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CD reviews
"Swithun! - Demons and Miracles from Winchester around 1000"
Dialogos
Dir: Katarina Livljanic
rec: Oct 5 - 8, 2019, Noirlac (F), Abbaye
Arcana - A491 (© 2021) (66'13")
Liner-notes: E/F; lyrics - translations: E/F
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
[in order of appearance]
Aelfeah adest, Ordbirhtus adest, Wulfsinus et Aelfric [1];
Regem regum dominum [3];
Pax huic domui;
Magna miracula [1];
Et licet extremus hominum [1];
Eù ei iereùs - Statuit ei dominus [3];
Alma fuit vicina dies [1];
Gloriosus vir sanctus Swithunus [3];
Cumque dies eadem benedicta [1];
In pace in idipsum;
Þa swefna beoð wynsume [2];
Qui post evigilans [1];
Auxilium, domine;
Sed cum nulla virum feritas [1];
Ecce vir prudens Swithunus [3];
Infirmo siquidem, cum nullum prendere somnum [1];
Laudemus dominum [3];
Talibus aegrotum [1];
Sint Iumbi vestri [3];
Pervigilat ternis ibi noctibus atque diebus [1];
Hwæt, ða se halga Swyðun [2];
Alleluia. Via lux veritas [3];
Quid plura? [1]
Sources:
[1] Wulfstan of Winchester, Narratio metrica de sancto Swithuno,
[2] Aelfric of Winchester, The life of Saint Swithun;
[3] Winchester Troper
Christel Boiron, Clara Coutouly, Caroline Gesret, Katarina Livljanic, voice
In the course of history quite a number of people have come to be venerated as saints. Among the reasons were sometimes things they are known to have done during their life, but especially the miracles associated with them, which happened after their death. One of them is Swithun, to whose life the present recording is devoted. Or, rather, one of the miracles that is attributed to him is used to perform pieces from the so-called Winchester Troper, one of the main sources of early polyphony.
Swithun (?-863), the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral, was the town's Anglo-Saxon bishop since his consecration in 853. The cult around him started in the 10th century. In 971, the then bishop of Winchester, Aethelwold, moved his relics to the Old Minster. Hardly anything is known about Swithun's life, and the Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno, written by Wulfstan, cantor in Winchester at the end of the 9th century, focuses on the miracles attributed to him. It is written in Virgilian hexameters and in Anglo-Latin, but does not include any music. Excerpts from this work, extended with extracts from The life of saint Swithun by Aelric of Winchester, written in Anglo-Saxon, are the core of the programme. The latter was intended for readers who did not know Latin, whereas Wulfstan's poem was written for people of the church, such as monks.
Katarina Livljanic focuses on one episode in Wulfstan's Narratio, the miracle of three furies. "The three Furies appear as three terrifying women, naked and vulgar. They attack a poor man who loses the use of his legs just after seeing them. The man arrives at the gate of Winchester where he meets a mysterious man dressed in white who advises him to go to the miraculous grave in the Old Minster. He spends three nights there, between waking and sleep. In a mystical vision (or while sleeping...) the man in white appears to him again and reveals his identity: he is Saint Swithun himself. The paralysed man falls asleep. A big earthquake shakes the grave and the whole church. A superhuman creature takes the man in its hands and takes off one of his shoes. The man remains like a confused Cinderella, without his shoe, but healed from his paralysis caused by the encounter with the three Furies."
At several moments this story is illustrated, as it were, with pieces from the Winchester Troper. This comprises two manuscripts from the 11th century with liturgical plainchant and two-part polyphony. The latter consists of plainchant, called vox principalis, and a newly created part, the vox organalis. One of the manuscripts, preserved in Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, includes the vox organalis of a series of responsories in Saint Swithun's honour. Obviously, it is not easy to perform this kind of repertoire. It needs transcritption and sometimes also reconstruction. A particular problem is that the texts about Swithun's life don't include any music. "Dialogos offers a musical creation in which 10th century music from the Winchester Troper, transcribed by Susan Rankin, is placed in dialogue with vocal improvisations and new musical creations by Katarina Livljanic, using the texts of Saint Swithun’s miracles by Wulfstan and Aelfric. These new creations are trying to reconstruct the polyphonic style which medieval cantors in Winchester could have heard in their cathedral, yet opening discretely some new windows to a more contemporary musical language."
The creation of music of those parts of the programme where no original music is available, is inevitable, if one opts for performing music from the Winchester Troper in a kind of historical setting, as is the case here. I am not entirely happy with the way it is done. Some years ago I reviewed a recording of the Historia Sancti Olavi, which is about St Olaf, the patron saint of Norway, dating from the 12th century. That historia has come down to us with music, and that is all monophonic. That is understandable, as at that time polyphony was very rare and probably was not known in Norway at the time. However, it also guarantees that the text is intelligible. That is not always the case here; those parts that are performed monophonically come off best. The inclusion of some "more contemporary" elements does not make things better. Some of the episodes are rather long, and because of that about half of this disc consists of music from the Winchester Troper. That is also due to the fact that Auxilium, dome, an alphabetic hymn in acrostic, is not performed complete. This is rather disappointing, as there are only a few recordings in the catalogue which are (almost) entirely devoted to this important source.
As far as the performances are concerned, I have nothing but praise for the way the singers deal with the material. The singing is excellent, and the fascinating nature of this old repertoire comes off impressively. It makes one long for more, and it is surprising that the Winchester Troper has never been recorded complete. One issue may be the pronunciation of Latin. It sounds quite 'modern' to me, meaning that the Latin texts are pronounced in the Italian manner. I wonder whether that was common in England at the time.
Despite my critical remarks, this is a disc those who are interested in medieval music should investigate.
Johan van Veen (© 2023)
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Dialogos