Clavis et Chorda
14th and 15th Century Music for String Keyboard Instruments
Vania Dal Maso (keyboards)
rec. 2015, Studio 15, Recording Studio Genova, Italy
Dynamic CDS8079 [66]
The title of this CD is explained in Vania Dal Maso’s booklet essay. ‘Clavis’ relates to a key as mentioned ‘in the Latin treatises of the Middle Ages and the sound production source of the keyboard instruments used in the recording’. The ‘Chorda’ therefore refers to the strings. The three instruments, pictured within, offer examples which, as she writes, ‘bring back sounds from distant times, sounds for which we have no hearing evidence’.
The reconstructed instruments are:
– a clavichord, where the strings are struck by hammers or tangents; it has the possibility of thirty-seven different notes and is based on an instrument found in images dated around 1440;
– a hammered clavicymbalum; it is, in many ways, the predecessor to the piano, and sounds and ‘silvery and light’ as described in the booklet by Paolo Zerbinetti;
– a clavicytherium which is described as a ‘hypothetical reconstruction of a 15th Century instrument’ now residing in the Royal College of Music; it is ‘the only extant medieval stringed keyboard instrument’.
The titles of each of the twenty-eight pieces (many very short) have indications next to them as to which keyboard is used.
The music is divided into five sections with specific titles denoting the pieces by their genres but prefaced by an opening single track entitled ‘Redeuntes In Re’ by the great Nuremberg organist Conrad Paumann. Among the sources, the earliest includes the Robertsbridge Codex (c.1320) compiled, it is thought, in France but brought over to the Abbey school in East Sussex with its now pitiful ruins situated in a private garden. Another is the Buxheimer Orgelbuch (c.1460) which includes the simpler intabulations of, for example, the popular ‘J’ay pris amours’ and Binchois song ‘Adyen matres belle’(sic) of which we hear two versions the second being the more elaborate. The intabulations of Ciconia, Landini, Jacopo da Bologna and Bartolino da Padova – to name but four – are from the Faenza Codex (c.1410). Another, a German source is the Loehamer Liederbuch (c.1450). Two pieces are credited to Adam Heborgh, who is known only through one tablature book in which three notes are allotted to each pitch of the melody or tenor line.
In all of these pieces it is the upper line played almost completely by the right hand and elaborated, sometimes with incredible complexity and requiring much virtuosity. The lower part may be the plainchant line or the original bass of the chanson or a harmonic structure. You may find some recordings in which these pieces, especially those from the Faenza Codex, work instrumentally – for example, the Unicorn ensemble (Naxos 8.553618).
It seems that for Vania Dal Maso, who is described as ‘a performer scholar’, this recording has been a project close to her heart. It required many hours of painstaking reconstruction both of the musical sources and in the construction of the instruments. This task has been taken on by Paolo Zerbinatti, a very experienced craftsman whose instruments have been employed by other early music ensembles.
This is certainly a niche CD but it has a real antiquarian value and for some it will be well worth the investment. As well as the photographs, there are useful and clearly translated booklet notes.
Gary Higginson
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Paumann: Redeuntes In Re
anon.: Retrové
anon.: Bel fiore danca
anon.: Stüblin etc.
anon.: Mi ut re ut e c d c: Aliud Mi ut re ut E c d c
anon.: Tribum quem (After P. de Vitry)
anon.: C[on] l[agreme] (After J. Ciconia)
Paumann: Con lacrime M.C.C. (After J. Ciconia)
anon.: [Un fior(e) gentil m’apparse] (After A.Z. da Teramo)
anon.: Che pena questa (After F. Landini)
anon.: O ciecho mondo (After J. da Bologna)
anon.: La dolçe sere (After B. da Padova)
anon.: Non na el so amante (After J. da Bologna)
Ileborgh: Mensura trium notarum supra tenorem Frowe al myn hoffen an dyr lyed
Ileborgh: Mensura duorum notarum eiusdem tenoris
anon.: Preambulum super g
anon.: Incipit bo(nus tenor) Leohardi
anon.: Praeambulum super fa
anon.: Paumgartner
anon.: Praeambulum super re
anon.: Mit ganczem Willen wünsch ich dir
anon.: En avois
anon.: Annabasanna 3m
anon.: Ellend du hast
anon.: J’ay pris amours
anon.: Dulongesux (After G. Binchois)
Ileborgh: Praeambulum super d a f et g
anon.: Adyen matres belle (After G. Binchois)
