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Category Archives: Music

Unhappy Byrd

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by SG in Byrd William, Counter Reformation, English, European, Music, Reformation, Religion

≈ 1 Comment

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bonfire of the vanities byrd, bonfire of the vanities england, bonfire of the vanities tudor, byrd carwood, byrd lawson, florence tudor reformation, lawson carwood byrd, miserere byrd, psalm 51 byrd, savonarola byrd, savonarola england, savonarola tudor, Suspicion for 10 Voices, suspicion for ten voices, tudor meditation, walsingham savonarola

Infelix ego (Unhappy, I) – the introductory words of a lengthy meditation on Psalm 51 (the Miserere), by Girolamo Savonarola, a revolutionary friar in the Italian church of the 15th century.

Savonarola is most famous for the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497, when he directed the citizens of the Republic of Florence to burn their sinful objects, an event that led to his excommunication. In the following year he was tortured and sentenced to death for heresy. Before execution he wrote the Infelix ego – an outcry of the sinner in search of God’s mercy.

The Tudor connection? Savonarola’s meditation was approved by Luther and adapted to music several times in the 16th century by Protestant reformers. But then … a Catholic adaptation by the Tudor composer, William Byrd (12:54) [oops – publisher thinks publication is bad – try the links below the window]:

[Performed by The Cardinall’s Musick – link to current youtube versions]

For the lyrics while you listen click this link (text in Latin & English, opens in new window).

The piece is for six voices and is considered the finest setting of Savonarola’s meditation. It was published in 1591, but the original version probably dates from about 1580. There’s a good scholarly treatment of Byrd’s work on the meditation at this link (p.287).

—-

Catholics in late Tudor England attempted to strike a balance between freedom and submission. Byrd’s music is perhaps the best means of understanding that attempt, so I recommend this play on BBC Radio 4: Suspicion for 10 Voices (60 mins).

The playwright Mark Lawson gives us an interrogation of Byrd by the Tudor spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, and his cryptographer, Thomas Phelippes. Lots of singing + puns on the name Byrd. It’s an interesting drama, with nice acting and word play.

Lawson’s idea must have come from this interview (iPlayer at 20:17) with Andrew Carwood, who directed Byrd’s Infelix ego linked at the top of this post.

Important point: Byrd was a follower of the Tridentine Use rather than the Sarum Rite – a reformer rather than a traditionalist – and although the play does have Byrd’s confessor as a foreign Jesuit priest, this issue is not fully addressed.

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O All Ye

12 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by SG in European, Music, Victoria Tomas

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bbc r3 tudor, lamentations tudor, o vos omnes tudor, victoria music, victoria tudor, vittoria music, vittoria tudor

Spain’s greatest Renaissance composer – Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611).

I was interested in one of his versions of the Magnificat, where the verses alternate between polyphony and plainsong, but it’s a bit solemn for my tastes and too lengthy to inflict on the blog.

This, however, is a little beaut …

O vos omnes

The text is Lamentations 1:12 – the lyrics while you listen:

    O vos omnes qui transitis per viam:
attendite et videte si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite et videte:
Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
Attendite, universi populi, et videte dolorem meum.
Si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.

In English:

     O all ye that pass by the way,
attend and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow.
O all ye that pass by the way, attend and see:
If there be any sorrow like to my sorrow.
Attend, all ye people, and see my sorrow:
If there be any sorrow like to my sorrow.

BBC Radio 3 loves Victoria (1:04:37). I need to pay more attention.

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Diddle Diddle Dildo

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by SG in English, Erotica, Humour, Morley Thomas, Music, Satire, Sex

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

morley dildo, shakespeare dildo, thomas nash dildo, tudor dildo, valentine dildo, Will you buy a fine dog, winter's tale dildo

Thomas Morley wants to know, Will you buy a fine dog? (1600) …

Deadpan presentation of a cheeky song, with Morley recreating the patter of a pedlar of saucy wares.

There’s something similar in The Winter’s Tale (IV iv 2086), and so close to Morley’s lyrics that the influence on Shakespeare is an easy inference. (Also – ‘Whoop, do me no harm, good man’ – the earliest motto of British humour?)

The dog “with a hole in his head” is probably a Tudor version of the one-eyed snake.

And then we come to that word …

The first printed record in English is in The Choise of Valentines (or Nash his dildo) an erotic poem composed by Thomas Nash (c.1593) and dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. The word you’re desperately seeking is in line 239.

Enjoy!

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Chansons

10 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by SG in Arcadelt Jacques, European, Music

≈ 2 Comments

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arcadelt chanson, arcadelt madrigal, arcadelt renaissance music, arcadelt tudor, tudor chanson, tudor madrigal chanson, tudor music

A cracking piece of music – Margot, Labourez les Vignes (1554).

By Jacques Arcadelt (1507-1568), a prolific Franco-Flemish composer whose work was published throughout Europe.

arcadelt-4111828

In his youth Arcadelt was sent to Italy, where he wrote plenty of devotional music, but he also spent time on the secular side, bringing the madrigal form to its early maturity. On his return to France he concentrated on chansons.

The Tudor connection? Nothing direct, but Arcadelt did have an influence on Elizabethan composers.

Here’s the happy chanson (2:47), performed by an Italian ensemble, DEUM: Continue reading →

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Silence in Heaven

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by SG in Baroque, Dering Richard, English, Music, Revelation & Apocalypse

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dering handel, Factum est Silentium dering, factum est silentium in cælo, michael dragon revelation, revelation 12:7, revelation michael satan music, richard dering hallelujah, tudor baroque

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out …
                                                    Revelation 12:7-8 (King James version)

————

Another haunting polyphony, sung by a choir from Tennessee.

The title is taken from Revelation 8:1 – factum est silentium in cælo (“there was silence in heaven”) – but the lyrics stem from the apocalyptic passage at the head of this post.

St Michael fighting the dragon (Albrecht Durer, 1498)

This piece is by Richard Dering (1580-1630), an English composer who converted to Catholicism and moved to the Spanish Netherlands. His work was done outside the Tudor period in the new baroque style, but even though the Factum est Silentium was published in 1618 it has a strong affinity with the English catholic tradition from the previous century.

[Plain link (2:52)]

The lyrics while you listen – sinister draco + nice play on milia milium and omnipotenti:

Factum est silentium in caelo,
Dum committeret bellum draco,
Cum Michaele archangelo.
Audita est vox milia milium dicentium.
Salus, honor et virtus omnipotenti Deo.
Alleluia.

In English:

There was silence in heaven
When the dragon fought with the Archangel Michael.
The voice of a thousand thousand was heard saying:
Salvation, honour and power be to almighty God.

Gorgeous. Does the alleluia at the end remind you of … something by Handel?

There are several versions on Youtube – as usual, the American commitment to this tradition puts the Brits to shame.

——–

Odd fact: Dering was Oliver Cromwell’s favourite composer.

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