medieval.org
Harmonia Mundi USA 90 7082
1991
Der UNVERZAGTE
1. Der kuninc Rudolp [2:46]
citole, 2 vielles
NEIDHART
2. Sinc an, guldîn huon! [6:14]
voice, rebec, citole
3. Urloup hab' der winder [2:06]
(Pseudo-NEIDHART) instrumental composition based on it
citole, lute
4. Owe dirre nôt! [4:02]
voice, vielle MS
TANNHÄUSER
5. Ich lobe ein wip [3:35]
rebec, vielle MS, citole
Oswald von WOLKENSTEIN
6. Wol auff, gesell [2:52]
citole, 2 vielles
7. Durch Barbarei, Arabia [4:57]
voice, citole, rebec, vielle MS
8. Freu dich, du weltlich creatur [1:23]
rebec, citole, lute
9. Es seusst dort her von orient [12:27]
voice, vielle DD
10. Jocundare plebs fidelis [5:39]
Codex Las Huelgas | 2 vielles
Cantigas de amigo
Martin CÓDAX
voice, vielle DD, lute, citole
11. I. Ondas do mare de Vigo [3:29]
12. II. Mandad'ei comigo [3:41]
13. III. Mia irmana fremosa [1:42]
14. IV. Ai Deus, se sab'ora meu amigo [3:06]
15. V. Quantas sabedes amare amigo [1:25]
16. VI. Eno sagrado en Vigo [1:51]
17. VII. Ai ondas que eu vin veere [2:34]
The Newberry Consort
Mary Springfels
Drew Minter, countertenor
David Douglass, rebec, vielle
Mary Springfels, lute, vielle
Recording: November
18-20, 1991, Skywalker Sound, Nicasio, California
Methuen, Massachusetts
Executive Producer: Robina G. Young
Sessions Producer: Steve Barnett
Recording Engineer: Brad Michel
Editing: Paul F. Witt
WANDERERS' VOICES
Medieval German love lyric, Minnesang, would never have taken
the form it did were it not for wanderers. In the second half of the
12th century the imperial court under Frederick Barbarossa moved
frequently throughout the territories under his rule, both in Germany
and in Italy. Poets moved too, and it is known that French poets were
present at an important festival organized by Barbarossa in 1184. The
wandering of the court and the wandering of the poets introduced French
and Provençal lyric to members of the imperial court and
inspired them to compose German songs on romance models. These songs,
quite different from previous German lyric, provided in turn the models
for "classical" Minnesang, the remarkable flourishing of German
love lyric in the decades around 1200. Minnesang was written,
usually by aristocratic poets, to be sung before courtly audiences. For
the most part the songs combine a limited number of motives in artful
and often rather abstract commentary on the relationship between the
knightly singer/poet, the noble woman whom he loves, usually in vain,
and the courtly audience to which he addresses his song.
This highly stylized, aristocratic art is the point of reference for
Neidhart, a professional singer and therefore, inevitably, a wanderer.
Neidhart probably began his career in Bavaria, may have gone on a
crusade in 1217, and was active sometime between 1230 and 1246 at the
court of the duke of Austria. Such a court would have had the
sophistication to appreciate what is at stake when Neidhart takes the
conventions of classical Minnesang and transposes them to a
peasant setting. Neidhart still praises his beloved in traditional
terms, but now he is poor and she is a peasant girl. He employs the
traditional vocabulary, but overwhelms it with concrete references to
peasant clothing, dances, and proper names. He still has rivals, but
they are peasant boys, who usually get the better of him. He offers his
beloved his (probably fictitious) home at Reuental — "Valley of
Sorrow." Neidhart, the first Minnesänger whose melodies survive in
any number, was immensely popular and was often imitated in the later
Middle Ages.
While Neidhart's travels seem to have been restricted to southern
Germany and Austria, two centuries later Oswald von Wolkenstein (ca.
1376-1445), a nobleman from South Tirol, travelled throughout Europe
and beyond. He refers to these travels — perhaps with some
exaggeration — at the beginning of "Durch Barbarei, Arabia",
contrasting his previous mobility to the unwelcome isolation in which
he finds himself back home. Whereas Neidhart creates a concrete but
fictional world of peasants, Oswald incorporates specific details from
his own life into his songs: his travels, his successes at court, his
estrangement from his lord. These are combined with a late medieval
genre, a lament on the difficulties of life at home. "Es seusst
dort her von orient" draws on another tradition, that of the Tagelied
or dawn song, which portrays lovers parting at daybreak. Oswald sets
the traditional parting dialogue of the lovers in a world-wide
meteorological context, then concludes each strophe with a highly
condensed, explicitly erotic refrain.
JAMES A. SCHULTZ
Women's songs were composed in abundance throughout Europe in the
Middle Ages. In France, they were called chansons de toile; in
Germany, Frauenlied; in Galicia, cantigas de amigo.
Each national type evolved its own sets of conventions of character,
dramatic situations, and poetic form. We may never know to what extent
any of these large repertoires of lyric verse accurately represented
the voices of real women. In fact, much of this poetry was written for
courtly consumption by men, who presumably performed their own works.
The songs might be better understood as impersonations rather than
authentic depictions of the female point of view.
The Gallego-Portuguese cantigas de amigo constitute the largest and
most attractive genre of medieval women's songs. They owe much of their
form and content to ancient traditional Iberian women's popular poetry.
By the 12th century, the cantigas de amigo, along with their
male-voiced counterparts, the cantigas de amor, were completely
a product of the high court culture. Their seeming artlessness was very
carefully cultivated.
Over five hundred cantigas de amigo survive today, but only
six, written by the mid-13th-century poet Martin Codax, still possess
their music. A single, damaged sheet containing seven poems and six
melodies was discovered in 1914 in the binding of a later volume. This
somewhat enigmatic treasure is now in the collection of the Morgan
Library in New York. Even though two of the poems in the Morgan
manuscript seem to have been added at a slightly later date, for a
variety of stylistic reasons, Codax' cantigas are still
generally thought to be a cycle, the earliest song cycle known to
Western music.
Given the restricted number of words in the cycle, Codax was able to
convey an impressive amount of narrative information. True to the
traditions of the cantiga form, the singer is alone. Her absent
lover is away on a sea voyage, but she has received word that he will
soon return. She is overjoyed but anxious. She rejoices that he is safe
and boasts that he is a favorite of the king. She calls out to her
mother, who seems to be an ally, and invites her sister to share her
seaside watch with her. She has chosen the holy shrine at Vigo as her
trysting place. She feels profoundly alone, free even of chaperones or
spies. She sings of a time when her lover will swim in the sea with
her. She dances for her absent lover in the shrine, describing herself
as a woman who has known no man, except her friend. She concludes her
solitary vigil with a final invocation to the waves.
Much of the effect of this elegant series of little strophic songs is
in its build-up of sensuous and dramatic detail, word by word. The Cantigas
de amigo of Martin Codax are in many ways a quintessential medieval
artifact. Every element is derivative of some ancient model (which
might even include The Song of Songs): poetic originality as we
appreciate the concept had very little meaning for the medieval artist
or his audience. Nevertheless, this compilation of well-known motifs
manages always to be fresh, immediate, and moving, an exquisite
expression of longing.
MARY SPRINGFELS
