Cipriano de RORE. Portrait of the Artist as a Starved Dog —
Graindelavoix
[12.11.2017 17:50 GMT+1]
medieval.org
(2950, 1385, 7, 1510505422, 205, 3066, 'Graindelavoix - Cipriano de
RORE. Portrait of the Artist as a Starved Dog', 'last' - 1515312876
[12.11.2017 17:50 GMT+1]
medieval.org Remarks
Sorprendente, seductor y persuasivo comentario histórico-político en
los remarks de medieval.org
———
Although
it's later music than I most often mention here, I wanted to make a few
remarks about the new album by Graindelavoix featuring Cypriano de
Rore, Portrait of the Artist as a Starved Dog.
First
of all, Björn Schmelzer discusses the title in relation to both actual
portraits of De Rore & an image by Dürer (with the "actual" starved
dog), as well as in relation to notions of "divine" artistry applied
(not for the first time) in the sixteenth century, e.g. especially to
Michelangelo.
The program focuses on Rore's madrigals, but also
includes secular motets, a hybrid genre of the period with similar
themes & expressivity, and divides his output into three phases.
They also approach the singing without diminutions, and so despite some
instrumental accompaniment, produce a rather austere reading: Yet this
is precisely a reading that illuminates Rore's previously unprecedented
emotional range.
I've generally found Schmelzer's interpretations
to be thought provoking, and as the forgoing remarks suggest, this is
no exception. It's also not unusual for me to be drawn more to
interpretations of later music by musicians who have mostly worked with
earlier music — rather than the other way around — and Graindelavoix
bring a firm fifteenth century (& even Ars Antiqua) footing to this
mid-sixteenth century repertory. From the perspective of a medievalist
this music is indeed late, but from a perspective critiquing Western
global imperialism (the world-defining activity of the historical
"modern era" per se), it's early: One can note the (relatively novel,
then, to become more common with Monteverdi et al.) turn to imperial
(Greek & Roman) antiquity for themes & inspiration, and one can
ponder the emotionality (differing from the relatively staid previous
couple of generations) in response to world conquest. Rore was writing a
couple of generations after the epochal change announced by Columbus'
voyage — barely longer than we are now from the end of the modern era
(by my rough periodization, as e.g. articulated elsewhere)
— and so one can further note the uncertainty, the tragedy, the
interrogation of hubris & anguished human feeling deriving from the
antique thematic material.
Such an orientation is in sharp
contrast to the feelings of mastery that would be consolidated with the
so-called "enlightenment," i.e. the era of the subsequent "classical
period" in musical terms, and is moreover prior to the regularization of
rhythm e.g. via bar lines (definitively with Corelli), not to mention
the (anti-polyphonic) hierarchical rigidity of recitative-continuo
style. One can in turn note the impetus toward elitism deriving from
these neo-imperial concerns, not only the far-flung dramatic material
(that would soon manifest even more spectacularly in the "opera" genre,
particularly as it came to emphasize the soloist), but the separation of
"the composer" from humanity more generally — as implicitly traced by
Schmelzer's discussion of divinity. (And indeed the rise of portraiture
per se in this period marks a rethinking of the subject in modern
terms.)
In other words, this music retains the feel of a newly
globalized class structure becoming intensified & yet still
distended — much as now: This is music of extremes (articulated quite
persuasively by Schmelzer & his group), with nothing cute or quaint.
It traces a human tragedy that the "divine" De Rore was still able to
feel directly — if articulate indirectly. (There is nothing of the smug
perfection of e.g. Mozart here, although one might also contrast the
systemization of musical affect by e.g. Marini,
writing only fifty years after Rore.) This is dangerous music, without a
(conceptual) net, and so some of the most dynamic to witness &
grapple with the early modern (epochal) transition.
Todd M. McComb
9 January 2018
(3081, 1385, 7, 1515916997, 205, 3081, 'Re: Graindelavoix - Cipriano
de RORE. Portrait of the Artist as a Starved Dog', 'last' - 1515917093
[14.1.2018 9:03 GMT+1]