This reissue is effectively the third part of a triptych, of which
The Medieval Romantics (CDH55293) and Lancaster and
Valois (CDH55294) are the first and second parts. The music
of Guillaume de Machaut is the chief element which binds them,
though there are secondary links: CDH55294 and CDH55295 offer
two different instrumental pieces entitled le ior; Pycard’s
mass movements feature on two CDs and the music of Solage on all
three CDs.
Pycard and Solage are such shadowy figures that
we don’t know even their first names; Pycard doesn’t even earn
a mention in the Oxford Companion to Music, though both
feature in the Concise Grove. Pycard, presumably a native
of Picardy, appears to have been associated with John of Gaunt’s
chapel in the 1390s and his surviving music, in the Old Hall
manuscript, consists entirely of mass movements in four or five
parts. It might have been more appropriate to have presented
these isolated movements – Credo on CDH55294 and Gloria
on CDH55295 – in the company of Machaut’s Messe de Nostre
Dame, the first known setting of the complete ordinary of
the mass. Pycard’s music on these two CDs is of high quality,
making it worthy to be heard alongside Machaut.
Very little of Solage’s music survives; he was
probably connected with the French court in the 1380s and his
chansons bear a similarity to those of Machaut. The rest of
the music is by that prolific composer Anon., much of it realised
for the first time in the modern era.
The various Gothic Voices recordings hold a place
of special honour in my collection: purchased either in their
original full-price format or in their recent Helios reincarnations,
they now fill quite a long section of shelf. I’ve consistently
recommended those that have come my way for review and the three
most recent reissues are no exception – I bought The
Medieval Romantics and Lancaster and Valois and
was ready to buy The Study of Love had it not come my
way, so I’m putting my money where my mouth is – but I don’t
think I’d begin here if I were starting to collect their recordings.
Much as I love Machaut’s music and poetry – he
was a major influence on Chaucer, an influence which would be
especially important to Christopher Page, director of Gothic
Voices, who is also an English don – I know that many coming
to pre-Renaissance music find even Machaut’s masterpiece,
la Messe de Nostre Dame alien. If you haven’t yet encountered
that work, that’s the Machaut work with which to begin – then
move on to The Study of Love and its companions.
Despite the illustration of St Jerome on the cover,
most of the music on this CD is secular. If we are to accept
the thesis of the seminal work on the late 14th and
15th centuries, Huizinga’s Waning of the Middle
Ages – the ‘famous book’ which Christopher Page disparages
without naming in his notes to The Medieval Romantics
– the themes of medieval literature, particularly fin amour
or courtly love, were spent forces. Machaut’s poetry and music,
and most of the other music on this recording, would serve to
refute that thesis; Charles Duke of Orléans’ English and French
poetry of the 15th century still employs the theme
of courtly love in a fresh manner and even as late as Malory’s
retelling of the Arthurian cycle late in the 15th
century, fin amour still had plenty going for it. Malory
may misunderstand some aspects of the game* – it never was as
serious a business with rigid rules, as C.S. Lewis made it in
his wonderful groundbreaking book on courtly love – but his
account of the illicit love of Lancelot and Guinevere still
strikes a chord with modern readers. There’s an excellent Norton
edition of his Morte d’Arthur, with helpful notes, if
you wish to try it; alternatively the Oxford World’s Classics
slightly abridged and lightly modernised version.
As well as fin amour, the works on this
recording remind us that knowledge of the classics did not languish
until restored at the Renaissance, as is often supposed, though
the classics were filtered through an extra medieval layer –
the friendship of the Romans Marticius and Fabricius becomes
the pattern of courtly love in Marticius qui fu (track
6). The labyrinth which Dædalus fashioned becomes the symbol
of the indirect route to the heart of the beloved in En la
maison Dedalus (tr. 13). Medieval writers were less concerned
with the wings which he fashioned for himself and Icarus, which
would later become a renaissance image of the high flyer.
The first piece, Pour vous servir, immediately
introduces us to the theme of the lover in thrall to his lady’s
commands. The forthright performance (Margaret Philpott, alto
and two tenors, Andrew Tusa and Leigh Nixon) which it receives
is very attractive and sets the tone for the whole CD. I’ve
seen Gothic Voices’ singing described as ‘extrovert dynamism’,
which exactly fits this track and most of the CD.
The second piece, Puis que l’aloe ne fine,
adds that other great theme of courtly love – the delight in
the Spring when the lark sings without cease and love is reawakened.
Jour a jour la vie (track 3) returns to the eternal service
which the lover has sworn. Though involving four singers (alto
and three tenors, as for track 1 plus Rogers Covey-Crump) only
one actually sings the words.
Musicologists are still not unanimous as to how
the music of this period should be performed. The notes in the
booklet which accompanies this recording are shorter than usual
from Hyperion – just one page – so the reader is left without
Christopher Page’s justification for staying with solo performance
of some of these pieces, with the other voices effectively humming.
This performance technique is described in the notes to The
Medieval Romantics, so you will need to refer to that booklet
to obtain the full picture (see below on downloading the booklet).
Whatever the musicological case, the performances
here amply justify the practice. Just occasionally Page also
admits the unobtrusive employment of medieval harp (Andrew King)
or lute (Page himself) – both employed very effectively in Puis
que l’aloe ne fine (track 2). I still enjoy David Munrow’s
more forthright employment of instruments in this music, but
Page’s approach is not just more academically sound in the light
of recent research, it’s also enjoyable. I’m amazed to discover
that David Munrow’s Early Music Consort recordings of The
Art of Courtly Love (Machaut, Binchois, Dufay and contemporaries,
last seen on Virgin Veritas 2 CDs, 5 61284 2) and The Art
of the Netherlands (formerly two EMI CDs, 7 64215 2, or
Virgin 5 61334 2) appear to have been deleted; they must surely
reappear soon as super-budget Virgin twofers.
Machaut makes his first appearance on the Helios
recording with track 4, Dame, je suis cilz, which introduces
the additional ingredient of the lady’s intention to desert
her devoted lover, the theme so effectively worked in Chaucer’s
Troilus and Criseyde. If the first three tracks have
shown us the skill of many of his unknown contemporaries, the
extra quality of Machaut’s composition is evident here.
The voices of Margaret Philpot, Rogers Cover-Crump
and Leigh Nixon weave in and out of each other in this intricate
work but the solo voice of Rogers Cover-Crump is equally effective
on track 17, Machaut’s Se mesdisans, in which the singer
steels himself against slander. Track 20, another Machaut piece,
Dame je vueil endurer, in which the lover speaks of the
torment which he willingly endures for his beloved, also receives
an excellent performance from Margaret Philpot.
Hyperion themselves, in advertising this CD on
their website, single out the performances of Margaret Philpot
and Rogers Covey-Crump. Not wishing to slight any one of these
excellent performers, let me say that Andrew Tusa, Stephen Charleworth
and Donald Greig join Cover-Crump in an equally excellent performance
of Pycard’s Gloria (tr. 16), bringing out the quality
of this remarkable piece. I haven’t yet named Julian Podger
or Donald Greig, but their performances are well up to the high
overall standard.
As always with Helios reissues, the booklet is
fully the equal of the full-price original and Christopher Page’s
(brief) notes both readable and informative. I am pleased to
see Hyperion following Chandos’s example in making their booklets
available to all online, which means that you can read the notes,
as well as listening to extracts from the music, before deciding
whether to purchase. This is a particularly valuable service
for those who have downloaded the music; The Study of Love
is not available as a download, but Lancaster & Valois
is still on offer in its original format for £7.99 from iTunes.
Several Gothic Voices Helios reissues are offered at the same
price – a good deal more expensive than Helios reissues usually
sell for in CD format, so downloading is definitely not recommendable
in this case. Full price Hyperion recordings, where offered
at £7.99 in ‘plus’ format are a different matter.
I suppose it is inevitable that Page takes for
granted, here and in the other booklets, that the reader understands
some of the technical terms which he employs, such as ‘polymetric’
and ‘double rondeau’ and leaves unexplained why some pieces
have two or even three sets of words. A good reference work
is essential – I recommend either the Oxford Companion to
Music or the Concise Grove Dictionary of Music –
to explain, for example, why one of the parts in Dame, je
suis cilz is labelled triplum: see the Oxford
Companion under Part or Concise Grove under
duplum and triplum.
I wholeheartedly recommend this CD to those familiar
with the late-medieval idiom. For those who have yet to master
the medium, I offer the rather unhelpful advice of the idiot
in the joke: if I were going there, I wouldn’t start from here.
Some of the other Gothic Voices reissues are easier going for
the beginner. Perhaps their Garden of Zephirus (CDH55289
– see review)
would be a better place to start – I made that CD Recording
of the Month a year ago, partly because it is more approachable
for beginners. If David Munrow’s Art of Courtly Love reappears,
as surely it must, that would make an even better springboard
for beginners.
Brian
Wilson
* In Chrestien de Troyes’ Le Chevalier de la
Charette, in which the story of Lancelot’s rescue of Guinevere
first appears, she chides him for having hesitated to mount a
common cart in order to rescue her; Malory makes her criticise
him for having come to her rescue in something as common as a
cart.
