Notes and Editorial Reviews
PÉROTIN AND THE ARS ANTIQUA
•
The Hilliard Ens
•
CORO 16046 (68:13
Text and Translation) Live: Cambridge 8/1/1996
PEROTINUS
Viderunt omnes. Sederunt principes. Alleluia nativitas.
LEONINUS
(?)
Gloria redemptori meo.
ANON
Vetus abit littera. Deus misertus hominis. Veni creator spiritus. Haec dies.
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Stirps Jesse. Mundus vergens. Procurans odium.
GREGORIAN CHANT
Christus surrexit
This is a valuable reissue, the first of four discs recorded in concert by the Hilliard Ensemble and issued on their own Hilliard Live label. Packaged in an unusual format similar in size to a book, they were available only at the group’s concerts and online from their Web site. I was fortunate to obtain review copies of all four and now look forward to their reappearance on this label, already announced. I included this disc in my checklist of recommended early polyphony (
Notes
, March 2002, pp. 649–56).
The remarkable aspect of this recording, made at Trinity College, Cambridge, on August 1, 1996, is the chance to hear live, unedited performances of the two great organa quadrupla by Perotinus. (Perotinus, the only name known from the 13th-century source, is now the accepted citation; Pérotin was formulated by Coussemaker only in the 19th century.) The two masterpieces were the bookends of the Hilliard’s all-Perotinus program on the ECM label (13:4), made in 1988 when Paul Hillier was still with the group. The recorded history of these two works is a revelation in performance practice, for it started with
Viderunt
directed by Wladimir Fedorov on L’Oiseau-Lyre shellac discs in 1950 and Paul Boepple’s Dessoff Choirs on Concert Hall LP a year or two later. Both used instrumental accompaniment and the latter was incredibly unstylish even by the standards of its time. It was followed by Roger Blanchard’s ensemble on Ducretet-Thomson in 1957, using an organ on the tenor line.
Sederunt
was first recorded by Safford Cape’s Pro Musica Antiqua for Archiv in 1956 without instruments, followed a year later by Russell Oberlin and friends on Expériences Anonymes, including Seymour Barab’s viol on the tenor line.
Next came two famous recordings of both
Viderunt
and
Sederunt
. The Deller Consort in 1960 and David Munrow’s Early Music Consort in 1975 were each acclaimed in turn, but they typified the lavish use of instruments that marked that era, more excessive than any previous versions. Since then, we have had mostly unaccompanied performances of the pair of works, including these two Hilliard discs and recent versions (not paired) by the Orlando Consort on Metronome and Archiv and Dominique Vellard’s Ensemble Gilles Binchois on two Harmonic discs. Most recently Tonus Peregrinus recorded both works (29:2). Single recordings include Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices for
Viderunt
on Harmonia Mundi (26:1), a new Hilliard Ensemble version of the same work included in a DVD album, and Luis Lozano Virumbrales’s Grupo de Música Alfonso el Sabio for
Sederunt
on Sony Iberica. The Hilliard’s new approach is similar in interpretation to the ECM version, but the singing is decidedly more restrained. Just hear how the polyphonic beginning of
Viderunt
builds up to a powerful climax before the chant continuation enters on ECM, then hear the more straightforward way the music unfolds on this disc.
The rest of the program consists of conducti, or processional songs, original texts not drawn from the chant repertoire. Three such works for four voices survive, and all three are included here, along with two three-voice conducti. Most of these pieces are not familiar on records. The
Alleluia nativitas
of Perotinus is the only other piece carried over from the ECM disc. There is a puzzling bit of the original issue omitted this time. At the end of
Sederunt
on the older issue, the track continues for three minutes of silence followed by an unidentified piece of two minutes’ duration. The countdown of the last track (if that shows on your player) is the giveaway, as is the different total timing of the two discs. Since I don’t recognize the piece, I can’t say it’s any loss. Altogether, this is an interesting collection, even if you have the ECM disc already.
FANFARE: J. F. Weber
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Works on This Recording
1.
Vetus abit littera by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Language: Latin
2.
Deus misertus hominis by Pérotin
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Language: Latin
3.
Veni creator spiritus by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Written: after 1300; France
Language: Latin
4.
Viderunt omnes by Pérotin
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Written: circa 1200; France
Language: Latin
5.
Hec est clara dies by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Language: Latin
6.
Stirps Jesse virgam produxit by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Language: Latin
7.
Mundus vergens by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Language: Latin
8.
Carmina burana: no 12, Procurans odium by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Written: France
Language: Latin
9.
Alleluia nativitas by Pérotin
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Written: circa 1200; France
Language: Latin
10.
Surrexit Christus by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Language: Latin
11.
Sederunt principes by Pérotin
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Hilliard Ensemble
Period: Medieval
Written: circa 1200; France
Language: Latin
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