In Natali Domini
Mediaeval Christmas Songs
In Natali Domini
Mediaeval Christmas Songs
Christmas Songs
No other feast day in the liturgical
year has inspired so much music and so many different works and
compositions than the "birthday of our Lord" (In natali domini). The
scope of these pieces is enormous: it ranges from highly functional
liturgical works in choral style (Introit - the introductory song of
the Christmas Mass) to deeply emotional pieces, with almost kitschy
textual and musical character. Our CD aims to present Christmas music
of only one particular age: the late Middle Ages to the early
Renaissance; the works chosen demonstrate no everyday quality,
illuminating the various forms Christmas songs have taken in the course
of their development from purely liturgical to subjective,
freely-composed compositions. Textually as well as musically, the works
make strong statements; like wood engravings, a few forceful strokes
serve to convey a deep meaning.
Since Advent, a period of expectation, was a time of fasting in the
early church, there was very little music really written for the Advent
season. So the quite valuable "Sei willekommen, Herre Christ"
from Erfurt will serve to begin our presentation of Christmas music.
Considered to be the oldest polyphonic Christmas song from Germany, it
is based on the form of the French motet, with a cantus firmus in the lowest voice and animated upper voices with flowing, elegant melodic lines.
Pieces in strict liturgical style can also overflow with joy, as proven by the Introit of the third Christmas Mass "Puer natus est nobis"
(#2) in the seventh church mode, called "the royal mode". When a new
text is integrated into such a piece, this is accomplished by troping
the piece. This treatment brings a subjective element into the
previously purely liturgical character and function of such a work.
This very popular method of composition, in which standard pieces were
enriched, expanded and re-made, led to the development of the extensive
forms common to the mediaeval sequence and the cantio, the real
mediaeval song. The ways composers accomplished this were often quite
varied and our examples demonstrate some of the basic techniques
employed in this treatment.
The famous Introit "Puer natus est nobis" was thus newly troped, both textually and musically. In the "Sanctus"
from Hungary (#6), very simple musical means are employed to this end:
through recurrent exchanging of voices before each "Hosanna", using
several verses of "Omnes unanimiter" and "Universi populi",
this piece was "troped" in the direction of Christmas. These were very
popular texts and were retained for a long time. Even after 1600, Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) wrote settings in cantional style still using such texts.
The "Benedicamus" trope "Procedentem sponsum" (#22) was
widely known in all of Europe; the six verses of this conductus
(processional piece) are each answered by a different cantio (song).
The way trope and cantio are here combined is remarkable, producing a
quite artful musical construction.
The most famous Marian hymn of the Middle Ages, "Ave maris stella" (#26), provides another example of this technique: tropes in the form of a refrain ("Novum gaudium")
inserted after the first line of verse, and with additional text after
the second line of verse, transform this hymn into a true Christmas
piece. Adding the refrain to produce a verse-refrain structure
distinguishes this piece from the Marian hymn, which in its original
form could be used per annum, that is, throughout the church year.
The most famous and most popular Christmas hymn of the Middle Ages
was the "Abecedar", in which each verse begins with the next letter of
the alphabet; our recording presents "A solis ortus cardine" (#9) by Caelius Sedulius
in the oldest polyphonic version known. The verses A to G of this
magnificent work constitute the best-known Christmas hymn and at the
same time the most purely liturgical composition heard on this CD.
Another attempt to trope liturgical music can be found in the "Kyrie - Rex Mariae" (#5), drawn from an Oxford manuscript. Between the invocations from the Mass text ("Kyrie-eleison"),
short acclamatory phrases in the festive character of Christmas are
sung, again transforming a section of the Mass into a piece for the
Christmas season.
Many of our Christmas songs have their origins in quite definite parts
of the liturgy. Each Mass and each hour of the Office (i.e., each
hourly prayer like the lauds and the vespers) is concluded with the
verse "Benedicamus domino",
a short section of these prayers. At exactly this juncture, composers
then inserted Latin and later German songs (cantiones) with a final
verse referring to the doxology and praising the Trinity; these verses
quote - either directly or indirectly - the verse "Benedicamus domino - Deo dicamus gratias".
The liturgical origin of these conductus pieces is clearly discernible;
the richness of their melodies also makes plain reference to church
tone models from Gregorian chant. The Numbers 4, 6, 8, 10, 16, 18, 21, 29
belong to this category of composition. Some of these songs are widely
known throughout Europe: in Italy as well as in England, in Poland as
well as in Spain - as part of a particular international repertoire. A
certain tendency to tax the works too strongly in the textual and
formal sense is also discernible, however - actually more
characteristic of works of a later age and especially in the area of
German folk music. The musical structure often follows the pattern of
verse and refrain, or in some cases, in the sequence: refrain-verse.
This is true of the pieces from the Italian lauda repertoire, which
always follow the pattern of refrain-verse, as in the case of "In natali domini" (#13), "Verbum caro factum est" (#28) and "Salve virgo regia"
(#18). The freely-composed Christmas songs form a different category of
music; those heard here are presented, for the most part, in the
earliest polyphonic versions known. The age of the manuscript in which
these works are notated does not always bear a direct connection to the
contrapuntal style in which the works are written. Some pieces are
found in sources dating from the late 15th and 16th centuries, while
their contrapuntal style points to an earlier age of musical
composition; these pieces are not to be regarded as products of the
same period as the manuscripts which contain them.
This perseverance of certain traditions can be observed
particularly well in peripheral areas and subsidiary sources. Most of
the songs are not found in clearly defined Christmas music collections,
but rather survive as chance entries in often curious manuscripts from
various provincial regions. Examples of this phenomenon can be found in
the late work "Dies est laetitiae" (#7) from Hungary, in "In dulci iubilo" (#24), a fragment from Constance, in "Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich" (#15) from the Trent Codices, and in the two magnificent cantios from Bohemia, "Solis praevia" (#30) and "Danielis prophetia" (#3).
The two versions of "Resonet in laudibus" presented on
this recording (#11 & 12) underline the great difference between
the simple strophic form of the song (St. Gall) and the fully
worked-out bicinium composition (Benediktbeuern). The two pieces "Iure plaudant omnia" (#25) from the Songbook of Anne of Cologne and the lyrical "Eia, felix virgula"
(#29) from the Glogauer Songbook provide yet another example of the
great contrast found in music of this period. Texts such as these
continued to be used by composers for a long time, albeit in works of
peripheral importance. This is shown, for example, in the setting of "Iure plaudant omnia" for six voices and basso continuo by Johann Stadlmayr (ca. 1575-1648), composed in Innsbruck in 1629. In the music collections of Michael Praetorius
- especially in his "Musae Sioniae" - we find a number of such texts,
either in Latin or in German translations, which indicates how
well-known and popular they were at the time.
"Omnis mundus iocundetur" (#20) was also a piece that was sure
to be included in such a collection, with its roguish and garrulous
upper voice, bubbling over with Christmas joy. Lively and artful as
well! The earliest version of this work comes from Bohemia. A German
version can be found in the setting for two languages (#19).
So the thirty songs celebrating the birthday feast of the Lord
bring together the most diverse forms of mediaeval vocal music. And
they all owe their being to a unique musical imaginativeness - both
melodic and rhythmic, serving even today, in the midst of bustling
Christmas activity, to draw our ears and our hearts back to matters of
substance.
The Performance
In terms of formal structure, all of
these songs demonstrate the most diverse types of liturgical singing.
When a melody is sung to several verses, this stanzaic organization
reminds us of liturgical hymns. In this form, the concluding verse of
each stanza can be the same, both textually and melodically (see #25);
in this way, a kind of built-in refrain emerges. Should this section be
treated independently of the verse, it then follows the familiar
principle of verse and refrain. This type of organization lends itself
quite logically to antiphonal performance, where one or more soloists
sing in alternation with a larger group (choir or congregation). This
technique is most clearly demonstrated in the tonal levels of "Puer natus est nobis",
where on one hand, the soloist sings on A and on the other hand, the
choir sings on G. In this way, the liturgical Introit is distinguished
from the freely-composed trope by means of clear tonal distinction.
Antiphonal and responsorial singing are liturgical, even ritualistic
methods of performance, found as well in early forms of polyphonic
music and in the cantio. The pieces "Procedentem sponsum" (#22) and "Kyrie - Rex Mariae" (#5) can be cited as examples of this type of composition.
The choice and employment of instruments also serves to underline this
formal structure. The instruments are very rarely called upon to assume
an independent role in these compositions - for example, in a few
pieces where instruments are used to substitute for voices in the
polyphonic texture (Nos. 1, 7, 15, 20, 29). Not only the trombone, but
also the crumhorn and the viol were the instruments of choice in this
case. Normally, however, the instruments doubled the vocal parts in the
familiar colla parte manner. They were meant to support the vocal lines
and to give them more color, thereby making the polyphonic texture more
transparent and in some cases lightening the tone by playing an octave
higher. In this way, the mediaeval technique of mixture common to organ
music was adopted in the texture of vocal music as well.
Bourdon instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes fulfilled
a different function. Especially in the case of monophonic melodies,
the sounding of a bourdon tone or a Bourdon fifth serves to produce a
polyphonic texture by the simplest and most elementary means
imaginable. Sometimes these instruments double the vocal lines and
sometimes they assume a harmonic function, like the marine trumpet in
#3.
A variety of percussion instruments ranging from tambourines to
bells serve to underline the modal rhythms of these songs. Without
overemphasizing percussive effects, these instruments are used to
establish the basic rhythm and to keep the pieces moving in a steady
common tempo. The diatonic dulcimer, used in effect like a psalter, can
fulfill three functions: as a percussion, Bourdon and melody instrument
in one.
In this way, all instruments serve to represent the manifold
resources drawn upon by mediaeval composers and to convey to us a bit
of the richness in tonal color found in the music of the Middle Ages.
Konrad Ruhland
(Translation: Deborah Hochgesang)