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Welcome to Harmonia…I’m Angela Mariani.
Bees buzz as they journey from flower to flower and back to the hive. But, this hour, bees aren’t all that’s a buzz—we’re going to listen to music featuring the J-shaped wooden instrument called the crumhorn, loved for its charming shape and entertaining sound, and the buzziest of all the double reed instruments. Plus, we’ll hear a couple of songs featuring bees, themselves. Finally, our featured release is a 2020 album by Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin led by Georg Kallweit; join us as they explore music from George Frideric Handel’s opus 3 Concerti grossi.
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MUSIC TRACK
Stadtpfeiffer: Music of Renaissance Germany
Piffaro
Dorian 2001 / B001M14A5C
Anon.
Tr. 23 German tunes of the early 16th Century (Hildebrandslied – Es taget vor dem walde – Zart liep, wie süss dein anfang ist) (4:43)
German tunes of the sixteenth century—Hildebrandslied, Es taget vor dem walde, and Zart liep, wie süss dein anfang ist, all performed on bagpipes and percussion by Piffaro. We’ll hear more from Piffaro, on a different double-reed instrument, in a bit.
A nineteen-year old bride, Sofia, and her fiancé, Johann, Elector of Saxony, gathered with family, court, and church for their wedding at Torgau in 1500. When the Mass began, along with the sweet sounds of voices filling the church was the charming—and wonderfully buzzy—sound of four crumhorns. Here is ensemble Piffaro performing two tunes on crumhorns by German Renaissance composer Georg Forster.
MUSIC TRACK
Stadtpfeiffer: Music of Renaissance Germany
Piffaro
Dorian 2001 / B001M14A5C
Georg Forster
Tr. 24 Den besten vogel (1:18)
Tr. 25 Presulem sanctissimum (1:28)
“Den besten vogel” and “Presulem sanctissimum,” music by Georg Forster performed on crumhorns by Piffaro.
Crumhorns are wind instruments constructed in three parts: body, cotton reel, and wind-cap. The body has holes and sometimes keys, much like a recorder, but is curved at the bottom. A double reed is affixed to a slim brass tube, sitting in the top of the cotton reel, atop the body. The reed, tube, and reel are covered by a cap. The player blows through a small slit in the cap. After 1500, crumhorns quickly became popular throughout continental Europe—especially in Germanic lands, the Low Countries, and Italy. Next up—four Flemish dances played on crumhorns.
MUSIC TRACK
At the Sign of the Crumhorn: Flemish Songs and Dance Music
Convivium Musicum Gothenburgense
Naxos 2000 / B000QQPFTE
Anon.
Tr. 21 Galliarde I – II – III (2:00)
Tr. 27 Een meysken eens voerby passeerde I (2:08)
Four anonymous Flemish dances from the Renaissance performed on crumhorns, by Convivium Musicum Gothenburgense.
Like their instrument cousins—shawms, recorders, and dulcians—crumhorns come in families, and are typically used for both sacred and secular music that fits their ranges. Most crumhorns have only a nine-note range, so it can be convenient to amass an arsenal of them to play together. Unlike recorders and gambas, which were used by both professionals and amateurs, crumhorns tended to be used by professional performers in courts and town bands. They were expensive to manufacture and maintain, and you usually needed at least three to play together at a time.
Next, we’ll hear crumhorns playing a dance set from Susato’s 1551 collection Danserye.
MUSIC TRACK
Krummhorn, cromorne, storto, tournebout?
Syntagma Amici / dir. Bernard Stilz
Ricercar 2008 / B001HE3IUM
Tielman Susato
Tr. 1 Danserye: Allemaigne I (1:14)
Tr. 2 Danserye: Berggerette sans roch (3:21)
Tr. 3 Danserye: La Morisque (1:17)
Tr. 4 Danserye: Ronde no. 7. Il estoit une fillette (1:57)
Tr. 5 Danserye: Pavane et alliarde Mille ducas (1:38)
Five dances from Tielman Susato’s Danserye. Syntagma Amici was directed by Bernard Stilz.
You can hear highlights from recent and archival concert recordings of early music on Harmonia Uncut -- our biweekly podcast, curated and hosted by Wendy Gillespie. Listen online at harmonia early music dot org and through iTunes.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
Theme Music Bed: Ensemble Alcatraz, Danse Royale, Elektra Nonesuch 79240-2 / B000005J0B, T.12: La Prime Estampie Royal
:59 Midpoint Break Music Bed:
Krummhorn, cromorne, storto, tournebout?
Syntagma Amici / dir. Bernard Stilz
Ricercar 2008 / B001HE3IUM
Anon.
Tr. 19 Saltarello Zorzi (:58)
Welcome back. We’ve been listening to the buzzy music of covered reeds: crumhorns. But crumhorns aren’t all that’s a-buzz this hour. Music for and about your friendly neighborhood pollinator is next! We’re all about bees.
In the song cycle “Love Wounded” by French baroque composer Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, we hear a conversation between Cupid and his mother Venus. While picking flowers around a hive, Cupid is stung by a bee. Venus asks what happened. and Cupid explains that, quote, “it was a sort of snake / Which flies at the start of spring / With its two tiny wings / Here and there on the flowers.” Sympathetic to his pain, Venus heals Cupid’s hand, but she reminds Cupid—don’t your stings of love’s arrows sometimes hurt mortals?
MUSIC TRACK
A Portrait of Love
Aston Magna dir. Daniel Stepner / Dominique Labelle, soprano
Centaur 2012
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault
Tr. 16 L'Amour pique par une Abeille, I. Recitatif: Dans les Jardins enchantes de Cythere (1:02)
Tr. 17 L’Amour pique par une Abeille, II. Air: Sous les loix de la jeune Flore (3:57)
Tr. 18 L'Amour pique par une Abeille, III. Recitatif: Tandis que les Amours (0:33)
Tr. 21 L'Amour pique par une Abeille, VI. L'Amour charme (1:04)
Tr. 22 L'Amour pique par une Abeille, VII. Air: Charmant vainqueur (3:42)
Music from Louis-Nicolas Clérambault’s song cycle “Love Wounded.” We heard Dominique Labelle, soprano, with musicians of Aston Magna, directed by Daniel Stepner.
But bees have their own struggles, too. Another buzzy poem is from the perspective of a bee. In “It was a time when silly bees could speak,” we hear of a bee complaining to the head bee about not being able to find enough sap to bring back to the hive.
MUSIC TRACK
Blisseful Kisses
Fortune's Musick / Hanna Thyssen (Soprano), Susanne Peuker (Lute)
Musicaphon 2011 / B009229F3K
John Dowland
Tr. 7 Book of Songs, Book 3: It was a time when silly bees could speak (2:47)
We heard soprano Hanna Thyssen and lutenist Susanne Peuker performing “It was a time when silly bees could speak” by John Dowland.
We turn now from our buzzy friends to the elegance of George Frideric Handel’s Opus 3 concerti grossi. In their third album in this popular area of Handel’s works, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin bring clarity and charm to these well-loved pieces. We’ll hear the opening three movements of Concerto Grosso op. 3, no. 2.
MUSIC TRACK
Handel Concerto Grossi
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Pentatone 2020 / B089TS161Z
Tr. 4 Handel: Concerto Grosso in B-Flat Major, Op. 3, No. 2, HWV 313, I. Vivace (1:37)
Tr. 5 Handel: Concerto Grosso in B-Flat Major, Op. 3, No. 2, HWV 313, II. Largo (2:34)
Tr. 6 Handel: Concerto Grosso in B-Flat Major, Op. 3, No. 2, HWV 313, III. Allegro (1:47)
Tr. 8 Handel: Concerto Grosso in B-Flat Major, Op. 3, No. 2, HWV 313, V. Gavotte (2:46)
Vivace, Largo, Allegro, and Gavotte from Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 3, no. 2 in B-Flat Major. Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin was led by Georg Kallweit.
In mid-eighteenth-century London, everything Italian was fashionable. This may be why publisher John Walsh was in such a hurry to get these pieces out in printed form to the public—probably without Handel’s permission—considering the many errors in the first edition. We’ll close with Concerto Grosso in G Major, Op. 3, no. 3 here utilizing traverso, strings, and continuo.
MUSIC TRACK
Handel Concerto Grossi
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Pentatone 2020 / B089TS161Z
Tr. 9. Handel: Concerto Grosso in G Major, Op. 3, No. 3, HWV 314, I. Largo e staccato (0:36)
Tr. 10. Handel: Concerto Grosso in G Major, Op. 3, No. 3, HWV 314, II. Allegro (2:30)
Tr. 11. Handel: Concerto Grosso in G Major, Op. 3, No. 3, HWV 314, III. Adagio (1:04)
Tr. 12. Handel: Concerto Grosso in G Major, Op. 3, No. 3, HWV 314, IV. Allegro (3:48)
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin performed Handel’s Concerto Grosso in B-Flat, Op. 3, no. 3, from their 2020 Pentatone recording Handel Concerti Grossi.
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Harmonia is a production of WFIU. Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it...on the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-DOT-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. And, you can follow our Facebook page and our updates on Twitter by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Sarah Huebsch Schilling. Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: Aaron Cain, Wendy Gillespie, LuAnn Johnson and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.
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