Download Literature and Arts C-22

Literature and Arts C-22
EUROPEAN CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Jan M. Ziolkowski ([email protected])
CD FOR LIT AND ARTS C-22: LISTENING ASSIGNMENT #1
Directions:
At the Language Resource Center in Lamont Library request the CD for
Literature and Arts C-22. You would do well to bring your sourcebook and these sheets
with you, so that you can follow the Latin texts and English translations of what you will
hear. On this sheet you will notice indications of specific tracks have been placed in
boldface; definitions of specific musicological terms have been enclosed in square
brackets [] and the terms themselves have been set in italics.
An Explanation of the Selections:
The selections on this CD were made on the basis not primarily of musicological
considerations but rather of thematic and cultural ones. In other words, I chose these
tracks because they connect with characters, real people, and texts we will be seeing and
not because they are necessarily the best examples of medieval music.
My principle of selection helps to explain why the CD opens (after the
introduction announcement) with tracks from a modern composition. From Carl Orff's
1937 oratorio (which is most definitely the creation of a twentieth-century composer
[Orff lived from 1895-1982] and not a performance based on modern transposition of
medieval notation) you will hear six tracks. [An oratorio is a composition with a long
libretto, often of a religious or contemplative nature, that is performed in a church or
concert hall with orchestra, chorus, and solo voices and without costume, scenery, or
actions.] Three (tracks 2-3 and 7) deal with the theme of fortune <sourcebook pp. 6769>, which we will encounter in a tradition both literary and artistic that leads from
Boethius down to the Carmina Burana manuscript. One of the tracks (track 4) from
Orff's Carmina Burana is a spring song <sourcebook p. 71>, another (track 5) a
drinking song <sourcebook pp. 77-78>, and a third (track 6) a "love in spring" song
<sourcebook pp. 82-84>. Because it is a favorite with the folks who decide what to put
into movie soundtracks, Orff's oratorio is as close as many people ever get to the lyrics of
the Middle Ages: real medieval lyrics (although incomprehensible to the average
multiplex audience because in Medieval Latin and Middle High German) but modern
music. The music has clearly defined tunes, powerful rhythm, and strongly emotional
solos. Instruments are rarely given solos.
Orff’s oratorio comprises cantata composed for solo voices, choir, and orchestra
and which he organized into scenes. [The cantata is a composite vocal form that contains
a number of movements, such as arias, duets, and choruses.] Orff’s composition has a
circular structure, in that it begins and ends with “O Fortuna” (tracks 2 and 7). Through
this structure Orff highlighted the medieval conception of the wheel of fortune, which is
always turning and which exposes human life to constant alternations between good and
poor luck. The three major central sections of the oratorio are devoted to human
appreciation for nature, especially as nature comes to life in the spring (track 4); human
appreciation for gifts of nature, particularly wine (track 5); and human appreciation for
love, which is sometimes associated with spring, sometimes wine, and sometimes both
(track 6). After Orff comes an intermezzo unrelated to the Carmina Burana: track 8 is
an early twelfth-century song (attested in at least two manuscripts: Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale, fonds latin, MS 3549 and MS 3719) that offers an allegorical interpretation of
King Solomon's temple <sourcebook pp. 101-102>. This is a polyphonic song.
[Polyphony is music that assembles simultaneously several voice-parts of distinctive
design, as opposed to monophonic music where there is a single melody or homophonic
music where there are several voice-parts of identical design. The different voice-parts in
this song are mostly consonant, but even so they are often enough separate even though
simultaneous to sound very different from harmonic sonority as we think of it.] On
March 23 we will examine a very heterogeneous assemblage of texts and legends
associated with Solomon.
Having cleared your sonic palates, you will return to the Carmina Burana but not
to Orff. Instead, you will listen to four attempts to recreate what individual songs in the
Carmina Burana might have sounded like in the Middle Ages. Such reconstruction is an
art and not a science. The notational signs that were used to record medieval music offer
partial information about pitch but much less about rhythm. [As you have probably
guessed or as you knew already, notational signs are the signs used for writing down
music. In the Middle Ages there developed a system of stenographic symbols known as
neumes that served to indicate the contours of melodic movement.] Furthermore, the
notational signs work differently when applied to plainsong (which is monophonic and
rhythmically free melody, especially the Gregorian chant), to secular monophonic
melodies, and to polyphonic music. To complicate matters further, medieval musical
instruments were not standardized in the way many modern ones are . . . and often our
only way of recreating them is to put together their early modern counterparts (since few
medieval instruments survive!) and representations of them in medieval art. Maybe our
lack of information about the instruments does not really matter much, since it is very
rarely that we have any indication of which instruments were supposed to be used in
playing which songs. All of this adds up to mean that considerable variety is possible in
performing one and the same medieval song. That is perhaps appropriate, because our
sense of a stable version of the music for a given song differs greatly from the attitudes
toward music and song that must have prevailed in the Middle Ages.
Tracks 9-11 offer three recreations of songs from the Carmina Burana under the
direction of Thomas Binkley, who work is highly regarded by many musicologists. His
attempt to reconstruct and perform the Carmina Burana in the early 1960s (and that is
what you hear in these three tracks) was pioneering. The first track (track 9)
<sourcebook pp. 72-73> is one of the Middle High German lyrics in the Carmina
Burana (its contents are largely but by no means entirely Latin!). A mezzo soprano is
accompanied by a bass-sized shawm (technically this instrument is a “bombarde,” an
ancestor of the oboe). The other two tracks (tracks 10-11) <sourcebook pp. 71 and 8284> present medievalizing versions of two songs that you heard already in Orff: the point
of these last two is to allow you to compare modern and would-be medieval. “Ecce
gratum” is performed by a tenor, to the accompaniment of lute, fiddle, organetto, bells,
and tambourine. “Tempus est iocundum” has a tenor singing to the harp, psaltery (a
zither-like instrument), and rahab (or rebab: a type of bowed string instrument that spread
from the Islamic world into Europe through Spain).
Track 12 creates a further juxtaposition, since it offers what another group of
performers recorded when they tried to render in medieval style one of the Carmina
Burana pieces <sourcebook pp. 77-78> to which you listened in the Orff selections.
Ever hear someone slightly intoxicated skirling on a bagpipe? The Clemencic Consort
aimed to emphasize the international character of the Carmina Burana music, especially
by incorporating the flavor of Middle Eastern (Arabic) music. Whether the result
corresponds in any way to what medieval music would have sounded like is an
interesting question. In their recording of this song the Consort employs male voices, two
types of rabab (or rebab), an alto cornett [not to be confused with the cornet, with one t!]
(a tube of wood that is octagonal in cross section), a bass shawm (the ancestor of the oboe
mentioned in the preceding paragraph), and two types of drums.
The Nitty-Gritty:
Below you will find full information on the titles of the recordings, the names of
the singers and conductors or directors, and the disk numbers and barcodes from the
jewel cases. If you decide that you cannot live without your own CDs, you would do well
to order them from a specialized shop or from a site on the web--you will not find them
in places like Strawberries! If you prefer live to digitized, know that the early music
scene in Boston is very active, with both active local artists and frequent visits from outof-town and foreign performers.
TITLES, NAMES, AND NUMBERS
Track
2
3
4
5
6
7
Carl Orff (1895-1982), Carmina Burana. Singers: Edita Gruberova, John
Aler, Thomas Hampson. Shinyukai Choir and Knaben des Staats- und Domchores Berlin.
Berliner Philharmoniker. Conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Philips 422 363-2 [barcode 0 28942
23632 5].
"O Fortuna" [2:19/original track 1] <sourcebook pp. 67-68>
"Fortune plango vulnera" [2:41/original track 2] <sourcebook pp. 68-69>
"Ecce gratum" [2:30/original track 5] <sourcebook p. 71>
"In taberna quando sumus" [2:55/original track 14] <sourcebook pp. 77-78>
"Tempus est iocundum" [2:22/original track 22] <sourcebook pp. 82-84>
"O Fortuna" [2:33/original track 25] <sourcebook pp. 67-68>.
8
Nova Cantica. Latin Songs of the High Middle Ages. Singers: Dominique Vellard
and Emmanuel Bonnardot. Schola cantorum basiliensis. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
77196-2-RC [barcode 0 5472-77196-2 2]
"Rex Salomon fecit templum" [6:53/original track 3] <sourcebook pp. 101-102>.
Carmina Burana. Studio der Frühen Musik: Thomas Binkley. Teldec LC 6019
[barcode 7 4509-95521-2 1].
9
10
11
12
"Chramer gip diu varwe mier" [0'59"/original disk 1, track 21] <sourcebook pp. 72-73>
"Ecce gratum" [2'58"/original disk 1, track 10] <sourcebook p. 71>
"Tempus est iocundum" [3'17"/original disk 1, track 12] <sourcebook pp. 82-84>.
Carmina Burana. Clemencic Consort: directed by René Clemencic. harmonia mundi
HMA 190336.38 [barcode 3 149025 044396].
"In taberna quando sumus" [2:42/original disk 1, track 7] <sourcebook pp. 77-78>.