Thy Kiss of a Divine Nature: The Contemporary Perotin.(Video recording review)

Thy Kiss of a Divine Nature: The Contemporary Perotin. The Hilliard Ensemble. Directed by Uli Aumuller. [Munich]: ArtHaus Musik, 2005. 100 695. $45.99.

Despite the fact that the Hilliard Ensemble is given top billing in the title, this really is not a performance DVD, but rather a more abstract film that addresses the way contemporary culture directly affects interpretation of Catholic dogma, art, architecture, and music. Director Uli Aumuller ties all of this together with one overarching thread; that performances of Perotin historically have reflected the culture of the time of the performance and not the culture of the time of Perotin. This unifying theme provides a creative springboard for Aumuller who presents a series of four separate narratives that are woven visually, aurally, and philosophically. The resulting film is one in which the performance of Perotin's music clearly reflects the culture of the first years of the third millennium rather than the first years of the second.

Aumuller, in following the unifying theme makes little attempt to create any sort of authentic context for the performance of two-, three-, and four-part French Gothic polyphony, The filming does not take place in the cathedral of Notre Dame, as would be expected, but instead in a variety of locations including Lubeck, Laon, Troves, Schleswig, Pfullingen, Notre Dame, and St. Denis. The music itself is however performed in an authentic manner.

The Hilliard Ensemble's performance of eight French polyphonic pieces from the 12th and 13th centuries serves as the cantus firmus to Aumuller's four-part narrative polyphony. The musical performances mostly take place in Lubeck, at the reconstructed St. Petri (the original building was destroyed in 1942), where the starkness and simplicity of the architecture contrasts beautifully with the ornate nature of the sung polyphony. Aumuller mentions in one of his commentaries on the second disc that the stark background of this edifice allows more imaginative freedom on the part of the listener as there is no visual ornament, but rather a blank canvas upon which the best decorator--the imagination, is provided the freedom to create. Despite the historically inaccurate performing venue, the musical performance of the Hilliard Ensemble is consistently impressive. Rhythmic animation drives their interpretation of the music, resulting in a lively, directional performance. This style of performance is of course representative of current musicological thought--that the music of the Ars Antiqua was a bit more animated, or "ecstatic" as mentioned in the film, rather than lugubrious and drawn out as was the performance norm for most of the 20th century.

The second "voice" is a series of scenes from a heated scholarly symposium where historians of various disciplines discuss Perotin and issues surrounding the culture in which his music was created. In this choreographed sequence of events, a mood of narrative tension is created through the presentation of intellectual prizefighting with the scholars constantly interrupting each other and promoting their own disparate viewpoints, The physical arrangement of the event is curiously in the choir of the cathedral, with the speaker standing in the center, between the two choir stalls. At moments of controversial discourse, the seated listeners pound on the wood of the individual choir stalls voicing their support or dissent. Who said musicology wasn't a spectator sport?

Informal, almost voyeuristic snippets of seemingly spontaneous conversation define the third narrative voice in the texture. The symposium scholars, as well as the choreographer Hans Kresnik and the two dancers, are "caught" discussing the issues of culture and performance while engaged in activities like grocery shopping, strolling through scenic landscapes or the halls of gothic cathedrals, and in backstage preparation.

Lastly, a series of collaborations between historian Martin Burckhardt and choreographer Kresnik are added. The two invent situations in which Perotin's music, biblical texts, and various two-dimensional graphic depictions of the Virgin are subjected to interpretation. Beyond the inauthentic addition of interpretive dance, many of the images curiously are often not of the Gothic era but rather ...