Totdat de wachter heeft gezongen - Songs from the Gruuthuse Manuscript (ca. 1400) and instrumental connections by Aventure

Various composers

Aventure

Totdat de wachter heeft gezongen - Songs from the Gruuthuse Manuscript (ca. 1400) and instrumental connections

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917279528
Catnr: CC 72795
Release date: 09 November 2018
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1 CD ✓ in stock	€ 19.95	Buy

Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917279528

Catalogue number
CC 72795

Release date
09 November 2018

"Out now: Totdat de wachter heeft gezongen, songs from the Gruuthuse manuscript"

Neerlandistiek, 12-12-2018

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

The poems and songs of the Gruuthuse Manuscript originated in Bruges around 1400, and the collection is named after the later owner, Lodewijk van Gruuthuse. The songs form the most well-known part of the collection: love songs, bawdy songs and drinking songs. The Gruuthuse Manuscript contains the largest collection of Dutch language songs from the medieval period, and it is the largest collection of songs with music notation. The form of the songs also attests to the fact that these songs were intended for connoisseurs. The poet uses formes fixes, the canonized forms of French songs of the late medieval times: ballades, rondeaus and virelais, and the wide variety of the forms used is remarkable.

Instrumentalists have been around all over Europe during the 15th century, but musical manuscripts unambiguously showing a repertoire for instrumental ensembles from that period are scarce. The instrumental repertoire on this CD contains arrangements and polyphonic ensemble pieces from about 1450-70. The arrangements are either instrumental versions based on pre-existing polyphonic models or arranged monophonic tenors.

Met dit unieke album brengt het ensemble Aventure de muziek uit het 15e-eeuwse Gruuthuse Manuscript tot leven. Het mooie blokfluitspel en de fraaie zangpartijen leveren een levendig klankbeeld op van vervlogen tijden. Chapeau voor Ita Hijmans, Christopher Kale, Fumitaka Saito en Marco Magalhães.

Grondig onderzoek

Instrumentalisten waren er tijdens de vijftiende eeuw genoeg, maar muzikale manuscripten die een eenduidig repertoire beschrijven voor instrumentale ensembles uit die tijd, zijn schaars. Het in (laat-)middeleeuwse muziek gespecialiseerde ensemble Aventure deed grondig onderzoek naar het Gruuthuse Manuscript. Het instrumentale repertoire op het album bevat arrangementen en polyfone ensemblestukken van rond de jaren 1450 tot 1470. De bewerkingen zijn óf instrumentale versies gebaseerd op al bestaande polyfone voorbeelden, óf omzettingen in monofone koralen.

Gruuthuse Manuscript

De gedichten en liederen uit het Gruuthuse Manuscript vinden hun oorsprong in de stad Brussel van de jaren 1400. De verzameling is genoemd naar zijn latere eigenaar, Lodewijk van Gruuthuse. De liederen vormen het meest bekende deel uit de verzameling, en dan hebben we het over liefdesliederen, losbandige liederen en drinkliederen. Het manuscript bevat de grootste en tegelijkertijd meest uitgebreide Nederlandstalige liederenverzameling uit de Middeleeuwen. De vorm van de liederen duidt er ook op dat ze voor kenners bestemd waren. De dichter gebruikte bestaande vaste Franse dichtvormen uit de late Middeleeuwen, zoals de ballade, de rondeau en de virelai, de dichtvorm met twee rijmklanken en slechts twee of drie coupletten. Het uitgebreide spectrum van de gebruikte vormen is opmerkelijk.

Lees ook de recensie van Michel Dutrieue op zijn blog stretto.be.

Die Gedichte und Lieder des Gruuthuse-Manuskripts haben ihren Ursprung in Brüssel um 1400; die Sammlung ist nach ihrem späteren Besitzer, Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, benannt. Die Lieder bilden den bekannten Teil der Sammlung: Liebeslieder, derbes Liedgut und Trinklieder. Das Gruuthuse-Manuskript beinhaltet die größte Liedersammlung in niederländischer Sprache aus dem Mittelalter, und es ist zudem die größte Liedersammlung mit notierter Musik. Die Form der Lieder weist ebenfalls darauf hin, dass sie für Kenner gedacht waren. Der Dichter benutzte Formes fixes, kanonisierte Formen französischer Lieder des späten Mittelalters – Balladen, Rondeaus und Virelais – und das breite Spektrum der verwendeten Formen ist bemerkenswert.
Im 15. Jahrhundert gab es in ganz Europa Instrumentalisten, doch Manuskripte, die eindeutig ein Repertoire für Instrumentalensembles der Zeit zeigen, sind rar. Das Instrumentalprogramm dieser CD bietet Arrangements und polyphone Ensemblestücke von etwa 1450-1470. Die Arrangements sind entweder Instrumentalfassungen, die auf bereits bestehenden, polyphonen Modellen gründen, oder Umsetzungen einstimmiger Choräle.

Artist(s)

Aventure

Aventure Ensemble for Medieval Music Christopher Kale voice Marco Magalhães recorder Fumitaka Saito recorder Ita Hijmans recorder Aventure performs late-medieval music. Our performances are based on research focusing on the individuality of a particular musical idiom and the cultural and historic context in which it existed. Aventure sees late-medieval music, not as an isolated art form, but as one aspect of an entire culture. This vision, and our experimental investigation of the performance practice of instrumental ensemble music from the 15th century, makes Aventure a unique ensemble. Aventure, founded in 1993, was awarded an honorable mention during the Musica Antiqua Concours in Bruges (B). The ensemble has performed on leading international podia such as Les Académies musicales de Saintes (F), Varna International Music Summerfestival (Bulgaria),...

Aventure Ensemble for Medieval Music Christopher Kale voice Marco Magalhães recorder Fumitaka Saito recorder Ita Hijmans recorder Aventure performs late-medieval music. Our performances are based on research focusing on the individuality of a particular musical idiom and the cultural and historic context in which it existed. Aventure sees late-medieval music, not as an isolated art form, but as one aspect of an entire culture. This vision, and our experimental investigation of the performance practice of instrumental ensemble music from the 15th century, makes Aventure a unique ensemble.
Aventure, founded in 1993, was awarded an honorable mention during the Musica Antiqua Concours in Bruges (B). The ensemble has performed on leading international podia such as Les Académies musicales de Saintes (F), Varna International Music Summerfestival (Bulgaria), Festival van Vlaanderen (B) and the Netwerk voor Oude Muziek (NL) with programs varying from the narrative songs by Oswald von Wolkenstein (CD O, snode welt, AC Classics, 1995) to Dutch polyphony from the Koning Manuscript (CD’s Adieu, naturlic leven mijn; Ons is een kijnt geboren, Challenge Records, 2007).
Since 2007, Aventure has focused on the music from Europe north of the Alps in the 15th century. In annual concert series, the ensemble has performed unexplored music from the Aosta Manuscript, the Basel Songbooks, the Codex Sankt Emmeram, Codex Breslau, Leopold Codex, the Schedel Songbook, the Sagan Partbooks and several Trent Codices, among others. But the monody from sources such as the Gruuthuse Manuscript, the Mönch-repertoire and various Cantionales from north of the Alps also belongs in our repertoire.
Aventure annually offers workshops or summer schools. In 2015/16 Aventure carried out an interdisciplinary research project Filling the gap. The reconstruction of a mid-15thcentury recorder consort, more here: www.fillingthegapreconstructionproject.wordpress.com.
Aventure works with a flexible cast of 3-7 musicians, depending on the performed repertoire. Ita Hijmans is artistic director and responsible for research and programming.

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Christopher Kale (vocals)

Christopher Kale, tenor, was born in Pennsylvania, USA. He graduated from Boston University with a Bachelors and a Masters degree (cum laude). He then won an international scholarship for study in Amsterdam with Max van Egmond. Christopher Kale is mainly active in the renaissance and medieval repertoire as a member of Cappella Pratensis, Huelgas Ensemble, Capilla Flamenca, Aventure, the Boston Camerata, and the Nederlands Kamerkoor. As a soloist, he has made many commercial CD recordings of, among others, the Messiah (Händel), Lamentations (Gilles), Vespers (Monteverdi), and many Renaissance masses and motets, Medieval songs, and Early American music. Christopher Kale has been heard as a soloist in old music festivals worldwide, such as in Utrecht, Boston, Ghent, Bruges, York, Victoria, Cuenca,...

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Marco Magalhães (recorder)

Marco Magalhães studied recorder at the Conservatório de Musica do Porto with Pedro Couto Soares and Pedro Silva and on the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. He followed masterclasses with Peter van Heyghen and Kees Boeke, among others, and graduated from the Sweelinck Conservatory with Paul Leenhouts. He plays in the Royal Wind Music.

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Ita Hijmans (recorder)

Ita Hijmans studied recorder with Jeanette van Wingerden and specialized at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland) in medieval and renaissance music with Crawford Young and Kenneth Zuckermann. As artistic leader of Aventure and Foundation yellow crane, center for early music. Since 1992 she has been deeply engaged in conducting and researching especially late medieval music. She taught at various conservatoires as a guest lecturer in medieval music and did many courses in that area. Apart from her playing work for Aventure, she does the research and programming for the ensemble. She is a passionate musician and teacher and does nothing more than enthuse others for late medieval music. She has published, among others, 'The Recorderconsort ca.1500, Pictures, Extant Instruments and Repertoire',...

She has published, among others, "The Recorderconsort ca.1500, Pictures, Extant Instruments and Repertoire", ed. Lasocki, 2005 and About Handschrift Koning: Between court and monastery, between north and south, late medieval music of the Dutch townspeople, in Historisch Tijdschrift Holland (2008).

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Fumitaka Saito (recorder)

Fumitaka Saito studied recorder with Michel Piguet at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, with Matthias Weilenmann and then with Walter van Hauwe at the Sweelinck Conservatory. He won prizes at the Blockflöten Symposium Calw in Germany and 'honorable mentions' at the Musica Antiqua competition in Bruges. He has performed in Europe and his native country of Japan and since 1984 has also been involved in recorder-making. Since 1992 he has been based in Amsterdam as a recorder builder.

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Composer(s)

Oswald von Wolkenstein

Oswald von Wolkenstein was a German composer whose music bridged the Medieval and Renaissance eras; the last of the poet-musician knights whose monophonic music explored the ideal of courtly love, he also wrote polyphonic music in more contemporary forms. As noble "von" indicates, Oswald was from a knightly family of the Villanders line. The surname "von Wolkenstein" comes from the name of their property of Wolkenstein in Groednertal, South Tyrol (a mountainous Austrian province that was taken by Italy in World War II). As he was of high birth, there is some information available about his life; key events were written in family archives. Still, as is the norm with composers of the day, there are numerous gaps that can be filled in only imperfectly by extrapolation from his works. Oswald was a second son, which put him at a disadvantage, but also gave him freedom to pursue an adventurous life, and to enter the political sphere. He spent his youth as a page in service, which took him to various countries and gave him fluency in several languages. He became a diplomat for the league of Tyrolean nobles and for Emperor Sigismund and took part in several German councils.

His seat was Hauenstein castle near Bolzano, but in 1407 he inherited only part of Hauenstein itself, and spent the rest of his life in a property dispute with the other tenant, the family of Martin Jaeger. As a result of this dispute, and also because of political intrigues, he was imprisoned several times. Nevertheless, he fell in love with Anna Hausmann, the daughter of one of his adversaries in this dispute. He wrote several love poems to her, continuing even after his marriage to Margarete von Schwangau in 1417. He also wrote poems addressed to a "Barbara," but fortunately did not neglect to write love poetry addressed to his wife.

Oswald himself preserved a quantity of his own in two manuscripts designated "A" and "B." There is also a manuscript "C" that contains text but no music, and a few other sources. His songs are typically in AABB form, with arched, flowing melodic lines. There are some exceptions, such as Es komen neue mer gerant, which is a description of a military raid in northern Italy and is written in an almost parlando style, scoffing at the losers.

Oswald's poetry often drew on events he himself experienced or witnessed. The unusual fit between text and musical line in his music inspired a description of him as the "creator of the individual lied," which is ahistorical. Nor was he, as has sometimes been said, a Meistersinger, the German counterpart to the French troubador or trouvère. His music includes not only monophonic songs but also polyphony in three or four parts. Towards the end of his life he composed religious music in simple textures.

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Anonymous

Conrad Paumann

Though Paumann was born blind he became the best organist in all of Germany referenced as recently as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was also an instrumentalist who played not only the organ, but also the lute, recorder, harp and violin. During his musical service Paumann was in Nuremberg and Munich, remaining in the latter station from 1460 until his death. He was afforded the opportunity of travel because of his skill and renown though little is documented. It is clear that he played before the Burgundian court as well as in Milan, Mantua, Ratisbon and Salzburg. On a number of occasions he was also asked to examine new organs given his expertise. The works by Paumann that survive indicate dictated improvisations rather than compositions...

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Mönch von Salzburg

The Monk of Salzburg (German: Mönch von Salzburg) was a German composer of the late 14th century. He worked at the court of the Salzburg archbishop Pilgrim von Puchheim (1365–96) more than 100 Liederhandschriften (manuscripts) in Early New High German are attributed to him. His name and monastic order is unknown; some of the introductions to the manuscript sources mention the names Herman, Johans, and Hanns and describe him as either Benedictine or Dominican. Despite this confusion, all the manuscripts that contain his works 'agree that he was a learned monk who wrote sacred and secular songs'.His compositions overcome the Minnesang traditions and even approached to recent polyphonic settings.

The Monk of Salzburg (German: Mönch von Salzburg) was a German composer of the late 14th century. He worked at the court of the Salzburg archbishop Pilgrim von Puchheim (1365–96) more than 100 Liederhandschriften (manuscripts) in Early New High German are attributed to him.

His name and monastic order is unknown; some of the introductions to the manuscript sources mention the names Herman, Johans, and Hanns and describe him as either Benedictine or Dominican. Despite this confusion, all the manuscripts that contain his works "agree that he was a learned monk who wrote sacred and secular songs".His compositions overcome the Minnesang traditions and even approached to recent polyphonic settings.

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Press

Out now: Totdat de wachter heeft gezongen, songs from the Gruuthuse manuscript
Neerlandistiek, 12-12-2018

Beautifully arranged pieces that are played in an organic way. Especially in the top layer of the melody we hear sometimes the virtuoso passages that enhance the composition. Great how these wonderful musicians put this old music into the present with such an exciting result.
Music Frames, 07-12-2018