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CD reviews
"The Feast of the Swan - A Renaissance brotherhood at table"
Cappella Pratensis (Stratton Bull); Sollazzo Ensemble (Anna Danilevskaia)
rec: March 6 - 9, 2023, Heusden (NL), Catharijnekerk
Challenge Classics - CC72880 
(© 2024) (59'05")
Liner-notes: E; lyrics - translations: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
[in order of appearance]
Antoine BRUMEL (c1460-c1512):
Sicut lilium inter spinas;
plainchant:
Ave Maria;
plainchant/Tim BRAITHWAITE:
Ave Maria;
Jacobus CLEMENS NON PAPA (c1510-c1555) (attr):
Ave Maria;
Loÿset COMPÈRE (c1440/45-1518):
Le grant désir d'aymer m'y tient;
Benedictus APPENZELLER (c1480-1558):
Missa Benedicti/Ich had een boelken uutvercoren) (Kyrie; Gloria);
Tielman SUSATOJheronimus VINDERS (fl 1510-1550):
Missa Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen (Sanctus);
Loÿset COMPÈRE:
Dictes moy toutes voz pensées;
Matthaeus PIPELARE (c1450-c1515) or Pierre de LA RUE (c1452-1518):
Een vroulic wesen;
Benedictus APPENZELLER:
Missa Benedicti/Ich had een boelken uutvercoren) (Agnus Dei);
anon, arr Marc BUSNEL:
Ick had een boelken uutvercoren[/Oeverloos]
Sources:
[1] Tielman Susato, Het ierste musyck boexken mit vier partyen, 1551
[CP] Tim Braithwaite, Andrew Hallock, superius;
Lior Leibovici, Korneel Van Neste, altus;
Jonatan Alvarado, Peter De Laurentiis, tenor;
Marc Busnel, Grantley McDonald, bassus
[SE] Mara Winter, renaissance flute;
Anna Danilevskaia, Filipa Meneses, vihuela de arco;
Christoph Sommer, lute
In 2016 the 500th anniversary of the death of the painter Hieronymus Bosch was celebrated with a large-scale exhibition of his paintings in 's-Hertogenbosch, the capital of Brabant, one of the southern provinces of the Netherlands. There he was born and worked most of his life. As his paintings include musicians and instruments the Cappella Pratensis took the opportunity to record a mass by Pierre de La Rue, the Missa Cum Jocunditate. The choice of music by this master, one of the representatives of the Franco-Flemish school, is an obvious one. Bosch was a life-long sworn brother of the city's Brotherhood (or Confraternity) of Our Illustrious Lady, a large and prestigious organization for which sacred music was an essential and highly-valued part of its devotional life. From the early 1490s until his death in 1518 La Rue was an external member of that same brotherhood.
It was the first volume of a series of discs devoted to music connected to the Brotherhood. The second volume was devoted to Jean Mouton; he had no connection to the Brotherhood, but it owned three choirbooks put together by the Flemish scribe Petrus Imhoff, better known as Alamire. All the masses in the third choirbook are from the pen of Mouton. An important part of the celebrations by the Brotherhood was the veneration of Mary Magdalene, and this was illustrated by the third volume, in which the Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena by Nicolas Champion is in the centre.
The disc to be reviewed here, is the fourth volume, and that is different in character, as it is a mixture of sacred and secular music. "The present program presents the kind of music that might have been heard at the Feast of the Swan, an annual banquet held by the Confraternity of Our Illustrious Lady in 's-Hertogenbosch, sometime in the middle of the sixteenth century", Grantley McDonald writes in the booklet. The programme has been but together on the basis of what is known from documents about such events. The mixture of the sacred and the secular is not surprising: in the renaissance there was no watershed between the two genres. Collections of music in manuscript from that time attest to that.
The meetings of the Confraternity were sometimes followed by a meal; at first such meals were rather simple, but became more elaborate with time, resulting in nine or ten banquets a year, usually on Mondays. As the Confraternity's records include the names of the guests and the food that was purchased, one has to conclude that these meals were quite important. The present disc focuses on one such meal, taking place on the first Monday after Holy Innocents' Day (28 December); this was the Feast of the Swan, first recorded in 1384. "It thus coincided more or less with New Year, traditionally a time of feasting and gift-giving. The Swan was the Confraternity's heraldic beast, a symbol of grace and purity, attributes of the Blessed Virgin. The choice of a swan as the centrepiece for this feast also reflected the medieval appetite for birds of all kinds: not only chickens, ducks and geese, but also doves, cranes, peacocks and swans."
The event started with a mass, after which the brethren processed to the house that one of the brothers had donated upon his death in 1484. During the banquet two penitential psalms (Miserere mei Deus and De profundis) were recited for the souls of the deceased brothers. Obviously, there was no meal without music. It started with the Ave Maria, sung three times, and then the grace was said. During each course a motet or song was performed. After the meal, the Ave Maria was repeated, again sung three times. The event closed with a good-night song. Some of the singers also played instruments: harpsichord, organ and viols.
The programme on this disc opens with a setting of a text from the Song of Solomon, Sicut lilium inter spinas; this was the device of the Confraternity. The Ave Maria is performed in three versions: first in plainchant, then repeated with an additional voice, written by one of the singers, and lastly in a five-part setting, attributed to Jacobus Clemens non Papa; however, his authorship has not been established. According to the practice at the meal, the latter setting is repeated at the end (however, not three times). The two chansons by Loÿset Compère represent the 'songs' that were performed during the meal.
Then follow Kyrie and Credo (and later in the programme the Agnus Dei) from a mass - obviously not at the historical correct place. They are taken from one of the choirbooks, where it is called Missa Benedicti, and attributed to Benedictus Appenzeller, who was Kapellmeister to Mary of Hungary, and visited 's-Hertogenbosch twice (1539, 1545/46). The musicologist Eric Jas was able to identify the cantus firmus of this mass as the popular song Ick had een boelken uutvercoren. The Sanctus is taken from a mass included in a source from the Confraternity, which can be attributed to Jheronimus Vinders. It is based on another popular Dutch song, Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen, which is heard here before the mass section in a setting by Tielman Susato, best-known as music publisher, but also active as a composer. A third popular song on a Dutch text is Een vroulic wesen, which has been set and arranged by various composers. Here it is performed instrumentally in a version which is attributed to Matthaeus Pipelare and Pierre de La Rue.
In the case of Ich had een boelken uutvercoren only the melody and the first two lines are known. In this recording a text by a contemporary author is used. In general I find this a bad idea; if no text is available, so be it, and it can be performed instrumentally. In this case, the modern text is very vulgar, and certainly not in accordance with the habits at the meals, where the singers performed an "enjoyable but not indecent song". If one purchases this recording in digital format, it is easy to throw the particular tracks away.
The performances leave nothing to be desired. We know the Cappella Pratensis as a top-class ensemble in the performance of sacred music, and they show that here once again in the mass movements and the settings of the Ave Maria. However, here its members demonstrate that they know how to sing secular music as well. The two chansons by Compère receive excellent performances. The Sollazzo Ensemble is exactly the right ensemble to perform the instrumental pieces.
Undoubtedly this disc is an interesting sequel to the previous three volumes in this project devoted to the Brotherhood of Our Illustrious Lady in 's-Hertogenbosch. This and the level of performances would be reason to recommend it. Unfortunately, the use of a modern and unappropriate text - to put it mildly - prevents me from doing that. It is a major blot on an otherwise enjoyable production.
Johan van Veen (© 2024)
Relevant links:
Cappella Pratensis
Sollazzo Ensemble