Monuments of the Renaissance

MONUMENTS OF THE RENAISSANCE: Spem in alium
Saturday, October 12, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
St. James Cathedral
804 Ninth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104 
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PROGRAM

TALLIS: Loquebantus variis linguis
TALLIS: Lamentations II
TALLIS: In jejunio et fletu
CARVER: O bone Jesu a19

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GABRIELI: Magnificat (octavi toni)
BYRD: Tristitia et anxietas
LOBO: Versa est in luctum
TALLIS: Spem in alium a40

     Renaissance polyphony has survived the test of time. While the text is mostly sacred, the music possesses an inherent beauty that enchants listeners from all backgrounds. Nothing compares to the sound of human voices in their purest form, without accompaniment, singing this ancient music—it delivers a profound sense of human achievement.
     For tonight’s program, we are excited to share with you a selection of the most complex, introspective, and soul-wrenching works from the period.
     Thomas Tallis (1505–1585) had the hard task of composing under four successive Tudor monarchs (Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I) during a period of political and religious instability and was able to adapt his musical style to meet their demands. Henry VIII wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon so he broke away from the Catholic church in 1534, paving the way for the Protestant Reformation, which favored simpler forms of writing and introduced sacred music in the vernacular. The Reformation flourished under the first two Tudors (Henry VIII and Edward VI) until Mary I’s accession in 1553. Mary I, a devout Catholic determined to crush the Protestant faith, restored the Catholic Rite to the English church during her brief reign, and the compositional style reverted back to the more elaborate and florid writing prevalent earlier in the century.
     England’s return to Catholicism called for a shift in compositional style, and Latin and polyphonic textures returned to prominence. It is possible Tallis secretly welcomed the return of Catholicism. During Mary I’s short time, he produced a large  number  of  works  including  a   Pentecost    responsory Loquebantur variis linguis. Tallis weaves an intricate web of polyphony around the chant in the tenor part, with the remaining six parts all depicting the apostles speaking in tongues.
     Tallis’s two settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah are among the most beloved works of Tudor polyphony. While both settings are of readings for the Maundy Thursday liturgy, we do not know if Tallis intended them for liturgical performance or private, devotional use. The musical style suggests they were composed during Elizabeth I’s reign. Tallis captures an incredibly heavy, solemn mood in his settings which leaves the listener haunted. We are performing Tallis’s second setting of the Lamentations.
     In jejunio et fletu was first published in 1575 as part of Cantiones Sacrae, a large collection of sacred motets composed by Tallis and his pupil William Byrd. Scored for lower voices, Tallis creates a very somber sound in this penitential motet for Ash Wednesday. The text describes priests “fasting and weeping,” and, more pertinently, begging the Lord to spare His people from having their (Catholic?) heritage destroyed.

     The centerpiece of the program is Tallis’s crowning achievement, Spem in alium. Tallis composed the 40-part tour de force in 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. According to a letter written by Thomas Wateride in 1611, a song of 30 parts was sent from Italy to a music-loving duke in England, who asked if an “Englishman could sett as good a songe.” Tallis took up the challenge and set the text of the Matins response “Spem in alium” to a total of 40 parts.

     Supposing the “30” to be a mistake, the Italian song that inspired Tallis is likely to have been the 40-part motet Ecce beatam lucem or Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno, both by Alessandro Striggio. Striggio probably met Tallis while on a European tour that stopped in London in June 1567.
     The motet is laid out for eight choirs of five voices (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass). We are performing the motet as Tallis likely would have intended, with singers standing in a horseshoe shape. Beginning with a single voice from the first choir on the far left, other voices join in imitation, each in turn falling silent as the music moves around the eight choirs. All forty voices enter simultaneously for a few bars, and then the pattern of the opening is reversed, with the music passing from choir eight to choir one. There is another brief full section, after which the choirs sing in antiphonal pairs, throwing the sound across the space between them. Finally all voices join for the culmination of the work.
     “Tallis is dead and music dies,” lamented William Byrd (1540–1623), his pupil and later colleague. Byrd obtained the prestigious post of Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1572. Though he was not required to write in as many styles as Tallis, since the political and religious situation in England had settled somewhat by Byrd’s tenure, he was an impressive successor to his teacher. Byrd’s musical challenges were more personal—he spent his life composing for a Protestant church as a devout Catholic. The new Protestant service required a compositional style that clearly communicated the meaning of the text to the congregation, which amounted to a primarily chordal texture with English language text. The Catholic tradition still favored Latin texts and the music was more elaborate in style. Byrd’s music was a compromise and sat right in the middle—simpler than contemporary Catholic music and more complex than his Protestant colleagues’ compositions. Despite this apparent compromise, many believe that his music often reflects his desire for the return of Catholicism in veiled terms, particularly in Tristitia et anxietas.
     Unfortunately, we know little about Scotland’s greatest Renaissance composer, Robert Carver (1485–1570). Carver was a Scottish Canon regular—an ordained priest who lives in a community with other canons—who spent much of his life at Scone Abbey. They followed a set of rules that emphasized a life lived together under the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. By examining examples of Carver’s signature found in a rediscovered charter book for the abbey, we know he was also the scribe for the Carver Choirbook, which contains all of his surviving compositions including the 19-part motet O bone Jesu. Some historians believe it was written for James IV, who atoned constantly over the course of his life for trying to overthrow his father, James III (who eventually was murdered by a group of rebels). James IV never got over his guilt for being involved and every year during Lent wore an iron chain garment around his waist, next to the skin, adding weight every each year. Some think James IV commissioned O bone Jesu as part of that atonement. Opening delicately with only two voices, Carver expands to incorporate the entire 19-voice choir in the span of only 30 seconds. This opening which evokes images of a sunrise, is one of the most beautiful moments in the repertoire.
     Italian composer Andrea Gabrieli (1532–1585) was the first internationally renowned member of the Venetian School of composers. In 1566, Gabrieli was chosen for the post of organist at St. Mark's Basilica, one of the most prestigious musical posts in northern Italy. Working in the unique acoustic space of St. Mark's, he was able to develop his unique, grand ceremonial style, which was enormously influential in the development of polychoral style. Gabrieli’s setting of the Magnificat for triple choir represents only the beginning of the Venetian exploration of the polychoral style.
     The polychoral style eventually made its way to Spain, influencing composers such as Alonso Lobo (1555–1617), though Lobo never used more than two choirs. (The Gabrielis often wrote for as many choirs as there were choir lofts at St. Mark’s). Lobo was influential far beyond Spain and was considered to be one of the finest Spanish composers, second to Tomás Luis de Victoria.
     Lobo’s best known work, Versa est in luctum, was written for the funeral of Philip II in 1598 at Toledo Cathedral. While the six-part motet is set to text associated with a Requiem Mass, he did not write a complete setting. The stunning motet, filled with beautiful, cascading lines, captures the despair of the text and showcases why Victoria considered Lobo to be an equal.
    We want to thank everyone for supporting us through the years. It has been such a privilege to explore the depths of this gorgeous music over 15 years of performance and recording. This journey has been more fulfilling than we could have imagined, and we could never have embarked on it without you.

-Markdavin Obenza

Chant, a starting point

Chant is timeless. At bottom, it is a simple melody unrestricted by bar lines and time signatures; however, upon reflection on the last thousand years of music, we know it is much more than that. Not only was chant our musical starting point, it is the foundation of Eastern and Western music. Renaissance composers such as Tallis and Sheppard frequently used chant as the basis for polyphonic composition, while more contemporary composers Pärt and Tavener took inspiration from it. Others like Tavener and Whitacre also employ chant but with a modern harmonic flavor. Just as music has evolved from it, we can also hear chant itself transformed throughout the ages.

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THE BYRD ENSEMBLE sings

EVOLUTION OF CHANT: A Starting Point

Saturday, March 17, 2018, at 8:00 p.m.
St. James Cathedral
804 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104

Buy passes here.

PROGRAM
Thomas TALLIS: Loquebantur variis linguis
Eric WHITACRE: Sainte-Chapelle
TALLIS: Videte miraculum
HILDEGARD: O viridissima virga
Arvo PÄRT: Magnificat

intermission

John SHEPPARD: Reges Tharsis
PÄRT: I Am the True Vine
John TAVENER: Two Hymns to the Mother of God
HILDEGARD: O virga ac diadema
PÄRT: Seven Magnificat Antiphons

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Thomas Tallis (1505—1585) had the hard task of composing under four successive Tudor monarchs (Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I) during a period of political and religious instability. While the Protestant Reformation flourished under the first two Tudors (Henry VIII and Edward VI), Mary I, a devout Catholic determined to crush the Protestant faith, restored the Catholic Rite to the English church during her brief reign. The church’s return to Catholicism called for a shift in compositional style with the return of Latin and polyphonic textures. It is possible Tallis secretly welcomed the return of Catholicism. During Mary I’s short time, he produced a large number of works for the principal feast days of the liturgical year, including Loquebantur variis linguis and Videte miraculum, written for Pentecost and The Feast of the Purification respectively. Tallis's Loquebantur (The Apostles spoke in many tongues) features quick points of imitation in a dense seven-part texture, depicting "many tongues." Videte depicts the birth of Jesus. All of the Renaissance pieces on the program are choral responds based on chant in the tenor part, and they alternate between full-choir polyphonic and chant sections. A respond is a musical structure where
parts of the music are repeated, usually taking the form ABCdBCdC (d=chant).

We know only a few things about English composer John Sheppard (1515—1558). He was employed at Magdalen College, Oxford 1543—1548 and the Chapel Royal 1552—1560. Unfortunately, much of Sheppard’s music has survived incomplete; however, because it was often the chant part that was missing (in the tenor) it has been possible to reconstruct his music. This is the case for Reges Tharsis, a responsory for the Feast of Epiphany scored for SSAATB, Sheppard’s favorite scoring for maximum harmonic punch.

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970), America's most popular choral composer, wrote Saint-Chapelle (2013) for the 40th Anniversary of the Tallis Scholars. Sainte-Chapelle tells a story of a girl’s experience standing inside Sainte-Chapelle, a Gothic royal chapel at the center of Paris. The piece illustrates her awe of the stained glass windows filling the chapel, creating a jewel-box space flooded with colors of yellow, burgundy, and green from all directions. Whitacre uses chant to tell the story. The piece begins with only men’s voices, which are joined by the women at “Sanctus,” functioning as a refrain.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098—1179), writer, composer, and philosopher, is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. Hildegard left behind an enormous amount of illuminated manuscripts, scholarly writings, and songs written for her nuns to sing at their devotions. Hildegard is one of those rare identifiable composers in the history of Western music; most medieval composers were anonymous. Unlike the simple one-octave chants at the time, Hildegard’s melodies sound almost improvisatory: they are freer, ornate, and large- ranging. Her love for nature is reflected in the two Marian chants: O viridissima virga (O branch of freshest green) and O virga ac diadema (O branch and diadem).

Hildegard of Bingen

For the seventh year in a row, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) has been given the title of the “world’s most performed living composer,” according to “Estonian World.” After some time experimenting in neoclassical styles, Pärt decided to use Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique and serialism in his compositions, displeasing the Soviet establishment enough to ban his early works. Pärt, not pleased with his output, went into several periods of contemplative silence, during which he studied choral music from the 14th through 16th centuries. His biographer, Paul Hillier, says, “He had reached a position of complete despair in which the composition of music appeared to be the most futile of gestures, and he lacked the musical faith and will-power to write even a single note.” Out of this period of musical soul-searching emerged a unique compositional style that informed his music beginning in the 1970s—tintinnabuli (bell-like). The tintinnabuli style is a simple compositional technique that restricts the number of possible harmonies. Imagine the harmonies generated by playing a major scale in the left hand and its equivalent arpeggio on the right.

Arvo Pärt

Calling back to the ancient styles of plainchant, Pärt uses drones. The solo soprano part in the Magnificat holds the pitch C, providing the tonal center for the piece. Pärt’s setting of the Magnificat, through varying note lengths, repetition, and no sense of meter, establishes a sense of timelessness. The half-step dissonances are sprinkled throughout alongside the rich harmony and pulls us into a state of contemplation and introspection. I am the true vine was composed in 1996 for the 900th anniversary of Norwich Cathedral in England. The work offers a twist on Pärt's tintinnabuli technique. Syllables of text are dispersed among the parts in such a way that each part is often completing another part’s sentence or word. Also, the distribution of the melody among the parts—bass to soprano, back down to Bass—resembles the vine depicted in the text. The Seven Magnificat Antiphons (1988; revised 1991), marks only the second time that Pärt set a German text. Perhaps the fact that it was commissioned for the Radio Chamber Choir in Berlin, a group whose broadcast performances reached audiences far and wide, suggested that the vernacular language would be the most appropriate choice. Each of these texts, in its normal liturgical context, functions as the antiphon to one iteration of the Magnificat, sung at Vespers on each of the seven evenings preceding Christmas Eve. In Pärt’s composition, these texts are set simply as a series of seven movements.

John Tavener

John Tavener (1944-2013) and Pärt are often described as mystic minimalists—a category (sometimes used pejoratively) to describe late twentieth-century composers who focus on religious themes. Like Pärt, Tavener developed his compositional voice after joining the Russian Orthodox Christian faith. His mother died in 1985, and he was unable to compose for a short time after. He eventually found the inspiration to write Two Hymns to the Mother of God (1985) in her memory. The melodies and harmonies recall both Western and Eastern Orthodox music. The first hymn comes from a text of St. Basil in praise of the Mother of God. Tavener sets it for double chorus in a strict canon, the second chorus repeating the material of the first, exactly three beats behind, creating a blurring effect. The second text is from the vigil service called the Dormition (Falling Asleep) of the Mother of God, an important observance in the Orthodox faith. The tenor part carries the main melody while the remaining voices sustain triads. Eventually all voices converge in a rich succession of consonant chords for the text: “O ye apostles, assembled here from the ends of the earth, bury my body in Gethsemane: and Thou O my Son and God, receive my Spirit.”

Tallis and Byrd, a poorly run monopoly

Come hear music by Tallis and Byrd Saturday, March 5, 2016 at St. Mark's Cathedral (Seattle, WA). Purchase advance tickets here.

BYRD: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth
TALLIS: Dum transisset Sabbatum
BYRD: Tristitia et anxietas
TALLIS: Suscipe quaeso Domine

BYRD: Ne irascaris
BYRD: Emendemus in melius
TALLIS: O sacrum convivium
BYRD: Tribue Domine

***

Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were among Queen Elizabeth I’s most highly favored. In 1575 Queen Elizabeth I granted Tallis and Byrd - the two best English composers at the time - sole rights to the printing of music and the staved manuscript paper to compose music. The monopoly rewarded them with extra income but also generally supported the English music business, as the grant banned the importation of music printed abroad.

Tallis and Byrd took advantage of the monopoly to produce a major printed music collection for liturgical use in 1575 - the sort that had already been appearing on the Continent for much of the 16th century - Cantiones quae abargumento sacrae vocantur, a collection of 34 Latin motets dedicated to the Queen herself. The collection contains 17 motets, each by Tallis and Byrd, one for each year of the Queen’s reign. All but three pieces on our program - Byrd’s O Lord make thy servant, Tristitia et anxietas and Ne irascaris - are from this collection. 

Unfortunately, the Cantiones was a financial failure. In 1577 Byrd and Tallis were forced to petition Queen Elizabeth for financial help, pleading that the publication had “fallen oute to oure greate losse” and that Tallis was now “verie aged.” The Queen subsequently granted them a leasehold on various lands in East Anglia and the West Country for a period of 21 years, the length of the patent and essentially an artist’s typical royal subsidy.

William Byrd

In 1589 Byrd published another collection of Latin motets, Cantiones Sacrae I. This collection was dedicated to Edward Somerset, Earl of Worchester and contains music composed by Byrd. Although the music was mostly nonliturgical and intended as chamber music, many of these pieces may have been written for England’s oppressed Roman Catholic community, as evidenced by the references to Jerusalem lying desolate and the pleas to God to remember his people.

Byrd, a pupil of Tallis, obtained the prestigious post of Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1572. Though he was not required to write in as many styles as Tallis, since the political and religious situation in England had settled somewhat by Byrd’s tenure, he was an impressive successor to his teacher. Byrd’s musical challenges were more personal. He spent his life composing for a Protestant church as a devout Catholic. The new Protestant service required a compositional style that clearly communicated the meaning of the text to the congregation, which amounted to a primarily chordal texture with English language text. The Catholic tradition still favored Latin texts and the music was more elaborate in style. Byrd’s music was a compromise and sat right in the middle - simpler than contemporary Catholic music and more complex than his Protestant colleague's compositions. Despite this seeming compromise, many believe that his music often reflects his desire for the return of Catholicism in veiled terms, particularly in the works Tristitia et anxietas and Ne irascaris, Domine. It may have been this inner conflict that allowed Byrd to produce some of the most beautiful compositions of Renaissance vocal music ever written.

The program opens with Byrd’s O Lord, make thy servant (not from either Cantiones collection), a prayer for the Queen and most likely composed either as part of an effort to secure an appointment with the Royal chapel in London or during the years following his attainment of the post in 1570. It’s a direct homage to Queen Elizabeth I based on text from Psalm 21 but customized to address Elizabeth directly by name. The piece is representative of the Anglican style - a focus on expressing the meaning of the text as clearly as possible.

Emendemus in melius, a five-voice motet for Ash Wednesday, was Byrd’s first published work. The piece begins with a highly expressive chordal declamation and continues in this fashion for the remainder of the short, three-minute motet. 

The program concludes with Byrd’s greatest piece, Tribue Domine. Unlike most of the other pieces in the 1575 Cantiones, the text is from a medieval collection of Meditationes (Meditations on the Life of Christ) attributed to St. Augustine. In this twelve-minute masterpiece, Byrd pulls out his full arsenal as he skillfully exhibits a contrast of polyphonic and homophonic textures as well as polychoral writing.

Tallis is regarded as perhaps the most important composer in the Tudor period. Not only did Tallis compose under four successive monarchs (Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I), but he was capable of writing brilliantly in whatever musical style England was enforcing at the time. Henry VIII’s “breaking away” from the Roman Catholic church in 1534 because of his desire to divorce the Queen introduced simpler forms of writing which we now find characteristic of the Anglican church. The reformed Anglican liturgy during Edward VI’s reign introduced the English to sacred music in the vernacular. At Mary’s accession in 1553, the Roman Rite was restored and the compositional style reverted back to the more elaborate and florid compositional style prevalent earlier in the century.

Tallis’s Dum transisset sabbatum is a five-part choral respond motet for Easter. A choral respond is a kind of call and response between soloists - singing the first words of the response to the plainsong melody - and the choir, which follows with a polyphonic setting of the remaining words. Dum transisset is unusual in employing the cantus firmus - the chant in long notes - in the highest voice. Tallis normally composes the cantus firmus part in a middle or lower voice.

Thomas Tallis

Suscipe quaeso, Domine is one of Tallis’s several seven-voice works. The text is by the sixth century Spanish Saint Isidore of Seville and is highly penitential in nature. The size of the choral forces along with the length suggest that it may have been composed for a major public occasion, perhaps in 1554 when Cardinal Pole, who had been appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Queen Mary I, absolved England from schism, bringing England back into the Catholic fold.

Tallis’s O sacrum convivium, a Magnificat antiphon for the feast of Corpus Christi, represents the Catholic style in the early sixteenth century. The piece opens with a clear and conventional imitative counterpoint. Each phrase of text corresponds to a musical phrase beginning imitatively and leading to a cadence.

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THE BYRD ENSEMBLE is a Seattle-based vocal ensemble specializing in the performance of chamber vocal music. Since 2004 the ensemble has performed medieval, Renaissance, baroque, and modern music on an international stage. Described as “pure and radiant” (Gramophone), “immensely impressive” (Early Music Review), and “rich, full-voiced, and perfectly blended” (Early Music America), the ensemble is garnering international acclaim for its recordings of Renaissance vocal music. The Byrd Ensemble is an Artist-in-Residence at St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, WA, where the group presents its concert series. The Byrd Ensemble is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The group’s creative efforts are led by Markdavin Obenza.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MARKDAVIN OBENZA has dedicated his career to music. In addition to the Byrd Ensemble, Markdavin is also the director and founder of the Seattle-based chamber choir Vox16 and is the producer for Scribe Records, an independent record label. He is an active singer and has performed with the Tudor Choir and members of the Tallis Scholars. He is currently the Director of Choral Music at Trinity Parish Church (Seattle, WA).