Landsknechte, etching by Daniel Hopfer, c. 1530
Into Battle! a workshop for singers and instrumentalists
VOICES & INSTRUMENTS
Tutor: Clive Walkley
Location: St Mark’s Church, Natland
Reviewer: Valerie Pedlar
Battle Music in the 16th century, Clive Walkley, Natland, 14 May.
On 14 May, in the quiet village church of St Mark’s, Natland, a group of 25 singers and 14 instrumentalists went into battle with five pieces of Spanish Renaissance battle music. The band of lower-voiced recorders, shawms, curtals, sackbuts and cornets gave the pieces the appropriate flavour and a bass viol provided the necessary continuo.
Clive’s interesting handout gave us some of the history of the strange phenomenon of, on the one hand, music that aimed to evoke the sounds of the battle-field, and on the other hand, music for the church that drew on famous battle music – in particular, ‘L’homme armé’ and Clement Janequin’s chanson ‘La bataille’ (1529). As an example of secular battle music we sang Andrea Gabrieli’s ‘Battaglia’: 8 voices divided into 2 choirs. The music described a call to arms and had voices imitating trumpets with their fanfare-like phrases: ‘Fan, fa, ri, fa, ri, ron, ron’.
The other pieces by Guerrero, Esquivel and Victoria were masses, or parts of masses, which used motifs from the Janequin song, a song which, as Clive pointed out, provided plenty of themes for such parody masses to draw on. The mass by Cererols, when we were divided into three four-part choirs, made a suitably resounding finale to the day.
As always with these NWEMF workshops, I felt I’d been taken into new territory. This battle music may not rank with the best that the Renaissance has to offer, but it was exciting and, because we were singing mostly from parts rather than vocal scores, challenging. I came away with renewed respect for the sixteenth-century singers who never had the luxury of vocal scores!
Valerie Pedlar
First published in June 2016 Newsletter
