Ludus Danielis · The Play of Daniel
The Harp Consort

medieval.org
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (BMG) 05472 77395 2
1998






Belshazzar's Feast
1.  Incipit · Ad hornorem tui Christe  [0:36]
2.  Prosa · Astra tenenti  [3:23]
3.  Rex Balthasar · Rex in eternum uiue / Vos qui paretis meis uocibus  [0:48]
4.  Vasa Templorum · Iubilemus regi nostro  [3:26]

The Writing on the Wall
5. Mane. Techel. Phares. · Vocate matematicos  [2:57]
6. Conductus Regine · Cum doctorum et magorum  [7:15]
7. Regina · Rex in eternum uiue / Vt scribentis noscas ingenium  [3:09]
8. Danielem querens · Vos danielem querite  [3:46]
9. Conductus Danielis · Jic uerus dei famulus  [4:30]
10. Daniel & Balthasar · Rex in eternum uiue / Tune daniel nomine diceris  [0:56]
11. Solutio · Rex tua nolo munera  [4:35]
12. Conductus Regine secundus · Tolle uasa princeps militia  [3:10]
13. Conductus referentium uasa · Regis uasa referentis  [2:22]

At the Court of King Darius
14. Darius Rex · Ecce rex darius  [3:56]
15. Principes · Audite principes  [2:30]
16. Legati · Ex regalis uenit imperio  [2:18]
17. Conductus Danielis: in hoc natalitio · Congaudentes celebremus  [2:24]
18. Consilarij emuli · Quia noui te callidum  [2:18]
19. O hez! · Ego mando et remando  [1:30]
20. Daniel adorabit  [1:35]

Daniel in the Lions' Den
21. Emuli & Darius · Numquid dari  [2:21]
22. Lamentatio Danielis · Heu heu heu quo casu sortis  [1:47]
23. Ad lacum Leonum · Deus quem colis tam fideliter  [1:37]
24. Angelus & Abacuc · Abacuc tu senex pie  [3:27]
25. Leones · Tene putas  [4:05]

Daniel the Prophet
26. Daniel Propheta · Deum danielis  [4:13]
27. Angelus · Nuntium uobis  [0:32]
28. Te Deum · Te Deum laudamus  [2:00]









THE HARP CONSORT
Andrew Lawrence-King

Jane Achtman — vielle   
Margriet Tindemans — vielle
Belinda Sykes — shawms
Paolo Fanciullaci — drone pipes
Gian-Luca Lastraioli — medieval lute
Steven Player — gittern
Peter Maund — percussion, bells
Jeremy Birchall — drone organ
Jane Trewhella, Nicola Kremer — bells
Andrew Lawrence-King — medieval harp, psaltery, organ


JUVENIS — Caitríona O'Leary
BALTHASAR REX — Harry van der Kamp
DEXTRA — Jeremy Birchall
MAGI — Rodrigo del Pozo, Paolo Fanciullaci, Jeremy Birchall
REGINA — Barbara Borden
DANIEL PROPHETA — Douglas Nasrawi
PRINCIPES — Stephen Harrold, Ian Honeyman, Rodrigo del Pozo
DARIUS REX — Ian Honeyman
DUO FLEXS GENIBUS — Paolo Fanciullaci, Stephen Harrold
LEGATI — Fanciullaci, Harrold, Birchall, van der Kamp, del Pozo
CONSULARIJ emuli — Stephen Harrold, Paolo Fanciullaci, Rodrigo del Pozo
LEONES — Harry van der Kamp, Jeremy Birchall, Belinda Sykes
ALIUS ANGELUS — Belinda Sykes
ABACUC — Jeremy Birchall
ANGELUS — Caitríona O'Leary



℗ + © 1998 BMG Entertainment
Producer & Engineer: John Hadden
A & R direction: Nicola Kremer
Recorded: 14-18 April 1997, St. Bartholomew's Church, Orford/GB
Design: Welcome, Munich
Text editing Dr. Jens Markowsky
All rights reserved


Thanks to Mary Remnant for providing the medieval organ and to Stephen Henderson for percussion instruments.
Special thanks to Richard Rastall and David Hiley.
Latin Pronunciation Adviser: Harold Copeman

The Play of Daniel

Ludus Danielis stands out from all other surviving medieval liturgical dramas for its richness, depth and variety. The Play is thought to have been performed by the young clerics of Beauvais Cathedral towards the end of the late 12th century, although the manuscript that preserves it dates from around 1230.

A festive celebration and a masterpiece of medieval culture, Daniel employs poetry, music, visual spectacle, drama, suspense, irony, humour, pathos and complex characterisation to create what the pioneering scholar William L. Smoldon described as a medieval "opera", with the magnificent Romanesque cathedral serving as auditorium, stage and backdrop.

The plot draws on various episodes from the biblical Daniel stories, summarised in the first Prosa, during which King Belshazzar and his Nobles process into the church. Belshazzar profanes the sacred vessels plundered from the Jewish temple by using them at his Feast, and in the midst of the celebrations a Right Hand appears and writes a mysterious text on the wall: "Mane. Techel. Phares.". Belshazzar calls for his Astrologers and Soothsayers, but neither he nor they can decipher the message.

The Queen arrives and advises Belshazzar to summon Daniel, who duly interprets the vision as a warning of imminent disaster. The Queen leaves, and the temple vessels are carried away. Suddenly, King Darius appears with his army, and Belshazzar is violently ejected from the throne. Darius is advised to appoint Daniel principal counsellor, but other courtiers are jealous of the prophet, and conspire to have him killed.

Daniel's rivals persuade King Darius to pass a law, forbidding the worship of any god other than the King himself. When Daniel is caught at his prayers, Darius has no choice but to condemn him to death. Daniel is thrown into the Lions' Den, but an Angel protects him, and another Angel fetches the prophet Habbakuk to bring him food. Returning to the pit, Darius is overjoyed to find Daniel still alive, and restores him to his former position. The Evil Counsellors are thrown to the Lions and Daniel's apocalyptic prophecy foretells the message of the Christmas Angel. As the play ends, the cantors intone the Te Deum, and the daily office of Matins resumes.


mille sonent modis... a thousand different sounds

The music of the Ludus Danielis represents a summation of many different medieval styles. As the diverse musical forms of the late Renaissance or high Baroque were brought together into the unified works of Monteverdi's Vespers and Bach's B Minor Mass, so the anonymous composers of Beauvais compounded plain-chant, popular melodies, the high art of trouvere song, lively dance metres, passionate laments and elements from more ancient dramas to form their Play. The subtly-etched melodic flow of the chant contrasts with the strong simplicity of repeated phrases and refrains in the choruses, whilst the dramatic scenes employ complex musical structures comparable to the liturgical forms of Hymn, Responsory and Sequence. Solemn and festive modes; plain and ornamental melody; high-art intellectualism and the raw energy of popular styles; the inspiring spirituality of unaccompanied voices and the shocking intrusion of secular instruments; elegantly-turned phrases of lyrical poetry and the urgent drive of short metrical lines: each musical device is carefully matched to the twists and turns of the drama.


Dialogue and conductus

The earliest liturgical plays dramatised the stories of popular feasts in the ecclesiastical calendar, especially those where the biblical text includes dialogue in direct speech. The Easter morning visit to the empty tomb, when the risen Christ asks quem quaeritis "whom do you seek?", forms the core of many such dramas and is paralled in Daniel by Darius' return to the Lions' Den to behold Daniel's triumphant "resurrection". The episode where two disciples run to the tomb "and the other disciple did out-run Peter" - another popular theme in Easter plays - is parodied by the two soldiers who rush ahead to expel Belshazzar from his throne "seeming to kill him". The message of the Christmas Angel nuntiam vobis is quoted in full in Daniel, sung to the same melody found in earlier dramas. Many plays exploit opportunities for processions, representing the Prophets, the Christmas Shepherds or the journey of the Magi following the Christmas star. In addition to many exits and entrances and all kinds of actions which take place without singing, Ludus Danielis provides no less than eight processional choruses, from the grandeur of the opening Prosa and the decorum of the Queen's entrance to the exuberance of the Christmas refrain in hoc natalitio or the sly references to the melody of the notorious Prose of the Ass, as the sacred vessels are brought in for Belshazzar's Feast.

The rubric describes most of these processions using the word conductus: literally "kept together", or to use the modern musical term, "ensemble". Conductus music had a clear rhythm to keep those walking in the procession in step with one another. Such rhythmic tunes were ideally suited for polyphonic elaboration, since the clear rhythm would keep two or more singers together, even if they were singing different melodies. Hence conductus became also a particular style of polyphonic music, frequently associated with liturgical processions. Conductus was also a literary style with a clear metrical rhythm and phrases of regular length - such verse was ideally suited for the conductus style of musical composition.


Ludus & tripudium

In spite of its literary and musical sophistication, Ludus Danielis was not merely an exquisite work of dramatic composition, it was also an event, a theatrical "happening", that formed part of the post-Christmas celebrations. In mid-12th century France, January 1st was given over to the most junior clerics, the sub-deacons, and their festum subdiaconorum was often referred to as the Feast of Asses, or the Feast of Fools.

It was a day when the normal hierarchy of the cathedral was turned upside-down. There was no rubric, no ordo for this day: it was a re-union of old friends from all around the country, a party, a tripudium - a word associated with feasting and dancing. A young boy might usurp the role of Bishop for the day, the cantor's rod of office might be stolen by the choirboys, and contemporary sermons complain of all kinds of irreverent behaviour in the church: fortune-telling and divinations; masks, disguises and feigned madness; foolish and sinful poetry in conductus metres or even in the vernacular; dancing, profane laughter and cacophony; priests clapping their hands or playing string instruments and drums; eating, drinking and dicing at the high altar; wild ringing of the cathedral bells; youths riding an ass, beating one another with a stick, and running around in the church.

As the medieval scholar Margot Fassler has shown, all these high-jinks are incorporated into the plot of Daniel. The drama was indeed ludus, "play" as well as "a Play". Belshazzar is king for the day only, and he is violently dethroned by two singers who run through the church to "kill" him. At his feast, the Babylonians eat and drink at the altar from genuinely sacred vessels (the cathedral chalice was entrusted to the care of the sub-deacons), and they are entertained by foolish astrologers, and by the arrival of a colleague "from the remotest regions" dolled up as the Queen.

King Darius' courtiers make repeated reference to the tripudium. Groups of messengers scurry around the church looking for the Wise Men or for Daniel. When they find him, they speak to him in their own native dialect. The Angel gets to drag old Habbakuk across the cathedral "by the hair of his head". There are also ample opportunities for fun in dressing Daniel in purple robes, stripping them off again, robing him once again, and menacing him from behind a lion-mask. Finally there is the humiliation and "slaughter" of the Evil Counsellors. At the crucial moment of the drama, as Darius is fooled into passing the law that will send Daniel to the Lions' Den, his mock-solemn proclamation is transformed into the bray of an ass: at this point, Darius has become the Lord of the Fools, a veritable Donkey-King.

Thus the traditional revelry of the Feast of Fools is itself made a religious symbol, transmuting the orgiastic excesses of the tripudium into a dramatic spectacle dedicated to the honour of the Christ-child. All the blasphemy is ascribed to the misrule of the Babylonians, whilst Daniel himself is a model of Christ-like obedience and innocent suffering, Ludus Danielis is both carnival and culture: it creates liturgical ordo out of chaotic play, and it presents a Play in which the bawdy humour of the comedy heightens the pathos of the drama.


Style and improvisation

In our performance, both medieval Latin and Picard French are heard in the local pronunciation of the period, a strongly coloured dialect which rhymes letis ergo with hec uirago. The Te Deum is found in an Antiphoner from nearby Cambrai. The Egerton manuscript in which Daniel itself is notated provides the variant melodies of the Prose of the Ass. A single pitch-standard is used for the whole Play, preserving the original contrasts in tessitura between Daniel's tragic lament and his glorious prophecy, between Belshazzar's noble ruin and Darius' foolish weakness. Just as the Beauvais choristers matched high- and low-style compositional forms to the demands of the drama, we have tried to match musical genres with the appropriate performing style. In literary terms, long poetic lines and complex rhyme schemes signal an elevated style: the energy of popular styles is indicated by catchy refrains and short lines whose rhymes pack a solid rhythmic punch. The musical rhythm is clearly articulated in the low styles, whereas the higher styles are more freely rhapsodic. Drums and wind-instruments are definitely "low"; harps and vielles are associated with more serious songs; the organ has still more gravitas; but the most solemn moments belong to unaccompanied voices.

As in nearly all music of this period, the musical notation does not specify when or what the instruments should play, although the text has many detailed references to string-instruments, drums, and even hand-clapping. Since the actions described in the text correspond so closely to period accounts of the Feast of Fools celebrations, we have felt confident in following references to instruments equally literally. All the music is notated as a single melodic line, so the instrumental accompaniments and interludes are entirely improvised, employing drones, ornamentation of the melody by the simultaneous playing of several variants at once in heterophony, and elaboration of the single melodic line into polyphony, with parallel fifths or fully independent parts. We have taken the bold step of extending this well-accepted instrumental style to the vocal choruses, with the singers improvising polyphonic conductus settings according to the same principles, taking as a model the notated polyphony of the Parisian composers of the Notre Dame school. Polyphony itself was also associated with the Feast of Fools, when the presence of visiting singers from all around the country was combined with a permissive attitude towards liturgical or musical antics.

Bearing in mind the heady mixture of spiritual ecstasy and earthy humour that pervades the whole play, it is difficult to imagine the revellers at the Feast of Fools keeping meek silence whilst the sub-deacons run through the cathedral to "kill" King Belshazzar, or whilst the Evil Counsellors are disrobed and thrown to the Lions. For the purposes of this recording, we have therefore realised certain entrances, exits and visual actions in sound, with greater or lesser solemnity according to the dramatic situation. The supreme moment of symbolic folly, when Darius is transformed into an ass, marks the turning-point of the plot. The spectacle of a mad King rampaging around the church illustrates the principle motive of the Feast of Fools revels - the breakdown of the normal hierarchy of power - and hints darkly at political tensions and power struggles between church and state, between the capital and the outlying regions. The mock ritual in which an ass is led around the cathedral is also of the most ancient elements of the tripudium. Here the singers burst out of the prescribed ordo to join with the instrumentalists in the famous Prose of the Ass.


Serious fun

It is tempting to see the dedicated irreverence of Daniel as a metaphor for the basic paradox of performing early music, which demands that musicians exercise the freedom to improvise within the ordo of authenticity. The medieval ludus (like the sprezzatura of 17th century opera) bestows a licence to break the accepted rules, and throws down a challenge to understand the conventions well enough to flaunt them, to be appropriately disobedient, to have serious fun.

Andrew Lawrence-King

The Harp Consort

The Harp Consort is a group of musicians who specialise in improvisation within the various styles of baroque and medieval music. The plucked and bowed instruments of the consort were regarded in ancient times as perfect instruments: they could play melodies and chords, so that they could play solos or in ensembles, as well as accompanying singers. Whether in baroque continuo or medieval conductus, musicians would expand the single line of the written music to create harmonies and melodic figures in the appropriate style for the period and country. The Harp Consort takes such improvisation as a model for every aspect of performance, combining the excitement of spontaneous invention with careful attention to the particular colours of each repertoire.

The Harp Consorts repertoire ranges from solo songs to baroque opera; from medieval drama to new music for early instruments, from the delicacy of instrumental chamber music to the exuberance of Irish dance, bringing together an international team of singers and instrumentalists to create a rich variety of timbres.
Andrew Lawrence-King & The Harp Consort perform at festivals and concert halls worldwide, from London's Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie and New York's Carnegie Hall to the Casals Hall in Tokyo and the Sidney Opera House.


Andrew Lawrence-King

An imaginative and virtuosic harp soloist and a uniquely versatile continuo player, Andrew Lawrence-King is recognised as one of the world's leading Early Music artists, and as a rapidly rising star among Baroque conductors.

His musical career began as Head Chorister at the Cathedral and Parish Church of St Peter Port Guernsey, whence he won an Organ Scholarship to Cambridge, completing his studies at the London Early Music Centre. He rapidly established himself as continuo-player to Europe's foremost specialist ensembles and in 1988 founded and co-directed the continuo-group Tragicomedia. He joined Jordi Savall's Hesperion XX as harp soloist, and was appointed Professor of Harp and Continuo at the Akademie für Alte Musik, Bremen.
In 1994, Andrew Lawrence-King formed his own ensemble, The Harp Consort.
His achievements as a harpist have been marked by the Erwin Bodky award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music and his contributions to the performance of
Spanish baroque music by the Noah Greenberg prize.
Andrew Lawrence-King now divides his time between solo recitals, world-wide tours
with The Harp Consort, and appearances as guest director for orchestras, choirs and Baroque operas throughout Europe and Scandinavia. A keen sailor, Andrew holds the Royal Yachting Association's coveted Yachtmaster certificate, and spends most of his free time aboard his boat, "Continuo".