medieval.org
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 77038
1990
1. Virgo sub ethereis [2:00]
Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibl. MS 40021, f.131v-132r
02. De tous bien playne (instr.) [1:57]
Florenz, Bibl. Conserv. Luigi Cherubini MS 2439, f.LXVIv-LXVI Ir
3. Je n'ay dueil [5:42]
Florenz, Bibl. Riccard. MS 2794, f.28v-30r
4. Tandernaken al op den rijn (instr.) [2:32]
Segovia, Catedral MS Archivo Musical, f. CLXIv-CLX11r
5. Revenez tous regretz [6:31]
Brussel, Bibl. royale MS 228, f.19v-20r
6. De tous bien playne (instr.) [1:08]
Segovia, Catedral MS Archivo Musical, f. CLXXXv-CLXXXIr
7. Pater meus agricola est (instr.) [6:02]
Petrucci, Motetti Libro Quarto 1505, f.18r-19r, 49r-50r, 114v-115v
8. En attendant [4:10]
London, Brit Lib., MS Royal 20 A XVI, f. 7v-8r
9. Dictes moi toutes (instr.) [3:37]
Rom. Bibl. Casanatense MS 2856, f.69v-70r
10. Jam fulsit sol de sidere [2:01]
Warszawa, Bibl. Uniwersytecka Rps. Mus. 58, f.144v-145r
11. Cecus non iudicat de coloribus [4:51]
Bologna, Civico Museo Bibl. Musicale MSQ17, f.12v-16v
12. Gardez voz bien [1:54]
Uppsala Univ. Bibl. MS 76a, f.51v
13. De tous bien playne (instr.) [1:22]
Florenz, Bibl. Cons.L.Cherubini MS 2439, fLXVIv-LXVIIr
14. Helas madame (instr.) [1:50]
Segovia, Catedral MS Archivo Musical, f. CXCIIIv-CXCII[Ir
15. A la mignonne [6:05]
Florenz, Bibl. Riccard. MS 2794, f.71v-72r
16. Fortuna desperata (instr.) [2:31]
Augsburg, Stadtbibl. MS 2. 142a. f.46w47r
17. In mijnen sin [3:04]
Musik: Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS f. fr.2245, f21v-22r
Text: Een schoon liedekens Boeck, Antwerpen 1544
Ferrara Ensemble
Crawford Young
Susanne Norin, contralto
Carol Schlaiker, soprano
Kathleen Dineen, soprano
David Cordier, countertenor
Harry Geraerts, tenor
Stephen Grant, baritone
Debra Gomez, harp
Randall Cook, fiddle, viola de gamba
Timo Peedu, lute
Crawford Young, lute, viola, cittern
with the
Ensemble Este der Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
Randall Cook
Veli-Markus Tapio, viola de gamba
Brigitte Gasser, viola de gamba
Randall Cook, viola de gamba
Aufnahmeleitung: Dr. Thomas Gallia, Paul Dery
Technik: Sonart, Milano
Aufgenommen: 14.-19. X1.1988 Reformierte Kirche Sornetan, CH
Kommentar: Crawford Young
Titelbild: Detail aus
„Die Versuchung des heiligen Antonius” (Triptychon), rechter Flügel (Der hl. Antonius in Betrachtung),
Lissabon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
Photo: Artothek, Kunstdia-Archiv Jürgen Hinrichs
Photo Rückseite: Bob Shamis
Gestaltung: Heinrich Lehmann
Redaktion: Dr. Jens Markowsky
All rights reserved
© 1990, BMG Music Ⓟ 1990, deutsche harmonia mundi
Eine Coproduktion mit Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Köln
_-_De_verzoeking_van_de_heilige_Antonius_(ca.1500)_-_Lissabon_Museu_Nacional_de_Arte_Antiga_19-10-2010_16-21-31.jpg)
ALEXANDER AGRICOLA
“If
it is possible to rank the Christian world according to nobility of
voice, then Flanders is the mother of the most excellent singers. First
among them is Alexander, singer of Phillipe le Beau...” (1)
A Florentine courtier
familiar with the circle of musicians associated with ‘Il Magnifico’
Lorenzo de' Medici might well have agreed with Jacobus Meyerus that
Flanders produces the world's “most excellent singers” and that at the
head of the list should be Alexander Agricola (ca. 1446-1506), whose
name shone “a hundred times brighter than fine silver” and who was
“illustrious of voice and hand” (for his singing as well as for his
compositions). (2)
“Agricolla, Verbonnet, Prioris, Josquin
Desprez, Gaspar, Brunel, Compere,
Ne parlez plus de joyeux chantz ne ris
Mais composez ung ne recorderis
Pour lamenter nostre maistre et bonpere.” (3)
Unlike
his “master and good father” Ockeghem, Agricola spent many years in
Italy, in particular Florence. While it is interesting to note
contemporary references to Agricola's fame, we must search a bit
further for comments from his musical peers if we want information
concerning his style or method of composition. The music theorist
Pietro Aaron, who called him “the divine Alexander”, writes:
“According
to the practice and method of older composers, a composition must first
begin with the cantus. Then the tenor should follow, the contratenor
bassus third, and finally the contratenor altus. The composers of our
time do not follow the custom of the older composers (to put these four
parts together always in this order). The most outstanding men in this
art are Josquin, Obrecht, Isaac and Agricola, with whom I had the
greatest friendship and familiarity in Florence. It is quite difficult
to do it (composition) this (new) way, and requires considerable
practice and experience”. (4)
If Agricola has been
relatively neglected by his twentieth-century colleagues in comparison
with, for example, Josquin and Isaac, it is perhaps his instrumental
works which least deserve neglect. Precursors to the sixteenth-century
“fantasia” and “diminution” appear without these formal names already
in the 1480's and 90's (perhaps earlier) in Agricola's catalog of
works, and his De tous biens playne settings and other compositions
furnish clear evidence of a fifteenth-century instrumental ensemble
repertoire. As one of the foremost exponents of the ‘new’ style,
Alexander Agricola's influence upon his contemporaries was felt both in
music written for voice and for instruments. (5)
„So ich
betracht, und acht, der alten gesangk, mit danck wil ich jr kunst hoch
preisen: Den Ockekhem, fürnem ist seer kunstreich, der gleich thut
Larue beweisen, Sein scharpffen sinn, Josquin, acht ich subtil, und wil
des Fincken kunst auch rüren, braucht seltzam art, verkärth, auff frembd manier, wie schier thut Alexander füren.” (6)
“Thus
I observe and respect the old style (of composition) and with gratitude
will highly praise that art: Ockeghem is correct and technically very
well made; the same of Larue; Josquin is intellectually sophisticated
and subtle (clever); Finck is also worth mentioning; concerning the unusual, crazy, strange manner (of composition), how clearly Alexander is the leader in this style.”
And
how clearly this description of Agricola's music reminds us of his
Flemish contemporary working in the visual arts, Hieronymus Bosch. What
exactly did Brätel have in mind when he formulated his comment? Perhaps
he was getting at something along the lines of what the contratenor bassus does in Agricola's setting of Tandernaken al up den rijn, or the unusual crafting of the outer voices in either of the two 3-part settings of De tous biens playne
from the present recording. Twelve years after the discovery of the New
World Agricola and Bosch both had the same employer, Philip the Fair,
King of Castile and Duke of Burgundy. It may be that both men won his
patronage on account of the part of their creative personalities that
seem to us to be so concerned with giving expression to the unexpected,
the irrational, the rare.
Crawford Young
1. “Fecunda insuper genetrix est Flandria laudatissimorum cantorum. Siquidem vocum nobilitate quamcumuis christiani orbis gente certare potest Testes sunt Alexander, cantor principis Philippi...”, from Jacobus Meyerus, Epitaph 1531; see Edmond Van der Straeten, La Musique aux Pay-Bas avant le XIXe siècle, Brussel, I (1878), 249.
2. “Le nom, plus der cent fois que fin argent” is taken from Jean Lemaire de Belges, La plainte du desire 1503, ed. D. Yabsley, Paris, 1932, 81.; the second phrase “clarus vocum manuunque” is found in Epitaphion Alexandri Agricolae symphonistae regis Castiliae published by Georg Rhau in Symphoniae jucundae, Wittenberg 1538; see Van der Straeten, op. cit., VII 0885),13-14.
3. Guillaume Cretin, Deploration sur la morte d'Ockeghem, in E. Thoinan, Deploration de G. Cretin sur le trepas de Jean Okeghem, musicien, premier chaplain du roi de France et tresorier de Saint-Martin de Tours, Paris, 1864.
4. Pietro Aaron, Libri tres de institutione harmonica 1516, 111, 7.; my paraphrase is. from the translation of the passage given in Bonnie J Blackburn, “On Compositional Process in the Fifteenth Century”, Journal of the American Musicological Society, XL (1987), 213.
5. See for example the pieces attributed to ‘Baccio’ (Bartolomeo degli Organi of Florence) in the manuscript Bologna, Civico Museo, Bibl. mus. MS Q 17.
6. „So ich betracht und acht” of Hulrich BräteL In: Peter Schöffer, 65 teutsche Lieder, ca. 1536.
