Welcome to Harmonia…I’m Angela Mariani. This hour, we’re celebrating four hundred years of music by Michael Praetorius, who died in 1621. His dance collection, Terpsichore, delights us—and today’s performers never fail to amuse us with new combinations of instruments including viols, recorders, and crumhorns. Praetorius also wrote countless works for the Lutheran church. Then, later in the hour, we’ll temper our joyful dance with music from a darker time and place: 14th-century France – and music by Guillaume de Machaut on our featured recording Mercy au Mort by Ferrara Ensemble.
MUSIC TRACK
Terpsichore: Music of the Dance
Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra / Skip Sempé, dir.
Paradizo Records 2012 / Naxos PA0011D
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 29 Terpsichore (excerpts) Courante LXIV (0:59)
Tr. 31 Terpsichore (excerpts) Bransle de Villages XIV (1:37)
Tr. 30 Terpsichore (excerpts) Galliard XIV (1:08)
Tr. 33 Terpsichore (excerpts) Courante LXV (1:01)
Skip Sempé led Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra in dances from Terpsichore by Michael Praetorius. We’ll be hearing more from this collection of over 300 dances during the hour.
"Mihi Patria Coelum,” “Heaven is my fatherland,” “H,” “P,” “C” are the initials of Michael Praetorius Creuzburgensis. Praetorius was the most prolific composer of his generation, a formidable organist, music theorist, and teacher---but he also came from a deeply religious German Lutheran family. For a time, Praetorius lived with his brother Andreas, who was a professor of theology. Praetorius’s father, also Michael, was even forced to relocate to a new region for being too strict a Lutheran. We’ll hear a hymn for the New Year by Michael Praetorius.
MUSIC TRACK
Florilegium Portense: Motets & Hymns
Vocal Concert Dresden and Capella Sagittariana Dresden / dir. Peter Kopp
Carus 2018 / Naxos Carus83.492
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 11 Das alte Jahr vergangen ist (4:20)
We heard a hymn for a New Year by Michael Praetorius from his 1605-1610 collection, Musae Sioniae. Vocal Concert Dresden and Capella Sagittariana Dresden was led by Peter Kopp.
Many of Praetorius’s sacred works are published in his nine-volume tome Musae Sioniae. This rich collection of sacred hymns, motets, and other works help us begin to understand Lutheran liturgical practices of the time—and how these were crucial to the spread of the less-than-a-century-old religion. With his deeply religious family, Praetorius regularly connected theology to music, especially choral music. He brings to life the “heavenly choir” mentioned in Isaiah through his compositions and musical direction. Here is “Victimae paschali laudes” and postlude “Haec dies quam fecit Dominus” performed by a choir of voices and instruments.
MUSIC TRACK
Praetorius: Ostermesse (Easter Mass)
Weser-Renaissance Bremen / dir. Manfred Cordes
CPO 2012 / Naxos 999953-2
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 5 Musae Sioniae, Vol. 10: Victimae paschali laudes [Sequenz] (6:50)
Tr. 16 Musae Sionae, Vol. 10: Haec dies quam fecit Dominus [Postludium] (5:56)
“Victimae paschali laudes,” from Musae Sioniae by Michael Praetorius. Weser-Renaissance Bremen was led by Manfred Cordes.
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Theme Music Bed: Ensemble Alcatraz, Danse Royale, Elektra Nonesuch 79240-2 / B000005J0B, T.12: La Prime Estampie Royal
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.
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:59 Midpoint Break Music Bed: Krummhorn, cromorne, storto, tournebout?, Syntagma Amici / dir. Bernard Stilz, Ricercar 2008 / B001HE3IUM, Anonymous, Tr. 12 Pavana [Deutsche Lieder und Tanze] (excerpt of 1:42)
Strike up the band—the dance has begun! Terpsichore is muse of the dance from Greek mythology. Named after the muse, Praetorius’s collection of over 300 dances is his only surviving secular work. Terpsichore includes courtly dances that would have been popular at the time—passamezzo, galliard, volte, pavane, saraband, and more. We’ll hear five dances from Terpsichore.
MUSIC TRACK
Praetorius: Dances from Terpsichore
New London Consort / Phillip Pickett, dir.
Decca 2007 / Naxos 00028947591016
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 6 Terpsichore (excerpts) Philou (2:58)
Tr. 13 La Sarabande (1:42)
Tr. 14 Volte du tambour & 3 Voltes (Version 1) (5:01)
Dances from Terpsichore by Praetorius, played by the New London Consort on their 2007 release “Praetorius: Dances from Terpsichore.”
Like other music for dance in the early seventeenth century, Terpsichore doesn’t specify which instruments to use. Ensembles today enjoy playing these dances on replicas of period instruments and modern instruments as well. Yet, we can get some ideas about which instruments to use from Praetorius’s own theoretical work, Syntagma Musicum. The second of the three volumes shows us images of instruments and how they are to be used. Rackets—sort of like a bassoon in a can with hint of kazoo—are pictured along with dulcians; sackbuts, cornetti, and other brass share a print; and a family of violas da gamba share a page with another bowed string instrument: the Lira de braccio. We’ll hear two dances from Terpsichore—a passamezzo and galliard—performed on crumhorns.
MUSIC TRACK
Krummhorn, cromorne, storto, tournebout?
Syntagma Amici / dir. Bernard Stilz
Ricercar 2008 / Naxos RIC262
Michael Praetorius
Tr. 29 Passameze a 6 (1:26)
Tr. 30 Galliarde a 5 (1:16)
Passameze a 6 and Galliarde a 5 from Terpsichore, a collection of dances by Michael Praetorius. Syntagma Amici was led by Bernard Stilz.
We move from dancing for joy to a darker time and place. Fourteenth-century France was devastated by the Black Death. Millions died in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. We can be thankful then that works of Guillame de Machaut survived. Arguably Machaut was the most important poet and musician of his dayand place. Ferrara Ensemble’s 2019 re-release of their CD Mercy au Mort explores some of Machaut’s chansons and motets. His famous rondeau “Rose, liz, printemps, verdure,” sings of love and the beautiful flowers, scents, and green growth of spring.
MUSIC TRACK
Machaut: Mercy au Mort
Ferrara Ensemble / dir. Crawford Young
Arcana 2019 / B07YBL7HVC
Guillaume Machaut
Tr. 19 Rondeaux No. 10: Rose, lis, printemps, verdure (5:09)
“Rose, lis, printemps, verdure,” The rose, the lily, the greeness of spring, by fourteenth-century poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut. Crawford Young directed the Ferrara ensemble.
In addition to their hauntingly beautiful vocal renditions of Machaut, Ferrara Ensemble plays instruments that would have been familiar to listeners in the Middle Ages including vielle, guiterne, and dolce melos. An early keyboard instrument, the dolce melos is played by use of keys. The key action is much like the clavichord and later the piano. This is a song whose title translates roughly to “In my opinion, there is no gift of nature,” featuring dolce melos. The ballade also includes soprano and two string instruments: the bowed vielle and plucked guiterne.
MUSIC TRACK
Machaut: Mercy au Mort
Ferrara Ensemble / dir. Crawford Young
Arcana 2019 / B07YBL7HVC
Guillaume Machaut
Tr. 18 Il m’est avis qu’il n’est dons de Nature, ballade (6:15)
Music by Guillame de Machaut, performed by members of the Ferrara Ensemble; Kathleen Dineen, soprano; Crawford Young, guiterne; Karl Heinz Schickhaus, dolce melos; and Randall Cook, vielle. (0:12)
We’ll depart with a Motet about unrequited love. The three voice parts—motetus, triplum and tenor—all describe an unhappy lover. Two voice parts go into detail— [quote] “awaiting her glance,” “humbly suffering,” and “I prefer to languish thus and die if it pleases you.” The third part gets right to the point: “very bitter.”
MUSIC TRACK
Machaut: Mercy au Mort
Ferrara Ensemble / dir. Crawford Young
Arcana 2019 / B07YBL7HVC
Guillaume Machaut
Tr. 1 Motet No. 1: Quant en moy / Amour et bituate / Amara valde (3:40)
A motet of unrequited love by Guillaume de Machaut. Crawford Young led Ferrara Ensemble from our featured release Mercy au Mort.
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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 Schilling (or 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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