Program Notes, Texts and Translations _____________________________________ The era of the Renaissance madrigal was inaugurated in 1530 with the publication in Rome of a collection entitled Madrigali de diversi musici. The term "madrigal" originally designated a form of free poetry with pastoral associations, but was soon taken over completely by the musical form, which itself grew directly out of the lyrical and melodic frottola, while borrowing from the more serious canzone and the already well-developed French chanson. During the subsequent eighty years of the madrigal's growth and vitality it changed constantly, evolving simultaneously in different ways, absorbing and radiating influence throughout the worlds of music and culture. The reputation, which has lingered on into our own time, for extremism, artifice, and decadence that it attracted (and often cultivated) derives from its often leading role in fashion and its sensitivity to it. The madrigal became the proving ground for practically every new and experimental musical idea. Before it had literally transformed itself out of existence by the early 17th century, it had generated more than 30,000 examples which survive today, with likely thousands more that have been lost. Musicologists designate three overlapping periods: the first, dominated by "Netherlanders" (i.e., musicians, more or less Italianized, who had emigrated from regions that are centered upon present-day Belgium) like Arcadelt, Verdelot, and Willaert, but including the Italian Constanzo Festa; the second, or "classic" period, dominated by the great figures of Lassus, Monte, Rore, and Wert from the North, and Italians like Palestrina, Andrea Gabrieli, and Vincenzo Ruffo; and a third or "mature" period, entirely Italian, which itself has two distinct phases, that of Marenzio, Gesualdo, Giovanni Gabrieli, Vecchi, Banchieri, et al, and finally, that of Monteverdi, who was to take the polyphonic madrigal out of the Renaissance by completely transforming it with the idioms of the Baroque. With the profound changes and ever-heightening levels of musical development and sophistication came an inevitable shift in intended performers and audiences, from small groups of aristocratic amateurs singing for their own pleasure or for intimate gatherings of their peers, to vast musical and dramatic presentations involving professional musicians of international reputation, extensive musical accompaniment, dancing, spoken dramatic interludes, elaborate scenery, and large theaters with audiences of hundreds, even thousands--that is, the opera. In this process, the madrigal lost its roots in a musically educated aristocracy and affluent bourgeoisie and went out of fashion in favor of the more passive but perhaps more socially alluring practice of "going to the opera". Thus a fine and noble pursuit had its birth, flowered, and died, but not without forever bequeathing to the world its memorable fruit. Vecchie letrose Adrian Willaert ------- ------- Vecchie letrose, non valete niente Se non a far l'aguaito per la chiazza Tira, tir'alla mazza, vecchie letrose, scannaros'e pazze. (Translation unavailable.) Willaert's Vecchie Letrose of 1545 is a villanella or villanesca, lighter forms that grew out of or in association with the more erudite madrigal. Rather than polyphonic, its four-part texture is strictly chordal throughout. Several key words of the text appear to be unique to early 16th-century Venetian street patois and have resisted translation. This is perhaps just as well, as the general intent seems to be to deride a certain segment of society in the coarsest and most mocking terms imaginable! Io son ferito, ahi lasso Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina -- --- ------- --- ----- Io son ferito, ahi lasso, e chi mi diede accusar pur vorrei, ma non ho prova; e senz'indizio al mal non si da fede: ne getta sangue la mia piaga nuova. Io spasm'e moro; il colpo non si vede. La mia nemica armata si ritrova. Che fia tornar a lei crudel partita, che sol m'abbia a sanar chi m'ha ferito. I am wounded, alas, and I desire to accuse her who gave it to me, but I have no proof; without evidence of evil, noone will believe it; nor does my new wound pour forth blood. I shiver and die--the flow cannot be seen. My enemy is armed. What good would it do to return to her--cruel happening-- because only she who wounded me can heal me. This work, published in 1561, is a classic madrigal of the middle period. It was one of Palestrina's best-known compositions in the genre, and one which he was later to recast as a contrafactum with sacred text and finally as a parody mass. Although pervaded by a mood of deep sorrow and entreaty, the means of expression are well within the Renaissance aesthetic norms of decorum, balance, and gracefulness: there are no shocks, no outbursts of sufficient force to disrupt for long the flow of elegant polyphony for five voices. Zefiro torna Claudio Monteverdi ------ ----- Zefiro torna, e'l bel tempo rimena, Ei fiori e l'erbe, sua dolce famiglia E garrir Progne, e pianger Filomena, E primavera candida e vermiglia. Ridono i prati e'l ciel si rasserena; Giove s'allegra di mirar sua figlia; L'aria e l'acqua, e la terra e d'amor piena; Ogni animal d'amar si riconsiglia. Ma per me, lasso, tornano i piu gravi Sospiri, che d'al cor profondo tragge Quella ch'al ciel se ne porto le chiavi; E cantar augelletti, e fiorir piagge, E'n belle donn'oneste atti soavi Sono un deserto, e fere aspre e selvagge. -- Petrarca Zephyrus returns and brings fair weather, and flowers and grass, his gentle companions, and warbling Procne and weeping Philomela, and the fresh and ruddy spring. The meadows smile and the sky grows calm; Jove rejoices to see his daughter. Air, water and earth are full of love; every living thing falls in love again. But for me, alas, return the heaviest sighs, which from the depths of my heart she to heaven bore its keys. The singing of little birds, the blooming of the hillsides, and the gracious acts of fair ladies are to me a desert, and harsh beasts and savages. It is not to minimize the accomplishments of the other madrigalists that we acknowledge the greatness of Claudio Monteverdi. The whole movement in late Renaissance music toward an ideal of perfectly rendering poetry into sound was brought to its highest artistic fulfillment in his work. His celebrated nine books of madrigals, published between 1587 and (posthumously) 1651, constitute a comprehensive record of the evolution of the polyphonic, rather impersonal style of the Renaissance into the highly dramatic declamatory style of the Baroque. Zefiro Torna, in five parts like all Monteverdi's ensemble madrigals, is not strikingly progressive despite its appearance in the sixth book, that of 1614. Although it is provided with a basso sequente continuo part, this is clearly optional and not an essential feature. The contrast is stark between the villanella-like sections in triple meter which depict the joyful unfolding of nature in springtime, and the somber passages in duple meter in which the narrator tells of his desolation. The final passage, full of grinding dissonances, is a groan from the abyss of utter despair. Even so, the composer's characteristic grace and eloquence seem to win through in the end; he does not ever risk real ugliness. Lamento D'Arianna Claudio Monteverdi ------- --------- Text by Ottavio Rinuccini (1562-1621) i. Lasciatemi morire, e chi volete voi che mi conforte in cosi dura sorte, in cosi gran martire? Let me die! Who will comfort me in such harsh misfortune, in such great martyrdom? ii. O Teseo, Teseo mio! Si, si, che mio ti vo'dir che mio pur sei benche t'involi, ahi crudo, a gli occhi miei. Volgiti Teseo mio! O Dio! Volgiti indietro a rimirar colei che lasciato ha per te la patria e'l regno e'n quest'arena ancora, cibo di fere dispietate e crude, lasciera l'ossa ignude. O Teseo mio, se tu sapessi, O Dio! Se tu sapessi, ohime, come s'affanna la povera Arianna, forse pentito, rivolgeresti ancor la prora al lito. Ma con l'aure serene tu te ne vai felice, ed io qui piango. A te prepara Atene liete pompe superbe ed io rimango, cibo di fere in solitarie arene. Tu l'un e l'altro tuo vecchio parente stringerai lieto, ed io piu non vedrovi o madre o padre mio. O Theseus, my Theseus! Yes, yes, for I will call thee mine own even though thou fleest, oh cruel one, from my eyes. Return to me, my Theseus! Oh God! Turn back and gaze once more upon her who left her homeland and kingdom for thee, and will yet on these shores, prey of pitiless and cruel beasts, leave her bare bones. O Theseus, if only thou knewest, Oh God, if only thou knewest, ah me, how poor Aridane suffers, perhaps thou wouldst repent, and turn the prow again to this shore. But with tranquil breezes thou sailest happily away, while I am left weeping. Athens prepares for thee joyous and splendid ceremonies, and I shall remain prey to beasts on lonely shores. Thou shalt embrace both thy aged parents in joy, and I shall never again see my mother or my father. iii. Dove, dove e la fede che tanto mi giuravi? Cosi ne l'alta sede tu mi ripon de gl'avi? Son queste le corone onde m'adorni il crine? Questi li scetri sono? Queste le gemme e gl'ori? Lasciarmi in abandono A fera che mi stracci e mi divori? Ah Teseo, Ah Teseo mio! Lascierai tu morire in van piangendo, in van gridando aita la misera Arianna ch'a te fidossi e ti die'gloria e vita? Where, oh where is the promise thou so earnestly made to me? Is this how thou placest me upon the high throne of thy lineage? Are these the crowns with which thou adornest my brow? Are these the scepters? Are these the jewels and ornaments? Thou abandonest me to beasts which will tear and devour me. Oh my Theseus, wilt thou leave me to die, weeping in vain, crying out in vain for aid, wretched Ariadne who trusted thee and who gave thee glory and life? iv. Ahi, ch'ei non pur risponde! Ahi, che piu d'aspe sord' a miei lamenti! O nembio turbio venti sommergetelo voi dentr'a quell' onde! Correte, Orchi e Balene, e de le membra immonde empiete le voragini profonde! Che parlo? Ahi, che vaneggio misera, ohime, che chieggo? O Teseo, O Teseo mio, non son quell'io che i feri detti scolse, parlo l'affanno mio, parlo il dolore, parlo la lingua, si, ma non gia il core. Alas, he still does not answer! Alas, he is deafer than a viper to my laments! O clouds, o maelstroms, o winds, submerge him beneath the waves! Hasten, sea-monsters and whales, and plunge his vile limbs into the whirling depths! What am I saying? Alas, I am raving, wretched one, ah me, what am I asking? Oh Theseus, my Theseus, it was not I who uttered those savage words. My suffering spoke, my grief spoke, my tongue spoke, yes, but not my heart. The four-section madrigal cycle, the Lamento D'Arianna, has a complex history. Somewhat paradoxically it began as a long dramatic recitative in accompanied-monody style, the central part of Monteverdi's opera Arianna of 1608. The composer had worked very closely with the illustrious poet Ottavio Rinuccini, to produce this monumental drama in musica, and it was lavishly produced in Mantua on May 28 of that year to an audience reported to have numbered about six thousand. Our informant further states, "The lament of Arianna, abandoned by Theseus, was sung [by "La Florinda"] with so much warmth and feeling, and represented in so moving a manner that all the listeners were most profoundly stirred and none of the ladies remained without tears." Most unfortunately, nothing else survives of this opera except this section, and it is to its immediate fame that we owe the lucky accident of its preservation. As late as 1633, Monteverdi recalled in a letter the great effort he had to expend in order to set the scene to music: as he had no model of any kind to guide him, he was compelled to sustain an unremitting level of creativity, newly fashioning each idea on his own. Not only was it very soon imitated as a model of perfection in the new monodic style, but the composer, late in his life (and by then a priest) provided it with a spiritual text as Il pianto della Madonna. But long before then, in the year just following its creation, he had brought forth a version in the old five-voice polyphonic madrigal format, which however was not published until 1614. It does seem rather surprising that the Lamento D'Arianna, which more than anything previously had exemplified the triumph of the monodic style, should so soon be recast by Monteverdi in a form that was becoming outmoded; in fact, the move occasioned a flurry of controversy. Now as then, however, the proof of the piece is in the hearing, and it is undeniable that whatever the work may lose of the dramatic fidelity and power that can be concentrated in a single singer, it more than gains back by virtue of enormously enhanced richness of sound and harmony in the ensemble version. Ascendente Jesu Giaches de Wert ---------- ---- Ascendente Jesu in naviculam, secuti sunt eum discipuli eius: et ecce motus magnus factus est in mari, ita ut navicula operiretur fluctibus. Ipse vero dormiebat, et accesserunt ad eum discipuli eius, et suscitaverunt eum, dicentes: Domine, salva nos perimus. Et dicit eis Jesus: quid timidi estis modicae fidei? Tunc surgens imperavit ventis et mari, et facta est tranquilitas magna. When Jesus entered into a ship his disciples followed him, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, such that waves covered the ship. However He slept, and the disciples came to him and woke him, saying: Lord save us, for we shall perish. And Jesus said to them: why fear ye, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and commanded the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. Vox in Rama Giaches de Wert --- -- ---- Vox in Rama audita est, ploratus et ululatus multus: Rachel plorans filios suos, et noluit consolari, quia non sunt. A voice was heard in Rama, a great weeping and wailing: Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, for they are no more. Giaches de Wert is the Italianized name of Jacques van Weert, a Netherlander who worked in Ferrara and Mantua. He was prolific as a composer of madrigals and a bold innovator in the developing expressive style. Both these motets, published in 1581, exhibit the creative range of this unappreciated master. Ascendente Jesu, for six voices, is a piece of genuine program music, and is appropriately dramatic in the "special effects" sense, entertaining, even amusing. All of the drama is rhythmic and textural rather than harmonic, and the composer takes us faithfully through every moment set forth in the text, inventing appropriate music for each. Especially memorable is the "storm scene" with its wild and choppy rhythms. For Vox in Rama (a 5), instead of a visual and kinetic depiction, the composer, while faithfully representing the wailing of the bereaved women of Judea, concentrates on evoking a more inwardly emotional response in the listener, appropriate to the terrible grief occasioned by Herod's "slaughter of the innocents". Here the means are harmonic and melodic, with careful use of degree-inflected chromaticism and dissonance. The respect and sensitivity evidenced, together with the skill of its handling give this work the status of a true masterpiece, however small its dimensions. Tristis est anima mea Carlo Gesualdo ------- --- ----- --- Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem: Sustinete hic, et vigilate mecum, Nunc videbitis turbam quae circumdabit me. Vos fugam capietis, et ego vadam immolari pro vobis. My soul is sorrowful even unto death: wait here and keep watch with me, now thou shalt see the crowd that will surround me; thou shalt take flight, and I shall go to be sacrificed for thee. The sacred motet during the latter half of the 16th century did not escape the influence of the new expressive tools forged in the workshop of madrigal composition--which is hardly surprising since the same masters composed in both genres. Gesualdo is reknowned for his outre and extremist "expressionism" in secular music. His equal fame (or infamy) as a sinner should not be taken as evidence that he was not as well a deeply religious man, as his large production of sacred music testifies. Tristis est anima mea, taken from his 1611 publication of responses for Holy Week, shows how well he adapted the sometimes jarringly contrasting modalities of his secular style to the more sober and restrained arena of church music. Despite this, each phrase of text, no matter how brief, is given almost exaggeratedly distinctive treatment. However mannered, the madrigalesque "emotionalism" rings true as a sincere personal expression in its grief and sense of betrayal. O fere stelle Luca Marenzio - ---- ------ O fere stelle, homai datemi pace, E tu, Fortuna, muta il crudo stile; rendetemi a'pastori et a le selve, Al cantar primo, a quelle usate fiamme, Ch'io non son forte a sostener la guerra Ch'Amor mi fa co'l suo spietato laccio. -- Sannazaro O cruel stars, you never give me peace, and you, Fortune, change your cruel style; restore me to the shepherds and to the woods, to my first song, to those accustomed flames, for I am not strong enough to sustain the warfare that Love makes upon me with his merciless snare. Se la mia vita Luca Marenzio -- -- --- ---- Se la mia vita da l'aspro tormento Si puo tanto schermire, e da gl'affanni, Ch'i veggia per virtu de gl'ultim'anni Donna, de'be'vostr'occhi il lume spento, Ei capei d'oro fin farsi d'argento, E lassar le ghirlande e i verdi panni, E'l viso scolorir ch ne'miei danni A lamentar mi fa pauroso e lento: Pur mi dara tanta baldanza Amore Ch'i'vi discovriro de'miei martiri Quai son stati gl'anni, e i giorni e l'hore; E se'l tempo e contrario a i bei desiri, Non fia ch'almen non giunga al mio dolore Alcun soccorso di tardi sospiri. -- Petrarca If my life might be shielded from harsh torment and from these anxieties, so that I might see, by virtue of the length of years, lady, the light spent from your fair eyes, and your hair of fine gold turned to silver, and the garlands and green garments abandoned, and that face turned pale, which to my loss makes me lament, fearfully and dully: then Love will give me such boldness that I shall reveal to you how many have been the years, the days, and the hours of my martyrdom; and though the time be contrary to fair desires, let it not happen that at least some succour of belated sighs shall not reach my grief. La mia Clori e brunetta Luca Marenzio -- --- ----- - -------- La mia Clori e brunetta, ma cosi mi diletta che non invidio candida bellezza, a chi l'ama et apprezza. E di bruna belta tanto son pago. Quanto misto colore Piu gl'occhi appaga e piu rallegra il core! -- Angelo Grillo My Cloris is dark, but she so delights me that I envy not the fair complexion loved and appreciated by others. And I'll settle for the beauty of brunette. How greatly mixed color satisfies the eye and gladdens the heart! It is in the work of Luca Marenzio that the diverse achievements of the Italian madrigal school are brought together and most perfectly summed up. As Gustave Reese wrote, "Marenzio is on occasion as brilliant as the Gabrielis, as simple as Arcadelt, as complex as Rore, as serious as Monte, as lighthearted as Nola." [To all of this he] "adds the imprint of his own powerful musical personality...most striking among [his] traits is his highly detailed and literal painting of words that represent a visual object, a sound, an idea, or a mood." The result is an almost literal translation of text into music. Although comparatively seldom heard today, Marenzio was famous in his own time and as far afield as in England, where his influence, more than that of any other, gave rise to the English madrigal school. Of the three of his works in our program, there is perhaps one outstanding feature common to all: constant modulation, often to remote tonalities, as in the six-part O fere stelle of 1588. From the same publication, Se la mia vita, for four voices, is a more leisurely, introspective work inspired by Petrarch's text comprising one remarkably long sentence, in which the subject, in a kind of prayer, asks for age to dull sufficiently the too-dazzling beauty of his fair lady, that he may thereby find the courage to reveal his secret love and his long martyrdom. Marenzio here shows his ability to sustain a mood while giving individual expression to each idea in the text. There are many trio passages as well as responsive pairs of duets, both favorite devices. Finally, the five-voice La mia Clori brunetta is a very brief dance-like piece in the rhythm of the gagliarda, maintaining without deviation a strictly chordal texture throughout. -- Joel van Lennep Convivium Musicum presents Ardente Amor! __________________________ David Hodgkins, Conductor I. Vecchie letrose Adrian Willaert ------- ------- (c. 1485-1562) Io son ferito, ahi lasso Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina -- --- ------- --- ----- (c. 1525-1594) Zefiro torna Claudio Monteverdi ------ ----- (1567-1643) II. Lamento D'Arianna Claudio Monteverdi ------- --------- i. Lasciatemi morire ii. O Teseo mio iii. Dove e la fede iv. Ahi, che non pur risponde (Intermission.) III. Vox in Rama Giaches de Wert --- -- ---- Tristis est anima mea Carlo Gesualdo ------- --- ----- --- (c. 1560-1613) * Ascendente Jesu Giaches de Wert ---------- ---- (1535-1596) IV. O fere stelle Luca Marenzio - ---- ------ (c. 1553-1599) Se la mia vita Luca Marenzio -- -- --- ---- La mia Clori e brunetta Luca Marenzio -- --- ----- - -------- * Ascendente Jesu will be performed June 4 only.