Two pieces today:
I. Manuel Machado [c. 1590-1646]: Dos estrellas le seguen à 2,3 & 4.
II. Juan García de Salazar [1639-1710]: Lauda Sion salvatorem à 4.
Huelgas Ensemble | Paul Van Nevel.
Music at time of Francisco de Zurbarán.
Robert Stevenson worte about Machado:
«Portuguese composer and instrumentalist resident in Spain. He studied with Duarte Lobo and in 1610, after mastering several instruments, joined his father, Lope Machado, a harpist, in the royal chapel at Madrid. On 31 August 1639 he was appointed a royal chamber musician and on 10 August 1642 was rewarded ‘for his long services and for those of his father’ with added emoluments, payable against House of Burgundy funds. All 20 of his extant works are secular songs with Spanish texts, which equal in expressiveness those by native Spanish composers of the period. His harmonies are exceedingly rich and his changes of metre and tempo exactly reflect the shifting moods of the love poetry that he set. Whether for the pathetic Bien podéis coraçón mio (marked aspacio, ‘slow’), Salió a la fuente Jacinta with its double entendre or the jaunty Qué entonadilla que estaba la picara (marked picadito el compas, ‘in strict time’), he always found precisely the right musical means to underline the sense. He added estrivos and coplas to his romances, thus adhering to the most up-to-date Baroque formal practice.
His Christmas villancicos in King João IV’s library included a negro adhering to African call and response practice; a soloist being answered by an eight-voice chorus, Manuelica sa en Bele, Turo pleto»
José López-Calo said about Salazar:
«Spanish composer. He was a choirboy at Burgos Cathedral, where he studied composition with the maestro de capilla Francisco Ruiz Samaniego. In November 1661 he was appointed maestro de capilla at the collegiate church in Toro, and in May 1663 he was elected to a similar post at El Burgo de Osma Cathedral. From 1668 until his death he was maestro de capilla at Zamora Cathedral.
Only a few of his numerous settings of Spanish texts, and of his compositions in modern style, are extant, but several a cappella works survive. These date from his Zamora years, but he sent copies of several of them to the cathedral chapters of El Burgo de Osma and Burgos in token of his gratitude to them. They consist of masses, hymns, motets etc., all in the stile antico and yet full of expression and often quite modern in idiom. They show him to have been a skilful contrapuntist.»
Paul Van Nevel wrote in notes of this disc the next:
«As we searched for the sacred repertoire that might have accompanied Zurbarán, not only did we discover a vast wealth of for the most part unknow composers and vocal repertoire, but also a tension between the conservative polyphonic styles (which would survive on the Iberian peninsula into the nineteenth century) and the new trends of the Italian seconda prattica, which, although resisted in vain by the Spanish Church, gradually found their way into liturgical music.
The composers of the sacred works in this selection were all cathedral chapelmasters. Their sphere of operation was just about the whole territory of Spain. Both their more homophonic style (a cappella, without the «modern» practice of basso continuo) and the nature of the (almost exclusively liturgical) works they composed perfectly match the meditative disposition of ecclesiastical circles.
Juan García de Salazar wrote exclusively in the «stile antico». His four-part Secuencia del Lauda Sion salvatorem is a superb example of the mystical, expressive music that took the listener of the time into a state of medidative ectasy: the constantly recurring melodic lines, harmonic twists, and stereotypical cadences create a timeless, trascendental experience that recalls, for example, Zurbarán's Milagro de Porciúncula.
Of the three examples included in this collection, two (Machado's piece is one) are taken from the most important source for the profane music of seventeenth-century Spain, Cancionero de la Sablonara, written in 1624 and 1625 at the Capilla Real and the Escorial in Madrid. The forms (villancico and tonos) tied up with the nature of Spanish poetry –Lope de Vega was one of the most important providers of texts. Popular in character, these wordly pieces are often melancholy, often rich in colourful contrasts. In these profane works, the musical culture of Spain can for the first time be seen free of foreign influence. So they are a good fift with the equally authentic mysticism of Zurabrán's art».
These are only two examples of this absolutely wonderful album.
Huelgas Ensemble and Van Nevel sign an incredible recording, full of later Renaissance and Baroque Spanish music.
I. Manuel Machado [c. 1590-1646]: Dos estrellas le seguen à 2,3 & 4.
II. Juan García de Salazar [1639-1710]: Lauda Sion salvatorem à 4.
Huelgas Ensemble | Paul Van Nevel.
Music at time of Francisco de Zurbarán.
Robert Stevenson worte about Machado:
«Portuguese composer and instrumentalist resident in Spain. He studied with Duarte Lobo and in 1610, after mastering several instruments, joined his father, Lope Machado, a harpist, in the royal chapel at Madrid. On 31 August 1639 he was appointed a royal chamber musician and on 10 August 1642 was rewarded ‘for his long services and for those of his father’ with added emoluments, payable against House of Burgundy funds. All 20 of his extant works are secular songs with Spanish texts, which equal in expressiveness those by native Spanish composers of the period. His harmonies are exceedingly rich and his changes of metre and tempo exactly reflect the shifting moods of the love poetry that he set. Whether for the pathetic Bien podéis coraçón mio (marked aspacio, ‘slow’), Salió a la fuente Jacinta with its double entendre or the jaunty Qué entonadilla que estaba la picara (marked picadito el compas, ‘in strict time’), he always found precisely the right musical means to underline the sense. He added estrivos and coplas to his romances, thus adhering to the most up-to-date Baroque formal practice.
His Christmas villancicos in King João IV’s library included a negro adhering to African call and response practice; a soloist being answered by an eight-voice chorus, Manuelica sa en Bele, Turo pleto»
José López-Calo said about Salazar:
«Spanish composer. He was a choirboy at Burgos Cathedral, where he studied composition with the maestro de capilla Francisco Ruiz Samaniego. In November 1661 he was appointed maestro de capilla at the collegiate church in Toro, and in May 1663 he was elected to a similar post at El Burgo de Osma Cathedral. From 1668 until his death he was maestro de capilla at Zamora Cathedral.
Only a few of his numerous settings of Spanish texts, and of his compositions in modern style, are extant, but several a cappella works survive. These date from his Zamora years, but he sent copies of several of them to the cathedral chapters of El Burgo de Osma and Burgos in token of his gratitude to them. They consist of masses, hymns, motets etc., all in the stile antico and yet full of expression and often quite modern in idiom. They show him to have been a skilful contrapuntist.»
Paul Van Nevel wrote in notes of this disc the next:
«As we searched for the sacred repertoire that might have accompanied Zurbarán, not only did we discover a vast wealth of for the most part unknow composers and vocal repertoire, but also a tension between the conservative polyphonic styles (which would survive on the Iberian peninsula into the nineteenth century) and the new trends of the Italian seconda prattica, which, although resisted in vain by the Spanish Church, gradually found their way into liturgical music.
The composers of the sacred works in this selection were all cathedral chapelmasters. Their sphere of operation was just about the whole territory of Spain. Both their more homophonic style (a cappella, without the «modern» practice of basso continuo) and the nature of the (almost exclusively liturgical) works they composed perfectly match the meditative disposition of ecclesiastical circles.
Juan García de Salazar wrote exclusively in the «stile antico». His four-part Secuencia del Lauda Sion salvatorem is a superb example of the mystical, expressive music that took the listener of the time into a state of medidative ectasy: the constantly recurring melodic lines, harmonic twists, and stereotypical cadences create a timeless, trascendental experience that recalls, for example, Zurbarán's Milagro de Porciúncula.
Of the three examples included in this collection, two (Machado's piece is one) are taken from the most important source for the profane music of seventeenth-century Spain, Cancionero de la Sablonara, written in 1624 and 1625 at the Capilla Real and the Escorial in Madrid. The forms (villancico and tonos) tied up with the nature of Spanish poetry –Lope de Vega was one of the most important providers of texts. Popular in character, these wordly pieces are often melancholy, often rich in colourful contrasts. In these profane works, the musical culture of Spain can for the first time be seen free of foreign influence. So they are a good fift with the equally authentic mysticism of Zurabrán's art».
These are only two examples of this absolutely wonderful album.
Huelgas Ensemble and Van Nevel sign an incredible recording, full of later Renaissance and Baroque Spanish music.
The sonority is pure Huelgas.
For me, this is one of the best vocal recordings of the year.
Really indispensable.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario