Josquin, Der Noten Meister

2021 was Josquin year: he died in 1521. He was considered the greatest composer of the time and is still considered the greatest composer of the Renaissance. Who doesn't know his Ave Maria? A composer like Josquin does not need a commemoration. His music, both sacred and secular, is available on many discs. Even so, the commemoration of his death was the reason that several discs have been released. The Brabant Ensemble [1], directed by Stephen Rice, recorded ten motets, which are considered authentic. Rice, in his liner-notes, discusses at length the issue of authenticity, and mentions a number of pieces that have been and still are the subject of scholarly research with regard to their authorship. Josquin experts often have completely opposite views. Some pieces in the programme have been performed with parts that have been added by other composers. This was a pretty common practice, and has to be interpreted as a way to express admiration for Josquin. In some cases the additional parts may be from Josquin's own pen; in that case we have to do with early and later versions. As one may gather, this disc is quite interesting, and even those who have many recordings of Josquin's music in their collection, may find here something that they are not familiar with. If you purchase this disc, you are well advised to read first the liner-notes carefully. There is no need to specifically mention highlights; every piece is of superior quality. As far as the performances are concerned, these are very good. There are some moments in which the text is illustrated in the music, and these have not escaped the attention of the performers. There is just one issue, which concerns the Stabat mater. It is an exemple of a piece which is performed here with an additional part. Josquin's version is for five voices, here we get a six-part version, which has been preserved in a Czech manuscript, in which the text is 'protestantized'. The second section begins with the words "Christe verbum" instead of "Eia mater". For this recording, the additional part is performed with the original text. That is questionable, as Josquin's version was probably never performed with six voices. It would have been more plausible to use the 'protestant' text in all parts instead. That way it would have represented an interesting aspect of the Josquin reception in his time. It does not compromise my appreciation of this disc, which is a substantial addition to the Josquin discography.

It was common practice in the Renaissance to intabulate vocal music so that it could be played on a plucked instrument. This practice was by no means limited to secular music; sacred works could also be treated this way. It was also not uncommon for one or more parts to be performed vocally. Sebastian Ochsenkun mentioned this possibility in his Heidelberg tablature book. In Spain it was Diego Pisador, vihuela player and composer, who mentions this practice in his Libro de música de vihuela (1552), when he writes that he wants "the reader to know that all that is in this book I have done with great diligence and labour so that it might be correct and of great clarity without diminutions, so that players may recognise the voices easily as they are on the vihuela, and so that they might be able to sing them (...)". There are no fewer than eight Josquin Masses in this book. The composer was immensely popular in Spain, and his works can be found in intabulations in various collections of music for the vihuela, including those by Luys de Narváez and Alonso Mudarra. The aforementioned practice and the popularity of Josquin's music in Spain inspired Ariel Abramovich [2] to transcribe works by Josquin for the vihuela, in addition to some intabulations by Spanish composers, and to invite María Cristina Kiehr and Jonatan Alvarado to sing the vocal parts. Some of Josquin's best-known works are included, such as Nymphes, nappés, Praeter rerum seriem, Mille regretz and the above- mentioned Stabat mater. There are also some mass sections and the programme ends with Josquin's Déploration sur la mort d'Ockeghem. What is offered here is relatively unusual - not from a historical point of view, but from the perspective of today's performance practice. That is a shame because it offers the opportunity to listen to Josquin's music from a different angle. The performances are very good. María Cristina Kiehr and Jonatan Alvarado have the perfect voices for this repertoire and they blend superbly. Ariel Abramovich is a very fine and sensitive performer, which comes especially to the fore in Mille regretz, the only piece he performs alone. There is only point of criticism: the recording. It was done in a church and that was a bad idea. Singing to the vihuela was something taking place in intimate surroundings, not in a church. Due to the church acoustic, the voices are too dominant. They sound like soloists, but they are not. Originally, it was undoubtedly the vihuela player himself who sang to his playing. Today these roles are separated, but that is no reason to put the voices into the centre. I highly appreciate the concept of this recording as well as the actual performances. It is unfortunate that the recording damages the overall positive impression of this project.

The last disc offers French chansons, which in all likelihood date from two periods of Josquin's career. The first was when he was in the service of René 'le Bon' d'Anjou (in the 1470s) and the second when he had settled back in his native region at the end of his career (after 1504). These songs are heavily inspired by simple folk songs; it is known that René d'Anjou and his second wife, Jeanne de Laval, not only had a great interest in literature and art, but also loved the simple life, and occasionally disguised themselves as shepherds. Denis Raisin Dadre, the director of the ensemble Doulce Mémoire [3], took the connection to folk culture as an opportunity to compare chansons with folk songs. This enabled him to increase the number of stanzas in some cases. By the way, there are not only pieces by Josquin here. His Ma bouche rit is preceded by Ockeghem's version, with partly different lyrics, and Scaramella va alla guerra is based on a version by Loyset Compère (Scaramella fa la galla). There are also a few instrumental works from the Lochamer Liederbuch, whose relation to Josquin is unclear. In that respect the documentation leaves something to be desired. The programme also includes some of Josquin's most popular works, the authenticity of which is very much in doubt: El grillo and In te domine speravi'. I have rarely heard the latter work performed as nicely as here: the soprano Clara Coutouly sings it extraordinarily beautifully, with imaginative embellishments. In contrast, let's forget the caricatural treatment of El grillo. All in all, I really like this disc: the performances by the singers are first class, and the instruments - recorders and shawms - are also played excellently. Independent of the level of interpretation, this production has several things to offer that makes it an interesting addition to Josquin's discography. The booklet includes an informative introduction to Josquin and his oeuvre by David Fallows.

Another disc with music by Josquin has been released recently at the Aparté label. I was looking forward to that one, as the performers are the members of the ensemble thélème, whose disc with chansons by Claude Le Jeune and Clément Janequin I rated positively. However, reading the booklet caused disappointment. In some items instruments from an entirely different world participate: the ondes Martinot, the Fender Rhodes and the Buchla synthesizer. For me, these are completely unknown quantities: I have not heard them and I have not the slightest desire to change that. Therefore I decided not to review this disc: I have neither the time nor the appetite to listen to this kind of nonsense, which has nothing to do with historical performance practice.

[1] "Motets & Mass Movements"
The Brabant Ensemble/Stephen Rice
Hyperion CDA68321 (© 2021) details

[2] "The Josquin Songbook"
María Cristina Kiehr, soprano; Jonatan Alvarado, tenor; Ariel Abramovich, vihuela
Glossa GCD 923529 (© 2021) details

[3] "Tant vous aime"
Doulce Mémoire/Denis Raisin Dadre
Ricercar RIC 436 (© 2022) details

East is East and West is West (2)

Four years ago I published an article on this weblog under the title 'East is East and West is West'. The reason was the release of various discs which juxtaposed or blended music from the West and from the (Near) East. There is every reason to return to this subject. Its popularity seems to be unbroken. One wonders why the music of non-European cultures is attracting so much interest. Only few of the artists involved are clear about their motifs.

Among those who are most active in this field is Jordi Savall. He regularly brings musicians from different cultures together to give them the opportunity to become acquainted with music from a culture they did not know. This has resulted in various recording projects which are either devoted to the music of a specific culture outside of Europe or at the margins of the continent or juxtapose music from different cultures. His motifs are partly politically motivated, under the impression of the aggravation of conflicts between various cultures in our time.

A musical confrontation between East and West can be quite interesting. But whether it makes sense largely depends on how it is worked out. Generally speaking there are two concepts here. In the first the music of East and West is mingled. This is what is often called crossover, which Daniel Manhart (chant1450) defines as "uniting two worlds and thereby generating new music which has never been heard before". Unintentionally he puts his finger on the sore spot. In projects which are based on this concept the artists perform music which has never existed before. This has nothing to do with historical performance practice, and even the word interpretation would be out of place here.

The first disc from the list at the bottom of this article, called "raga vira", is an example of this approach. Maria Jonas and her ensemble Ars Choralis Coeln perform chants by Hildegard of Bingen. This is mixed with music from northern India, sung and played by Amelia Cuni. This results in 'new' music without any historical foundation. Whether one likes the result or not - I certainly do not - one should not expect a historically plausible interpretation of Hildegard of Bingen's chants. Music from two entirely different cultures is thrown into one pot, probably on the basis of the assumption that there are many similarities between them. But what seems the same is not always the same.

The second concept is the opposite: music from different cultures is juxtaposed, but in both cases performed - interpreted indeed - according to its own standards. This approach seems rather rare, although Jordi Savall's performances are quite close to this concept. Most performers and ensembles follow a path between these two opposites. In this context one important aspect needs to be mentioned. The confrontation between two cultures can be historically plausible, even if we don't know if it has ever really happened. In this respect there is a difference between the recording of Ars Choralis Coeln and Doulce Mémoire's disc. It is inconceivable that Hildegard of Bingen was aware of any music from outside her immediate region, let alone from non-European cultures. Likewise the people of northern India will never have heard any music from Europe. However, Denis Raisin Dadre's project is based on a confrontation which actually could have taken place. In the liner-notes he writes: "The capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans (...) did not put an end to exchange with the Christian west. In the Byzantine period there already existed a hill opposite Byzantium called Pera, on which stood the walled city of Galata. (...) By leaving the inhabitants of Galata [Greeks, Jews, French et al] their possessions and their freedom to trade, the conquerer of Constantinople, Mehmed II, permitted this colony to remain a bridgehead of the Christian west in its relations with the 'Gate of Felicity' (...)." He then assumes that the musicians from both cultures must have been interested in each other's music. He put a programme together which comprises pieces from both sides, performed with the appropriate voices and instruments, and the corresponding singing and playing techniques. Only in some pieces the members of the two ensembles join, and as a result we hear instruments from the East in western music and vice versa.

The ensemble chant1450 follows more or less the same concept. Before 1492 when the Jews were expelled from Spain three cultures coexisted: the Christian, the Moorish and the Jewish. Specimens of the music of the former two are brought together here. We hear motets by Spanish composers, such as Antonio Ribera, Pedro de Escobar and Juan de Anchieta, and improvisations by Mahmoud Turkmani on the ūd. He improvises between the motets but also participates in the performance of mass sections in plainchant. This is highly unsatisfactory. The coexistence of three cultures in renaissance Spain is a historical fact and their mutual influence in musical matters is also generally acknowledged, but it seems highly unlikely that muslims played any role in Christian liturgical music. This is indeed music which did not exist before it was performed in our time. It is especially regrettable as the motets are so beautifully sung.

Canticum Novum also brings music from Spain as it could have been performed before 1492. It rather focusses on secular and non-liturgical religious music. "We have selected several pieces which seem to us to express, in all its richness, diversity and vivid colours, that blessed era when men and women of different cultures and origins came together to nurture shared acts of creativity. We had no difficulty in choosing such pieces from the Sephardic repertory, the repertory of the Muslim tradition and Alfonso X el Sabio's song collection, the Cantigas de Santa Maria", Emmanuel Bardon writes in the booklet. This could have been an interesting disc, if the performers had not made use of instruments from exotic cultures, such as the bandolim - a type of mandolin used in Portugal, but not before the late 16th century - and Tibetan bowls. It is acknowledged that they were not used in 13th-century Spain, but "[we] used them to increase the range of colours and the variety of timbres". This way the recording has lost its historical credibility.

That is quite different in the case of the various projects of Jordi Savall. Here musicians generally perform their 'own' repertoire. Seldom instruments of one culture are used in music from another. That lends his performances a great amount of authenticity and credibility. The books which accompany the discs include much information about history and culture, but unfortunately very little about the music, the instruments or performance practice. The listener becomes acquainted with the music of other cultures, but it seems unlikely that having listened to the discs and read the books he has a really better understanding of the music of other cultures.
Orient-Occident II is almost exclusively devoted to music from Syria; only a couple of 'western' pieces are performed. In Esprit de l'Arménie there is no meeting between various cultures at all. Only Armenian music is performed, not only 'early' music, but also much later repertoire, including music from the 20th century. Armenia had to deal with 'eastern' cultures, marked by Islam, but music from the environment is not included. The third project is devoted to the Balkans; for a long time this region was a meltingpot not much different from Spain before 1492. Here not only Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures coexisted, but also the culture of the Roma whose role is often neglected and is given special attention in this project.

I am not particularly interested in or fond of the music of those cultures, but the value of Savall's projects can hardly be overestimated, especially considering the sincerity with which he and all musicians participating treat the musical material. Savall's approach is the most plausible and credible of the recordings mentioned here.


"raga virga"
Ars Choralis Coeln, Maria Jonas; Amelia Cuni (dhrupad-chant, tanpura), Poul Høxbro (flute, percussion)
Talanton - TAL 90010 (2011; 68'07")

"La porte de félicité - Constantinople 1453 entre Orient et Occident"
Doulce Mémoire, Denis Raisin Dadre; Ensemble Kudsi Erguner
ZigZag Territoires - ZZT314 (2012; 73'39")

"Flores de España - Orient & Occident in Spanish Renaissance"
Mahmoud Turkmani (ūd), chant1450
Christophorus - CHR 77374 (2011/12; 60'03")

"Paz, Salam & Shalom"
Canticum Novum, Emmanuel Bardon
Ambronay - AMY033 (2010; 75'33")

"Orient-Occident II - Hommage à la Syrie"
Hespèrion XXI, Jordi Savall
Alia Vox - AVSA9900 (2013; 79'28")

"Esprit de l'Arménie"
Hespèrion XXI, Jordi Savall
Alia Vox - AVSA9892 (2012; 76'55")

"Esprit des Balkans"
Hespèrion XXI, Jordi Savall
Alia Vox - AVSA9898 (2012; 79'15")