Notes for “Mon Seul Plaisir”    

  Our concert opens with the renaissance loud band, or alta cappella, of sackbuts and shawms.  This ensemble would have been heard outdoors on the public square, in processions, festivals, or for dancing.  The power of the instruments could easily be heard over the sounds of crowd or the chatter of a large banquet hall.  We know the musicians performed polyphonic chansons and dance tunes based on popular songs.  There was also rich tradition of musicians improvising polyphony over a well-known song for dancing.

      Our concert today draws from some of the most popular and widely distributed chansons of the French and Flemish lands.  The polyphonic chanson was an incredibly popular form, and large collections by publishers like Attaingnant brought it to all the lands of Europe.  Its poetry ranged topically from courtly love and devotion, to songs of rejection, angst and grief, to bawdy songs of earthly pleasure.  Essentially, the top 40 radio of the day.  These songs were widely known and were performed by singers, wind players, lutenists and keyboardists.  Theorists and virtuosos wrote their own florid embellishments, or divisions, over the pieces as well as using the popular songs as compositional material for sacred mass settings.

       The recorder consort next performs selections from the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, an important and early published collection of three and four part works.  This ensemble would have been considered one of the soft, or low, ensembles for entertainment in the chamber, salon or more intimate settings.  

         The next ensemble of dulcians and sackbuts, while definitely louder than the recorders, was also considered a softer ensemble for more “civilized” entertainment.  We play here, a set of more serious songs.  We hear of the trials and tribulations of Susane from the old testament as her honor is called into question by two old lechers.  In Nymphes des Bois, Josquin demonstrates his mastery of polyphony, texture, harmony and emotion in this grief filled tribute to his mentor and teacher, Ockeghem, upon his death.

         After another set of recorder consort music by Josquin, we hear the oldest version of the alta cappella with music from the cusp of the middle ages and the renaissance.  The slide trumpet was a technological innovation in music from around 1350.  This took the idea of a military style trumpet that might be used for drones and military calls and added a telescoping tube.  This tube allowed now the performer to move the instrument and achieve several different harmonic series (the notes available to a fixed length tube).  With these the performer could play diatonic melodies (a scale) over a wide range.  The brash tone matched the shawms for power and made an impressive sound for outdoor events and ceremonies.  The selections today are from the Pixerecourt Chansonnier from about 1480, containing many works from the previous hundred years.  Such collections were often made, painstakingly by hand before publishing, for a noble household and remain important or sometimes only sources for certain pieces of music.     

        Our last set features two works by Jean de Castro, or “our Castro” as the Flemish called him during his lifetime. Despite his Iberian sounding name, he was a born and bred Flemish composer.  We end with Stirpis Johannes, a work dedicated to a noble patron of de Castro.  While in theory, it is by this means that this nobleman is remembered… what really shines today in the memory of the listener is the dense and well-crafted lines that Jean de Castro weaves.