Alexander Agricola (c.1456-1506)
Missa Malheur me bat a 4
Missa In myne zyn a 4
Beauty Farm
rec. 2024, Refectory, Mauerbach Charterhouse, Mauerbach, Austria
Reviewed as a download
Fra Bernardo FB2468128 [104]
Current scholarship has suggested 1456 as the probable date of birth of the fascinating composer Alexander Agricola. He was born to an affluent, influential family in Ghent and, in the fashion of the day, soon latinized his surname from Ackerman to Agricola. The great Flemish musician Josquin was probably a few years older than Agricola; Obrecht, born a couple of years later, was also a native of Ghent.
Agricola had the best of musical upbringings. There is evidence he spent his late teens at the court of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, a great patron of music where he would have sung with the likes of Josquin, Martini and Compère. He was also resident for a while in Florence, courtesy of Lorenzo de’ Medici, de facto ruler there, where he probably enjoyed the company of Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli.
By 1476 he was back in Flanders at Cambrai Cathedral – too late, alas, to have sung for Dufay who had died two years previously. As he moved into his twenties, his apprenticeship years complete, he was based at the royal court of France. Charles VIII inherited the throne in 1483 at only thirteen years old, so there was a period of regency until 1491. Musical standards must have been high, though; we know this, as until at least the mid-1480s, the maestro di cappella in residence was the great Johannes Ockeghem. Agricola made subsequent trips to Italy in the 1490s but was back in Brussels in 1500 where he took up his final post with Philip the Fair, Duke of Burgundy. Philip’s court was an enlightened one; he was a great collector of manuscripts, very friendly with Erasmus and a patron of painter Hieronymus Bosch. As well as enjoying the music of Agricola, he also had Pierre de la Rue on call. With all these influences on the young Agricola, it is no wonder that his music glows with invention, beauty and technical accomplishment.
While on his travels with Philip in Spain, Agricola died in 1506. His music was widely known at the time of his death, and we find some of his material in several sources. Ottaviano Petrucci, the first printer of polyphony published a collection of his masses in 1504.
As well as the evident flair and adroitness we find in his music. Agricola is also known for his craftiness, intrigue and cunning. His music is often enigmatic and surprising. The Belgian group Huelgas Ensemble under veteran Paul van Nevel highlighted this in their groundbreaking record “A Secret Labyrinth” recorded in 1998. That CD even included the Agnus Dei from the Missa In myne zyn, a work we hear on this new recording from Beauty Farm.
The record begins, however, with his mass based on the song “Malheur me bat”. Both Josquin and Obrecht also used the piece as material for masses. The chanson is intriguing, written in three parts and lacking almost all the text. Huelgas Ensemble (again) made a CD in 2014 called “Le mystère de Malheur me bat”, which is recommendable. This cantus firmus appears in all five movements of the mass, transformed and ingeniously woven into the vocal lines by the masterful Agricola. The mass is in four parts taken by one voice per line. We have the cantus sung by countertenor Matteo Pigato, contratenor and tenor parts by Achim Schulz and Jan Petryka. Bass singer Tim Scott Whiteley sings the bottom line.
Beauty Farm take a measured approach to the music and don’t rush their parts. Timings for the work’s sections are 6, 11, 13, 12 and 9 minutes, making a total of 51 minutes overall. This is quite expansive, but I find that the slower pace suits the music well. Agricola’s style is complex, sometimes unpredictable and rhythmically alive. Beauty Farm’s pacing allows to us to hear this beautifully. Voices are fresh and the sound is warm and very nicely balanced. The many devices and techniques employed in this polyphony make it a challenging sometimes but extremely rewarding listen. The imitation of tenor/bass and superius/contratenor in the Gloria is marvellous and the performance here is heavenly. It is written in three parts for the first 38 bars and even pared down to two in places. The fragility of mankind is well conveyed in the two staves of “Deus Pater omnipotens”, and its harmony seems at first surprising, even disconcerting. How consoling and lovely is the “Qui tollis”; such divine melody and intricacy of writing. Beauty Farm blend their tone so well in the final pages of the Gloria.
For 122 bars we have wonderful four-part harmony in the Credo, including a really effective slowing-down of pace at “ex Maria Virgine” (track 8). For the subsequent “Crucifixus”, though, we are in two-parts: cantus and tenor for the first section, followed by a duet between contratenor and bass. Again, the unrushed nature of this reading proves winning, especially in those long measures as the Credo comes to a close.
The Sanctus is full of shifting metres. The pulse can be lost at times in the advanced counterpoint, but these singers are clearly expert, and we are in good hands. The music is often in three-parts, sometimes even two, as in the late, touching Benedictus. The Agnus Dei also begins with a lovely duet between the two upper voices. By now, I personally hear little of the “Malheur me mat” motif. The music is very affecting, though, written for much of the span in three-parts again. The notes in the set, written by Bernhard Trebuch, speak of the mass as offering us moments of solemn introspection one minute, through to periods of brightness and exuberance the next. He is quite right.
As interesting as Missa Malheur me bat is, for me its companion on this record is even more elaborate and intriguing. Missa In myne zyn is probably the last mass written by Agricola. Again, based thematically on a song, this time one of his own, the composer writes a four-part mass setting of splendid variety and invention. Agricola is surely showing off here, using every possible skill and device he has picked up in his long European travelling experience and his natural, God-given talent for surprise and suspense. Neither the label Fra Bernardo nor the group makes much of this in the notes, but in this piece, we are missing the Kyrie. It was almost certainly written but is now lost to us. The mass without its opening movement stands proud, though, in Agricola’s sacred output and even headless, its huge proportions of 13, 14, 14 and 12 minutes, totalling an impressive 53-minute duration, mark it out.
For this work, I listened to Capilla Flamenca’s 2010 record on the Ricercar label. Theirs is a superb performance, the four movements of the mass divided by instrumental pieces ad Missam and featuring a clever ante Missam programme including Agricola’s original Flemish setting of “In minen sin”. For the big work itself, Capilla Flamenca sing one-to-a-part like Beauty Farm, but they are brisker in pace with timings of 9, 10, 9 and 8, a total of under 37 minutes. In the Agnus Dei of this work, Agricola writes very high for the contratenor line. I believe Capilla Flamenca employed two countertenors in this movement. I am not sure of this, but I think Beauty Farm go the whole hog and cast the mass on the highest tenor line throughout with a countertenor, the Czech singer Filip Dámec.
Even more than the earlier mass, In myne zin breaks each section of the mass into many sub-sections. The parts seem to me more virtuosic in their elaborate ornaments, too. There is a joyful bounce to the music, though, all the way through the piece, a vitality that for me gives it life, even in this slower paced reading. Leaping dissonances and surprising rhythmic patterns abound. In the three-part writing the music often moves into, Agricola uses the fauxbourdon technique so beloved of Dufay. When he then brings in the sun with the four voices in union, the effect in this performance is stunning.
Beauty Farm are very fine. Their ensemble is tight and their voices are fresh. sensitive and youthful. A couple of them (Achim Schulz and Tim Scott Whiteley) sing in another Austrian early music group, Cinquecento. Most of the quartet also sing with the Vienna based group Dionysos Now! who have worked extensively on the oeuvre of Willaert. On this disc, the four voices project beautifully in the warm acoustic of the Mauerbach Charterhouse, near Vienna. Their clarity and diction are to be commended throughout.
My favourite parts of the mass are the final two sections: the sheer wizardry of the Sanctus, and the jaw-droppingly gorgeous writing in the sublime Agnus Dei. The final section of the marvellous Sanctus has repeated phrases (often in pairs) that are truly hypnotic in their effect. The gradual building up to the end is wonderful. If you are remotely interested in music of the Renaissance, you must hear this final Agnus Dei. It is both luminous and caressingly lyrical. The overall effect is majestic and it may be for me, the finest music Agricola ever wrote. As with the whole CD, Fra Bernardo helpfully provide ample cue points, and this is especially useful in this final setting. I listened repeatedly to this visionary Agnus Dei and never ceased to marvel at its genius and beauty. The performance is perfectly measured, lovingly shaped and the sonics are dreamy.
Beauty Farm perform both Masses from a new edition published by Ars Subtilior, transcribed and edited very recently especially for the group by Jorge Martin. I am very grateful to the lovely people in Vienna who made copies of the two scores available to me for this review. I believe the CD has a QR code that gives access to these same scores to all purchasers.
I think this may be Beauty Farm’s fourteenth release on the Fra Bernardo label. Here at MWI, we seem to have reviewed only a couple of those (review ~ review), an omission which we should perhaps remedy. The style of cover art they employ is very cool (I have always loved it) and they stream on all the usual platforms. This release deserves to be a winner, what are you waiting for?
Philip Harrison
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