Sacred & Secular Music Renaissance Germany Naxos 8.557627 [GH]: Classical CD Reviews- March 2006 MusicWeb-International

This is basically a disc of instrumental pieces and realizations of music dating from the 15^th and the early 16^th centuries, played on Sackbuts, Shawms and Bagpipes on one hand and recorder consort on the other. In addition there are a few examples of keyboard arrangements of popular songs and plainsong-based preludes with a few vocal items using popular melodies. The Ciaramella Instrumental ensemble are aided and abetted in a few items by three female voices which at first I thought were boy trebles so pure are they in tone, even if sometimes not especially well balanced.

Some of this kind of repertoire has been investigated before on earlier Naxos discs equally worth exploring: ‘Riemenschneider, Music of his time’ (Naxos 558145) in the ‘Art and Music’ series, and a disc recorded by Convivium Musicum called ‘Tugend and Untugend’ (Naxos 8.553352). Both contain much fine instrumental work but the difference here is that the playing, especially of the sackbuts and shawms, is even better than on the older discs in relation to quality of sound, expressiveness and overall ensemble.

The organ works come from various sources including the ‘Buxheimer Orgelbuch’, a manuscript compiled 1450-70 and now held in Munich. From this we hear, for example, the arrangement of Dufay’s famous song ‘Se la face ay pale’ and a lesser-known manuscript of similar date: the ‘Kleber Orgeltabulatur’ from which we hear ‘Uf dieser Erd’. Both contain pieces which embellish songs popular at the time. These are played with character and incisiveness by Mahan Esfahani on a portative organ made in 1990; a most attractive instrument.

One of the instrumentalists, Doug Milliken has arranged a German melody popular at the time ‘Mein Herz in hohen’ in a suitable style. In addition, Adam Gilbert, who has also written the booklet notes and who is one of the directors of the group, has composed two pieces for the recording including a very ‘authentic’ fanfare for the ‘brass’ based on a German folk melody. In the notes he discusses these players, the so-called ‘alta capella’ of Renaissance Germany. I will quote a part of his opening paragraph: “The term referred not to singers but to the loud voices of shawms, sackbuts, trumpets or trombones. The players performed vocal music, dances and improvised counterpoint, much like Jazz musicians of today”. He adds later that “most instrumentalists came from Northern Europe ... and passed through Germany”, hence his choice of repertoire for this CD.

The vocal items - the texts and translations are given in the booklet - include folk-like pieces with simple, mostly two part, harmonizations as with ‘We rich eyn falck’ and ‘Sancta Maria’. These are followed immediately by an instrumental arrangement with the sung melody, in the former case to a sacred text ‘Invecto regi jubilo’. A similar performance is offered with ‘Gespiel, lieber gielspele gut’ which Adam Gilbert has arranged with bagpipes. This works really well.

Adam Gilbert also explains about the two extracts from the once unattributed ‘Missa Jen e fay plus’ which he has come to recognize as in the early style of Heinrich Isaac and which we hear played charmingly by a recorder consort.

This is a curious yet fascinating assembly of twenty-seven miniatures. It is a snapshot of a period in time, or I suppose several different periods. It presents repertoire little known, indeed almost forgotten but which opens another window onto our ever-expanding knowledge of the huge variety of Renaissance music.

Gary Higginson

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