Early Music articles from May 1994

Early Music archives from May 1994

Questions of performance practice in Philip III's chapel. (Iberian Discoveries II)
May 1, 1994... After the Spanish monarchy had established Madrid as its capital in 1561 Philip II devoted a good deal of his time to the consolidation of the royal household. He was a tireless administrator, and he used his skills to create a firm structure...

Newly identified holograph manuscripts from late-Renaissance Portugal. (Iberian Discoveries II)
May 1, 1994... At present there exists no general study of the survival of holograph musical manuscripts from the Renaissance period. Relatively few such sources have so far been identified, and only a small proportion of these are associated with prominent...

Sir Richard Terry and 16th-century polyphony. (Iberian Discoveries II)
May 1, 1994... In his history of music, published in 1928, Cecil Gray discussed the sacred polyphony of Morales, Guerrero and Victoria. Its most distinctive traits, he thought, are an |expressiveness tinged with melancholy, combined with an intensely...

Penalosa on record. (Francisco de Penalosa) (Iberian Discoveries II)
May 1, 1994... Part of me, I can now confess, always envied my friends who worked on Brahms and Handel. I could see myself sitting at a comfortably littered desk, with a picture of my composer tacked up on the wall for inspiration, with a few volumes of the...

Models of Musical Analysis: Music Before 1600.
May 1, 1994... ed. Mark Everist (Oxford: Blackwekkm 1992), 45[pounds] This book implies a certain guilt. Cautiously though Mark Everist has phrased his Introduction, he gives the impression that writers about music before 1600 have generally been...

The Birth of Opera.
May 1, 1994... (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993), 35[pounds] One of Fred Sternfeld's many interests was early opera and its Renaissance antecedents; in the bibliography of The birth of opera there are 13 entries under his name, ranging from 1972 to 1988....

Music in the Medieval English Liturgy: Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society Centennial Essays.
May 1, 1994... ed. Susan Rankin and David Hiley (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 55[pounds] What liberties could singers of organum take at cadences in Winchester? How can one analyse music that cannot be transcribed with certainty? How |English' is...

William Byrd: Gradualia I, 1605, other feasts and devotions, vol. 6b.
May 1, 1994... ed. Philip Brett, The Byrd Edition, vol. 6b (London: Stainer & Bell, 1993), 40.00[pounds] The publication of this volume brings to a glorious conclusion the three-volume subset of the Byrd Edition devoted to the composer's first book of...

John Blow: Anthems III, Anthems With Strings.
May 1, 1994... ed. Bruce Wood, Musica Britannica, lxiv (London: Stainer & Bell, 1993), 65[pounds] This fine volume contains nine anthems composed during Blow's first decade as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (1974-84), including When Israel came out of...

Las edades del hombre: la musica en la iglesia de Castilia y Leon.
May 1, 1994... These illustrations are reproduced from Las edades del hombre: la musica en la iglesia de Castilla y Leon, exhibition catalogue (Leon, 1991). This beautifully produced catalogue contains a wealth of hitherto little known or unknown...

Jean-Fery Rebel: Les Elemens.
May 1, 1994... ed. Catherine Cessac, Musica Gallica (Salabert Editions, 1993) Rebel's sensational historic landmark representing the elements is already on CD and could hardly have been a more appropriate choice for one of the first of the Musica...

Jean-Joseph Cassanea de Mondonville: De profundis.
May 1, 1994... ed. Sylvie Bouissou (Grands motets, i), Musica Gallica (Salabert Editions, 1993) Rebel's sensational historic landmark representing the elements is already on CD and could hardly have been a more appropriate choice for one of the first...

Andre Campra: Deus noster refugium.
May 1, 1994... ed. Bernadette Lespinard (Grands motets, i), Musica Gallica (Salabert Editions, 1993) Rebel's sensational historic landmark representing the elements is already on CD and could hardly have been a more appropriate choice for one of the...

Francois Couperin: Les Nations.
May 1, 1994... [1726 edition: La Francoise-L'Espagnole-L'Imperiale-La Piemontaise; Lyons manuscript: La Pucelle-La Visionnaire-L'Astree-La Steinkerque; Paris Manuscript: La Pucelle-La Visionnaire-L'Astree-La Steinkerque] (Fac-simile Jean-Marc Fuzeau, 1993)...

Antoine Francisque: Le Tresor d'Orphee.
May 1, 1994... (Geneva: Minkoff, 1993), paperback reissue of 1973 facsimile, SF 50 (25[pounds]) It is pleasing to report an improvement in facsimile production. In 1986 I wrote, |Compare the original of Francisque's Trisor d'Orphee (1600) with the...

Thesaurus harmonicus.
May 1, 1994... (Geneva: Minkoff, 1993), paperback reissue of 1975 facsimile, SF 150 (75[pounds]) It is pleasing to report an improvement in facsimile production. In 1986 1 wrote, |Compare the original of Fraricisque's Trisor d'Orphee (1600) with the...

Ars magis subtiliter.
May 1, 1994... There is much to be said for the result. Ars magis subtiliter, a representative sampling of late 14th-century French song including many fine (if oft-recorded) pieces, is already an excellent disc, restrained in its choice of colours but...

The Island of St Hylarion.
May 1, 1994... This is one of the most interesting developments through their three discs reviewed here. Ars magis subtiliter (NA 021 CD, rec 1987) makes wholly conventional use of instruments for all untexted parts; The Island of St Hylarion (NA 038 CD,...

Homage to Johannes Ciconia.
May 1, 1994... Ensemble Project Ars Nova (PAN) has its roots in the mecca of vocal/instrumental groups, the Schola Cantorum at Basel. Most of its permanent members either teach or studied there, absorbing and continuing the tradition of Thomas Binkley's...

Maestri Padani e Fiamminghi.
May 1, 1994... The playing on these two instruments by Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini and Liuwe Tamminga of two collections of Renaissance and early Baroque music--Maestri Padani e Fiamminghi (Tactus TC460001, rec 1990) and a selection of works by Andrea and...

Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli.
May 1, 1994... The playing on these two instruments by Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini and Liuwe Tamminga of two collections of Renaissance and early Baroque music--Maestri Padani e Fiamminghi (Tactus TC460001, rec 1990) and a selection of works by Andrea and...

Nicolaus Bruhns and Dietrich Buxtehude.
May 1, 1994... From a somewhat later period comes the selection of works by Nicolaus Bruhns and Dietrich Buxtehude (Chandos CHAN 0539, rec 1992), played by Piet Kee on the restored organ of Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark. Here the organ has been rebuilt and...

Die historische Chororgeln der Klosterkirche zu Muri.
May 1, 1994... The final collection here is of Die historische Chororgeln der Klosterkirche zu Muri (Koch Schwann 3-1284-2, rec 1990)--or of the historic |chorus organs', as the English version of the title misleadingly has it. The repertory is described as...

Purcell: The Complete Anthems and Services, vol. 5.
May 1, 1994... It was George Bernard Shaw who, when writing of the Lowes brothers, placed their achievement in a broad 17th-century context: ... it was very charming music, inferior to that of Purcell and Handel only because Purcell and Handel happened...

Blow: Fairest Work of Happy Nature, Songs and Keyboard Music.
May 1, 1994... The great revelation on |Fairest work of happy nature': songs and keyboard music by John Blow (Hyperion CDA66646, rec 1993), performed by John Mark Ainsley, Timothy Roberts and Paula Chateauneuf, is the song of the title, a strophic air...

Blow: Awake My Lyre, Domestic Music.
May 1, 1994... To be sure, a similar arrangement is used on |Awake my lyre': domestic music by John Blow Hyperion CDA66658, rec 1993), performed by Red Byrd and the Parley of Instruments, but here the music is deliberately chosen to illustrate the domestic...

Purcell: Songs from Orpheus Britannicus.
May 1, 1994... The music on the final recording, Henry Purcell: Grigs from Orpheus Britannicus (Astree Auvidis E8757, rec 1992), performed by Agnes Mellon, Christophe Rousset and Wieland Kuijken, comprises songs and keyboard music taken from the great...

Music at the Court of Louis XIV.
May 1, 1994... On Music at the court of Louis XIV (Harmonia Mundi 05472 77176 2, rec 1991) Le Trio Royal not only provide us with almost precisely the same instrumental line-up that gave such pleasure to Madame de Sevigne but also include music by two of...

French Baroque Flute Music.
May 1, 1994... Blavet and Hotteterre also feature on Rachel Brown's well devised survey of French Baroque flute music (Chandos CHANO544, rec 1993) alongside compositions by La Barre, Leclair and Rameau. The flute's appearance in the concert described by Mme...

French Baroque Harpsichord.
May 1, 1994... Sophie Yates presents a further anthology of French Baroque harpsichord (Chandos CHANO545, rec 1993). Predictably and aptly her recital includes music by Francois Couperin and Rameau, including a dazzling performance of La Dauphine. But she...

Louis Couperin.
May 1, 1994... Katherine Roberts devotes her recital to the pieces de clavecin Louis Couperin (Koch International Classics 3-7239-2H1, issued 1993). She plays 26 pieces, grouped into four suites. Roberts is a fine and capable player, and she plays an...

Racine: Cantiques spirituels.
May 1, 1994... Pascal Collasse, like both Marais and D'Anglebert, was a pupil of Lully and closely associated with the Paris Opera. Indeed, he is best known to posterity for the hours he spent as Lully's hack, filling in the parties de remplissage of his...

Leclair: Sonatas for Strings.
May 1, 1994... Leclair's op.13 trios, which consist of three operatically full-blooded ouvertures and three sonates en trio, were published in 1753, 11 years before his murder. At least four of the works are Leclair's own transcriptions of earlier...

Rameau: Cantatas.
May 1, 1994... Now, however, justice has been done. The |new' work, along with three others, may be heard on Jean-Philippe Rameau: Cantatas (McGill Records 750039-2, rec 1992), a recording produced by McGill University, Montreal, with which most of the...

Rameau: Pieces de clavecin en concerts.
May 1, 1994... From that same decade comes less of a rarity, the Pieces de clavecin en concerts (Simax PSC 1095, rec 1992), which Rameau published in 1741. The formidable technical challenges and musical excellence of this set have inspired a number of fine...

Rameau: Suite 'Les Paladins.'
May 1, 1994... The comedie lyrique Les Paladins (1760) is one of the distressingly large number of Rameau operas that have never been recorded in anything like their full state. A tantalizing if frustrating glimpse of what we are thereby missing is provided...

Telemann: Suiten.
May 1, 1994... In 1705 Telemann was appointed Kapellmeister to Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau, now part of Poland. The count was a particular admirer of French instrumental music, and his new court composer was required to write numerous orchestral...

Telemann: Fantasie per il flauto di voce, senza basso.
May 1, 1994... At the other end of the scale from the orchestral suites are Telemann's fantasies for solo instrument without bass. The two surviving sets of 12 appeared in Hamburg in the 173os. Although both are designated for violin, it is apparent from...

Telemann: Werke mit obligatem Cembalo aus den Essercizii Musici.
May 1, 1994... In 1737-8 Telemann spent several months in Paris, where the court applauded his music and he was granted a royal publishing privilege. The Essercizii musici were published a year later in Hamburg, and were, in fact, the last works to be...

Telemann: Chamber Music.
May 1, 1994... There is nothing ponderous, however, about the disc from the new young group Florilegium. Two of the group's members, violinist Rachel Podger and theorbist William Carter, also belong to the Palladian Ensemble, whose splendid debut disc...

Conference: music in Spain during the 18th century. (Iberian Discoveries II)
May 1, 1994... The study of music in Spain in the 18th century has been unjustly neglected, largely because of the received opinion encountered in most history books, in Spain and elsewhere, that Spanish music of this period is but a pale imitation of...

David Jacques Way, harpsichord maker, 1918-94. (Obituary)
May 1, 1994... To be a fast, yet thorough, learner and to have the willingness and ability to get the job done well, all by yourself if necessary, are the universally admired qualities of the pioneers of the American West. David Jacques Way embodied these...

'Singin' in the rain': yet more on dating 'Dido.' (Dido and Aeneas) (response to Curtis Price in Early Music, vol. 20, no. 2, Feb. 1994)
May 1, 1994... |If a man will begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end certainties.'--Sir Francis Bacon, The advancement of learning (1605), I.iv.12. There is evidence to show that Dido...