laudenovella.com
ELNCD-0305
2004
Robert MORTON (~1440-1476)
1. Instrumental [0:57]
shawm, medieval fiddle, sackbut, percussion
2. It sera pour vous conbatu / L'homme armé [2:13]
chant, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Nicholas GRENON (—1456)
3. Je suis defait [1:27]
recorder, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Robert MORTON
4. Le souvenir de vous me tue [3:12]
chant, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Alexander AGRICOLA (~1446-1506)
5. Par ung jour de matinée [1:45]
shawm, medieval fiddle, sackbut,percussion
Matheus DE PERUSIO (—1418)
6. Pres de soloil [4:14]
chant, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Guillaume DUFAY (~1400-1474)
7. La dolce vista [2:51]
harp, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Johannes HAUCOURT (fl. 1390)
8. Je demande ma bien venue [2:00]
chant, harp
Guillaume DUFAY
9. Donnes l'assault a la fortresse [4:35]
chant, medieval fiddle, sackbut
[anon.]
10. Ben lo sa Dio [1:54]
15th c. | recorder, lira da braccio
11. Petit vriens [1:53]
15th c. | harp
12. Merce te chiamo [6:08]
t: LEONARDO GIUSTINIANI (1388-1446)
chant, lira da braccio
13. Romanesca [1:07]
ca. 1500 | lira da braccio
Diego ORTIZ (~1525-1570)
14. Recercada segunda [1:42]
harp, sackbut, lira da braccio, percussion
Gilles BINCHOIS (~1400-1460)
15. Mort en merchy [1:14]
shawm, sakbut, medieval fiddle, percussion
Guillaume DUFAY
16. Navré je suis [3:10]
chant, medieval fiddle, sackbut
17. Se la face ay pale [1:55]
recorder, medieval fiddle, sackbut
18. La belle se siet au pied de la tour [1:48]
chant, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Gilles BINCHOIS
19. Triste plaisir [1:51]
recorder, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Guillaume DUFAY
20. Vergene bella [4:16]
t: FRANCESCO PETRARCA (1304-1374)
chant, medieval fiddle, sackbut
Ensemble Laude Novella
Ute Goedecke, chant, harp, shawn, recorder
Stefan Wikström, sackbut
Johan Folker, percussion
Per Mattsson, medieval fiddle, lira da braccio
Recorded in Oppmanna Church, Skåne, Sweden, October 6-8 2004
Recording Engineer: Sven Jansson
Front illustration from Roman de Tristan, Vienna, Austrian National Library, ms. 2537
Photo: Per Mattsson, Efva Henrysson
Graphic design: Åsa Björck www.avig.se
Swedish interpretations of French texts, except track 2: Kjell Johansson
Swedish translations of Italian texts: Carin B. Edström
English translation: David Kettlewell
Thanks to Staffan Bråliden and Oppmanna Parish for use of the church
With
these words from his text-book on composing, Johannes Tinctoris,
teacher and "maestro di capella" at the court of Naples, described in
the year 1477 the arrival of the Renaissance in music. The beginning of
the 15th century had seen a musical revolution. It seems as if late
mediæval composers had found themselves at the end of road with their
mannerism and the new generation of composers sought simple means as a
contrast to the complex style which had reached an ever-increasingly
dominant position during the 14th century. The centre for this new music
was Burgundy, at this time a political Great Power, more specifically
the area which today lies in northern France and Belgium. It was here
than men like Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois were born and worked,
and Robert Morton, probably an Englishman, was a singer at the
Burgundian court. Dufay is also believed to have been strongly
influenced by the several years he spent in Italy. The Italian courts
competed with one another to appoint the best musicians, and there were
recruited in much the same way as professional footballers today.
The
music of these innovative composers feels surprisingly familiar to our
21st-century ears. The austerity which we may experience in mediæval
harmony is replaced by a new sweetness: the 'concords' of which
Tinctoris makes special mention are quite simply harmonies built on the
musical interval of the third, a harmonic language which we recognise
today. Perhaps indeed it is this which is the essential characteristic
of ‘Renaissance music’? It's not self-evident what we mean if we use the
expression "renaissance", 'rebirth', in connection with an art-form
like music: where is the 'rebirth' in Dufay's music for example, was he
really inspired by the ancient Greeks? We could say 'yes', in the sense
that he shows, i.a. in his motets, the relationship between music and
mathematics, just as it was seen in ancient Greece, and which was the
basis of all mediæval and renaissance thinking: the subject of music was
classified as one of the four branches of mathematics, alongside
arithmetic, geometry and astronomy.
The 15th century also saw the
use of instruments like the lyra da braccio, a development from the
mediæval fiddle, but which was seen by renaissance musicians as a
reconstruction of the lyra of antiquity with the addition of a bow.
But
what we today call 'renaissance music' has of course very little to do
with the music of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Instead it builds on
the tradition which was established during the preceding centuries,
during the Middle Ages, and partly as a reaction to it. The improvised
music of Italy, the ubiquitous Englishmen with their special 'English'
way of composing, combined with music from the strict franco-flemish
tradition, all this together formed something new during the 15th and
16th centuries, a wonderful combination of diverse elements: renaissance music./ pm