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
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