat later in his letter Cirillo delivers another thrashing of the Franco-Flemish school:

"In our age they have with all their industry tried to write polyphonic passages, so that when one voice says "Sanctus", another "Sebaoth" and yet another "Gloria tua" with howling, barking and stuttering so that it's more like cats in March than flowers in May."

So said the archbishop of Loreto. The Council formally resolved to prohibit the use of secular melodies as cantus firmus in church music, and inspired by humanist ideas about the correct relation between text and music, the Council fathers also demanded that church music must be looked upon as a medium for effective transmission of the message in the mass.

The name of the composer who adapted to these new rules and regulations most successfully was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and I'll make a post on him later in this thread!
 
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Jacques Arcadelt (1507-1568)

The Franco-Flemish school didn't disappeare into thin air because of the Tridentine Council, as the following posts will show. But undeniably the writings of doom was on the wall...

Jacques Arcadelt belonged to the forth generation of this school.

 

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Adriaan Willaert (1490-1562)

Willaert is another member of the fourth generation.

 

gorgik9

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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)

The phrase "da Palestrina" means "from the town of Palestrina" (just like "da Caravaggio" refers to the name of a village) and, hence, isn't any kind of family name.

But to the point! Palestrina (the composer) was never formally a member of the Franco-Flemish school, but rather an early member of the Roman school of church music (other members were Tomás Luis de Victoria and Gregorio Allegri) and it has been argued, that the decisons of the Tridentine Council more or less launched and defined the Roman school.

Be that as it may, but unquestionably the most famous of Palestrina's more than 100 masses is his Missa Papae Marcelli, composed in honour of pope Marcellus II probably in 1562. Marcellus II (1501-1555) had a term of office as pope of only three weeks in spring 1555 and is known as a harsh critic of the typically Franco-Flemish practices.




However! Palestrina actually indulged in the Franco-Flemish practice of using a secular song as cantus firmus, as in the case below, giving the Kyrie from Palestrina's - Missa L'homme Armé! (Naughty boy!)

 

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Orlando di Lasso (1530-1594)

Orlando di Lasso belonged to the fifth and last generation of the Franco-Flemish school. Di Lasso was something of a naughty boy - he did exactly what the Tridentine council said a composer of church music shouldn't do. Not only did he use the secular song Susanne un jour (based on a poem by Guillaume Guéroult), it's actually a somewhat bawdy song. Precisely what the reformers didn't like...

 

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Gilles Binchois (ca 1400-1460)

Binchois belonged to the first generation and was of an almost equal importance to Guillaume Dufay.

 

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"Polorum Regina"

"Polorum Regina" is one of the songs in a late medieval manuscript called El Llibre Vermell, found in the monastery of Montserrat, Catalunia. "Polorum Regina" means "Queen of Heaven".

I post this just because I think it's so very beautiful!

 

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Thank you Gorgik 9 for a wonderful thread!
Paul, USA
 

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Carmina Burana, medieval version

Carmina Burana, meaning "Songs from Beuern" in Latin, is a manuscript of religious and profane songs based on poems, plays and dramatic texts describing the catholic church in satyrical and critical means. They were mainly composed by students and clergymen between the 11th and 13th centuries, in Latin, and German and French venacular. Fragments which have been recovered indidate a large amount of works were composed during the 12th century. The manuscript was discovered in 1803 in the Bavarian Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern.
Although Carl Orff's version is wonderful, the original Carmina Burana are also fascinating, and, for sure, much more varied as regards the topics and moods of the songs

 
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Tantum ergo sacramentum (Tommaso d'Aquino)

Thomas von Aquin (1225-1274)

Tantum ergo sacramentum
veneremur cernui,
et antiquum documentum
novo cedat ritui.
praestet fides supplementum
sensuum defectui.

Kommt und lasst uns tief verehren
ein so großes Sakrament,
dieser Bund wird ewig währen,
und der alte hat ein End.
Unser Glaube soll uns lehren,
was das Auge nicht erkennt.

Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail;
Lo! o'er ancient forms departing,
newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble senses fail.

 

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Tantum Ergo Sacramentum (Mode II, from Pange Lingua, Corpus Christi)

Gregorian chant notation from the Liber Usualis (1961), p. 952. Latin lyrics sung by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint Maurice et Saint Maur de Clervaux.
 

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Pange Lingua (Corpus Christi)

Gregorian Chant notation from the Liber Usualis (1961), pp. 957-959.
Latin lyrics sung by the Choeur Gregorien de Paris
 

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"Dies Irae, Dies Illa" Gregorian Chant Medieval Music Chorał

One of the most famous melodies of the Gregorian Chant, Dies Irae was traditionally ascribed to Thomas of Celano (d 1260), but now is usually attributed to an unknown Franciscan of that period. The piece is based upon Zep 1:14-16, a reflection upon the final judgment. It was formerly part of the Mass of the Dead and the Office of the Dead. Today it is found in the Liturgia Horarum for the last week of Ordinary time (34th). In placing it there, the emphasis is upon the upcoming Advent season and the Second Coming of Christ. In Diocese of the United States, it is still used in the Office of the Dead and the Feast of All Souls (Nov. 2).
Many have complained about the depressing nature of the opening verses, but while the piece is certainly sobering, there is a note of hope as well later on in the hymn. Judgment, which is eternal, is indeed a fearsome prospect for us sinners, but, as Christians, we also realize we have Christ as our Savior.


DIES irae, dies illa,
solvet saeculum in favilla,
teste David cum Sibylla.

THAT day of wrath, that dreadful day,
shall heaven and earth in ashes lay,
as David and the Sybil say.

Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando iudex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus!

What horror must invade the mind
when the approaching Judge shall find
and sift the deeds of all mankind!

Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulcra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.

The mighty trumpet's wondrous tone
shall rend each tomb's sepulchral stone
and summon all before the Throne.

Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
iudicanti responsura.

Now death and nature with surprise
behold the trembling sinners rise
to meet the Judge's searching eyes.

Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.

Then shall with universal dread
the Book of Consciences be read
to judge the lives of all the dead.

Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit:
nil inultum remanebit.

For now before the Judge severe
all hidden things must plain appear;
no crime can pass unpunished here.

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
quem patronum rogaturus?
cum vix iustus sit securus.

O what shall I, so guilty plead?
and who for me will intercede?
when even Saints shall comfort need?

Rex tremendae maiestatis,
qui salvandos salvas gratis,
salva me, fons pietatis.

O King of dreadful majesty!
grace and mercy You grant free;
as Fount of Kindness, save me!

Recordare Iesu pie,
quod sum causa tuae viae:
ne me perdas illa die.

Recall, dear Jesus, for my sake
you did our suffering nature take
then do not now my soul forsake!

Quaerens me, sedisti lassus:
redemisti crucem passus:
tantus labor non sit cassus.

In weariness You sought for me,
and suffering upon the tree!
let not in vain such labor be.

Iuste iudex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis,
ante diem rationis.

O Judge of justice, hear, I pray,
for pity take my sins away
before the dreadful reckoning day.

Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
culpa rubet vultus meus:
supplicanti parce Deus.

You gracious face, O Lord, I seek;
deep shame and grief are on my cheek;
in sighs and tears my sorrows speak.

Qui Mariam absolvisti,
et latronem exaudisti,
mihi quoque spem dedisti.

You Who did Mary's guilt unbind,
and mercy for the robber find,
have filled with hope my anxious mind.
Preces meae non sunt dignae:
sed tu bonus fac benigne,
ne perenni cremer igne.

How worthless are my prayers I know,
yet, Lord forbid that I should go
into the fires of endless woe.

Inter oves locum praesta,
et ab haedis me sequestra,
statuens in parte dextera.

Divorced from the accursed band,
o make me with Your sheep to stand,
as child of grace, at Your right Hand.

Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis.
voca me cum benedictis.

When the doomed can no more flee
from the fires of misery
with the chosen call me.

Oro supplex et acclinis,
cor contritum quasi cinis:
gere curam mei finis.

Before You, humbled, Lord, I lie,
my heart like ashes, crushed and dry,
assist me when I die.

Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla.
iudicandus homo reus:
huic ergo parce Deus.

Full of tears and full of dread
is that day that wakes the dead,
calling all, with solemn blast
to be judged for all their past.

Pie Iesu Domine,
dona eis requiem. Amen.

Lord, have mercy, Jesus blest,
grant them all Your Light and Rest. Amen


 
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Magnificat Gregorian Chant

The Magnificat is also known as the Canticle of Mary. It is one of the eight most ancient Catholic chants and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn. Its name is the opening word of the Vulgate text (Lk 1: 46:55): Magnificat anima mea, Dominum (My soul doth magnify the Lord). These are the words chanted by Our Lady on the occasion of her Visitation to her cousin St. Elizabeth.

After the Virgin Mary greeted St. Elizabeth, who was carrying the future St. John the Baptist, the child moved in St. Elizabeth's womb. When St. Elizabeth praised the Immaculate Virgin for her faith, Our Lady said the words of what is now known as the Magnificat in response. It is a prayer of praise for the inestimable favor bestowed by God on the Virgin, for the mercies shown to Israel, and for the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and to the Patriarchs.

The hymn forms a part of the Daily Office in the Roman Catholic Vespers service. The Magnificat is assigned to Vespers because the world was saved in its eventide by the assent of Mary to the Divine plan of Redemption.

Magnificat
anima mea Dominum,
et exultavit spiritus
in Deo salutari meo
quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae,
ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes
generationes
quia fecit mihi magna, qui potens est:
et Sanctus nomen eius
et misericordia eius a progenie in progenies
timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo,
dispersit superbos mente cordis sui,
deposuit potentes de sede,
et exaltavit humiles;
esurientes implevit bonis,
et divites dimisit inanes.
Suscepit Israel, puerum suum,
recordatus misericordiae suae,
sicut locutus est ad patres nostros,
Abraham et semini eius in saecula.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto
sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper
et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Magnificat - Latin & English

English translation

My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Because He hath regarded the humility of His slave:
For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because He that is mighty hath done great things to me; and holy is His name.
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shewed might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy:
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.
Glory be the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forever and ever, Amen.

 
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gorgik9

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@ golfdelta

Thanks a lot for these new posts in my old thread!!!
 

trencherman

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Here are two more I learnt (by heart) as a choirboy a long time ago, obviously before Vatican II.




 
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