musica Dei donum
CD reviews
"Ezekiel's Eagle - A Renaissance brotherhood celebrates St John the Evangelist"
Capella Pratensis
Dir: Stratton Bull
rec: Oct 19/20/22/23, 2020, Heusden (NL), Catharijnekerk
Challenge Classics - CC72878 
(© 2021) (60'14")
Liner-notes: E; lyrics - translations: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
In order of appearance:
Jean MOUTON (1459-1522):
[Motet] Tua est potentia;
plainchant:
[Introitus] Protexisti me;
Jean MOUTON:
Missa Tua est potentia (Kyrie; Gloria);
plainchant:
[Alleluia] Clamaverunt iusti;
[Alleluia] Dominus in Synai;
[Sequentia] Verbum Dei Deo natum;
Jean MOUTON:
Missa Tua est potentia (Credo);
[Offertorium motet] Salva nos Domine;
plainchant/anon:
Prefatio;
Jean MOUTON:
Missa Tua est potentia (Sanctus)/
anon:
[Elevation motet] O salutaris hostia;
plainchant:
Pater noster;
Jean MOUTON:
Missa Tua est potentia (Agnus Dei);
plainchant:
[Communio] Ego sum vitis;
Jean MOUTON:
[Motet] Da pacem Domine
Stratton Bull, Andrew Hallock, superius;
Lior Leibovici, Korneel Van Neste, altus;
Pieter De Moor, Peter de Laurentiis, tenor;
Marc Busnel, Máté Bruckner, bassus
There is no lack of recordings of masses and motets from the
Renaissance. Such pieces are mostly performed separately, as a kind of
'concert pieces'. However, originally they were intended to be sung
during the liturgy. Obviously it is not always possible to reconstruct
the liturgical framework in which they were performed in the composer's
time. It is a matter of good luck when we have enough information and
the musical material needed to perform them as they were intended. The
disc under review is part of a project whose purpose is just that,
thanks to a set of partbooks at the Brotherhood of the Illustrious Lady
in the city of 's-Hertogenbosch (short Den Bosch), in the southern
province Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands.
It all started in 2016, when the 500th anniversary of the painter
Hieronymus Bosch was celebrated with a large-scale exhibition of his
paintings in 's-Hertogenbosch, where he was born and worked most of his
life. As his paintings include musicians and instruments the Cappella
Pratensis took the opportunity to record a mass by Pierre de La Rue, the
Missa Cum Jocunditate. The choice of this master, one of
the representatives of the Franco-Flemish school, was an obvious one.
Bosch was a life-long sworn brother of the Brotherhood, and from the
early 1490s until his death in 1518 La Rue was an external member of
that same brotherhood.
A few years ago the recording of the mass by La Rue was reissued, now
with the addition of "The Den Bosch Choirbooks, Vol. 1". The present
disc is the second volume in this series. It focuses on the celebration
of St John the Evangelist, who takes a special place in the
confraternity, which still exists. There are two feasts for St John: the
universal feast day at 27 December and the feast of St John before the
Latin Gate on 6 May. The latter is the day that is chosen for the
liturgical framework of plainchant and polyphony.
Three choirbooks attest to the music culture at the confraternity. These
were purchased from the famous Flemish scribe Petrus Imhoff, better
known as Alamire. Two include mainly mass settings and were commissioned
by the confraternity in 1530. Alamire himself delivered them in
's-Hertogenbosch, and he offered the confraternity a third book, which
included eight masses and eight motets. Alamire was the main scribe of
polyphony of his time, and had access to various important sources, such
as the Habsburg-Burgundian and French courts. That is reflected by the
repertoire in the third choirbook.
The feast of St John before the Latin Gate commemorates the attempted
martyrdom of the Evangelist in AD 92, when he emerged unscathed from a
pot of boiling oil, an event thought to have taken place near one of the
gates in the wall surrounding Rome. "The liturgy for today's Mass
follows the formulary for the Common of an Apostle or Martyr, whose
texts emphasise pleas for peace and protection (...)" (booklet).
All the masses in the third book mentioned above are by Jean Mouton, one of the main composers in France around 1500. His Missa Tua est potentia
is based on his own motet of that title, which opens the book. The text
is suitable for this feast, as it ends with the phrase "Give peace in
our time, Lord". The liturgy then follows the order as indicated in the
track-list. The texts can all be connected in one way of the other to
the feast. The Introitus Protexiste me, for instance, opens with the words "You have protected me, O God, from the assembly of the malignant". The Alleluia Clamaverunt iusti says: "The just cried, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them from all their troubles". The Sequentia Verbum Dei
refers to the opening of the Gospel after St John: "The Word of God,
who was born of God, and was neither made nor created, came down from
the realm of heaven."
Instead of the common Offertory, a motet is performed, which was a
familiar custom in the confraternity's liturgical practice. Again the
text fits the occasion: "Save us, O Lord, waking, and guard us sleeping,
that we may watch with Christ, and rest in peace". Another habit of the
confraternity was to replace the Osanna in the Sanctus by an Elevation
motet. Here we hear the anonymous O salutaris hostia, from
another Alamire manuscript. The Communio is a setting of a text from St
John's Gospel, one of the many "I am" texts: "I am the true vine, you
are the branches". The mass ends fittingly with a prayer for peace: Da pacem, Domine, a six-part motet by Mouton.
As far as the performance is concerned, two things need to be mentioned.
First, in some plainchant, the performers have added improvised
polyphony. That happens in the Introitus, the Sequentia and in the Pater
noster. "In this way we wish to represent the full spectrum of
performance approaches at the time, from res facta or written polyphony
to the extemporaneous practice of 'singing on the book'", Stratton Bull
writes in the booklet.
Second, the Cappella Pratensis uses to perform polyphony standing
closely together around a music-stand and reading from the choirbook.
Because of the distancing regulations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this
was not possible. Instead, a large digital screen was used, which
allowed to sing from digitallized images of the manuscripts. "The
challenge was to preserve the same unity of sound that we are used to
when we sing in close physical proximity, and to sing the same text when
sharing a vocal line whose layout is ambiguous or missing in the
source".
I am impressed by what has been achieved under such difficult
circumstances. Having heard the Cappella Pratensis many times on disc
and live, I know what to expect, and my expectations were pleasantly
confirmed here. The clarity of the voices is remarkable, not only thanks
to the way of singing, but also to the acoustic and the way the music
has been recorded. The recording team needs to understand the
idiosyncracies of a liturgy in order to do justice to the various roles
of the participants. The way the Pater noster has been recorded is a
good example, as here we hear a clear distinction between the celebrant
and the schola.
This may well be the first recording of the Missa Tua est potentia
by Mouton, but even if it has been recorded before, its performance as
part of a liturgical framework makes this recording something no lover
of renaissance polyphony should miss.
Johan van Veen (© 2022)
Relevant links:
Cappella Pratensis