Volume 6: English, French and Italian Madrigals

CD 4: French and English Madrigal Masterpieces

BG604
Madrigal Masterpieces
BG-604, original LP cover

The scholar Nathan Broder writes of the madrigal:

"It is the principal vehicle for the Renaissance composer's most intimate thoughts as well as his chief medium for musical narration and description. In other words it was to the 16th century what the Lied and the tone poem were to the 19th. In construction, however, it is vocal chamber music, the 16th century equivalent of the later string quartet and quintet."

Just as the history of the 19th century Lied, from Schubert to Hugo Wolf, was not one of gradual progress towards perfection but the development of new techniques in response to the exploration of ever new areas of emotional and psychological expression, so it was with the madrigal.

The program starts with a little "cycle" of three chansons. The French chanson differs from the madrigal in its light elegance and homophonic texture. Guillaume Costeley's merry Noël, his love song to a Ronsard poem, and Pierre Passereau's imitative play on bird sounds, exhibit in their melodic sweetness and airy laughter all that is meant by joie de vivre. In striking contrast in its profound and expanding tragic expression is Monteverdi's Sestina or cycle of six madrigals, Lagrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata. Here homophony alternates with polyphony, the harmonies attain a harrowing poignance and the interplay of one or two solo voices against the full body of six voices foreshadows the coming concerto. Monteverdi's polyphony can be said to extend to the interweaving not only of melodic lines but also of one line of poetry against another, so that the word-setting reaches a height of subtle expressiveness. To carry further Broder's parallel of the part-song to later instrumental chamber music, the chanson cycle can be likened to a divertimento, and it is not extreme to compare the Monteverdi Sestina, in its deep feeling and richly woven texture, to Beethoven's last quartets.

BG639
Madrigal Masterpieces, Volume 2
BG-639, original LP cover

The enormously influential Flemish composer Josquin des Pres (c.1450-1521) is represented in the present program by two starkly contrasting works. His moving motet-chanson on the death of his older contemporary, Johannes Ockeghem (or Okeghem), weaves a text in which Josquin himself and the other notable composers of the time are shown weeping over the grave of their master, over the traditional Introit for the dead, sung by the tenor. Parfons Regretz is a lovely example of the chanson form of which he was a supreme master.

Clément Jannequin (c.1485-c.1560) wrote inimitable "entertainments" for the French courts, delightful in their combination of musical and literary wit. Among them are colorful imitations of nature, as with the bird cries in Le chant des oyseaux and L'Alouette. Ce moys de may and Au joly boys, the first more chordal and the second more polyphonic, have a dominating sweet melodic flow. On the other hand, La Guerre or La bataille de Marignan (which tells of a battle that took place in 1515) programatically describes the battle, with imitations of battle sounds and cries.

Balancing Jannequin's sophisticated work is the folk-inspired chanson, Mon coeur se recommande à vous, by Orlando Lasso (1532-1594, also known as Roland de Lassus), the great Netherlands composer who served many courts of Europe and was a celebrated figure in Italy, France and Germany as well as his native land. This chanson was so popular that its amorous verses were changed in some versions to pious ones. Also in French, but influenced by the Italian madrigal style, is his chanson La nuit froide et sombre, with its striking evocation of the rising sun.

BG671
Lamento d'Arianna
BG-671, original LP cover

Vocal music flowed across national boundaries. In 1531, Jannequin's "battle" chanson was published in Italy, where it inspired many imitations. Italian madrigals were heard in England, and in 1588 the publication of Musica Transalpina brought to the English public a collection of continental part-songs, including the Lassus chanson and Marenzio madrigal on this program.

William Byrd (1543-1623) and Thomas Morley (c.1557 - c.1603) were the groundbreakers in the English recreation of the madrigal. Byrd's long and beautiful lullaby" turns to the Biblical story of the "massacre of the innocents" by King Herod. Morley's Now is the month of maying takes up the tradition of the Italian balleti with merry fa-la refrains.

The Renaissance style continued to be handled affectionately in England, as in the deeply affecting Lament of David for Absalom by Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656), the last of the great line.

Originally released as Vanguard/The Bach Guild BG-639 (tracks 1-3), BG-671 (tracks 4-8) and BG-604