Program NoteS

For centuries the Papal Choir was the most prestigious musical organization in all of Europe. Consisting of only the very finest singers and composers, the choir was the Pope’s personal musical ensemble, performing for him in his personal chapel, the Sistine Chapel, and traveling with him wherever he went to celebrate mass. Some of the most illustrious names associated with the music of this period were members of the Choir: Josquin, Morales, Allegri, and, perhaps the name most people recognize as the apogee of Renaissance polyphony, Palestrina.

 

It is my pleasure to introduce Kirin Nielsen to Bella Voce audiences as our first guest program annotator in many years. Her doctoral dissertation on Palestrina’s spiritual madrigals won the national Herford prize for excellence in research, and is cited in the Palestrina article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. She is an enthusiastic performer of early music and sings altus on this program.

~Andrew Lewis

 

Josquin des Prez: Praeter rerum seriem                                                                               ca. 1450-1521

                                                                                                                                in Papal Choir 1489-ca. 1495

 

Josquin Lebloitte dit “des Prez” was the greatest composer in Europe in the period between Dufay and Palestrina. Peter Phillips writes, “He was a star in his lifetime, travelling more widely, being paid better and having more desirable employment than anyone else; and he has become a star again more recently.” Martin Luther famously declared that Josquin was “the master of the notes; they must do as he wills. As for other composers, they have to do so as the notes will.” But we don’t know a lot about him. The year and place of his birth are uncertain, his family name was just discovered (“des Prez” is a nickname), his education and training are unknown, and the only idea we have about his personality is that he was arrogant, difficult, and demanding.

 

Born in northern France, Josquin spent much of his career in Italy, including 1489-ca. 1495 (or 1498) as a singer in the Papal Choir. By the time of his death in 1521, he was famous all over Europe. So many printers continued to publish music falsely attributed to Josquin (to sell the music) that in 1550 someone quipped, “now that Josquin is dead, he is putting out more works than while he was still alive.”

 

All of Josquin’s music is intellectually and vocally complex and demanding, but ultimately supremely rewarding. His motets are particularly so, and “Praeter rerum seriem” is recognized as one of his greatest. The text comes from the sequence chant for the midnight mass on Christmas. It speaks of the mystery of the Incarnation, and Josquin’s music begins with a deep, dense phrase that frames the scene perfectly. The motet is based on the melody of the chant that consists of three repeated lines. Josquin uses an old technique here, presenting the chant in long tones sung by sopranos and tenors, as a sort of scaffolding for the other, more active, vocal parts. Characteristically for Josquin, short motifs are repeated many times, giving a restless forward motion to the work until the lilting triple section leads to a profound close.

 

Cristóbal de Morales: Spem in Alium                                                                                      ca.1500-1553

                                                                                                                                                in Papal Choir 1535-1545

 

Morales is considered to be the most important Spanish composer before Victoria. His work, almost entirely vocal with sacred texts, was widely distributed throughout Europe and the New World. Born in Seville, he began his career in Spain, and was hired as a freelance organist at the Vatican in 1522.  He moved to Rome to join the Papal Choir in 1535. (In fact, most of the singers in the Choir were not Italian.) In 1545, unsuccessful at finding other employment, he returned to Spain and held two more important posts at large cathedrals. (It seems that he too was arrogant and highly demanding of his singers.) Morales composed 21 masses--some “spectacularly difficult,” at least 90 motets, and many other works, a large number of which were probably composed for the Papal Choir.

 

“Spem in Alium” is a respond from Sunday Matins during the reading of the history of Judith. Morales’s expert skill in writing polyphony is clear.  Each successive line of the text is presented with a new musical idea which is passed from one voice to another, resulting in tight musical cohesiveness.  Its rather thick texture is full of strikingly unusual dissonances, particularly false (or “cross”) relations. This kind of dissonance occurs, for example, when F-sharp is heard immediately after F-natural in another voice, or when those two pitches are heard at the same time.  The harmonic language sounds reliably “minor,” but then slips into a more archaic palette of tones.  Through this, Morales creates an intensity of expression that found its roots in Spanish Catholicism.

 

Gregorio Allegri: Miserere mei, Deus                                                                                     1582 - 1652

                                                                                                                                                in Papal Choir 1629-1652

 

Allegri was a native of Rome, and he was trained from his days as a young chorister to be a fine composer and singer.  His contemporaries saw him as a guardian of the conservative contrapuntal style as exemplified in Palestrina’s music.  His compositions formed a substantial part of the Papal Choir’s repertoire during his tenure there.

 

Mention Allegri’s name, and one piece comes to mind: “Miserere mei, Deus” with its somber chant and soaring high C in the solo soprano part.  The annual performance of the “Miserere” during Holy Week was draped in mystery because of the secret ornamentation added by the Papal Choir; unauthorized copying incurred severe punishment. (The young Mozart famously heard the composition once in the Sistine Chapel and then wrote it down from memory, as did at least two other composers.)  However what has become so popular is very different from what was originally composed.

 

The piece is a falsobordone, a style of recitation associated with harmonized Gregorian chant. Two choirs alternate in declaiming the text in speech rhythm, with the end of each phrase having a composed ending. Between these statements are phrases of chant sung in unison. The effect is mesmerizing, even hypnotic.

 

British musicologist Ben Byram-Wigfield undertook a thorough study of the history of the work. His research led him to find several printed versions of the piece, showing a huge variety in structure, harmony, rhythm, and ornamentation. Some copying errors were carried through in subsequent versions; other versions combined different versions without attribution. What modern choirs got was a mess of Allegri’s music with various accretions of errors and traditions, including the famous “top C.”

 

Just as art restorers carefully cleaned Michelangelo’s magnificent Sistine Chapel ceiling, so has Byram-Wigfield applied the results of his study to remove layers of errors and later traditions from Allegri’s work.  What you will hear in this concert is his reconstruction of Allegri’s original work, with the addition of some authentic ornaments as would have been in the musical repertoire of the Papal Choir.

 

 *If you are interested in reading more about Byram-Wigfield’s work, you can find it on the internet at www.ancientgroove.co.uk/essays/allegri.html

 

Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli                                                                                            ca. 1525/26 – 1594

                                                                                                                                                in papal chapel choir 1555

 

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s career was linked with the Vatican from early on and, except for a large gap, until the end of his life. In 1551 he was brought to Rome by Pope Julius III, formerly bishop of the city of Palestrina when he was elevated to the papacy. He was hired to direct the choir of the Cappella Giulia, one of two choirs at the Vatican, and also composed for the papal choirs. Julius III appointed him to the Sistine Chapel choir in 1555 (the singers were annoyed that he didn’t have to go through the audition), but Palestrina was dismissed a few months later by the next pope, who enforced a rule against married singers. Palestrina was prolific, composing 104 masses and hundreds of other works in a conservative style. Famous in his lifetime, he had a profound and continuing influence on generations of composers who learned from and sought to emulate his smooth, perfect counterpoint.

 

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) was convened partly to reform the practices of the church. It set forth decrees pertaining to the proper characteristics of church music.  Although there was an attempt to ban polyphony from church, the only ratified decree proclaimed that priests “keep away from the churches compositions in which there is an intermingling of the lascivious or impure, whether by instrument or voice." The view that Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli was the piece that prevented the prohibition of polyphony was first suggested in 1607 and continued for well over 300 years.  (Another composer’s work had that role.) This legend and the phrase that Palestrina was “the savior of church music” still persists, despite modern textbooks saying it is untrue.

 

The date of composition of Missa Papae Marcelli is unknown, perhaps 1546, perhaps 1562–1563. The work is in Palestrina’s “mature” style, devoted "to chordal writing and simultaneous, syllabic declamation." We get the overall impression of balance from the entire work. The sections with the shortest texts --  Kyrie, Sanctus-Benedictus, and Agnus Dei -- are fairly polyphonic, with overlapping entries of voices, and relatively equal importance among the voice parts. Each new text phrase presents a new motive, picked up by each voice in turn. The opening motive of the Kyrie is a leap up followed by a smooth descending line – a balance of energy followed by relaxation -- and cascades of these descending scales are heard through the Mass. The Gloria and Credo are primarily homophonic, with voices moving together in block chords, resulting in ultimate text clarity; the homophonic texture makes it possible to get through a lot of words in a hurry! Palestrina achieves variety here with contrasting density—three voices for one phrase, more in other phrases, and all six parts reserved for the most important words.  Again, we have balance: polyphony at the beginning and end of the mass, and sturdy homophony anchoring the central statements of faith.