medieval.org
Dorian Recordings DOR-93214
2000
PILGRIMS AND CRUSADERS I
1. Como poden per sas culpas [1:59]
CSM 166
BG, KH, TM, AMel
2. Seigneurs, sachiez [4:53]
Thibaut de CHAMPAGNE (1201-1253)
BG, KH, TM, AMel, mezzo-soprano soloist LP
3. Ben pode Santa Maria [6:11]
CSM 189
BG, LP DF PJ JP soprano soloist KH
4. Chevalier, mult estes guariz [3:53]
tutti; tenor soloists DF PJ
5. Quen quer que na Virgen fia [5:59]
CSM 167
tutti; mezzo-soprano soloist LP
WANDERING SCHOLARS. THE CARMINA BURANA
anonymous, 13th century
6. Clauso chronos [2:30]
CB 73
DF, BG, KH, TM, AMel
7. Virent prata [3:09]
CB 151
tenor soloist DF, BG, KH, TM, AMel
8. Bonum est confidere [4:31]
CB 27
DF KH PJ JP, mezzo-soprano soloist LP
9. Bache bene venies [2:59]
CB 200
tutti
THE LAST OF THE MINNESÄNGER
10. Es fuegt sich [7:04]
Oswald von WOLKENSTEIN (c. 1377-1445)
tenor soloist DF, AMac
PILGRIMS AND CRUSADERS II
11. Jerusalem se plaint [4:33]
Huon de SAINT-QUENTIN (fl. 1210-1230)
mezzo-soprano soloist LP
12 . Nu alerst [4:54]
Walther von VOGELWEIDE (c. 1170-c. 1230)
BG, KH, bass soloist JP
13. Dame einsi est [5:09]
Thibaut de CHAMPAGNE
BG, soprano soloist KH, AMel
14. Li departirs [4:12]
Chardon de CROISILLES (fl. 1220-1245)
tenor soloist PJ
15. Los set gotxs recomptarem [3:44]
anonymous, 14th c., Llibre Vermell ·
LV 5
tutti; mezzo-soprano soloist LP, tenor soloists PJ, bass soloist JP
THE TORONTO CONSORT
David Fallis
David Fallis — tenor, percussion
Paul Jenkins — tenor
Terry McKenna — lute, bouzouki
Alison Melville — medieval recorder
John Pepper — bass
Laura Pudwell, mezzo-soprano
with
Ben Grossman — percussion, organistrum, ud
Katherine Hill — soprano, vielle, rebec
Alison Mackay — vielle (# 10)
Recorded at Humbercrest United Church, Toronto. Ontario, February 17-19, 2000.
Producer: David Falls
Associate Producer: David Klausner
Engineer & Editor: Ed Marshall
Program Notes: David Falls
Translations from Latin: John Pepper; all others: David Falls
Booklet Preparation & Editing Katherine A. Dory
Graphic Design: Kimberly Smith Co.
℗ 2000 The Toronto Consort © 2000 DORIAN RECORDINGS® A division of The Dorian Group, Ltd.
COVER: THE SAINT URSULA SHRINE (DETAIL) BY HANS MEMLING (1433-1494),
MEMLING MUSEUM, BRUGES, SINT-JANSHOSPITAL BELGIUM.
COURTESY OF ERICH LESSING/ART RESOURCE, NY.
HERE BEGYNNETH THE BOOK OF THE TALES OF CAUNTERBURY
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
When Zephirus eek with his sweete heeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heetb
The tendre croppes and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.
When
Geoffrey Chaucer used the conceit of a pilgrimage to act as the framing
device for his remarkable collection of stories known as "The
Canterbury Tales," he settled on one of the few situations in medieval
society in which people from all walks of life — knight, monk, squire,
ploughman, doctor, miller, prioress — might plausibly encounter each
other long enough to tell a story. "Folk" of all kinds did go on
pilgrimages. from serfs to princes, and the variety of "the Canterbury
Tales" is not mere artifice.
Pilgrimages were undertaken for many
reasons — as penance, to fulfil a promise made during illness or
danger, to pray for healing, to see the world, to escape prison, or, as
Chaucer suggests, as a cure for spring fever. But they always depended
on the medieval desire to experience directly the sacred elements of
life. Pilgrimage sites were located where miracles had occurred, or
where sacred relics had been brought or discovered. Healthy competition
among the sites ensured that a miraculous recovery or vision occurring
at one particular location was made known as widely as possible in order
to attract more pilgrims. Local merchants and the religious
institutions themselves knew the value of this traffic.
The most
sacred sites of all were of course in the Holy Land where the greatest
miracles had occurred. The Middle East, however, was geographically too
remote from most of Christian Europe to attract large numbers of
pilgrims, but the idea of its sanctity played an important part in the
motivations for the Crusades, that series of mostly futile attempts to
recover sites in the Middle East, lasting from the late-11th century
until the middle of the 13th. In one of the most personal accounts which
comes down to us of a crusade, Jean de Joinville writes of his
embarkation in 1244, making clear the religious basis of the crusade as
pilgrimage.
At Easter, I sent for my own men and those who held
of me to come to Joinville. All that week we were feasting and dancing;
my brother, the Lord of Vaucouleurs and the other great men who were
there each gave a dinner in turn. On the Friday I said to them, "My
lords, I am going overseas, and I do not know whether I shall return.
Come forward then, and if I have wronged you in any way. I will put it
right, as has been my custom, for all of you who have any claim on me or
on my people."
After this, the Count of Sarrebrück and I agreed
to send on our equipment in carts to Auxonne, there to be put on the
river and sent to Arles. It was in the company of the Count that I, John
of Joinville, crossed the seas in a ship which we, being cousins, hired
together. We were twenty knights; he led one ten and I the other.
The
day I left Joinville I sent for the Abbot of Cheminon, who gave me my
scrip and pilgrim's staff; and then I left .Joinville, barefooted and in
my shirt, never to enter the castle again until my return; and thus I
went to Blécourt and Saint Urbain and to visit other relics of the
saints in the neighbourhood. On my road I would not look back towards
Joinville for fear lest my heart should weaken at the thought of the
lovely castle I was leaving, and of my two children.1
Crusade songs, or chansons de croisade,
fall into two main types: those which are exhortations to take up the
cross, often reminding the listener of the day of judgement and of the
sanctity of the Holy Land (Seigneurs sachiez; Chevalier, mult estes guariz); and those which dwell on the pain of leaving loved ones, particularly lady love (Dame einsi est; Li departirs). These last employ imagery typical of the courtly love lyric and can be considered a variation on the chanson courtoise, the favourite genre of the poet-composers known as trouveres. Jerusalem se plaint
was written in response to a specific event: the retreat from Egypt in
1221 when a number of European prisoners remained in Muslim hands. The
"Palästinalied" by the German poet-composer Walther von der Vogelweide
makes clear how important first hand experience of sacred sites was to
the medieval mind, although some scholars have questioned whether in
fact Walther ever visited the Holy Land.
After the Holy Land, the
most frequented destinations were Rome and Santiago de Compostela in
northwestern Spain. Santiago, which was said to contain the bodily
remains of St. James, was a popular destination for northern European
pilgrims, in part because the Pyrenees were less forbidding than the
Alps. En route to Santiago many secondary shrines could be visited
including the abbey in Montserrat near Barcelona, where the Libre
Vermell was written in the 14th century. This "red book," so called
because of the crimson binding it was given in the 19th century,
contains theological treatises, a collection of accounts of the miracles
attributed to the intercession of the Black Virgin of Montserrat, and a
series of ten musical pieces intended for the pilgrims who wished to
"sing and dance" during the time they spent within the abbey walls. Most
of the songs are in Latin, but one of them — Los set gotxs — is in the local vernacular Catalan, being a telling of the seven joys of Mary, to be danced "a bal redon" (probably a kind of round dance).
Salas was another minor Spanish pilgrimage site, referred to in both Ben pode Santa Maria and Quen quer que na Virgen fia.
These songs are from the huge collection known as the "Cantigas de
Santa Maria," assembled by King Alfonso X of Castile and Leon in the
13th century and preserved in beautifully illustrated manuscripts which
depict, in "comic strip" format, the stories of the miracles described
in the lyrics. One of the manuscripts also contains miniatures of
musicians playing many of the instruments used on this recording
including vielle, lute, rebec, organistrum (hurdy-gurdy), percussion,
recorder and ud (Arabic lute).
The route to Santiago was well
enough travelled to occasion a popular "pilgrim's guide," the earliest
copy of which is found in the cathedral archival library in Santiago in a
manuscript known as the Codex Calixtinus. The codex is a
five-part compilation containing liturgies, accounts of miracles, a
description of how the body of St. James was "translated" to Compostela,
as well as the "Pilgrim's Guide." The guide describes towns and shrines
which could be visited en route to Santiago, and includes such
practical information as warnings about unsafe water and extortionist
ferrymen, and recommendations of friendly towns and where good wine is
to be had. The last chapter is entitled "How Pilgrims of Saint James are
to be Received."
Pilgrims, whether rich or poor, returning from
the abode of St. James or going there, ought to be charitably received
and honoured by all peoples. For whoever will receive them and attend
diligently to their lodging will have not only the blessed James, but
also the true Lord Himself as guest. The Lord Himself said in His
Gospel: 'He that receives you receives me'.2
Then
follow cautionary tales of divine punishment visited on people or towns
who were inhospitable to pilgrims, including one French village in which
a thousand houses were burnt because two pilgrims had been refused
accommodation. Clearly the attraction of pilgrimages, by which certain
towns and churches profited so much, depended on the safety and
hospitality of the towns en route.
Some of the inattention paid
to the biblical enjoiner came as a result of the abuse of hospitality on
the part of certain pilgrims. This was a charge particularly laid
against the goliards — wandering cleric-scholars who led a peripatetic
lifestyle in Europe from the late-10th century to the mid-13th. An
anonymous commentator on the rule of St. Benedict gives a particularly
colourful account.
These vagabonds count on the hospitality which
the Apostle enjoined, and the pleasure of unexpected arrival, so that
all kinds of exquisite relishes will be brought out, and many chickens
give up the ghost under the knife. Their feet are weary with the
hardness of the way, and they would like them bathed; but they would
rather have their innards drenched with infinite refilling of the cup
than by fomentation of the feet. and when the table has been cleared by
their starving host, and the crumbs swept up, they shamelessly insist on
their mighty thirst, and if by chance there is no goblet handy, they'll
mix it up in the same plate, and when they are stuffed and sodden to
the pitch of vomiting, they say it is all their hard life. And before
they go to bed, more exhausted after their labours at table than by
their journey, they tell all the toils of the way, and beguile still
more dainties and still more cups from their host; as for the reason of
their wandering, a pilgrimage we'll say? or perhaps captivity. Soon they
enquire as to the whereabouts of any neighbouring monk or monastery.
And there they'll go, as men wearied, men to whom the whole world is
closed, who can find nowhere a place of rest and refreshing for the
soul, nowhere a complete observance of discipline: do they not do well
to wander? Pilgrims for their bellies' sake rather than their souls! 3
The Carmina Burana
is a large 13th-century collection of Latin secular verse containing
poems by goliards, a few of which have music. The notation is in
unheightened neumes which by the 13th century were archaic, rendering
the music virtually untranscribable. Thankfully there are other
decipherable sources for some of the melodies, and many of the tunes can
he reconstructed. The poetic themes of the selections on this recording
are typical of the carmina burana: songs of spring and love (Virent prata), drinking songs (Bache bene) and moralizing songs (Bonum est confidere). Clauso chronos is played as a dance.
Oswald
von Wolkenstein was one of the last knightly poet-musicians of the
German-speaking world. Many of his lieder relate events from his life. Es fuegt sich
is a long autobiographical song which tells of his many adventures, his
travels and his loves. Three verses of the song are here recorded,
focusing on his travels which stretched front Lithuania to Italy, Iberia
to the Black Sea.
* * * * *
A number of regularly available modem editions have been used in this recording. The cantigas are taken from H. Anglés La Musica de las Cantigas de Santa María del Rey Alfonso el Sabio. Los set gotxs is transcribed by Anglés in Anuario Musical, 1955, pag. 74. The goliard songs are found in Carmina Burana by René Clemencic and Ulrich
Müller. Es fuegt sich is found in Oswald von Wolkenstein. Lieder aus dent Mittelalter
edited by Johannes Heimrath and Michael Korth. The crusade songs are
given new transcriptions by David Fallis based on the diplomatic
facsimiles found in Joseph Bédier, Les chansons de croisade. The music is originally monophonic: all added parts are by the Toronto Consort.
1 The life of St. Louis, John of Joinville, trans. René Hague, Sheed and Ward, New York. 1955. pg. 52, 54.
2 The Pilgrim's Guide lo Santiago de Compostela: A Gazeteer. Annie Shaver-Cranclell and Paula Gerson. Harvey Miller Publishers, London, 1995, pg. 95.
3 The Wandering Scholars, Helen Waddell. Constable, London, 1958. pg. 179, 180.
The TORONTO CONSORT
* * * * * *
The
Toronto Consort is Canada's leading ensemble specializing in the music
of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Formed in 1972, the Consort has
performed throughout Canada. the United States, Great Britain and
Europe. It has frequently collaborated with other early music
specialists, including Paul K'Dette, Julianne Baird, Colin Tilney, Paul
Agnew, The King's Noyse and Les Sonneurs de Montréal. A number of
twentieth-century works have been written specially for the ensemble,
which has led to guest appearances with the Toronto Symphony, the
Montréal Symphony and the North German Radio Orchestra.
Each year
the Toronto Consort offers a subscription series in Toronto. These
concerts are constantly exploring new repertoires and innovative ways to
bring early music to the modern audience. The Consort often works in
collaboration with other artists, such as actors, dancers and visual
artists, to produce concerts which have dramatic as well as musical
appeal. Recent projects have included: a fully-staged production of a
new transcription of The Play of Daniel; A Celtic Christmas with Puirt à Baroque; Mlonteverdi's Orfeo and L'incoronazione di Poppea
in concert; an evening of Renaissance dance with the Ken Pierce Dance
Company; a concert devoted to women's music of the Middle Ages andl
Renaissance, combined with readings and visual images; a telling of the
story of Tristan and Isolde in words and music.
The Toronto
Consort has also performed music for film scores: most recently they can
he heard in the theme music for Atom Egoyan's Academy Award-nominated The Swift Hereafter.
David Fallis
( Artistic Director. tenor, percussion) has been a member of the
Toronto Consort since 1979 and its Artistic Director since 1990. He is
also the Music Director for Opera Atelier for which company he has
conducted Mozart's Don Giovanni, Monteverdi's Orfeo, Handel's Acis and Galatea and La Resurrezione, Rameau's Pygmalion, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Charpentier's Actéon and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice
among others. He has conducted for Houston Grand Opera, Woltrap Opera
Company and Cleveland Opera; in Toronto where he lives with his wife
Alison Mackay and their children, he directs the Toronto Chamber Choir
which he has led in performances of Monnteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Purcell's The Fairy Queen, Handel's Semele and Praetorius' Christmas Vespers among others.
Paul Jenkins (tenor) a native of Wales, cultivates an eclectic
repertoire of vocal and keyboard music. He has performed with
Tafelmusik. Opera Atelier, the Esprit Orchestra, the New York State
Early Music Ensemble, and the Canadian Chamber Ensemble. He appears in
Toronto regularly with the Aradia Baroque Ensemble and the Toronto
Chamber Choir, and is kept busy both as a recitalist on organ and
harpsichord, and as an accompanist.
Terry McKenna (lute,
bouzouki) performs, arranges and composes music in a variety of milieux.
Work of recent interest has occurred with the Toronto Consort, Puirt à
Baroque, Muse of the North, Bisma Bosma and Foolscap's production of The Idylls of the Queen
(original score). He has performed and recorded with the Stratford
Shakespearian Festival Orchestra, Musick Fyne and Tafelmusik. He teaches
the plucked strings program at Wilfred Laurier University. Terry calls
Stratford home but his heart is on his native prairie, you know, when
the sun is setting and the road suddenly comes on the Qu'appelle
Valley...
Toronto-horn Alison Melville (recorder) has
pertformed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician with many
ensembles across Canada, the USA, Japan, Iceland and in Europe. Besides
her activities as a member of the Toronto Consort, she appears
frequently with Tafelmusik and has performed as a soloist with the
Toronto Symphony and Orchestra London Canada. She has recorded
extensively: with Tafelmusik on their recording of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos,
for ebs, Narada, Sony Vivarte, ibs and SRI. She studied at the Schola
Cantorum Basiliensis, is much sought after as an instructor at workshops
across North America, and is currently on the faculty of the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music.
John Pepper (bass), a native of
Annapolis Maryland, sang for many years with the Festival Singers of
Canada, the Tapestry Singers and The Gents, and now works regularly with
the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Elora Festival Singers, Opera Atelier and
the Toronto Chamber Choir. His work on the concert stage and in musical
theatre has taken him from Victoria to Tokyo, from Whitehorse to San
Juan.
Laura Pudwell (mezzo-soprano) has been a member of
the Toronto Consort since 1986. She has performed oratorio and opera
with Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, the Boston Early Music Festival, Les
Violons du Roy, and most major Canadian orchestras. She has appeared
with such conductors as Andrew Parrott, Ton Koopman. Hervé Niquet and
Marc Minkowski, and she is a frequent guest of the Lamèque Baroque
Festival and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. She is equally at home in
the worlds of new music and music theatre where her performance credits
range from Harty Somers' opera Serenette to programs of music by Stephen
Sondheim and Cole Porter.
Ben Grossman
is a well known performer of experimental, folk, early. and traditional
music in Toronto. His work can be found on over 40 CDs of various
genres, as well as in music for theatre, videos, and installations. With
the help of a Canada Council grant, Ben studied ud and Turkish
classical music in Istanbul in 1997. He is currently engaged in a Canada
Council and Ontario Arts Council assisted composition project which
brings together his acoustic and electronic performance work. He is
delighted to be playing on this, his secondCD with the Consort.
A native of Toronto, soprano and vielle player Katherine Hill
is a perfomer of diverse experience. She appears regularly with the
Canadian ensembles sine nomine, Duo Seraphim and the Arada Baroque
Ensemble, with whom she has recorded a CD for the Naxos label. She has
also collaborated with The King's Noyse and Harmonia Hermetica Boston.
In addition to her work ill early music, Katherine has performed with
the Arabic music group Doula. as a singer and a rebec player, and has a
ongoing collaboration with the Canadian alternative rock band Rhume,
with whom she plays electric rebec and vielle. She was a featured
vocalist in both the 1999 and 2000 Bumingman Festival in Nevada.
Alison Mackay
is a well-known figure in Toronto's early-music scene. She received a
M.A. in musicology from the University of Toronto where she taught for
many years. She played medieval and Renaissance stringed instruments as a
long-time member of the Toronto Consort, touring and teaching at
workshops across North America and Europe. She now specializes in
Baroque music and appears on more than 50 recordings as bass player with
the Tafelmusik Orchestra.