Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099408820
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: English Madrigals and Songs
Description
English Madrigals and Songs The songs in this collection span a period of over four hundred years, yet they show a fundamental unity of style which illustrates how static a genre based in a tradition of apparently untrained music-making necessarily remained. Tudor court composers conjure up an Arcadian world of innocence, while later works often derive from indigenous folk-songs. Either way, the secular song packages and sanitises a dangerous world of rustic abandon for an audience more restrictively cultured. The musical styles of these songs and madrigals have several main features, most important of which is the intensity and intimacy of the choral writing. Only a small group of singers, as on this recording, can truly exploit the densely packed wit of pieces where every musical gesture has real textual purpose. The texts of these works were not only chosen for their shameless idealism but are also set to music in a most self-consciously literalistic style. Consider Weelkes's As Vesta was: even before the homophonic opening reaches the main point of the sentence (that Vesta is descending Latmos hill) the alto line is already tumbling down scales and establishing the polyphonic mayhem which will allow this motif to be reversed as the maiden queen is later seen ascending the hill. And as Diana's darlings rush down to meet the queen they come 'first two by two' (two voices) 'then three by three' (three voices) 'together' (all voices). The goddess is left at the top 'all alone' (solo soprano). In the closing section, Long live fair Oriana (the motif begun by the lower tenor) is tossed between each part as if to illustrate the activity of the nymphs and shepherds as they hail the monarch, while the bass line magisterially mimics the tune at a greatly reduced speed. The other piece by Weelkes in this collection, Thule, the period of cosmography, uses the same technique: for example, the meaning of the classical epithet for Mount Etna (Trinacrian, or three-sided) is illustrated by a tiny side-step into triple time. This is textual awareness coupled with an intellectualism which belies the facade of innocence inherent in the genre. John Farmer's Fair Phyllis shows a different aspect of this technique. The poem of pastoral love is revealed for its true implications by the deliberately raunchy musical setting. Similarly, Cornysh sets Blow thy horn, hunter to leave us in little doubt as to the hunter's actual prey. The anonymous Hey trolly lolly lo is a work less of innuendo than of explicit, if unconsummated, sexuality, and its use of a refrain between each verse puts it alongside Cornysh's example as a drinking song inviting maximum participation. The traditional Brigg Fair sees this forward presentation in more contemplative mood. The soloist narrates his trip to the fair while the other singers support the poignant tune along its journey of inconsequence: an 'unconstant lover' may indeed cause the anguish stressed in the music, but these lovers have
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
