chant1450
Christophorus CHR 77298
2008
1. Paschal de L’ESTOCART (c.1539-c.1584). Tu me seras tesmoin [2:40]
2. Guillaume MORLAYE (c.1515-c.1560). Du fond de ma pensée (Ps.130) [1:15]
3. Orlando di LASSO (1532-1594). Le vertueux [1:24]
4. Paschal de L’ESTOCART. La glace est luisante [1:12]
5. Adrian LE ROY (c.1520-1598). Entens pourquoy je m’écrie (Ps.61) [1:04]
6. Claude GOUDIMEL (c.1510-1572). Du fond de ma pensée (Ps.130) [0:51]
7. Eustache DU CAURROY (c.1549-1609). Fantasie XX (Ps.26) [2:46]
8. Loys BOURGEOIS (c.1510-c.1561). Le cantique de Siméon [1:39]
9. Orlando di LASSO. Ta voix ô Dieu [2:07]
10. Paschal de L’ESTOCART. O qui pourra avoir [2:32]
11. Adrian LE ROY. O pasteur d’Israël escoute (Ps.80) [1:18]
12. Claude GOUDIMEL. Les cieux en chacun lieu (Ps.19) [1:27]
13. Claude LE JEUNE (c.1530-1600). Alors qu’affliction me presse (Ps.120) [2:25]
14. Eustache DU CAURROY (c.1549-1609). Fantasie VI (Ps.19) [2:11]
15. Jean CAULERY (c.1556). Père de nous-Pardonne nous [3:08]
16. Eustache DU CAURROY. Fantasie XVIII (Ps.55) [2:22]
17. Orlando di LASSO. En espoir vis [1:20]
18. Paschal de L’ESTOCART. L’eau va vite [0:54]
19. Claude LE JEUNE. O Seigneur que de gens (Ps.3) [0:58]
20. Paschal de L’ESTOCART. Celuy qui pense pouvoir [2:03]
21. Adrian LE ROY. Chantez à Dieu nouveau cantique (Ps.98) [1:40]
22. Loys BOURGEOIS (c.1510-c.1561). Je t’aymeray en toute obeissance (Ps.18) [2:23]
23. Hubert WAELRANT (c.1517-1595). Rendez à Dieu louange et gloire (Ps.118) [1:26]
24. Adrian LE ROY. Loué soit Dieu (Ps.144) [1:24]
25. Loys BOURGEOIS. Pourquoy font bruit (Ps.2) [1:15]
26. Claude LE JEUNE. Qui au conseil des malins (Ps.1) [0:55]
27. Eustache DU CAURROY. Fantasie I (Ps.1) [1:56]
28. Claude LE JEUNE. Or avons nous (Ps.44) [1:56]
29. Jean CAULERY. Las voulés vous [2:04]
30. Claude LE JEUNE. Di moy malheureux (Ps.52) [1:07]
31. Psautier Genevois/Benedictus APPENZELLER (c.1510-1572). Du fond de ma pensée (Ps.130) [9:56]
chant 1450
Akira Tachikawa — Countertenor
Giovanni Cantarini — Tenor
Daniel Manhart — Tenor
Raitis Grigalis — Bariton
Norihisa Sugawara — Laute · Viola da Gamba
Gregor Ehrsam — Orgelpositiv
Ⓟ + © 2007
The Geneva Psalter,
forms the musical core of the French Reformation (as its principal
liturgical book). It contains metrically rhymed (as in poetry) French
translations of Luther’s Bible of 1534: 150 Psalms, the Ten Commandments
(Exodus 20: 2-17) and the Song of Simeon from the New Testament (Luke
2: 29-32). Each of these new verses is musically underscored by a single
melody, repeated with each strophe. The Geneva Psalter is a
collaborative work. Clément Marot (1487-1544) and Théodore de Bèze
(1519-1605) are acknowledged as the authors of the texts, while the
composers remain unidentified. It has been proposed the latter stem from
a circle of Genevan musicians active in those decades, Loys Bourgeois
(c.1500 - c.1565), the most renowned composer amongst them. The Reformer
and French theologian, Jean Calvin (1509-1564), very influential
among his francophone followers, implemented the use of monophonic
metrical music during liturgical services, and justified the use of text
sung in worship, as long as the words were in the vernacular, and could
be understood by the congregation. Calvin considered the Book of Psalms
as poetry inspired by God himself, and he promoted and oversaw the
compilation of the Geneva Psalter for over twenty years, until its first
complete printing in 1562. (Calvin believed the singing of Psalms had
special value in the worship of his church). Daniel Manhart
Akira Tachikawa
was born in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1961. He studied at the National
College for Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo until 1988 and at the Schola
Cantorum in Basel, under René Jacobs, Nigel Rogers and Dominique
Vellard, from 1986 to 1992.
As a member of such well-known ensembles
as the Basel Madrigalists, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, the Vocalensemble
Zurich or Philippe Herreweghe’s Ensemble Vocal Européen de Chapelle
Royal, Akira sang a number of Renaissance and Baroque works including
Dufay’s Missa Ecce ancilla Domini, the Escobar Requiem or Schütz’ Auferstehungs-Historie.
Giovanni Cantarini
studied philosophy at the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana in Rome. He
also obtained a diploma in philology in Bologna. He studied chant with
Claudio Cavina, Ulrich Pfeifer, Michel van Goethem, and at the Schola
Cantorum Basiliensis with Gerd Türk, Dominique Vellard and with Stefan
Haselhoff .
Apart from his work as a soloist, his musical activities
focus on singing in professional ensembles among which are: La
Venexiana, Cappella Augustana, Ensemble Melpomen, Athestis Chorus, Coro
Millenium, Académie Baroque Européenne, Ensemble Gilles
Binchois, La Morra and others.
Daniel Manhart
was born in Switzerland in 1968 and studied at the HMT Zurich: singing
under Kathrin Graf, piano under Hadassa Schwimmer, and school music
under Karl Scheuber. Postgraduate studies in singing under Hubert
Saladin. He is a member of the vocal ensemble Guillaume Dufay, with
which he has been touring regularly since 1998.
Raitis Grigalis
is originally from Riga, Latvia, and grew up immersed in its rich
musical culture and choral traditions. He studied at the Music Academy
of Riga, specialising in choral conducting and composition.
He was a
member of some of the finest Latvian vocal groups including the chamber
choir Ave Sol with which he toured worldwide. In 1999 Raitis Grigalis
was awarded a place to study singing at the Schola Cantorum in Basel
with Andreas Scholl and Richard
Levitt. He enjoys an active
professional career singing with such renowned groups as Ensemble Gilles
Binchois and the Consort of Musicke, London.
Harmonic and polyphonic versions of Psalms,
first published in Strasbourg by Calvin in 1539, formed the beginning
of the Geneva Psalter. Many contemporary composers were inspired by
these new texts and melodies, and used them as musical sources, even
though Calvin never authorized the use of polyphonic music during
liturgical services. The number of surviving polyphonic compositions was
created for the private use of an intellectual Calvinist and Hugenot
elite, who used specific arrangements of these pieces according to the
number of voices and instruments available. The present recording of Du fond de ma pensée,
is an example of such versified Psalms by Appenzeller, Goudimel,
Bourgeois, Waelrant and Le Jeune, with the organ and lute paraphrases by
Eustache de Caurroy and Adrian le Roy.
The repertoire of music for the French Reformation Church was expanded with the rewriting of existing pieces
(so called “contrafacta”). After 1570, Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594),
was the most famous composer of secular chansons in France. Despite
Lasso’s importance as a Counter-Reformation composer, Simon Goulart,
Jean Pasquier and other Reformation poets did not hesitate to replace
Lasso’s often frivolous, obscene texts with religious, in part,
exquisite poems. Thus, Lasso’s celebrated music has been preserved, even
if the original intent of his texts has been lost, or has lost their
significance.
In comparison with Contrafacta, the new compositions of Spiritual Chansons,
employ religious texts – the origin of ours –, deriving from various
sources. Contrary to polyphonic Psalms, religious Chansons have no
cantus firmus. They are freely composed and adopt the sound of secular
Chansons, with which they often appeared together in musical
compilations.
Pascal de L’Estocart’s Octonaires de la vanité du monde
presents a special case in Reformation music. The moralizing, didactic
eight line strophes were compiled by Antoine de la Roche Chandieu and
Simon Goulart, both pastors, and by King Henry
IV’s doctor and alchemist, Joseph du Chesne. The texts, in pictorial words, reflect contemporary views on Vanitas,
or the passing of the material world and its temptations, which
presented L’Estocart with the possibility of underscoring expressive
words with melodic music, in the manner of Italian Madrigals.