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CD reviews
Cipriano DE RORE (1516 - 1565): "Missa 'Vivat Felix Hercules' & Motets"
Weser-Renaissance Bremen
Dir: Manfred Cordes
rec: April 24 - 26, 2015, Salzgitter (D), Stift Steterburg
CPO - 777 989-2 (© 2019) (69'47")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover, track-list & booklet
Scores
Spotify
Agimus tibi gratias a 5;
Ave regina coelorum a 7;
Da pacem, Domine a 5 [3];
Exaudiat me Dominus a 5 [2];
Gaude, Maria virgo a 5 [1];
Labore primus Hercules a 5;
Missa Vivat felix Hercules a 5;
Pater noster a 5;
Plange quasi virgo a 5 [2];
Sub tuum praesidium a 4
Sources:
[1] Motectorum liber primus, 15446;
[2] Motetta 1545;
[3] Sacrae cantiones, 1595
Franz Vitzthum, Alex Potter, superius;
Achim Schultz, Bernd Oliver Fröhlich, tenor altus;
Mirko Ludwig, Jan Van Elsacker, Hermann Oswald, Tore Tom Denys, tenor;
Ulfried Staber, Kees Jan de Koning, bass
Katelijne Schiltz, in her liner-notes to the present recording of sacred music by Cipriano de Rore, closes with this statement: "In view of Rore’s comprehensive and diverse oeuvre and because of his extraordinary importance to the history of music, it is astonishing that his music is still hardly known today. One can hope that the 'Rore Anniversary' 2015, when we celebrate the 450th anniversary of his death - and maybe his 500th birthday - is an occasion to thoroughly and finally change this situation." The very fact that this recording was made in 2015 and only released four years later, bears witness to the lack of interest in his music, or at least the sacred part of his output. In recent years some discs with madrigals have been released, and there are quite some recordings which include music by Rore, but the number of discs entirely devoted to his oeuvre is still very small. Considering what Schiltz says about his importance - which is certainly correct - this is hard to understand.
De Rore was from Flanders; his name is not latinized as it appears in documents from his birthplace Ronse (Renaix) as early as around 1400. Nothing is known for sure about his early musical education. It has been suggested that he was a pupil of Willaert, but there is no documentary evidence for that. For the most part of his life De Rore lived in Italy. The first signs of his presence are documents from 1542 according to which he lived in Brescia. It is not known what exactly his position was. The next stage of his career took place in Ferrara where he was in the service of Duke Ercole II d'Este as maestro di cappella from around 1546 until 1558. Within that period about half of his total output was published. Rore was especially famous for his madrigals. He had already several books of madrigals published before his arrival in Ferrara, and during his time there he published several further collections. Many also appeared in anthologies of various publishers - an indication that they were in high demand. Rore also had a strong influence on the performing conditions at the court in Ferrara. Only one year after his appointment as maestro di cappella the number of singers and instrumentalists increased.
It is probably his large production of madrigals and his fame as composer of such pieces that is responsible for the relative lack of interest in his sacred output. Admittedly, his production in this genre is not that large, certainly not in comparison to his secular oeuvre. It is telling that it includes only five masses. Notable is a St John Passion; another setting of the same text is of doubtful authenticity. The same goes for some motets.
The present disc includes one of Rore's masses and a number of motets. Both the mass and the motet Labore primus Hercules are connected to Rore's employer Ercole II d'Este. The mass was probably written shortly after the composer's arrival in Ferrara. Before him, Josquin Desprez had also written a mass for Ercole, the Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae. Both composers make use of a compositional device, known as soggetto cavato. It is explained in New Grove: "A term coined by Zarlino (...) to denote the special class of thematic subjects for polyphonic compositions that were derived from a phrase associated with them by matching the vowels of the words to the corresponding vowels of the traditional Guidonian solmization syllables (ut re mi fa sol la)." In Josquin's mass, the words "Hercules dux Ferrariae" are sung to the notes re-ut-re-ut-re-fa-mi-re. The same is the case with the words "Vivat felix Hercules secundus, dux Ferrariae quartus" in Rore's mass, sung as mi-fa-re-mi-re-ut-re-re-sol-ut-ut-re-fa-mi-re-fa-ut. This text - "Long live Ercole II, the fourth duke of Ferrara" - is sung throughout the mass by the tenor. It lends this work its special character. There is also something notable about the secular motet Labore primus Hercules, as it is dominated by iambic meter. It juxtaposes Ercole to his father: "With his might, the first Hercules conquered foreign cities that were reigned over by bad rulers. The second Hercules built beautiful cities with his acumen, hoards of unscathed life. He expelled the horrible wars with physical force, he restored a golden era of peace with his great spiritual talents."
Rore was one of the pioneers with regard to a closer connection between text and music. His madrigals bear witness to that, but in comparison he is much more restrained in his sacred music. One should not expect demonstrations of text expression in his motets. That said, there are some moments where one can see that the music is connected to the text, such as in the centre of the Credo from the mass (the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ). In Agimus tibi gratias, Rore highlights the words "rex omnipotens Deus" (O God, Almighty King) by turning to homophony. The soaring heights of the upper voice in Ave Regina coelorum fit the text of this motet and reflect the importance of the veneration of Mary in Rore's time. That is also the case in Gaude, Maria virgo, where the two upper voices create a kind of ecstacy.
Weser-Renaissance Bremen is an outstanding ensemble, which covers about three centuries of music history. It has become best-known for its performances of German 17th-century repertoire, but it has also some fine recordings of renaissance polyphony to its credit, among them a disc with Christmas motets by Cristóbal de Morales. Manfred Cordes always invites singers whose voices are suited to the repertoire and blend perfectly. That is the case here as well. He nicely differentiates the size of the ensemble depending on the piece. The five-part mass is sung with the entire ensemble, meaning two voices per part. However, Pater noster, also for five voices, is performed with one voice per part. The liner-notes explain that this is a piece of dense polyphony: "The chorale melody is quoted or melodically ornamented in all voices starting from the very beginning. This remains present throughout the entire piece, whether it be as the cantus firmus in one voice or as the starting point for imitative treatment (...)." It makes much sense to reduce the number of voices here.
It is nice to have a disc which does full justice to Rore's sacred oeuvre. Let us hope that Schiltz's wish that this part of his output will receive more attention, may come true after all.
Johan van Veen (© 2020)
Relevant links:
Weser-Renaissance Bremen