Schola Hungarica / Ravenna, the City of Mosaics


IMAGEN

hungaroton.hu
Hungaroton HCD 32014
february, 2000
Hungaroton Studio, Budapest
june, 2000
Calvinist Church, Ócsa



RAVENNA, THE CITY OF MOSAICS
Liturgical Chants




I. Nativitas et Epiphania Domini
Christmas and Epiphany


1- Antiphona - Constanzo PORTA: Hodie Christus natus est     [2:00]
Antiphon for Christmas
2 - Gloria cum tropo: Pax sempiterna - Gloria     [7:40]
Christmas Glory with trope
3 - Alleluja in missa prima de Nativitate: Dominus dixit ad me     [1:45]
Alleluia at Christmas Mass in Midnight
4 - Sequentia de Nativitate: Ecce puerpera     [0:53]
Christmas Sequence
5 - Antiphona - Constanzo PORTA: Tecum principium     [1:05]
Antiphon for Christmas
6 - Introitus in festo Epiphaniĉ, cum tropo: Ecce dies valde - Ecce advenit     [2:41]
Chant opening the Mass at Epiphany with trope
7 - Kyrie cum tropis     [l:50]
Kyrie with tropes
8 - Sanctus in festo Epiphaniĉ     [1:23]
Sanctus at Epiphany
9 - Confractorium in festo Epiphaniĉ: Corpus tuum frangitur     [0:30]
Chants of breaking the bread at Epiphany
10 - Agnus cum tropis: Abel justus     [1:40]
Agnus with trope
11 - Communio: Vidimus stellam     [0:40]
Communion Chant at Epiphany
12 - Antiphona - Constanzo PORTA: Magi videntes     [1:37]
Antiphon at Epiphany

II. Hebdomada sancta
Holy Week


13 - Dominica palmarum - Hymnus in processione: Gloria laus et honor     [2:37]
Palm Sunday Processional Hymn
14 - Feria sexta in Parasceve - Cantus in adoratione Crucis: Ecce lignum crucis (Antiphona)     [2:09]
Chants for Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday (Antiphon)
15 - Antiphona: Crucem tuam     [0:39]
Antiphon
16 - Antiphona in Grĉca: Prositnomen to stauron     [0:38]
Greek Antiphon
17 - Antiphona: Adoramus crucem     [0:45]
Antiphon
18 - Antiphona in Grĉca: Otin to stauron     [1:52]
Greek Antiphon
19 - Improperia: Popule meus     [6:14]
Reproaches
20 - Antiphona: Oremus ad crucem     [1: 10]
Closing Antiphon
21 - Antiphona - Constanzo PORTA: Mulieres sedentes     [1:29]
Antiphon

III. Resurrectio Domini
Easter


22 - Alleluia Confitemini Domino     [1:36]
Easter Vigil Alleluia
23 - Sequentia: Lux de luce     [2:01]
Sequence
24 - Antiphona - Constanzo PORTA: Surrexit Christus     [1:17]
Antiphon
25 - Offertorium cum tropo: Ab increpatione - Terra tremuit     [7:49]
Easter Sunday Offertory with trope
26 - Motetta - Constanzo PORTA: Hĉc dies     [2:08]
Easter Motet
27 - Sanctus: Agios, Agios, Agios     [1:03]
Sanctus
28 - Confractorium: Venite populi     [2:02]
Chant at the breaking of bread
29 - Communio cum tropo: Laus honor - Pascha nostrum     [3:34]
Communion Chant with trope
30 - Antiphona - Constanzo PORTA: Sancte Apollinari      [1:23]
Antiphon to St. Apollinaris



sources:

Ravenna Graduale, the beginning of 12th c., Padova, Bibl. Capitol. A 47 (2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 15-19, 27)
Ravenna-Forlimpopoli Graduale, 11th-12th c., Modena, Arch. Capitolare Ms. O.I.7. (3, 4, 8, 14, 20, 23, 25, 28, 29)
Constanzo Porta: Opera Omnia (ed. Siro Cisilino). Biblioteca Antoniana, Padova, 1970 (1, 5, 12, 21, 24, 26, 30)



SCHOLA HUNGARICA

Soloists:
Kocsis Csaba, Patay Péter, Soós András

Conducted by

DOBSZAY LÁSZLÓ
(1, 5, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30)
SZENDREY JANKA
(2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16, 18, 20, 25, 27)


Sung in Latin and Greek



SUNG TEXTS






IMAGEN



Ravenna, the City of Mosaics



The ensemble Schola Hungarica in the recent decades wished to systematically perambulate on its records the regions of the medieval Europe, and depict by a characteristic selection the repertory and variants of liturgical music, i.e. the Gregorian chant and its later monophonic or polyphonic additions as sung in the given area. So the liturgical music of the ancient cathedrals and monasteries of Esztergom, Prague, Salzburg, Aquitany, Chartres, Nonantola, Benevento, Milano, Salisbury, Upsala has been recorded. Now we offer a taste from the music of the old Ravenna inasmuch the limited duration time of one single disc makes it possible.

Ravenna sited on the Adriatic seashore was one of the most important cities of the late Roman Empire. It was a great military harbor, for a while, the Western capital of the Roman emperors, one point of those transmitting the Greek culture to the West. The ancient churches and mosaics of Ravenna belong to the most precious artistic values of the mankind. In the 4th to 6th centuries the city became a famous place also of ecclesiastical history. It was an archiepiscopal seat, a remarkable site of theological debate between Arians and Orthodox Christians, and is, at the same time, a depository of the old Italian liturgical traditions. Its chant repertory and also the melodic variants preserved many archaic imprints and a lot of ancient Italian chants (among them many tropes, i.e. introductions or insertions to the official liturgical pieces) remained here in use so late as the 12th and 13th centuries.

The program of this record selects pieces characteristic for Ravenna or just only for Ravenna, surveying three liturgical periods: the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany, the Holy Week and Easter. The items has been transcribed from 12th century codices and they sounds here first after the silence of several hundred years.

The cycles of monophonic chants are separated by the polyphonic works of Constanzo Porta († 1601). He was Willaert's disciple, then the music director of the Ravenna cathedral over a long time. His works adapt the style of the great contemporary composers in easier forms, more suitable to be performed even under average conditions. The pieces Nos. 1, 5 and 12 the Gregorian chant is sung in long notes, while the other parts ornate the cantus firmus with contrapoints of more cizelled rhythm. The text is delivered in more simple, homophonic chords in Nos. 2 and 30, as fitting for the function of those items. No. 26 is an imitative setting with the use of some Gregorian motives, while No. 24 with its vivid rhythm, block-like groups (recalling the effect of the double choir technique) stands nearer to the style of polyphonic cantios.

No. 2 is a famous Gloria for Christmas. The basic melody that combines recitation with short melismatic insertions, belongs to the Old Italian repertory; its tropes, and mostly the remarkable "Regnum tuum" toward the end of the piece are Ravenna variants or a variable musical "commentary" spread in wide region, but disappeared in early times.

No. 3 is the Ravenna melody of the Alleluia of the Midnight Mass, and the sequence joined to the Alleluia (No. 4) is an example of the Old Italian sequence styles, a piece of relatively short extension, with rapidly alternating lines.

The Introit of Epiphany is performed here along with its trope usual in Ravenna (No. 6), while the Kyrie (No. 7) with its short, repetative melodic lines and invocation-like tropes recalls again the Old Italian Style. The Sanctus No. 8 is connected in the codices to this feast, and similarly the Agnus No. 10, which is provided with tropes proper for the feast. The trope verse is connected to the following Agnus in an exceptional way by the introductory word "Ecce".

The Ambrosian (Milanese) liturgy prescribed two chants to the Communion rite, one to the fraction of bread (Confractorium) and another one for its distribution (Communio). The later genre is still in use everywhere in the Latin rite, and also the Confractorium might be used earlier times outside Milano, since some archaic manuscripts contain piece for this point, at least in the repertory of the great solemnities. The record presents two of these, one for Epiphany (No. 9) and another for Eastern (No. 28). We join to the Epiphany piece also Ravenna variant of the well known Communion chant of the feast.

The second section is a selection of the chants of the Holy Week, first of all, that of Good Friday. The introduction is a part of the Processional Hymn of Palm Sunday written by Theodulf bishops of Orleans. The verses continue on the same melody. A special feature of the Ravenna variants is beyond the proper melodic variant the return of the refrain on the end of each verse line instead of the each strophe that is the general custom.

The peak of the Good Friday ceremony is the Procession for Adoration of the Cross, a rite going back to the customs of the early Christians of Jerusalem. In the first centuries the liturgical language was Greek in a considerable part of Italian churches, and waves of Greek influences touched upon them also in later periods. The archaic features of the Holy Week included some pieces in Greek or Greek and Latin. Ravenna was among the cities that preserved such items, first of all, in the repertory of the Adoratio Crucis on Good Friday. The antiphon "Ecce lignum" (No. 14) for the elevation of the Holy Cross is a piece spread everywhere in the Latin Church, but its close turning over to Frigian tonality is proper to Ravenna. Also the antiphon No. 15 was preserved in the Latin church, but its Greek version along with the subsequent pieces (Nos. 16-18, 20) is a remarkable archaism. The "Improperia" (No. 19), i.e. Jesus' "Reproaches" was sung in most medieval churches at the beginning of the series, during the Cross has been brought in, but in Ravenna, like in many places in Italy, its place was among the chants of the Procession mentioned above. Some details of its melody are local variants. This section is closed by a short piece of Porta composed to the antiphon text of the Holy Saturday Office.

In the Eastern section again many specialities can be found. The Alleluia intoned on the Eastern Vigil service and broke the long silence of this chant during the Lent was completed in Italy by a fine sequence composed to the melody of the Alleluia: it was a rhetoric and hymnal piece with free invented text, without any metrical obligation. The offertory chant of Eastern High Mass (No. 25) was performed at Ravenna along with melismatic, virtuoso style verses until the 12-13th centuries and its main part was interrupted with tropes (explanatory insertions). As a peculiarity of the Eastern Mass the Greek versions of the Mass Ordinary ("Missa Grĉca") was preserved in some archaic regions of Europe, and regarded their use extremely fitting in the Mass of Neophites, i.e. that of Baptized in Eastern Vigil. Of this series of Greek Mass Ordinary we selected the Sanctus for the record (the piece that survives today in the simplified tune of the Mass XVIII of the Liber Usualis). It is continued again with two chants for Eastern Communion: the Confractorium (with its very impressive tune) and the Communion expanded by tropes.

As a commemoration of Ravenna's patron saint, Apollinaris, we closed the record with a short antiphon by Porta. Saint Apollinaris was the bishop of the city around the year 200. A late legend supposed that he lived in the 1st century and has been sent here as the disciple of St. Peter by the first Pope. He died as martyr in Ravenna and his sepulchre is, also in our days, in the basilica built in the one-time harbor (San Apollinare in Classe). When the main church of Arians within the city went over to the Orthodox community, it was dedicated also in the honour of Saint Apollinaris (San Apoillinare Nuovo). Both basilicas are ornated by a row of mosaics rightly admired by the whole world.

Dobszay László