Music for Lent and Passiontide (+ AGM), a workshop for singers and instrumentalists
VOICES & INSTRUMENTS
Tutor: Roger Wilkes
Location: : St John’s Church, Knutsford
Reviewer: David Parry
After a week of sleet and snow, a sunny but cold Saturday morning heralded a day of sixteenth and seventeenth century music as we made our way to Knutsford’s splendidly restored eighteenth century parish church. Arriving at the car park, I became slightly apprehensive that the twenty-first century might make unwelcome incursions into our proceedings as a jumbo jet flew rivet-countingly low over me, our venue lying on the approach path to Manchester Airport!
I need not have worried – for the rest of the day I was oblivious of the air traffic as the music transported us to Venice and her sphere of influence. That is not to say that the venue’s acoustical properties were not of some initial interest, but Roger had chosen to locate our semi-circle half-way down the right side of the nave, facing inwards, so any concerns were dispelled with our first read-through.
More challenging than the internal acoustic and external noises was the slightly disappointing enrolment for the day, and its disproportionate effect on the representation of the upper voices. To accommodate this and composer requirements, the vocal parts needed to be re-allocated for each work, giving rise to a version of musical chairs! Additionally, Roger was able to suggest some reinforcement from the instrumentalists – a sackbut, two cornetts and recorders, deployment varying by work – combining with the voices to re-create a Venetian sound in this resonant space.
Our first work was Adoramus te, Jesu Christe, a polychoral motet (2 x 4 voices) by Jacobus Gallus (1550-1591), a Slovenian composer who was influenced by the Venetian school, as exemplified by this piece. Moving around the Habsburg lands, Gallus (aka Jacob Handl, inter alia) at some time worked in both Vienna and Prague.
Following this, we reverted to single choir formation for Timor et tremor, a six part motet by the peripatetic Netherlander, Orlandus Lassus (c1530-1594), with possible Venetian influence. Here Roger pointed us to Lassus’s skill in word setting, imaginative word painting to emphasise darkness, and syncopation in the soprano part against on-the-beat minims in the bass to underline the words non confundar. The theme of this work prompted a brief discussion about whether Christian belief is essential for convincing singing of such charged material before wisely leaving the issue for another time and place!
We then moved on to Salvum me fac Deus, a seven part work based on Psalm 69 by Giovanni Prioli (or Priuli) (c1575-1626), sometime organist at St Mark’s and San Rocco. He was also a close associate (and pupil) of Giovanni Gabrieli, whose influence may be heard in this piece, which may have been written for Graz, Austria after Prioli left Venice for the Habsburg lands. At first reading, this work was challenging, and the intervention of lunch and the AGM may have had a slightly detrimental effect, prophesised by the phrase infixus sum in limum profundi1, which Prioli pointedly chose to word-paint.
Returning to as much terra firma as is possible in la Serenissima, the next three pieces came from a collection of Venetian Motets, edited by Denis Arnold. Firstly, Hei Mihi! Domine in five parts by Baldassare Donato (c1525-1603), a solemnly contrapuntal piece by a composer who was often one of Venice’s more progressive composers, who rose to be maestro di capella at St Mark’s. This was followed by Adoramus Te, a six part work by Claudio Merulo (1533-1604), another former organist of St Mark’s. Our third motet from the collection was Maria stabat by Andrea Gabrieli (c1532-1585), uncle of Giovanni, who also became organist at St Mark’s, having lost out initially to Merulo. The text describes a weeping Mary, meeting two angels at the empty tomb of Jesus on Easter Day, which was generally considered to be a particularly beautiful piece.
The day’s singing was concluded with Christe, Adoramus Te, a five part motet by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) from 1617 in the early days of his appointment to St Mark’s. This was a particularly impressive piece with which to finish, and appreciated by an incoming musical group who were following us in St John’s.
“Music for Lent and Passiontide” was a most enjoyable and informative event and thank you to Roger for his selection of pieces and interpretation of the musical and historical context.
David Parry
1I stick fast in the mire of the deep.
First published in April 2016 Newsletter
