Early Music articles from May 1997

Early Music archives from May 1997

Groomed for service: musicians in the Privy Chamber at the English court, c.1495-1558.(Music In and Around Tudor London)
May 1, 1997... Experience has shown that searches through documents to extract routine references to court musicians is a pretty hum-drum affair, best tackled in small doses if tedium is not to gain the upper hand. Nevertheless one's eye is always being...

Royal minstrels in the city and suburbs of early Tudor London: professional activities and private interests.(Music In and Around Tudor London)
May 1, 1997... By the 16th century and the reigns of the early Tudor kings, the royal household or `court' was the centre of politics, patronage and power.(1) Access to the monarch--the sole font of that power--and the ability to catch `either his ear or...

Music at the parish church of St Mary at Hill, London.(Music In and Around Tudor London)
May 1, 1997... It is only in recent years that historians have begun to realize the importance of the late medieval parish church in England. Music historians in particular have barely recognized its significance: Baillie's 1958 dissertation was the last...

The early Tudor court, the provinces and the Eton Choirbook.(Music In and Around Tudor London)
May 1, 1997... The great quadrangle of Eton College has changed little in appearance since Loggan published his panorama in 1688 (illus. 1). The college, founded by Henry VI in 1440 to celebrate his reaching adulthood after a 15-year regency, dominates the...

Discovering the provenance and history of the Caius and Lambeth choirbooks.(Music In and Around Tudor London)
May 1, 1997... The Caius and Lambeth choirbooks, the chief repositories of the music of Robert Fayrfax and Nicholas Ludford, are the most complete manuscripts of their type to have survived from the reign of Henry VIII.(1) Noteworthy is their remarkable...

Spatial effects in English instrumental consort music, c.1560-1605.(Music In and Around Tudor London)
May 1, 1997... In a recent study of Byrd's string fantasia a 6 in g, no.1, I took issue with Oliver Neighbour over his use of the terms `antiphony' and 'antiphonal' to describe features of Byrd's consort music.(1) My reasoning was that in single-group...

The recording history of the Eton Choirbook: a preliminary investigation.(Music In and Around Tudor London)
May 1, 1997... The Eton Choirbook (Eton College Library Ms. 178) is a seminal English music manuscript. But for its survival, the labours of two generations of English composers would have been lost. Let us imagine that the choirbook had fallen prey to a...

Bach's chorus: who cares?(response to Ton Koopman in Early Music, vol. 24, p. 605, November 1996)
May 1, 1997... `Let us hope it is not true, but if it is, let us hope it will not be generally known.' (A contemporary response to Darwin's theory of evolution) Readers of the November 1996 issue of Early music will have encountered two sharply...

Bassoons, violins and voices: a response to Ton Koopman.(in Early Music, vol. 24, p. 605, November 1996)
May 1, 1997... Little as I wish to take public issue with a fellow musician, I cannot really let some portions of Ton Koopman's recent musings about the performance and recording of Bach's cantatas pass without comment. Addressing what has become the...

Papal Music Manuscripts in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries.
May 1, 1997... Renaissance Manuscript Studies, v (Neuhausen: American Institute of Musicology/Hanssler-Verlag, 1996), DM 228 The choir of the papal chapel may well be the oldest musical institution in existence, especially if one accepts its continuity...

The Recorder: A Guide to Writings About the Instrument for Players and Researchers.
May 1, 1997... Music Research and Information Guides, xix (New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1994), $70 David Lasocki is in a uniquely strong position to survey the field of research into the recorder. For some 30 years he has set consistently high...

The Recorder in the 17th Century: Proceedings of the International Recorder Symposium, Utrecht 1993.
May 1, 1997... ed. David Lasocki (Utrecht: STIMU, 1995) David Lasocki is in a uniquely strong position to survey the field of research into the recorder. For some 30 years he has set consistently high standards of scholarship, notably with his work on...

Thomas Crecquillon Collected Works, vol. 6, Motets in Five Voices.
May 1, 1997... (Neuhausen: American Institute of Musicology/HansslerVerlag, 1996) 6: Motets in five voices, ed. Mary Tiffany Ferer and Barton Hudson, DM 178 As part of the famous controversy between Monteverdi and the theorist Artusi, Monteverdi's...

Thomas Crecquillon Collected Works, vol. 7, Motets in Five Voices.
May 1, 1997... (Neuhausen: American Institute of Musicology/HansslerVerlag, 1996) 7: Motets in five voices, ed. Barton Hudson, Mary Tiffany Ferer and Laura Youens, DM 178 As part of the famous controversy between Monteverdi and the theorist Artusi,...

Thomas Crecquillon Collected Works, vol. 11, Motets in Four Voices.
May 1, 1997... (Neuhausen: American Institute of Musicology/HansslerVerlag, 1996) 11: Motets in four voices, ed. Barton Hudson and Mary Tiffany Ferer, DM 198 As part of the famous controversy between Monteverdi and the theorist Artusi, Monteverdi's...

Fortsetzung des Harmonischen Gottesdienstes.
May 1, 1997... G. P. Telemann, ed. Jeanne Swack (Albany, CA: PRB Productions), vols. 1 & 2 (1996), $72 each; thematic index (1994), $15 It is regrettable that Telemann's music has not attracted the scholarly interest that his contemporaries Bach and Handel...

Solomon: A Serenata.
May 1, 1997... William Boyce, ed. Ian Bartlett Musica Britannica, lxviii (London: Stainer and Bell, 1996), 71.50 [pounds sterling] This volume from Musica Britannica fills one of the most conspicuous holes in the current catalogue of publications of...

Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame, Songs from Le Voir Dit.
May 1, 1997... As easily the most recorded piece written before 1500 (at least 1s times by my reckoning), it is tempting to ask whether we need still more recordings of the Machaut Mass. But time goes on and fashions change, and, while one might prefer to see...

Messe de Tournai.
May 1, 1997... Also from Peres and the Ensemble Organum is Messe de Tournai (Harmonia Mundi France HMC 901353, rec 1990). In this recording of five years earlier one can easily perceive the line of development that culminated in the Machaut performance....

Barcelona Mass, Song of the Sibyl.
May 1, 1997... But the most convincing musical package of the four under review here must surely be the coupling of the Song of the Sibyl with the Barcelona Mass in Barcelona Mass/Song of the Sibyl, by Obsidienne, directed by Emmanuel Bonnardot (Opus 111,...

Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame.
May 1, 1997... As easily the most recorded piece written before 1500 (at least 1s times by my reckoning), it is tempting to ask whether we need still more recordings of the Machaut Mass. But time goes on and fashions change, and, while one might prefer to see...

La Chapelle des Chantres du Duc de Lorraine.
May 1, 1997... In the last few years the lesser-known composers of the 16th and 17th centuries have gained a notable foothold in the CD catalogue, as the recordings reviewed in this issue testify: Melgas and Rebelo, for instance, or Bach's Dresden...

Il Codice di Staffarda.
May 1, 1997... On to Engarandus Juvenis, who (like Pierquin) was active at the turn of the 16th century. His works are found only in the Staffarda Codex (Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, Ris. Mus. 1, 27, available in the Garland facsimile...

Echoes of Joan of Arc.
May 1, 1997... Reginald Libert's only claim to fame is the three-voice Missa de Beata Virgine recorded by Schola Discantus as Echoes of Joan of Arc (Lyrichord, LEMS 8025, rec 1995). It is one of only two securely ascribed Mass Plenary cycles, the other...

Passion.
May 1, 1997... We end on more familiar territory with the Orlando Consort's Passion (Metronome MET CD 1015, rec 1995). Issued earlier this year in time for the Lenten season, it consists of a selection of works connected with the liturgical period up to...

Victoria: Officium defunctorum.
May 1, 1997... In the last decade or so, the field of Iberian music has become one of the most fruitful points of collaboration between musicologists and performing musicians; the list of eminent scholars involved in some way or another on the recordings...

Rebelo and Melgas.
May 1, 1997... Two discs of Portuguese polyphony are also laudable, if for different reasons. The recording of music by Rebelo and Melgas (Collins Classics 14652, rec 1996) by The Sixteen under Harry Christophers is astonishing for the contrast in musical...

Holy Week at the Chapel of the Dukes of Braganza.
May 1, 1997... Christophers' recording shares one piece--Rebelo's Panis angelicus--with Holy Week at the chapel of the dukes of Braganza (Hyperion CDA66867, rec 1996), from A Capella Portuguesa, conducted by Owen Rees and co-directed by Bernadette Nelson....

Frescobaldi: Fiori musicali, vol. 2, Messa della Madonna.
May 1, 1997... Keyboard music of the early 17th century has not made the same inroads into the recorded repertory as choral and vocal music, and has still to catch the ear and imagination of many listeners. In part perhaps this is due to the style and...

Frescobaldi: Il primo libro di capricci.
May 1, 1997... Frescobaldi's 12 capriccios (1624) are incredible feats of contrapuntal writing. Packed with devices and wit, they are every bit as sophisticated as Bach's Art of fugue. They make ferocious demands on keyboard technique and require an...

Frescobaldi: Partite and toccate.
May 1, 1997... Although Butt is impressive, by far my favourite disc in this group is Pierre Hantai's Frescobaldi: Partite & toccate (Astree E 8585, rec 1996), a recital of music taken mostly from the two books of toccatas, and comprising ten toccatas,...

Frescobaldi: Toccate, arie, canzone.
May 1, 1997... The fourth disc is Frescobaldi: Toccate, arie, canzone (Solstice, SOCD 124, rec 1995), a varied recital recorded by Jacques Beraza on a new organ by Alain Sals (1987), built in the Italian manner in an Italianate case originally made in 1499...

Concerti 'per l'orchestra di Dresda.'
May 1, 1997... `Encourage the arts, Madame,' was the advice Frederick the Great offered the Electress of Saxony, `nothing lends more posthumous fame to our lives.' She had no need of the advice, for the electoral capital had long since earned its nickname of...

Zelenka, Pisendel: Concerti et al.
May 1, 1997... The point is nicely made by the second disc, Zelenka, Pisendel: Concerti et al. (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472-77339-2, rec 1994), by the Freiburger Barockorchester under Gottfried von der Goltz, since it also includes Pisendel's orchestral...

Handel: Organ Concertos.
May 1, 1997... `The master hath but two points to work on', wrote Roger North when discussing composition. `The first is Harmony, which like the soul animates the mass which would be dead without it... The other is Humanity.' Arguably few composers had...