 |
David Acres
Conducts
Counterpoint Choir |
‘The
Glories of Sacred Spanish Polyphony
from
the 13th to 17th centuries’
To include excerpts
from :
Officium Defunctorum – Tomas Luis de Victoria
Peccantem me
quotidie – Cristobal de Morales
O quam
gloriosum & Ave Maria à 8 – Victoria
Versa est in
luctum – Alonso Lobo
Ave virgo
sanctissima & O Domine Iesu Christe – Francisco Guerrero
O quam
suavis – Vivanco, Gloria in excelsis – Juan de Esquivel Barahona
Virgen Santa Maria – Alfonso X of Spain (el Sabio)
Riu, riu
chiu (The Kingfisher) – Mateo Flecha
Buckfast Abbey
Saturday 24th May 2014 – 7.30pm
The
Singers
Sopranos
 |
| Denise Kehoe |
Denise Kehoe,
Ellie Lane
 |
| Mary O'Shea |
Sally Leger,
Mary O’Shea
 |
| Emma Perona-Wright |
Judith Overcash,
Emma Perona-Wright
.png) |
| Elle Williams |
Ann Williams,
Elle Williams
Countertenors
 |
| Laurence Blyth |
Laurence
Blyth, Michael Dobson
 |
Elle & Denise
Tony Kehoe, Anselm Carr-Jones
& Clive Dickinson |
Clive
Dickinson, Christopher Tipping
Tenors
 |
| Michael Graham |
Jason
Bomford, Michael Graham
 |
| Edward Woodhouse |
Jonathan
Harris, Edward Woodhouse
Bass
Tony Kehoe,
David McKee
 |
| Julian Rippon |
Kit
Perona-Wright, Julian Rippon
Directed
by
David Acres
Programme
1. Victoria
- "O Quam gloriosum"
2. Victoria
– "Officium defunctorum" - Excerpts
a. "Taedet"
b. "Graduale"
c. "Versa est in luctum"
d. "Libera me"
3. Morales - "Peccantem me quotidie"
4. el Sabio - "Virgen Santa Maria"
INTERVAL
5. Mateo
Flecha - "Riu, riu, chiu"
Solo: Julian Rippon
6. Guerrero - "Ave virgo sanctissima"
7. Victoria
- "Ave Maria" à 8
8. Guerrero - "O Domine Iesu Christe"
9. Vivanco - "O quam suavis"
10. Esquivel - "Gloria in
excelcis Deo"
11. Lobo - "Versa est in luctum"
Many
of you have been asking me what I have been up to over the past few months. As
most of you know, I have been away in the United States since the end of
October last year and during this time I have been singing with Trinity
Cathedral Choir, Cleveland, and also with the Chamber Singers.
Before Christmas
I was singing with an ensemble, Quire Cleveland, and also with a small
Quartet/Quintet, Acappella Vox. Early in 2014 I was involved in the formation
of a new choir, Contrapunctus. This has become our sister choir in the States
and we had our first concert on March 2nd in Trinity Cathedral.
It
was a partial re-run of the 2008 concert Counterpoint gave in Buckfast Abbey
entitled The Life & Times of Mary, Queen of Scots. It was critically
acclaimed and the next concert, in the Catholic Cathedral of St John the
Evangelist in Cleveland,
is scheduled for June 6th. Entitled ‘Angel Voices Ever Singing’ the
concert traces the development of music for high voices – sopranos, altos and
countertenors – and covers sacred music from the 10th century
through to modern times, culminating with a glorious piece, Versa est in luctum, written for the
choir by one of our tenors.
The
things that I have missed the most in my travels away from England and the
West Country were Buckfast Abbey and Counterpoint. I was brought to this
hallowed place by my grandparents in the 1950s, two years before I joined the
cathedral choir at Exeter.
It had an immediate effect on me and I wanted to return as often as possible.
Over the years there have been many changes but the church, the grounds, the
community and the congregation stay with me, wherever I find myself. If times
get tough, I only need to think of this glorious place and things just don’t
seem quite so bad! Counterpoint and its choir members have been my rock over
the past twenty-five years. Its members have supported me in all my endeavours
and have helped me to expand and enlighten my musical horizons.
Also,
I would like to publically thank Father Abbot, Geoff Pring and Trevor Jarvis
for their unswerving help, kindness and friendship over the past years; without
this, Counterpoint would not be the choir that it is today.
David Acres May 2014
1. O Quam gloriosum - Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
 |
Tomás Luis de Victoria
1548 - 1611 |
Victoria was born in
1548 in Ávila, Castile and León, where he had his early musical training as a cathedral chorister. He studied
further in Rome,
continuing in the service of the Jesuit Collegio Germanico before joining the
newly formed order of Oratorians. He returned to Spain
to a convent chaplaincy in the service of the Dowager Empress Maria, sister of
King Philip II, retaining the chaplaincy until his death in Madrid in 1611.
Victoria
is considered the most significant composer of the Counter-Reformation in Spain, and one of the best-regarded
composers of sacred music in the late Renaissance, a genre to which he devoted
himself exclusively. Victoria’s
music reflected his intricate personality. In
his music, the passion of Spanish mysticism and religion is expressed. Victoria
was praised by Padre Martini for his melodic phrases and his joyful inventions. His works have undergone a revival in
the 20th century, with numerous recent recordings. Many commentators hear in
his music a mystical intensity and direct emotional appeal, qualities
considered by some to be lacking in the arguably more rhythmically and
harmonically placid music of Palestrina. O quam gloriosum was the first Latin
motet I remember hearing as a boy in my first week in Exeter Cathedral Choir
when I was 7 years old. Its power, beauty and glorious word-painting stays with
me to this day.
O quam gloriosum est regnum,
in quo cum Christo gaudent omnes Sancti!
Amicti stolis albis,
sequuntur Agnum, quocumque ierit
O how glorious is the kingdom
in which all the saints rejoice with Christ,
clad in robes of white
they follow the Lamb wherever he goes
2. Officium
defunctorum a 6 - Tomás Luis de
Victoria (1548-1611)
Victoria's 'Requiem'
Mass (as we now call it) has for many decades and for many people typified
Spanish Renaissance music. Its mystical intensity of expression, achieved by
the simplest musical means, obviously sets it apart from contemporary English
and Italian music, and has led to comparisons with the equally intense
religious paintings of Velazquez and El Greco. There is no doubt that this
masterpiece conveys much of the highly individual Spanish view of religion and
death, all the more valuable since their vision is largely unfamiliar outside
Spain herself.
 |
Giovanni Pierluigi
da Palestrina
(1525 - 1594) |
In fact Victoria
was just one of a very substantial school
of Spanish Renaissance
composers, and one of the least prolific amongst them. Many of these deserve to
be considered along with Victoria,
though none wrote a mass quite as mature as this. One possible reason for their
collective lack of fame is that they travelled very little, unless it were to
the New World, unlike their Netherlandish
contemporaries.
Victoria
was lucky in this respect. Having been born in Avila
in 1548 and brought up there in the tradition of Morales, Espinar and Ribera,
he went to Rome
probably in 1565 to study at the Jesuit Collegio Germanico. Once there he must
surely have met Palestrina, and was possibly taught by him. The subtleties of
Palestrina's polyphonic idiom are regularly to be found in Victoria's music, unlike that of his Spanish
contemporaries, and it gave him an extra dimension of technique when it suited
him.
In fact in this Requiem there is very little imitative polyphony and the
lack of it allows its Spanish flavour to speak all the more strongly. Victoria stayed in Rome until
1587 at the latest, by which time he had been ordained priest (by Bishop Thomas
Goldwell, the last surviving member of the pre-Reformation English Catholic
hierarchy in Rome),
and published several anthologies of his work. By the end of his life he had
succeeded in publishing just about his entire output in eleven sets, most in
luxurious format, which was a great deal more than Palestrina ever did. This
6-part Requiem appeared by itself in 1605, and was the last of the series.
 |
Maria of Austria
died 1603
Monasterio de las
Descalzas Reales |
From 1587 until his death in 1611 Victoria was employed in Madrid, initially as chaplain to the sister
of Philip II: the Dowager Empress Maria, daughter of Charles V, wife of
Maximilian II and mother of two emperors. It was for her funeral in 1603 that
this Requiem was written. After her death Victoria became organist to the convent
where the Empress had lived. Since he was by profession almost as much a priest
as a musician, it will be understood why Victoria
only wrote sacred music, though it should not be assumed that it is all somber.
Different composers through the centuries
approach setting music to the words of the Requiem in varying ways. Mozart’s
fiery and tempestuous setting is at great variance with that of Victoria’s. Here, one is
left with a feeling of great serenity and hope, rather than sorrow, at the end
of the performance. Written in 1603 for the ceremonies following the death of
the Empress Maria, the Requiem for six voices interpolates polyphony with
Gregorian Chant, which serves as a cantus firmus. In performance
the work is some 40 minutes long, so I had to make the decision that we would
perform only four of the movements. I have chosen the following movements to
illustrate the beauty and character of the composition, together with the Victoria’s unique
word-painting.
a. Taedet
Taedet animam meam vitae meae; dimittam adversum me
eloquium meum, loquar in amaritudine animae meae.
Dicam Deo: Noli me condemnare; indica mihi cur me
ita judices.
Numquid bonum tibi videtur, si calumnieris me, et
opprimas me opus manuum tuarum,
et consilium impiorum adjuves?
Numquid oculi carnei tibi sunt? aut sicut videt
homo, et tu videbis?
Numquid sicut dies hominis dies tui, et anni tui
sicut humana sunt tempora,
ut quaeras iniquitatem meam, et peccatum meum
scruteris,
et scias quia nihil impium fecerim, cum sit nemo
qui de manu tua possit eruerer.
My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon
myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say unto God, do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou
contendest with me.
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou
shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,
That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my
sin?
Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can
deliver out of thine hand.
b. Graduale
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Verse: In memoria aeterna erit iustus:
ab auditione mala non timebit.
Give them eternal rest, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them.
The just man shall be remembered everlastingly,
he will not fear an evil hearing.
c. Versa est in luctum
Versa est in luctum cithara mea,
et organum meum in vocem flentium.
Parce mihi Domine,
nihil enim sunt dies mei.
My harp is tuned for mourning,
and my music to the voice of those who weep.
Spare me, O Lord,
for my days are as nothing.
d. Libera me
Libera me, Domine,
de morte aeterna
in die illa tremenda
quando coeli movendi sunt et terra
dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem.
Deliver me, O Lord,
from eternal death,
on that fearful day
when the heavens are moved and the earth
when you will come to judge the world through fire.
Tremens factus sum ego et timeo,
dum discussio venerit
atque ventura
ira.
I am made to tremble, and I fear,
when the desolation shall come,
and also the coming wrath.
Dies irae, dies illa,
calamitatis et miseriae,
dies magna et amara valde.
That day, the day of wrath,
calamity, and misery,
that terrible and exceedingly bitter day.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Rest eternal grant them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them.
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
3. Peccantem me quotidie - Cristóbal de Morales
(1500-1553)
 |
Cristóbal de Morales
(1500 - 1553) |
'No Spanish composer of the
sixteenth century was more lauded during his lifetime and for two hundred years
after his death than Morales.'
So writes the leading modern expert on the
subject (Robert Stevenson, in his critically acclaimed book, ‘Spanish Cathedral
Music in the Golden Age – Greenwood Press 1961) - a remarkable claim when one
considers the talent and number of Spanish composers in the High Renaissance,
not least Victoria.
Morales has been lauded again in the recent revival of interest in Renaissance
music, but it is not clear that his particular cast of mind has been properly
understood. For someone as culturally Spanish as Morales, writing music meant
more than just borrowing from the prevailing Franco-Flemish or Italian styles.
Morales, like Victoria,
never lost that mystical intensity of expression which found its roots in
Spanish Catholicism.
 |
"The Last Judgement"
Michaelangelo di Lodovico
Buonarroti Simoni |
Cristóbal de Morales (c.1500-1553) spent the
beginning and end of his career in Spain,
with a crucial ten years in the middle singing with the Sistine Chapel Choir in
Rome. He was
appointed to the Papal Choir on 1 September 1535 by Pope Paul III, the same day
that the Pope commissioned Michelangelo to paint The
Last Judgement.
Since Morales did not return to Spain until
1545, and Michelangelo finished his great work in 1541, the composer would have
had the privilege of watching The Last Judgement come into existence, more or less day
by day. In fact there was little chance of his being influenced by
Michelangelo's almost- baroque Italian style: Morales was sufficiently proud of
his origins, especially of Seville
where he was born, to follow his own muse.
Peccantem me quotidie
et non penitentem,
Timor mortis conturbat me.
Quia in inferno nulla est redemptio.
Miserere mei, Deus, et salva me.
I who sin every day
and am not penitent
the fear of death troubles me:
For in hell there is no redemption.
Have mercy upon me, O God, and save me.
4. Virgen Santa Maria –
Alfonso X ‘el Sabio’ (1221-1284)
 |
Alfonso X ‘el Sabio’
(1221 - 1284) |
Alfonso X, King of Castile and León, began his
reign in a highly characteristic manner, by bringing together the staff of the University of Salamanca and explicitly demanding que aya un maestro en organo (that there should be an organ
teacher). He wanted academic studies to be complemented by artistic study. As a
politician and a general he could look back on no great achievements, since the
progress of the reconquista had proved troublesome during his
reign and court intrigues eventually cost him his throne, yet as a patron of
the sciences and arts he won the title el
Sabio (the Wise), by which he
is remembered in history.
In the thirteenth century on the Iberian peninsula
there was hostility between Muslims and Christians in warfare, but in everyday
life there was a great deal of religious tolerance and lively exchange between
the two opposing cultures. At the court of Alfonso there were learned Arab,
Jewish and Christian scholars, who, under his direction, wrote comprehensive
works such as the General
estoria (General History), a
monumental history of the world (fragmentary) and the Siete partidas (Seven Parts), a collection of
laws.
 |
Libros del Saber
de Astonomico |
Special subjects were treated in the Libros
del saber de
astronomia (Books on the
Science of Astronomy), El lapidario (The Book of Stones, Materials and
Metals) and the Libros de
ajedrez, damas y tablas (The Book of Chess, Draughts and
Backgammon). These books today are seen as the foundation of Castilian
prose-writing. In addition to his other scholarly interests,
Alfonso also concerned himself with the arts, especially with music; as a young
man he had himself composed love-songs. Provençal and Italian troubadours
were frequent visitors to the Castilian court and
Alfonso served as their patron and provided protection from the Inquisition
during the suppression of the Albigensians. The German Minnesang may also have found a place there
through Alfonso's mother, Beatrix of Swabia. The monophonic and polyphonic
repertoire of Notre Dame was cultivated in the same way as the popular Cantigas de amigo, secular love-songs in
Galician-Portuguese, the poetic language of the time. Music at court was not
only performed by Christian musicians but also by Arab players with oriental
dancers.
In this varied musical life there appeared, with the cooperation and
under the direction of Alfonso, the Cantigas
de Santa Maria, a collection of more than four
hundred monophonic songs. The musicologist Higinio Angles noted in the preface
to his edition of the Cantigas (1943-1964) that even if no other
Spanish music of the period survived, this would have been enough to put
Spanish music on a par with the music of the other cultured countries of
medieval Europe.
The Cantigas have come down to us in four
splendid manuscripts, three of them with notation. One of these is in the
Spanish National Library in Madrid (No.10069),
a second in the National Library in Florence
(Banco rari 20) and two in the Escorial (B.j.2
and T.j.1). They are distinguished by the beauty of their miniatures and by the
special care taken with the notation, of material assistance in the reading of
other medieval notation.
The miniatures include representations of the king
surrounded by scholars and of musicians from all countries and cultures. There
are more than forty instruments depicted, fiddle, rebec, gittern, mandola,
lute, psaltery, zither, harp, shawm, transverse and straight flute, trumpet,
horn, bagpipe, portative organ, drums, castanets, cymbals, glockenspiel and
symphonia - a unique compendium of medieval instruments.
NB – I apologise profusely but I have been unable
to find a translation for this wonderful early work. I am still searching and,
if you are interested, I will be very happy to send on the translation when I
track it down!
« « « INTERVAL « « «
5. Riu, riu, chiu – Mateo Flecha ‘el Viejo’ (1481-1553)
Soloist: Julian Rippon
Mateo
Flecha directed the music at the cathedral of Lleida (September 1523 –
October 1525). From there he
moved to Guadalajara, in the service for six years of the Duke, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. From there he went to Valencia where he assumed direction of the chapel choir of the Duke of Calabria. While thus employed, three of his works were included in
songbooks associated with that chapel, including the Cancionero
de Uppsala.
In 1537 Flecha moved to Sigüenza where he served as maestro di cappella for two years. From 1544 to 1548 he lived in the castle at Arévalo as teacher of the Infantas Maria and Joanna, daughters of Philip II of Spain (1527-1598). Toward the end of his life Mateo Flecha became a
monk of the Cistercian Order, living in the Monastery at Poblet, where he died in 1553.
 |
| Monasterio de Poblet |
Mateo
Flecha's music was published in part by Fuenllana in his Orphenica Lira. The majority of his
works can be found in the Cancionero of the Duke of Calabria (Venice, 1556), also known as the
“Cancionero de Uppsala.” Flecha is best known as composer of the
"ensalada" (literally "salad"), a work for four or five
voices written for the diversion of courtiers in the palace. The ensalada frequently mixed languages: Spanish, Catalan, Italian, French, and Latin. In addition to the ensalada,
Flecha is also well-known for his Christmas carols, including Riu riu chiu.
Riu riu chiu, la guarda ribera;
Dios guardo el lobo de nuestra cordera,
Dios guardo el lobo de neustra cordera.
El lobo rabioso la quiso morder,
Mas Dios poderoso la supo defender;
Quisola hazer que no pudiese pecar,
Ni aun original esta Virgen no tuviera.
Riu riu chiu…..
Este qu'es nacido es el gran monarca,
Christo patriarca, de carne vestido;
hanos redimido con se hacer chiquito,
a un qu'era infinito, finito se hiziera.
Riu riu chiu…...
Muchas profecias lo han profetizado,
Ya un nuestros dias lo hemos al consado
Adios humanado vemos en el suelo,
Yal hombre nelcielo porquel le quistera
Riu riu chiu……
Yo vi mil garzones que andaban cantando,
por aquí volando, haciendo mil sones,
diciendo a gascones: "Gloria sea en el cielo
y paz en el suelo", pues de sus nasciera.
Riu riu chiu……
Riu, riu, chiu
The river bank protects it,
As God kept the wolf from our lamb
The rabid wolf tried to bite her
But God Almighty knew how to defend her
He wished to create her impervious to
sin
Nor was this maid to embody original
sin
Riu, riu, chiu……
He who's now begotten is our mighty
Monarch
Christ, our Holy Father, in human flesh
embodied
He has brought atonement by being born
so humble
Though He is immortal, as mortal was
created
Riu, riu, chiu……
Many prophecies told of his coming,
And now in our days have we seen them
fulfilled.
God became man, on earth we behold him,
And see man in heaven because he so
willed.
Riu, riu, chiu……
A thousand singing angels I saw
passing,
Flying overhead, sounding a thousand
voices,
Exulting, "Glory be in the
heavens,
And peace on Earth, for Jesus has been
born."
Riu, riu, chiu……
6. Ave virgo sanctissima –
Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599)
 |
Francisco Guerrero
(1528 - 1599) |
It has proved difficult to find just the right
place for Francisco Guerrero amongst the composers of his time. A contemporary
of Palestrina, although they are not known to have met, he was the pre-eminent
Spanish composer of the generation between Morales and Victoria. Like Victoria he was a church musician, yet wrote
as much secular music as he did sacred. And although he made his career
entirely in Spain, he owed
more to Palestrina's methods and ideals than either Morales or Victoria, both of whom lived in Rome for many years.
Guerrero lived a colourful life, the details of
which were relatively well documented at the time. After studying with Morales
he began his life-long association with Seville Cathedral in 1542, initially
being appointed as a ‘contralto' (apparently he was an exceptionally gifted contra alto, or high tenor).
Both the cathedral chapters in Jaen and Malaga tried to entice him away, but he always found his
way back to Seville
where, in 1551, the authorities offered him the right to succeed the ageing
maestro, Pedro Fernandez.
 |
| Catedral de Sevilla |
Unfortunately for Guerrero, Fernandez lived another
twenty-three years, and it was only in 1574 that he finally took over. By then
he was internationally renowned as a composer, having had his works published
not only in Seville, but also in Paris, Venice and Louvain; and outside Europe,
in the Spanish-American empire, his works were far better known than those of
any of his contemporaries.
While seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italian
composers, under orders from the Catholic authorities, tried to perpetuate the
style of Palestrina, in the New World Guerrero's music continued to be sung as
if it were new, helped by its proto-Baroque harmonic clarity. Indeed his Magnificat
secundi toni, when published in 1974 from an anonymous
eighteenth-century copy in Lima Cathedral, was taken to be an
eighteenth-century work.
Ave virgo sanctissima became so
popular in Guerrero's lifetime that it was regarded as the quintessentially
perfect Marian motet and used as a parody model by a host of composers, many of
them Flemish. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this masterpiece is that
the intense emotion is generated within the confines of a canonic structure:
the two soprano parts echo each other throughout at an eight-beat interval, yet
they move so smoothly and effortlessly that it would be easy to assume that
there was no complexity involved. The phrase at ‘margarita preciosa' (‘precious
pearl') is one of the loveliest in all renaissance music.
Ave virgo sanctissima
Dei mater piisima
Maris stella clarissima
Salve semper gloriosa
Margarita pretiosa
Sicut lilium formosa
Nitens olens velut rosa
Hail, Holy Virgin,
most blessed Mother of God,
bright star of the sea.
Hail, ever glorious,
precious pearl,
lovely as the lily,
beautiful and perfumed as the rose.
7. Ave Maria à 8 - Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
Stylistically, Victoria’s music shuns the elaborate counterpoint of many of his contemporaries,
preferring simple line and homophonic textures, yet seeking rhythmic
variety and sometimes including intense and surprising contrasts. His melodic
writing and use of dissonance is more free than that of
Palestrina; occasionally he uses intervals which are prohibited in the strict
application of 16th century counterpoint, such as ascending major sixths, or
even occasional diminished fourths.
Victoria
sometimes uses dramatic word-painting,
of a kind usually found only in madrigals. Some of his
sacred music uses instruments (a practice which is not uncommon in Spanish
sacred music of the 16th century), and he also wrote polychoral works for more than one spatially
separated group of singers, in the style of the composers of the Venetian
school who
were working at St.
Mark's in Venice.
 |
| Basilica di San Marco Venezia |
His two-choir Ave Maria is a beautiful, reflective motet with answering phrases
between the two groups of singers that is most enchanting.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum;
benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
ut cum electis te videamus
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
that with the elect we may gaze upon thee.
8. O Domine Iesu Christe -
Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599)
In 1588 Guerrero undertook a journey which truly
sets him apart from every notable composer of the period: he went on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Leaving Venice on 14 August and travelling via the island of Zante
(now Zakinthos), he visited Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Damascus before returning to Venice on 9 January 1589. On the way back his
ship was twice boarded by pirates, who threatened his life and exacted a ransom.
When he finally resumed his duties at Seville Cathedral, the cost of publishing
his music and the depredations of the pirates had placed him in such serious
financial difficulties that in 1591 he was committed to a debtors' prison. The
cathedral chapter secured his release by paying off his creditors, and they
also engaged Alonso Lobo to act as his assistant.
In 1590 he published what
proved to be a popular book about his journey to the Holy
Land (El viaje de
Hierusalem, which surely would benefit from a modern edition),
during the course of which he wrote that he longed to return there. On 11
January 1599 he obtained another year's leave in order to go, but delayed in
starting out and died from the plague that struck Seville in the late summer.
O
Domine Jesu Christe is an extra-liturgical text in which the
wounded Saviour is adored upon the Cross. Guerrero treats it with tragic
expression. It has become one of his best loved pieces. He set the text twice;
the present version is that of 1570, later reprinted. A quite different setting
was published in 1589.
O Domine Jesu Christe,
adoro te in cruce vulneratum
felle et aceto potatum:
deprecor te ut tua vulnera
sint remedium animae meae
Lord Jesus Christ,
I worship you, who was wounded on the cross
and given gall and vinegar to drink:
I pray that your wounds
may be a remedy for my soul.
9. O quam suavis - Sebastián
de Vivanco (c.1551-1622)
Sebastián de Vivanco stands, without
doubt, as one of the most neglected composers of the Spanish Golden Age. Ironically,
the greatest contribution to this neglect is the accident of his having been
born in Ávila at about the same time as that other colossus of Spanish music
from Ávila, Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). Blinded, perhaps, by the
stunning brilliance of Victoria,
scholars and performers alike have been slow to discern an equally wonderful
talent.
Despite important studies by a small group of scholars, most notably
Dámaso García Fraile and Dean I. Nuernberger, research into the life and works
of Vivanco is still in its infancy. We cannot even be sure of his date of
birth. If Montague Cantor’s reasoning that Vivanco must have been 70 when he
retired as catedrático de prima
[morning professor] at Salamanca
on January 9, 1621, is correct, then we may place his birth date at about 1551.
Of his childhood we know nothing, though it is reasonable to assume that he
served, perhaps alongside Victoria, as a member of the so-called seises, or boy choristers, of Ávila’s
cathedral. As a boy, Vivanco would have come under the decisive influence of
the composer Bernardino de Ribera (1520-1572?), maestro de capilla from 1559 to 1571/1572, and his successor Juan
Navarro (c.1530-1580), who served in the same post from 1564 until 1566.
By his mid twenties, Vivanco had left his
native Castile for Catalonia, where in
1573, as a cleric still in subdeacon’s orders, he was appointed maestro de capilla at Seo de Urgel in
Lérida. Here, Vivanco was initiated into the profession he would practice for
the rest of his life. As chapelmaster, he took charge of all the polyphonic
music performed in the cathedral, and was also responsible for the musical
training and education of the seises.
On 4 July 1576, Vivanco’s tenure at Lérida came to an abrupt and unexplained
end.
In mid-1587, by then probably approaching
his late thirties, Vivanco received an invitation from the elderly and eminent
Guerrero to come to Seville to work as his assistant there, and in particular
to take over the training of the seises.
At around the same time, however, Vivanco was also invited to take up the
chapelmastership of the cathedral of Ávila. For the next eight months, he was
courted by the cathedral chapters in both places.
A welter of documentary references
reflects his indecision. Though he had accepted the Ávila post by the end of
July, he was soon using a counter offer from Seville to bargain for better terms and
conditions. Since they could not match the salary offer from Seville, the Ávila authorities responded by
granting Vivanco a more senior prebend than that usually assigned to the
chapelmaster, with rights and privileges similar to those of a cathedral canon.
Despite this, Vivanco elected to make the
journey south to Seville
early in 1588 in order to spend a trial period in the post there. For a week or
two he gave every appearance of wanting to settle. However, on 17 March he
petitioned the Seville Chapter for payment to cover his expenses for returning
to Ávila for good.
We cannot be sure about Vivanco’s
compositional activity in Ávila, but it does seem likely that a significant
proportion of the three large collections of compositions he published between
1607 and 1610 was composed there. Certainly a number of hymns, possibly
composed during these years, do still exist in a very late copy (dated 1796) at
Ávila.
Virtually unknown here in England, more
and more of Vivanco’s lush and vivid motets and masses are gradually being published.
O quam suavis est, Domine, spiritus tuus,
qui ut dulcedinem tuam in filios demonstrares
pane suavissimo de caelo praestito,
esurientes reples bonis,
fastidiosos divites dimittens inanes.
O how sweet is thy spirit, Lord,
thou who, in order to demonstrate thy sweetness
to thy children,
send down from heaven the sweetest bread
unsurpassed,
filling the hungry with good things,
sending away empty the disdainful rich!
10. Gloria in excelcis Deo – Juan Esquivel Barahona (c.1560-1625)
 |
Juan Esquivel Barahona
(c.1560 - 1625) |
Juan de Esquivel was born in or
near Ciudad Rodrigo,
an ancient cathedral city southwest of Salamanca. He began service
as a choirboy in the cathedral in 1568 and, according to choir chaplain Antonio
Sánchez Cabañas, he was a student of Juan
Navarro, the cathedral's choirmaster during Esquivel's youth.
Esquivel's first position as maestro
de capilla came in 1581, when
he was named to the post in Oviedo, the capital of the province of Asturias in Northern
Spain. He left that position in 1585 and took a similar position
in the Riojan city of Calahorra. In 1591 he returned to Ciudad
Rodrigo as choirmaster, where he remained until his death.
Esquivel composed only sacred
music. His output survives in three publications, printed in Salamanca during
the early seventeenth century; a fourth book (Salamanca, 1623) of motets and
instrumental music was reported by Sanchez-Cabañas in his manuscript history of
Ciudad Rodrigo, but no copies of this have been found. Since he began his
career during a time when Spanish churches were adopting the Roman liturgy as
prescribed by the Council of Trent,
his music reveals an attempt to reconcile Spanish polyphonic traditions of the
sixteenth century with Tridentine preferences for clarity of text and brevity
of statement. This is especially true in his motets, which are among the
shortest in the repertoire.
His principal influences were Cristóbal
de Morales and Francisco
Guerrero, although some influence of his teacher, Navarro, is
sometimes evident. Esquivel's appreciation of Guerrero is apparent in his use
the older master's motets as sources for parody masses.
Esquivel, however, was never reluctant to set a text for which a previous
composer had gained some fame.
Esquivel's polyphonic style is characterized by succinctness
in his melodic subjects, an occasional use of noncadential chromaticism and
parallel motion between voices. His music has some similarity to Portuguese polyphony of his time.
Esquivel is another sadly neglected
Spanish composer but, thanks to Mapi Mundi and other similar small publishers,
new works are surfacing all the time.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Glory be to God on high,
and on earth peace, good will towards men.
11. Versa est in luctum - Alonso Lobo (1555-1617)
 |
Alonso Lobo
(1555 - 1617) |
The Spanish school of renaissance composers,
eventually to become one of the most splendid in Europe,
was something of a late developer. Although there were significant figures
working in Spain
in the first half of the 16th century, it was really only with the ebbing of
the tide of Franco-Flemish musicians at court that the astonishing depth of
talent being trained in the local choir schools came to the fore. Amongst the
most impressive of these men were Francisco Guerrero (1528-99) and Alonso Lobo
(1555-1617), almost certainly master and pupil. Lobo, who should not be
confused with his Portuguese namesake and near-contemporary Duarte Lôbo, is
perhaps best known now for his consummate motet Versa
est in luctum.
Lobo's musical language is detectably of a later
generation than that of Victoria,
even though Lobo was only seven years younger. The difference between them was
probably the training Victoria received in Rome, where he studied
Palestrina's compositional method, learning how to control long spans of music
without relying on constant changes of texture and harmonic speed. The
rhapsodic calmness of this style has led many commentators to attribute an
intensity and mysticism to Victoria's
music which is equated with the essence of Spanish Catholicism.
In fact Lobo
also had a style which it is possible to say was typically Spanish, since the
compositions of several of his contemporaries, including Vivanco and Esquivel,
resembled his; yet it relies on different ingredients. Beauty of contrapuntal
line is certainly there (Versa est
in luctum is
pre-eminent in this respect), but sometimes, where expressiveness seems to
require it, it is coupled to quite angular lines. And the relative lack of
Palestrinian smoothness carries through to the separate sections in Lobo's
music, which are often built on contrast, fast then slow, not usually to paint
the superficial meaning of each word but rather to induce in the listener's
mind the conflicting emotions behind them. Lobo's style was never purely
madrigalian, but a halfway point between it and the calm order of strictly
imitative counterpoint.
I have been told by many Counterpoint audience
members, here and abroad, that Lobo’s Versa
est in luctum is the one motet that they find synonymous with the choir. The
passion and pathos; the crescendos and diminuendos; the light and shade; the
sympathetic understanding of each singer’s line by the entire ensemble and the
glorious word-painting, these are what Counterpoint has excelled at over the
years. The first time we sang the work was in Locmaria, Quimper and I can still remember the audience
reaction. There are versions by Victoria, Padilla, Byrd, Vivanco and de Torres
but, for me, none come close to the power and emotion to be found in Lobo’s
interpretation.
Versa est in luctum cithara mea,
et organum meum in vocem flentium.
Parce mihi Domine,
nihil enim sunt dies mei.
My harp is tuned for mourning,
and my music to the voice of those who weep.
Spare me, O Lord,
for my days are as nothing.
« « « « «
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