There have been many recordings of extracts from the famous
Chantilly Codex. These late 14th Century ‘ars
subtilior’ (the subtle art) pieces have been anthologised,
as Gothic Voices tended to do on several discs. On occasion
whole recordings have been devoted to the manuscript for example
the Ensemble Organum on Harmonia Mundi (HMC 901252 ). That said,
to my knowledge this is the first time that a group has decided
to devote two consecutive discs to it the first having been
recorded in 2007 (KTC 1900). Etcetera intend a total of 15 volumes
of the music in the Chantilly Codex.
The Codex was discovered c.1895 and edited by the now somewhat
controversial Willi Apel and even by Paul Hindemith. They recommended
and indeed performed the music with instrumental contributions.
That is the procedure adopted here by Tetraktys - which, incidentally
is also the name for a Pythagorean triangular figure.
When I first heard Solage’s ‘Tres gentil cuer’
I thought that it was the most beautiful performance of the
song I had come across. Previously I had only known the a
capella version by Gothic Voices (Hyperion CDA66588 or CDH55294)
‘Lancaster and Valois’). The text ‘very noble
heart, loving and courteous, beautiful and full of joy’
seems to require gentility and calmness. In typical style their
rendition is bright and brisk, perfectly tuned and all over
in four minutes. In his booklet notes Page quotes four bars,
which he comments create “a wanton minor second that Solage
produces by impeccable logic”. Yet the tempo is such that
this harmonic effect is quickly glossed and lost. Tetraktys
take no less than fifteen minutes over this virelai, lingering
over its every detail. Its unbelievable that’s its the
same piece. Likewise in Solage’s En L’Amoureux
Vergier’ Gothic voices whip through it, this time
on a recent CD of Solage not under Page’s direction (Avie
2089 ‘The Unknown Lover’- 2006) in just under five
minutes. Tetraktys takes almost eleven but they do include another
verse. Gothic Voices, whose approach to this music has always
been to eschew any ‘romantic’ views, appear by comparison
chaste and expressionless. Mind you Tetraktys can come across
as being a little too polite. It’s interesting to compare
their performance of Phiton, Phiton with that of David
Munrow and the Early Music Consort in the CD set ‘The
Art of Courtly Love’ now on Virgin Veritas. In this 1974
recording Martyn Hill is accompanied by two evil sounding crumhorns
and this rather aggressive song, aimed at an unknown enemy of
Gaston Phebus sounds suitably strong and well directed. Tetraktys
with their instrumental combination make the piece rather melancholy
and pleading. There are other drawbacks with Tetraktys’s
approach, and some of these are frustrating. This comes to a
head especially in Fuions de ci by another fascinating
figure, Jacques de Senleches. It’s to do with the dreaded
subject of melismas - untexted melodic lines.
The Medieval ensemble of London when recording this piece (‘Ce
Diabolic Chant’ L’Oiseau Lyre 475 9119) opted for
three unaccompanied male voices. Here we have a female solo
on the upper line with instrumental support - curiously at a
slightly faster tempo. When her line runs out of words and flows
into a melisma at the end of a phrase a harp takes over the
line. In a vocal performance the melismas would have been voiced.
They do this quite often and not unreasonably because the melismata
are coloured in red in the manuscript. Quite often here they
have no reason for doing it other than their own musical whim.
That’s fine except that this can give the vocal contribution
a somewhat disjointed feel and none more so than with the “conversational”
song Dame Doucement/Doulz Amis where the lines of the
two singers are broken after just short phrases. This could
be what happened in the late 14th Century - we just
don’t know - but I have to say that ‘musically’
and to my ears it seems a little dislocated. Eve so there’s
no denying that the singing is expressive and the instrumental
work delightful. To my mind Philip Pickett’s New London
Consort hit upon a happy compromise with the lovely Catherine
Bott singing the upper line, melismas and all, but with instrumental
accompaniment (Linn CKD 039).
With this disc the primary difference lies in styles of performance
between British groups and continental ones. Tetraktys (pictured
in colour within) go in for often restful and quite slow performances.
By contrast Gothic Voices have a much brisker tempo with a clearer
emphasis on the text sometimes at the expense of the beauty
of the sound. I have to say though that there were times when
Zsuzsi Töth and Carlos Mena’s words for Tetraktys
became a little indistinct no doubt in the cause of making a
rounded and lovely sound. The received wisdom ever since the
days of Musica Reservata is that medieval music can be performed
with an expressionless tone, which often matches the instrumental
sounds. Here, by using harps, vielles and flute, we have an
intimate indoor quality in which subtlety and gentility are
emphasised. Perhaps they have been looking at Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s
masterpiece The Maesta (c.1340) where these exact instruments
surround the Virgin and child. There is however, no correct
approach. It comes down to personal preference.
I should say something more about the music and composers. The
manuscript contains about one hundred pieces of mainly French
Music from the 1360s. These stretch from Machaut, the spark
from which the other composers flared, into the early years
of the new century. The music has often proven complex to understand
and to perform. I can recall the late Gilbert Reaney, professor
of Medieval Music and editor of many manuscripts, telling me
in the late 1960s that some of them were probably not even meant
for performance. Nowadays we acknowledge that that could not
have been the case.
The end of the 14th century was a time of great artistic
freedom. Composers were testing the boundaries of rhythmic notation
and the subdivisions of the beat. In addition, in the hands
of Solage for instance, harmony was considered a fair target
for experimentation. The aim was to make melody even more expressive.
This became a primary goal. In Guido’s Or Voit Tout
Machaut is blamed for the complications in the new notation
and is described as an ‘imposteur’. The manuscript
may have been of Italian provenance. There were composers from
Italy working in France at that time and they included Anthonella
de Caserta who features on volume 1. One of the great patrons
of all of the Arts - but especially of the most ‘avant-garde’
music of the time - was Gaston Phebus Count of Foix, mentioned
above. He was also keen on hunting and food. Phebus was praised
often by composers from his court. It seems that ‘En
L’amoureux vergier’ was written for his
wedding in 1389 to Jeanne de Boulogne. S’aincy estoit’
has the line “the good and kind Duke of Berry”.
Some of these pieces have two texts running together, a technique
in use from the beginning of the so-called Ars nova period.
The beautiful song by Grimace is a good example of this.
If you are coming to this music for the first time then I would
recommend that this disc and volume 1 would be a good place
to start. They are not difficult listening unlike the ultimately
wonderfully rewarding Medieval Ensemble of London under Peter
and Timothy Davies, mentioned above, or indeed the extraordinary
CD by the Huelgas Ensemble recorded in 1991 (Febus Avaunt
Sony SK48 195). The singing is elegant and the instrumental
work delicate and neat. The overall production is colourful,
easy to grasp and smartly presented.
Gary Higginson
Ensemble Tetraktys/Kees Boeke 
