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CD reviews
Gilles JOYE (1424/25 - 1483): "Missa O Rosa bella & Chansons"
Club Mediéval
Dir: Thomas Baeté
rec: 2022, Zevenkerke, Sint-Andriesabdij
Musica Ficta - MF8039 (© 2025) (58'22")
Liner-notes: E/F/NL; no lyrics
Cover, track-list & booklet
Scores
Spotify
anon:
Ce qu’on fait à catimini;
Preambulum [1];
John BEDYNGHAM (1422–1458/9):
O Rosa bella (ballata);
Gilles JOYE:
Ce qu’on fait à catimini (rondeau);
Mercy, mon deuil (rondeau);
Missa super O Rosa bella a 3 (attr);
Non pas que je veuille penser (rondeau);
Poy che crudel Fortuna (ballata);
[textless rondeau]
Sources:
[1] Buxheimer Orgelbuch
Olalla Alemán, Andrea Gavagnin, superius;
Jonatan Alvarado, contratenor;
Raffaele Giordani, tenor;
Dimos de Beun, recorder, clavicymbalum, gothic organ;
Gesina Liedmeier, Thomas Baeté, viola d'arco ;
Michaël Grébil, plectrum lute, cister;
As the saying goes, great men have great faults. That certainly applies to Gilles Joye, who was a priest, but did not exactly lead a life one expects of a man of the church. As we read in New Grove, "documents report him frequently as having been involved in street-fighting, refusing to take part in polyphony when the chapter abolished the Feast of Fools, visiting brothels and lodging a concubine widely known as Rosabelle (...)". He also lived a life of luxury, well above his means. He commissioned a portrait from Hans Memling, which was to be placed near his funerary monument, where chaplains were to recite a psalm daily.
That is not all. "In 1471, it was discovered that Joye had embezzled large sums of money from various church funds at St. Donatian's [Bruges] under his care. By 1474, his financial situation had become untenable. The chapter was forced to seize his assets in the hope of repaying dozens of creditors. Joye temporarily fled Bruges, and his belongings were auctioned off, including land, diamond-studded rings, and the red tunic lined with marten fur in which he is depicted in Hans Memling's portrait. This bankruptcy severely tarnished his reputation. A few years later, on Wednesday, December 31, 1483, around 5:30 pm, the canon passed away. At the chapter's request, he was discreetly and quickly buried the following day" (booklet).
By all accounts, Joye was a great man in musical matters, and was held in high esteem. He is one of the composers in the list of those mentioned in Guillaume Crétin's Déploration sur le trépas de Jean Ockeghem. There was no lack of establishments that wanted to engage him, and he also gained the favour of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. In 1462 he joined the Burgundian ducal chapel, and when he resigned in 1468 because of bad health, he was continued to receive his salary until 1471.
Joye has left only a small oeuvre. It comprises four rondeaux - one of which has been preserved without a text - and a ballata. As far as the former genre is concerned, it was one of the formes fixes that dominated French poetry and song in the 14th and 15th centuries. "The essential features are the presence of a final refrain which occupies the entire two-section melody, and the anticipation of the first part of this refrain in the second line" (New Grove). The ballata is an Italian dance-song. "The ballata consists of the following parts: ripresa, two (rarely more) symmetrical piedi or mutazioni, volta (equal in length to the ripresa) and ripresa." Unfortunately it is impossible to see this, as the booklet omits the lyrics. It includes a QR code which leads to the site of Musica Ficta, where the lyrics should be available. I have not found them.
The programme is extended by an anonymous setting of Ce qu'on fait à catimini, a text Joye also took for a rondeau, and O rosa bella by John Bedyngham, one of the composers who set this text which was quite popular at the time. The composer of the original song is not known. Three masses have been preserved that are based on this ballata. Two of them are in the Tr-90 codex kept in the library of the Castello del Buon Consiglio in Trent. They are both anonymous, but the musicologist Reinhard Strohm believes they are from the pen of Joye, which - according to David Fallows in New Grove - "is hard to support objectively but by no means implausible from a stylistic viewpoint." Which of the two is performed on the present disc is not specified. The liner-notes are very sparse with regard to the mass, even though it is the main work on this disc, taking about half of the programme. As was very common in the 15th century, it is scored for three voices. If this mass is indeed written by Joye, it is very likely no coincidence that it is based on a ballata whose title is identical with the name of the composer's concubine.
A few years ago the mass was recorded by the ensembles Dionea and Nova Alta. Rather then focusing on Joye's oeuvre, they brought together several versions of the ballata O rosa bella. Therefore this new recording is a useful addition to the catalogue, as it includes the complete authentic works by Joye, which may not have been recorded before. I was happy with the disc just mentioned, and the present disc is just as good. It is a shame that the line-up for the various pieces is not specified. However, it does not really matter, as each item receives an outstanding performance. In the secular works, the singers can be heard as soloists, whereas in the mass they sing in ensemble, where their voices blend perfectly. Whether instruments should participate in a mass is a matter of debate; again, performance practice is not discussed in the booklet.
Lovers of renaissance music should not hesitate to add this disc to their collection. It is a nice monument for a composer who should be known better.
Johan van Veen (© 2025)
Relevant links:
Club Mediéval