Scaramella
The Binchois Consort/Andrew Kirkman
rec: 2023, Denmark Studios, Maidenhead, UK
Texts and translations included
Hyperion CDA68460 [62]

One of the great frustrations for performers is when a work by one of their favourite composers has been preserved incomplete. Unfortunately, many pieces from the Renaissance and Baroque periods have met that fate. In some cases, it may be possible to reconstruct what is missing, but that largely depends on how much has been left and whether that – or the style of a composer more generally – gives any clues as to what the missing parts may have been like. No such attempt can claim to be the solution, and results of reconstruction work can be different. The disc under review includes an example: the motet Mater Patris by Jacob Obrecht was also recorded by The Brabant Ensemble under the direction of Stephen Rice (review), but in a reconstruction different from that performed here.

The central figure in the programme is Jacob Obrecht, who was born in Ghent, where his father was in the service of the town as a trumpeter. Jacob may also have been trained as such, but we know nothing about his musical education for certain. The first documentary evidence of Obrecht’s occupation of a musical position dates from 1480 to 1484, when he was choirmaster in Bergen op Zoom (today in the Dutch province of North Brabant). He then moved to Cambrai to take the position of master of the choirboys at the cathedral. That was only an intermezzo, because the next year he was appointed succentor at St Donatian in Bruges. The next station was Antwerp, where in 1492 he took up the post of choirmaster at the church of Our Lady. As one can see, Obrecht often moved from one town to the other, and that continued until the end of his life. In 1497 he returned to Bergen op Zoom, then moved to Bruges again, but in 1501 he was in Antwerp for the second time. Unlike many of his colleagues, he never went to Italy. Until 1504, that is: in that year he entered the service of Duke Ercole d’Este in Ferrara. It didn’t bring him any luck: his employer died in January 1505, and in June or July of that same year Obrecht himself died of the plague.

Obrecht has left a sizeable oeuvre, and was especially famous for his masses. Thirty are known, and one of the best and longest is the Missa Maria zart. The present disc focuses on a mass that has come down to us incomplete. The Missa Scaramella is a cantus firmus mass, which is based on a then popular song, which is performed here in two different settings, by Josquin Desprez and Loyset Compère respectively. It is a bit of a nonsense text of two lines, each followed by a series of words without meaning: “Scaramella is going off to war with lance and buckler / Scaramella is out on a spree with boot and shoe”. It is a very recognizable melody, though, and that must have inspired Obrecht to use it.

Modern performers have to deal with the fact that two parts are missing: the topline (discantus) and the tenor. This is a very common phenomenon in a time that music was not preserved in a score but rather in partbooks. It is not hard to understand that one or more of those can be lost, for whatever reason. Andrew Kirkman and Fabrice Fitch, in their liner-notes, describe the problems of an attempt to reconstruct the missing parts. There is certainly something to go by, but any attempt is a proposal. “In a Mass or a motet, for example, conventions having to do with form, structure and vocal scoring help guide the restorer’s hand, while knowledge of the musical style informs decisions at the local level: guesswork certainly, but nearly always educated guesswork.” One may hope that the composer, if he saw the outcome of the process, would at least recognize his work and appreciate what has been done to restore it to a form in which it can be performed.

I have already mentioned that the song is recognizable, and that helps to hear where and how Obrecht uses it. The liner-notes are helpful in pointing out several episodes, explaining how what is missing has been reconstructed. Thanks to the work of Fabrice Fitch (with contributions by Philip Weller and Paul Kolb), this beautiful mass can now be performed and recorded.

The other main work here is the motet Mater Patris, which is scored for five voices and comprises four sections, each of which closes with the same musical refrain. It is one of the many motets of the Renaissance reflecting the importance of the veneration of the Virgin Mary, considered the mediator between the “sinful soul” and God. This motet was included in a printed edition by Petrucci (1508), but one of the partbooks, that of the second contratenor, is missing. The performance by The Binchois Consort is based on a reconstruction by Philip Weller.

This scholar also reconstructed the motet Philippe qui videt me by Antoine Brumel. It is a four-part setting of a compilation of a verse from John 14, where Jesus speaks to his disciple Philip. This piece has been preserved in manuscript, but Weller had to reconstruct the missing altus part. This piece was not only selected because of Weller’s reconstruction, but also because of the latter’s Christian name, just like Alexander Agricola’s motet Sancte Philippe apostole. This work survives complete in three different sources, but in one of them it has a different text.

Through the reconstructions and the choice of pieces about Philip, this disc wants to commemorate Weller, who died in 2018. This also inspired his colleague Fabrice Fitch to set words from 2 Samuel 1, where David laments the death of Jonathan.

In the first paragraph I referred to a disc of The Brabant Ensemble, also devoted to Obrecht. Apart from the difference in the reconstruction of Mater Patris, there are two other not insignificant differences between the two recordings. The first is the line-up of the two ensembles. The Brabant Ensemble comprises fourteen singers, including female sopranos and altos. In this recording The Binchois Consort consists of only six singers, without sopranos and with two male altos. That results in a different sound, which is more intimate.

That is also due to the recording – the second difference. This is explained in the booklet: “This reflects our conviction that the sort of polyphony heard here was most often performed not in large, cavernous spaces but in enclosed side chapels, sites of the privately endowed devotions that would typically have fostered elaborate, bespoke works in polyphony. Such spaces were characterized by small dimensions, lower ceilings than in adjoining naves and chancels, wall-mounted textile hangings and reed- or grass-strewn floors, not to mention, during devotions, the absorbent and often crowded bodies of clergy, musicians and attending public seeking spiritual benefit in this life and (especially) the next.” This is an aspect that should receive more attention. Too often the connection between music and space is ignored. I refer here to the oeuvre of William Byrd, most of which was performed in secrecy, and probably often in intimate surroundings. That seldom influences the decisions of where to record it.

In this case the recording was made “in an acoustically dead recording studio with a ‘real-world’ acoustic added subsequently”. One wonders whether there was no church with a chapel which is suitable to realise this kind of sound. There may be reasons for the decision to use a studio instead. Anyway, the result offers an interesting perspective on the music performed here.

It cannot be appreciated enough that the Missa Scaramella is now available for performance, and has been recorded here in such a fine manner. The Binchois Consort is an excellent ensemble, consisting of fine voices, which blend perfectly and produce a fluent legato. The small number of singers and the acoustic guarantee an optimum transparency, which makes it possible to admire the polyphonic fabric by Obrecht and his colleagues.

Obviously, this disc is a must have for any lover of Renaissance polyphony. 

Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen

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Contents
Antoine Brumel (c1460-1512/13)
Philippe qui videt me a 4
Josquin Desprez (c1450/55-1521)
Scaramella a 4
Jacob Obrecht (1457/58-1505)
Missa Scaramella a 4
Mater Patris/Sancta Dei genitrix a 5
Fabrice Fitch (b. 1967)
Planctus David a 4
Loyset Compère (c1445-1518)
Scaramella a 4
Alexander Agricola (c1456-1506)
Sancte Philippe apostole a 4