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Naxos Early Musik · Alte Musik S8.550880
1993
JOSQUIN (c. 1440-1521)
01 - Faulte d'argent [2:05]
02 - Mille regretz [1:55]
Clément JANEQUIN (c. 1485-1558)
03 - Le chant des oiseaux [3:15]
Pierre SANDRIN (fl. 1538-61)
04 - Je ne le croy [1:59]
Clément JANEQUIN
05 - Clément JANEQUIN. Or vien ça [2:19]
Nicolas GOMBERT (c. 1500-56)
06 - Aime qui vouldra [2:43]
07 - Quant je suis aupres [1:32]
Claudin de SERMISY (c. 1490-1562)
08 - Tant que vivrai [2:17]
09 - Venez, regrets [2:11]
10 - La, la maistre Pierre [0:59]
Jacques ARCADELT (c. 1505-68)
11 - En ce mois délicieux [2:43]
12 - Margot labourez les vignes [1:06]
13 - Du temps que j'estois amoureux [2:20]
14 - Sa grand beauté [2:52]
Jehan TABOUROT (1520-95)
15 - Belle qui tiens ma vie [2:03]
VASSAL
16 - Vray Dieu [1:03]
Jacob CLEMENS (c. 1515-c. 1556)
17 - Prière devant le repas [2:02]
18 - Action des Graces [2:22]
Pierre PASSEREAU (fl. 1509-47)
19 - Il est bel et bon [1:01]
Claude LE JEUNE (c. 1530-1600)
20 - Ce n'est que fiel [3:46]
Orlando de LASSUS (1532-94)
21 - Bon jour mon coeur [1:29]
22 - Si je suis brun [1:49]
23 - Beau le cristal [1:39]
24 - La nuit froide [2:38]
25 - Un jeune moine [2:18]
Anthoine de BERTRAND (fl. 1561-82)
26 - De nuit, le bien [3:11]
Guillaume COSTELEY (c. 1530-1606)
27 - Arrête un peu mon coeur [4:25]
The Scholars of London
Recorded at St. Silas The Martyr, St. Silas Place, Kentish Town, London
from 15th to 17th May, 1993
Producer / Engineer: Gary Cole
This recording comprises a representative selection from the thousands
of French polyphonic songs or Chansons which were composed
during the 16th century. This type of music, which had much in common
with the Italian Madrigal - its composers included - became
popular not just in France but all over Europe. The intention here is
to celebrate the sheer variety within the genre, ranging from bawdy #25
to bucolic #10 , from dance #15, #19 to devotion #17, #18 and from the
philosophical #23, #24 to the pleasure #16, #26 and pain #11, #27 of
requited or unrequited love.
Chansons had already been composed in the 15th century by earlier
Franco-Flemish composers such as Machaut [sic], Dufay, Busnois
and Ockeghem, to name perhaps the four most famous, but the courtly
manner of their music and its verse remained mediaeval in feeling. With
the advent of the Age of Humanism however, a musical transformation was
brought about through the influence of the leading composer of the
time, Josquin Desprez, and his innovative compositional techniques of
voice-leading and imitation. His Faute d'argent #1 is a robust
canon between alto and baritone, probably based on a scurrilous popular
song (see also #10 and #12). Quite different is Mille regretz
#2, a tantalizingly short but haunting love song, later expanded by
Gombert into a 6-voice version, on which Morales in turn composed a Parody
Mass. Such borrowing and reworking was a common feature of
composition at the time, and many famous Chansons provided material for
masses and dance music. Sermisy, Arcadelt and Lassus were amongst the
most frequently honoured in this way.
The music of continental Europe continued to be dominated by composers
from the region of Flanders (roughly speaking, modern-day Belgium)
until well into the second half of the 16th century. These men pursued
international careers - Gombert in Madrid, Arcadelt in Rome, and Lassus
in Munich (the only notable exception was Clemens) - and whilst it
would be true to say that no composer of the time escaped their
influence, that is in no way to belittle the achievement or originality
of others such as Clément Jannequin, a native of Bordeaux, and
composer of probably the most famous Chanson of all, #3 Le Chant
des oiseaux: the great Gombert himself made a three voice version
of it, perhaps for the enjoyment of his colleagues and
fellow-countrymen in the Emperor Charles V's famous Capilla Flamenca
(Flemish Choir).
A markedly different approach becomes noticeable in some Chansons by
the Parisian court composers Sermisy and Sandrin. There, a new
aesthetic agenda, partly set by progressive poets such as Marot #8 and
Ronsard #21, demanded greater emphasis on the Gallic virtues of charm,
simplicity and textual clarity as against the relative obscurity of
abstract polyphony. The maturation of this style can be heard in the
songs by Le Jeune #20 and Bertrand #26, but the Chanson did also
continue to develop to a certain extent in a more Madrigalian direction
#27.
The printer Attaignant, followed by Le Roy & Ballard in Paris and
Susato in Antwerp, successfully published hundreds of Chansons in the
course of the 16th century, causing them to be widely disseminated, and
incidentally assuring their preservation down to the present day.
Robin Doveton