Messes anonymes
Missa Gross senen
Missa L’ardant desir
Cut Circle/Jesse Rodin
rec. 2019 at Skywalker Sound, Marin County, CA, USA DDD
Musique en Wallonie MEW 2097 [70]
Some performers cover a wide range of repertoire, both in genre and chronologically. However, the older the repertoire is, the more it is something that can only be tackled by specialists. Music that has been preserved in manuscripts needs to be transcribed, and that is often a laborious process. Often quite a number of problems have to be solved, and that is a job for specialists in a particular genre or phase of music history. The disc that is the subject of this review, offers two examples of polyphonic works from the 15th century that pose quite some problems to performers. Those regard both the music itself and the way it has to be performed.
Both masses have been preserved without the name of the composer. To date it has not been possible to establish who might have written them. The musicologist Jaap van Benthem, specialist in renaissance polyphony, has suggested the Missa Gross senen may have been written by Johannes Tourout. He was for some time cantor of the chapel of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg, and that could explain why this mass is based on a German song, Gross senen ich in Herzen trag. The manuscript in which the music is preserved, is full of errors – one of the problems a performer has to deal with. Especially if no other source is known, it is not easy to establish the correct score. In this case, Jesse Rodin had to reconstruct a segment of the altus part in the Gloria, which the scribe apparently forgot to copy. As far as the performance is concerned, it is in particular the tenor part that causes some problems, for instance with regard to rhythm and the various speeds at which he has to sing. To give one example from the Gloria: “In the exhilarating Cum sancto spiritu the tenor is again half as fast as everyone else – only because the other voices are now in triple meter, some of his notes are effectively at one-third speed”. Far less unusual is that this mass, scored for four voices, includes several episodes for two or three voices. This was a common feature of masses by composers of the Franco-Flemish school.
The other mass is even more complicated. The Missa L’ardant desir is again anonymous, and in this case even the chanson on which it is based, is not known. David Fallows has reconstructed the song on the basis of the tenor part of this mass. Again, this work has been preserved in a single source, a choirbook which is in the library of the Sistine Chapel. It also includes quite some errors, and the notation causes several problems, in addition to the composer’s verbal instructions. One of them is that the Gloria and the Sanctus include passages in which the tenor should omit all written rests. In the Agnus Dei he should skip any note that is followed by a note higher than itself. “The piece ends with the tenor being told to swap the largest note values for smallest ones, and vice versa (…) – the musical equivalent of changing ‘a’ to ‘z’ and ‘z’ to ‘a’ while reading aloud.”
The problems with regard to the notation are substantial. In the manuscript “the tenor melody appears only in ‘resolved’ versions that present not the original song, but the notes the tenor sings once the various instructions have been followed. Making matters still more complex, the choirbook lacks the instructions themselves. This is like having an answer without a question – or even any indication that there was a question in the first place.” It is thanks to the scholar Rob Wegman that this problem could be solved.
As one may understand, a performance of such music is the work of specialists. Jesse Rodin works closely with scholars, and this helps to solve the problems a performer is facing. Thanks to these collective efforts, a recording like this one can be made. It has been well worth the effort, as these two masses are quite fascinating. This is exciting music to listen to, and the booklet notes are of great help, especially as the passages discussed include references to the tracks and the timings.
As far as the performance is concerned, two features are of special importance. First, the recording was made under circumstances which result in a very intimate sound, thanks to a close miking and minimal reverberation. “The acoustic used here mimics the experience of a listener in a side chapel, where polyphonic masses were often performed. Standing just a few steps away from the singers’ mouths, musical details sound crisp and present – which is important considering that the composers, themselves usually members of the ensemble, seem to have been writing for one another.” It is something one has to get used to, especially in combination with the second feature.
In the booklet, Rodin refers to “a new approach designed to honor the music’s variety and unflagging intensity.” I have looked in the booklets of previous recordings of this ensemble, and I noted that here it is smaller – the masses are performed with one singer per part – and partly different in personnel. Two singers are new: Sonja DuToit Tengblad (soprano) and Jonas Budris (altus). The word altus does not refer to Budris’s voice type – he is a tenor and does not sing in falsetto – but to the name of the part he sings. The one-to-a-part line-up seems well justified, and it makes it easier to follow the various parts. What I have problems with is the style of singing, which is probably less ‘polished’ than one is used to hear in this kind of music. The sound sometimes reminded me of the ensemble Graindelavoix, whose style of singing I find hard to swallow. To me the singing seems often overly loud and, in particular in the Missa Gross senen, I found it not that easy to hear the tenor and bass, as the two upper voices are often too dominant.
It is probably impossible to prove – or to refute – that this style of singing is in line with the practice at the time. One probably has to get used to it, and whether one appreciates it or not may also be due to personal taste. Despite my reservations in this matter, I strongly recommend this disc to any lover of renaissance polyphony. This is undoubtedly the first recording of these two masses, and their musical quality fully justifies a recording like this one. The booklet is of the usual high standard of this label.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
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