L.L. Gilles Binchois - Suele Esgaree

A Landini cadence is audible within the first minute of the piece. Very smooth texture, not too varied rhythmically. Very lyrical lines between the soprano and tenor parts, with basic ostinato accompaniment, figured bass with lute. Phrases articulated with rests in one of the vocal parts, and taken back up by the other voice. Little counterpoint, with lots or part imitation.

The piece is nice to listen to, but doesn't quite grab the attention of the listener. As I said before, the later works of Ockeghem are much more capable of achieving the necessary amount of musical tension.

Gilles Binchois (1400-1460)

L.L. Carlo Gesualdo - Moro, Lasso, al mio duolo

I've always been fascinated by the music of Gesualdo, as I am also fascinated by the works of Schonberg, Stockhausen, and other composers of more recent vintage. However, I find that I run into trouble when I sit down to listen to them in larger quantities than just a few minutes. Gesualdo's music is jarring, deep, painful, strange, and wonderful. It is exactly what makes it wonderful to me that also makes it a challenge. Especially when the listener is aware of the sort of inner mental world that belonged to Gesualdo it is easy to equate it with madness, bitterness, and morbidity. In some ways I see a hateful and spiteful man taking sadistic pleasure in creating some of the most bizarre and dissonant music yet written, but in more ways I see a man reaching out and trying to express his own pain and heartache in what he unfortunately discovered could be his only outlet, that of yet deeper pain. I wonder if Gesualdo's music was meant to reflect his own mindset, whether it helped him deal with his pain, or whether it was simply for his own pleasure. When I ask those kinds of questions, I feel like a Freudian examining another persons dreams. Maybe to look at music as if it were a dream, and to ask just wherefore that dream in that way, is a way to get at deeper psychological roots to music.

L.L. Arcangelo Corelli - Concerto no. 8 in g minor

In the five movements of this piece, the listener is taken through just about every conceivable tempo and mood the early Baroque period has to offer. The movements are:

Vivace-Grave

Allegro

Adagio-Allegro-Adagio

Vivace

Allegro

This piece is more popularly referred to as the Christmas Concerto. I haven't been able to discover any actual programmatic reason for the reference, but personally I can see its sincerity, ecstasy, and profundity as perfect music for the season, especially the second movement.

Corelli was born is 1653 and died in 1713. Overall, he is most famous for extremely lyrical melodies and his more personal treatment of accompaniment figures, which freed up the music from the more strict bounds of counterpoint. Corelli is buried in the Pantheon.

L.L. John Dowland - Flow my Tears

Once again I stumbled upon a recording of one of my favorite musicians of any genre, the countertenor Andreas Scholl. As John Dowland was a famous Lutenist, the accompaniment to the vocal part is a figured bass lute part. This piece seems to be a precursor to monody. The lute tends to imitate and anticipate the vocal part throughout. This song, if I remember correctly is from a set of songs for voice and lute, of which is included the famous, "Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite."

John Dowland (1563-1626)

L.L. Francesco Landini- Ecco la Primavera

The title of this piece means, "Spring has come apace." In structure, the piece follows the form of the Ballata, in which the form begins, works around with its themes, and then ends with the original material again. The ballata was performed to celebrate the coming of Spring, and as a good will gesture to the coming year. The two voices sing a duet, often crossing over each other in a similar register.

Landini was a Florentine composer born ca.1325-1335 and died in 1397. His father was an accomplished painter in the school of Giotto, which is impressive. Landini was born blind, and therefore took to music as a safe haven, mastering many instruments and developing a few of his own. He is considered one of the great masters of the "Trecento" composers, and his output is comprised of mostly secular music, though he did create some sacred music.

He is also the eponym of the Landini cadence, which inserts the sixth scale degree in between the leading tone and the tonic resolution. Although this cadence is not exclusive to his music, nor did it originate with Landini, he is still accredited with popularizing it.

L.L. Monteverdi- Lamento Della Ninfa-Kirkby

This selection is from Monteverdi's eighth book of Madrigals. It is written for three male voice parts with an ostinato accompaniment. A female soloist emerges after the introduction. It was published in 1638.

This particular volume of Monteverdi's works was arranged very carefully by the composer himself, and are set up in very particular sequences. This suggests that the work should be approached as a whole work, not just as a series of selections.

The music suggests a rather pained sense of majesty, almost desperate during the solo section.

I have always found Monteverdi to possess the heroic side of the Baroque sound, as is appropriate concerning the magnificent and royal "Orfeo."

L.L. Dufay- Mass for St. Anthony of Padua

The first thing I noticed about this piece happened at about 2:40 of the Introitus, and it seemed to be the theme of "O Come, O come Immanuel." Christmas music being on all our minds at the moment, it was especially apt for me to discover this wonderful piece. I wrote earlier about Dufay, but this piece, of which very little has been written as far as I can find, has captivated me to an even greater degree than previous. Upon first hearing, "The Mass for St. Anthony of Padua", seems to demonstrate more of the massive phrase structures of Ockeghem, which seems to explain why Dufay is considered a predecessor to Ockeghem.

St. Anthony is recognized as the patron saint of Marriage in Portugal, but the wider Catholic Church considers him to be the patron saint of Miracles. His canonization was the quickest of any saint in history, as he was made a saint less than a year after his death in 1231 by Pope Gregory IX.

L.L. Giovanni Gabrieli - Canzon Duodecimi Toni

This piece by Gabrieli is written for ten horns. It is the eight selection from a larger work called the Sacrae Symphoniae. The piece begins with a stately theme, and then each part imitates it throughout. The theme is not just echoed, but developed and combined with different instrumentation to create the piece. The piece makes the listener feel as if they were part of a royal procession at court.

Gabrieli was born in 1557 in Venice, and died in 1612. He was a great innovator, especially in notating the use of dynamics, instrumentation, and the effects of spaciousness in sound. His style spread all across Europe, carried by his many students, including Heinrich Schutz.

L.L. Josquin des Prez- Missa Pange Lingua

This mass if considered to be Josquin's last mass. It was not available to Petrucci for the third and final collection of the works of Josquin, probably due to its compositional proximity to his death. It was probably written in 1515

The music is set to the words of Thomas Aquinas' famous "Pange Linqua Gloriosi." The text is quoted directly at the start of each movement, but then the music takes off with a life of its own, using imitation, homophony, and several major contrapuntal techniques of the day for the development.

The theme from the Kyrie movement, which is "do-re-fa-me-re-do," became the most widely quoted theme of the time, and was a very popular fugal subject for composers from that point forward. Mozart used the theme for the last movement of his final Symphony no. 41, as the fugal subject.

The music is absolutely compelling, and creates a sense of unity and solidity between the different sections of the choir, by the sheer mastery of Josquin's choral style.

L.L. John Dunstable Veni Sancte Spiritus

John Dunstable was perhaps the earliest master of contrapuntal technique. This piece sounds as if it were one of the slower fugues out of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The harmonies are generally modal, however, there are occasional passages in the movement when it is almost possible to hear functional tonality. Landini cadences are abound. The vocal parts are extremely expressive, and criss-cross over one another to create an extremely rich sound. This music seems to be very forward looking considering that Dunstable was one of the earliest composers of the Renaissance.

There are no instruments accompanying the SATB vocals. A very open sort of sound pervades the music. Each voice performs its own function, and no isorhythms are apparent. Areas of chordal structure occur as coincidence of the moving lines.

L.L. El Grillo- Josquin Des Prez

This well known piece is famous for its lightheartedness and satirical nature. Josquin supposedly wrote the piece as a reminder to his master to pay the musicians. The word "Grillo," means cricket, and is supposed to signify a little memory jogger to their lord.

The structure of the piece is that of the Frottola, which was the leading kind of secular song in the 16th century, and was a very important predecessor to the madrigal. The Frottola typically avoids contrapuntal complexity, uses clear and repetitive rhythms, and a narrow melodic range.

It is interesting to see music from its starting point up to here. Previously the only music we could access consisted of religious and sacred music, now it is for musicians to make jokes about money with a few inside friends. The irony is pretty wonderful.

L.L. George Frederick Handel - Suite in F

This piece has served the purpose of concentrating all of the aspects of High Baroque. The sense of controlled harmonic flow, both vertical and horizontal, are astoundingly apparent. The harpsichord sound alone almost immediately puts one into the proper mindset to understand Baroque music. The rhythms in dance sections are very energetic and syncopated. Whereas, the slower movements exemplify an improvised treatment of the themes, with pitches circulating in ornamentation around the central melody. The elegance of the piece (not to mention the playing of none other than Glenn Gould) as well as its emotional poignance makes it one of my favorites from the Handel literature.

Handel was born in 1685, the same year as Bach, and died in 1759. He wrote 42 operas alone is his lifetime, not to mention all of his cantatas, solo keyboard works, and oratorios. Handel was honored by being included in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran church. Arnold Schonberg's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra is based on Handel's Concerto Grosso.

L.L. Guilio Caccini - Amor, io parto

The piece is a madgrigal for the soprano voice from Caccini's, "Le Nuove Musiche." The title means, "Love, I depart." The singer tells of trying to forget a past lover, the difficulty of allowing the past to remain buried, and of the old lover's indifference. The most painful thing about forgetting the past, the poem says, is that those whom we try to forget have already forgotten us, and our trials are only for us to work through. It is very easy for everyone to relate to the sense of pain the music reveals, and of a desire to live free of bitterness, though that can be the most difficult part of all.

Caccini was born is Rome in 1551 and died in Florence in 1618. His compositions were very influential in the early part of his life, and "Le Nuove Musiche," is considered a great masterpiece of the time.

Caccini's most popular work, the "Ave Maria," was actually composed by a Russian lute player named Vladimir Vavilov, who was prone to attaching the names of famous composers to his own works. From that time on, this piece was erroneously associated with Caccini.

L.L. Jan Sweelink - Organ Fantasy

Sweelink is a Dutch composer born in 1562 and died in 1621. In his lifetime he was considered the organist against which all other organists were measured. His styles seemed to straddle that of the High Renaissance and the Early Baroque, and his uses of counterpoint, stretto, and organ pedal technique undoubtedly look ahead to the music of J.S. Bach.

The organ fantasy is a series of dramatic episodes ranging from the very profound to the pastoral. The opening section seems almost rather like a tone poem than anything too rigorously organized. Then follows a very fast and virtuosic contrapuntal, though not fugal area. This is succeeded yet again by a very profound and uplifting fughetta. The piece closes with an improvisatory and rigorously contrapuntal toccata-like section.

The performer I of the recording I heard was none other than Glenn Gould. Gould commands what could seem to be a set of unrelated passages within the guise of a fantasy into a fantastic sense of unity.

L.L. Leonin - Dulce Lignum

Its been a long time, several months, since we've spent time on this kind of music in class. Returning to it and listening to it makes me able to see the progression of music as it went up to the Renaissance and into the Baroque. Its almost possible to trace the lineage directly in the sound.

The rhythms are very irregular, and the melody is extremely melismatic, creating arches around the main main themes, but with very few leaps. The singing style contains the nasal quality characteristic of the chant music of the period. It is very difficult to pinpoint an exact form amidst the rest of the activity. The chorus enters at rare intervals after the two solo voices have completed major sections.

L.L. Ockegem- Gloria from the Missa Mi-mi

I found this fantastic work on youtube, and was blown away by it. The pictures which drift in and out of focus depict galaxies and universal phenomena, all too fitting with the sense of awe the music conveys.

Ockegem is considered to be the most important composer in the time between Dufay and Josquin des Prez.

The "Missa Mi-mi," is also referred to as the "Missa Quarti Toni." The work is very extensive and melismatic, and the typical performance time generally reaching an hour. Most of his early masses use the cantus firmus technique for thematic material, however, the Missa Mi-mi, along with some of his later works, shows an extreme amount of freedom, with all new material.

The performers are the Cappella Pratensis, with Rebecca Stewart.

It's unfortunate, but I could not find any more information online that explores this work in greater detail, so I have downloaded the entire mass, and hope to get some better understanding of Ockegem's personality and style.

L.L. Ave Maris Stella by Giullaume Dufay

This piece, "Ave Maris Stella," is Latin for "Hail the star of the Ocean." The music opens with a soloist chanting the nuematic cantus firmus, then the choir enters with an extremely rich and melismatic verse. The harmonies the piece utilizes are absolutely amazing, and there is one tiny section where a sound was created that I never had actually conceptualized to be possible. At this stage in a musician's life, this is obviously rare, but I was surprised by Dufay.

Upon a little research, I wasn't able to get a translation completely from Latin to English, but I believe the term, "Star of the Ocean," is a reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The piece was performed by an ensemble called Pomerium, and directed by Alexander Blachly. Pomerium, which is Latin for "Orchard," was a 14 voiced group founded in New York to perform the music of the Renaissance, and they are particularly acclaimed for their interpretations of Dufay, Gesualdo, and Monteverdi. Blachly is the founder, and is still an extremely active figure in early performance to this day.

L.L. Jacob Obrecht - Salve Regina

Obrecht was born in 1458 and died in 1505. His music is characterized by very flowing melodies and stable harmonic structures; however he is criticized for over repetition and rigid rhythm, exemplifying the overly strict contrapuntal style of the day. His treatment of the cantus firmus is usually verbatim, and differs greatly from that of Ockeghem or Josquin, who tend to treat the cantus firmus very freely.

I found the piece to be a bit hard to listen to all the way through. It lacked much of the majesty and sensitivity that I have come to expect from this style. My particular niche seems to rest with Ockeghem. The music seems to be either for those who seek a purely intellectual representation of the musical ideas.

L.L. Handel - Water Music "Air"

A quick description of the piece makes for another great High Baroque studying tool. Four part strings, with harpsichord continuo, trading the main theme back and forth between the winds and the strings. Simple and easy to follow functional tonality. Cadences feature a trill on the upper neighbor for a V-I, perfect authentic cadence. Unchanging rhythm, with dotted patterns in the Baroque idiom which is so easy to recognize, and lends the music much of its stately charm. The few motives are used and developed throughout the piece, and the main theme is so easily discernible from start to finish.

Water music has always been, when I come back to it, an upbeat and life-affirming masterpiece for me. I always forget just how fantastic it is, and years at a time have gone by without my thinking of it at all. Nevertheless, a mistake easily rectified. I do wonder though what it is about the piece that makes it not quite so paramount to my casual listening agenda. I may attribute it to the fact that it can be seen as salon music, rather than a High Baroque masterpiece. Or maybe it can lack the "Gravitas," of some other works of the period by Handel and other composers.

Listening Lab Response- 20/10/09 Perotin

The film we watched in the lab intrigued me with its odd presentation of astounding information. Its progress kept my attention as the scholars unveiled the ancient mysteries of the Parisian cathedral setup. For example, the architectural allegory of defense against evil from the West by the Cathedral, and from the East by the palace. The musical and religious times come to life as a result of the years of work these scholars dedicated to the unravelling thereof.

The musical performances were fantastic, and it created a new perspective to see the singers at work, since their posture, vocal practices, and approach to performing is so different from what we're used to in our day. It is difficult to maintain a human connection with music so old and foreign to our ears without the occasional reassurance that people had written it and still perform it, and that its more than just a museum piece.

I also liked the light shows that accompanied some of the chant. Such a presentation gave the music something between a psychedelic and an ethereal atmosphere,the lights being the last thing I expected at the time, and had never even considered the possibility. Although I'm sure most purists could find this to be a bit overboard with good reason, it was effective for me.

The Medieval justification of Mary's perpetual virginity by head birth was a stretch for me. However, Athena was said to have been born out of Zeus' skull, and the similarities between those two different cultures is fascinating. Although the context of these two births is very distinct, and the two characters fulfill different roles in their lives, we may choose to see a deeper symbolism that lived in the ancient world concerning head birth, as absurd as that sounds. I don't know what that says about the sanctity of traditional birthing of children. Aeschylus, in his play cycle, "Orestiae," describes Athena's birth from the skull of her father as more pure than a traditional birth, and betrays what the ancients had to say about women's biological role.

L.L. Philippe de Vitry-Gratissima Virginis Species

Philippe de Vitry was an accomplished French composer, poet, and music theorist. Aside from all of his other innovations, he is accredited with being the author of the Ars Nova treatise.

The song is about a man seeking to find the perfect woman, who is pure, caring, beautiful and strong. There is a subtle tone of reference to the virgin Mary, but the text is not religious until the very last stanza, when the singer begs for god to grant unto him the status of the immortals through a kiss.

This piece is extremely rhythmic with dotted patterns throughout. A sense of joy and fulfilled longing and relief works well with the text. The piece is performed by the British early music group called, "Gothic Voices," which was founded in 1981 by Christopher Page.

Von Bingen's Ordo Virtutem- Reaction

The piece for me was an astounding experience, to be forthright. Although it was the most supreme religious overload of the semester for me, it was able to take me out of my present state of mind at the time of hearing, and take me to a consciousness of purity. A great meditation, and a look into the early Christian views upon self-fulfillment vs. religious duty, as well as good vs. evil, in their polar manifestations. Catholic mythology, for lack of a better word, has always been the most intriguing aspect of the religion to me. All the saints, and all the sinners, and all the stories and allegories behind them is enough to keep one occupied to an extended degree. As Oscar Wilde so put it, "Catholicism is such a Romantic religion, with its saints and sinners. The protestants only have decent people."

On another level, the depiction of the devil in the ordeal was fantastic. He reminded me of Milton's Lucifer, rather than the popular bloodthirsty image of lore. Satan asked questions of the virtues that were not totally unfathomable to the average person. This is especially so when he asked humility, "Why would anyone choose to follow you? No one even knows your name." Especially in our time, self-realization and confidence are almost the established creed. From Nietzsche and Ayn Rand, some of the most read writers and philosophers of the last two hundred years, one encounters what to the medieval mind comes from Satan, which is fascinating in its own right.

On the whole, I don't know if I could watch it again for a little while. It is a bit grueling musically and also in its religiousness and denial of what to us is everyday. However, I will be thinking about it for some time.

L.L. Heinrich Schutz - O Jesu, Nomen Dolce

The piece is from the Kleine Geistliche Konzert Vol. II. It is a very easy to grasp example of Early Baroque style. The accompaniment functions as a stable ostinato drawing from a figured bass, making it a clear example of monody. The performer, Andreas Scholl, decorates the melodic line with ornamentations only when necessary. The phrases serve to bring out the lyrics, in each little nuance, rather than gigantic sweeping motions characteristic of the High Renaissance style before it. One can excuse the occasional melismatic passages as far as stylistic purity is concerned. The rhythm is generally very metrical and easy to follow, until the last sections, when melodic embellishments prepare for the end of the piece.

On first hearing, it is easy to see how this took steps forward and ushered in the Baroque period. Phrases are easily decipherable, rather than the Palestrina-esque sense of endless continuity. Most importantly, it easy when looking at a score, to see that tonality is essential to the emotional construction. The tonality is particularly apparent at the last phrase of the piece, which progresses I-V-vi-V. Six chords always get me. The final cadence however leaves me a bit perplexed, since it resolves on g, but feels like a I in b-flat...

Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672)

L.L. Heinrich Isaac - Innsbruck, Ich Muss dich Lassen

Heinrich Isaac lived from 1450-1517, and his life and body of work spread across the Early and High Renaissance. A very important German composer, and the teacher of Ludwig Senfl.

This piece, if I had to take my guess, is from the stylistically Early Renaissance output of Isaac. It is unaccompanied. Very little trace of counterpoint exist, and it still maintains a clearly modal sense of harmony. The line is very consistent and flowing, with rests indicating the breath in between the music and text. Each cadence hosts either an upper neighbor or an escape tone to indicate its approach. Very little dissonance is heard.

Program Notes- Leonin's Propter Veritatem

Propter Veritatem -Leonin (1150-1210)

"Propter Veritatem," meaning "Because of Your Rectitude," was composed by Leonin and is included in the major work accredited to him, the "Magnus Liber." This chant served as the centerpiece for the Mass of the Assumption in the Middle Ages, which celebrates the ascension of Mary into Heaven

Considered one of the most interesting and enigmatic chants of the period, the piece demonstrates astounding traits of dexterity and harmonic expansiveness. Propter Veritatem's melodic arch is downright impressive. Among the many melismas, he contains one melisma that stretches out to 27 notes from one syllable.

The text of the chant is in two parts. The opening session speaks to Mary of all the virtues that she possesses, and then it starts a responsory verset. The verset is usually taken from the Book of Psalms, but for Mary's highest feast the text is taken from the Song of Songs.

Leonin is the first known composer of polyphonic organum, which is chant with several parts. It is assumed that he was French, and was employed at the cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris.

All the information we have of Leonin comes from a theorist known as Anonymous 4, who was probably a college student writing on the current musical situation of the time, giving us insight into what it like to be a musician in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

James LaVelle

The Atmosphere and Experience of Chant

The true glory and pride of chant music is for me most realized in the context of its conception, that is, in a cathedral. When listening to the music, it takes on a whole new quality of majesty and serenity if the space of a cathedral is reproduced on the recording. The sound is able to grew, augment, fill, and finally slowly die away in a peaceful echo.

A personal experience convinced me of the power of chant music in houses of worship. Over the summer I visited Europe for 2 and a half months. While there I visited over 10 of the major cathedrals of Europe. Each was astounding in its own right, but the serenity of the experience was complicated by talking, camera shots, tour guides, and so forth, except in one. In the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris, there was hardly in whisper in the entire structure. I attribute this to the chant music that is perpetually performed in the building. A sense of reverence and quiet was tangible throughout.

Something that chant has been able to isolate for me as a musical quality is the appreciation of space as it relates to sound. Especially considering the stone surfaces of the interiors, the sound was able to fill up a gigantic space with little effort, and great expressive abilities became available.

L.L. Palestrina's Missa Brevis

Over the weekend I discovered the Missa Brevis by Palestrina. Particularly, the Kyrie Eleison spoke to me immediately as a possible new favorite. The piece is written in relatively basic chant counterpoint. However, the it contained something I never expected to encounter in chant music, an extreme amount of passion.

So much chant music, despite its beauty, is by definition very placid. This piece was filled with dramatic lines, rich harmonies, and drastic suspensions. The old texts come to life with new creativity.

I saw Palestrina as a bridge between the music we are currently listening to in class, to the future world of music in the Baroque and onward. He was one of many composers of the period, who helped music to grow up.

It seems to embody the best of both worlds, in the creation of a blissful state of passion. The paradox is resolved upon the listening thereof.

L.L. Ancient instruments

In the listening lab today we explored the sounds of instruments from nearly thousands of years ago. To be able to hear what the sound of a medieval court could have been was enlightening and enriching. I've always found it difficult to really put myself into the mood to appreciate medieval and renaissance settings, but to have music to set the scene allows for a more real experience of the time.

Each instrument had an interesting sound, and some more pleasing than others. Some were downright abrasive, and a few were very gentle and expressive. When medieval instruments are brought up, the usual suspects, the lute, and the early recorder were usually the only examples I could think of. There were hundreds of different instruments, each with their own unique qualities and capabilities.

My mind has been trained to see the history of music from 1700 forward. The reason being that the music which I will perform in my life is solely from this time onward, almost without exception. This class thus far has been very valuable in the sense that it has expanded the range of time and musical experience back beyond what used to be the wall of creative musicality for me.