medieval.org
Vox Australis VST 005-2
1982
THE POET-MUSICIANS Marcabru and Martin Codax occupy
important places in the history of medieval secular song. Marcabru is
the earliest Provencal troubadour whose music survives, and Martin
Codax's songs are the oldest relics of Spanish secular music. More than
a thousand kilometres and perhaps a hundred years separate them, yet
their works are branches of the same tree. Each poet is an articulate
observer of his own world, a commentator on social values, and a deft
painter of human character and emotion.
John Griffiths
Martin CODAX. Cantigas de amigo
1. Ondas do mar de Vigo [4:29]
ca I
2. Mandad' ei comigo [3:58]
ca II
3. Miņa irmana fremosa iredes comigo [3:16]
ca III
4. Ay Deus, se sab' ora o meu amigo [3:31]
ca IV
5. <Quantas sabedes amar amigo [2:03]
ca V
6. Eno sagrado en Vigo [3:07]
ca VI
7. Ay ondas que eu vin ver [2:19]
ca VII
8. MARCABRU. L'autrier jost' una sebissa [5:09]
9. Istanpitta Gaetta [5:56]
10. MARCABRU. Bel m'es quant son li fruit madur [9:17]
11. Saltarello [3:47]
LA ROMANESCA
Hartley Newnham — countertenor, percussion
Ruth Wilkinson — vielle, recorder
Ros Bandt — recorder, flute, psaltery, percussion
John Griffiths — lute, guitarra morisca
www.move.com.au
Move MD 3044
2005
1. Istanpitta Gaetta [8:52]
MARCABRU
2. Lo vers comenssa [6:44]
3. Lo vers comens can vei del fau [5:15]
4. Saltarello [4:16]
MARCABRU
5. L'autrier jost' una sebissa [5:04]
6. Bel m'es quant son li fruit madur [9:15]
7. Istanpitta Palamento [7:40]
Martin CODAX. Cantigas de amigo
8. Ondas do mar de Vigo [4:29]
ca I
9. Mandad' ei comigo [3:58]
ca II
10. Miņa irmana fremosa iredes comigo [3:16]
ca III
11. Ay Deus, se sab' ora o meu amigo [3:31]
ca IV
12. <Quantas sabedes amar amigo [2:03]
ca V
13. Eno sagrado en Vigo [3:07]
ca VI
14. Ay ondas que eu vin ver [2:19]
ca VII
Recording:
· 15-18 February, 1982 –
Ormond College Chapel, University of Melbourne (#5, 6, 8-14)
· Move Records Studio, 2005 (#1-4, 7)
Engineer: Andrew Earle, Martin Wright, Vaughan McAlley
Copyright: © 1982 Move Records
Phonogram: Ⓟ 1982, 2005 Move Records
Martin Codax is known to us only by his seven Cantigas de
amigo. Composed in Gallician-Portuguese, the literary language of
medieval Spain, the songs are set in the town of Vigo on the north-west
coast, possibly Codax's home. They probably date from the first part of
the thirteenth century. Cantigas de amigo express women's love
and are a feature of Gallician-Portuguese repertory. They belong to the
family of European courtly love poetry, but are strongly influenced by
native Spanish popular verse. They use refrains and a system of paired
stanzas where the second line of each pair becomes the first line of
the next pair. This technique produces economical poetry, unified by a
subtle transmutation and development of ideas. Although nearly 1700
Spanish love lyrics are extant, the melodies of six of Codax's seven
songs are the sole survivors of the entire musical tradition. The Codax
manuscript was discovered in Madrid early this century used as a
flyleaf in an eighteenth-century binding of a fourteenth-century Cicero
manuscript.
The Cantigas de amigo of Codax are undoubtedly among the most
beautiful of the Gallician-Portuguese repertory. They are also typical
of it: they are cast in conventional forms and draw on conventional
vocabulary and imagery. Their persistent reference to the sea reflects
the maritime life of the region, and adds a dimension of unknowable
eternity. They deal with a woman's loneliness, her frustration by the
absence of her lover, and place her sensual love in a religious
setting. She waits at the church in Vigo overlooking the sea, asking
the unceasing waves if they bring news of her absent lover. Her tragedy
is left unsaid.
The songs make up a symetrically constructed cycle depicting the girl's
love from different angles. Songs 1, 4 and 7 lament her loneliness and
desperation. No. 2 is optimistic, while no. 6 is a bailada or
dance song. In songs 3 and 5 our lover engages others to help share her
anxiety. Within this context, the various performance options are
determined, including the choice of rhythmic or free treatment of the
melodies, instrumentation, and the style of the improvised
accompaniments. These are strongly intuitive realisations firmly guided
by historical research. The melody used for the sixth song is adapted
from one of the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X, 'the
Wise' (r. 1252-84). The practice of contrafactum, the
adaptation of an existing melody to a new text, has been shown to apply
to cantigas de amigo and other medieval Spanish song.
Marcabru was active between 1129 and 1150. Of the two
biographical vidas included in troubadour manuscripts, one
describes him as a Gascon, the son of a poor woman, the other calls him
a foundling. He was widely travelled, having enjoyed the patronage of
royalty and nobility throughout southern France and Spain. Four of his
melodies and more than forty poems survive written in Occitans, the
troubadour language.
The dream world of courtly love is not Marcabru's world. The writers of
the vidas point to his terse and merciless poetry, to its
moralistic tone. Above all, Marcabru is a critic of falseness,
particularly of false love. Uncompromising are his attacks on the false
lovers who debase the integrity of true love. Undisguised is his
criticism of the excesses of the nobility whom he served. Such is his
venom that one of his biographers comments that 'he scorns women and
love'. Marcabru is a realist, constantly measuring his idealism against
social reality. L'autrier jost' una sebissa makes mockery of
the events which typify the troubadour pastorela. Set in the
characteristic manner of a dialogue between a knight and shepherdess
meeting in a pastoral setting 'besides a hedge', Marcabru's shepherdess
turns the tables on the knight whose amorous advances would customarily
lead to a successful seduction. She is not an innocent, idyllic lover
but a strong, real character who 'with grim humour and stabbing
shrewdness demolishes her lover's Arcadian fantasy as a romantic
falsehood'. In the performance, the dialogue is accentuated by the
alternation of baritone and countertenor registers of voice. The melody
has been interpreted rhythmically according to the character of the
text, although the troubadour manuscripts give no indication of rhythm
in their notation. Vielle and psaltery improvise a heterophonic web
around the vocal line. Bel m'es quant son li fruit madur is
characteristic of Marcabru's moral love songs. His rapturous opening,
his sharp-tongued attack on false lovers, and his evocative imagery are
the hallmarks of its brilliance. The song is interpreted in a
rhythmically free, declamatory style. It is accompanied by a
long-necked lute identified in contemporary Spanish writings as a guitarra
morisca. The incisive tone of its wire strings is an apt
accompaniment to the biting poetry.
The two instrumental dances which complement Marcabru's songs are among
the relatively small number of surviving medieval instrumental pieces.
They are found in a fourteenth-century manuscript of Italian origin,
now in London (Brit. Mus. 29987), and are part of the most elaborately
composed collection of instrumental monophony known. Both are composed
in the manner of the estampie, as a number of sections with a
long repeated refrain. The Saltarello is performed in unison on
vielle, recorder and lute, while the Istanpitta Gaetta uses
percussion and lute to accompany the solo recorder.