[Theme music begins]

Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.

This hour, we’re collecting music named after specific people. These eponymous tunes have namesakes ranging from [the] tragic to [the] notorious and historical to legendary, so join us as we explore the musical legacies left by these figures over the centuries. We’ll imagine the adventures of Roland and Scaramella, lament the misfortunes of Tristan and Barbara Allen, as well as sample the preferred dances of royals and minor nobility. On our featured release, vocal ensemble Cinquecento brings us another kind of musical legacy, the sacred works of forgotten German composer Ludwig Daser, who served both Catholic and Lutheran courts during the confessional turbulence of the sixteenth century.

[Theme music fades at :59]

MUSIC TRACK
Secular Songs and Dances from the Middle Ages
Medieval Ensemble Modo Antiquo
Brilliant Classics | BC9288 (2016)
Anonymous
Tr. 77 Isabella (4:30)

A tune called “Isabella,” an anonymous istampitta from the fourteenth century. Bettina Hoffmann led Medieval Ensemble Modo Antiquo. “Isabella” is preserved in a late fourteenth-century manuscript from Northern Italy now held in the British Library, which also contains a number of other famous names in medieval dance music including Tristan’s lament, La Manfredina, and Bellicha, “the warlike woman.”

If we set out in search of names in the titles of early music, a good place to begin is songs of people’s deeds, such as ballads or settings of legend. In our first example, one of the protagonists of the legendary romance Tristan and Iseult pops up in a collection of dance music from fourteenth-century Italy.

MUSIC TRACK
De:Fine Amour: Tales of Courtly Love
Trobar e Cantar
PASCHENrecords | PR180052 (2018)
Anonymous
Tr. 19 Lamento di Tristano and Rotta (2:41)

Trobar e Cantar with the anonymous tune “Lamento di Tristano,” Tristan’s lament, paired with a rotta from the same collection, known as the “London Manuscript.”

Another big “name” in European literature is Roland, a military leader under Charlemagne who gradually became a versatile chivalric hero as his story was embellished over the centuries. You might be more familiar with his name in its Italian version, the famous Orlando who made his way from Renaissance epic to the operatic stage. Tales of Roland or Orlando were commonly told in song, but it’s actually another character, Orlando’s compatriot Ruggiero, whose name shows up more frequently in music notation.

MUSIC TRACK
Dialoghi a voce sola
Ensemble &cetera, Ulrike Hofbauer
Raumklang | RK3306D (2014)
Giovanni de Macque
Tr. 17 Partita sopra Ruggiero (3:12)

Ulrike Hofbauer led Ensemble &cetera on a “Partita sopra Ruggiero,” a set of variations on the harmonic pattern named after Ruggiero, by Giovanni de Macque.

Next, a ballad named for a beloved woman, who, like so many legendary ladies, dies of regret for her romantic inaction. A familiar favorite of Anglo-American traditional music, the earliest reference to this tune is a January 1666 diary entry by Samuel Pepys.

MUSIC TRACK
Royal Delight: 17th c. Ballads & Dances
The King’s Noyse, David Douglass, Ellen Hargis
Harmonia Mundi | HMX290737071DI (1993)
Traditional
Disc 2 Tr. 4 Barbara Allen (6:53)

Ellen Hargis and The King’s Noyse with the traditional ballad “Barbara Allen.”

We’ll move on to an even older popular tune named after a somewhat less tragic character, the bumbling soldier Scaramella.

MUSIC TRACK
Les châteaux de la Loire
Ensemble Clément Janequin, Dominique Visse
Harmonia Mundi | HMX290855051DI (2016)
Josquin Desprez
D. 2 Tr. 19 Scaramella va alla guerra (1:01)

MUSIC TRACK
Music from the Spanish Kingdoms
Circa 1500, Nancy Hadden
CRD Records | CRD3447 (2012)
Loyset Compère
Tr. 14 Scaramella (1:10)

A pair of polyphonic settings of the popular tune “Scaramella va alla guerra; Scaramella goes to war,” first by Josquin Desprez and performed by Ensemble Clément Janequin; followed by a version by Loyset Compère with Circa 1500.

[Theme music begins]

Early music can mean a lot of things. What does it mean to you? Let us know your thoughts and ideas. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org, where you’ll also find playlists and an archive of past shows.

You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.

[Theme music fades]

Midbreak music bed:
MUSIC TRACK
Music for Lute
Walter Gerwig
Deutsche Grammophon | 00028947927594 (2014)
Santino Garsi
Tr. 22 Aria del Gran Duca

(fades out at :59)

Welcome back. This hour, we’re exploring the early repertory of eponymous tunes: music named after people. Earlier, we heard a number of pieces named after legendary characters; now we’ll enjoy pieces commemorating real people, whether or not we remember who they were.

The festivities surrounding the marriage of Florentine Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici to Christine of Lorraine in 1589 included some of the most elaborate multimedia spectacles of the century. A group of the day’s renowned musicians collaborated on music for a set of dramatic intermedi to be performed between acts of the comedy La Pellegrina, “the pilgrim woman,” by Girolamo Bargagli. One of the tunes was such a hit that it was popping up in all kinds of music for decades afterwards: Emilio de’ Cavalieri’s festive choral dance “O che nuovo miracolo.”

MUSIC TRACK
Una stravaganza dei Medici
Andrew Parrott, Taverner Consort & Players
Erato - Parlophone | 5099960268457 (1988 reissued 2013)
Emilio de’ Cavalieri
Tr. 29 Intermedio VI: O che nuovo miracolo (5:10)

Andrew Parrott led the Taverner Consort & Players on “O che nuovo miracolo; What new miracle” from the 6th intermedio to La Pellegrina.

After Ferdinando de’ Medici’s big wedding in Florence, the melody of “O che nuovo miracolo” became a musical souvenir of the festivities. The musicians who passed it along began to call it the “ballo” or “aria del Gran Duca,” “the Grand Duke’s tune.”

MUSIC TRACK
Folie Douce: Renaissance Improvisations
Doulce Mémoire
Dorian Sono Luminus | DOR-90262 (1998)
Anonymous
Tr. 17 Ballo del Gran Duca (Aria di Firenze): Ballo, Gaillarde, Canario (6:17)

Doulce Mémoire with an anonymous dance suite based on the “Ballo del Gran Duca.”

Names also make their way into music via dedications. Patrons, colleagues, friends, and lovers have all been remembered by composers in musical titles. In some cases, we have enough information to figure out the identity of a dedicatee, but in others, we find references to people who apparently existed but of whom we know nothing beyond the fact that a musician was thinking about them.

MUSIC TRACK
Greensleeves: Music From the Court of King Henry VIII
Musica Antiqua of London, Philip Thorby
Chester Records | 5060199990006 (2009)
Anonymous
Tr. 1 King Henry VIII pavyn (1:45)
Tr. 8 My Lady Carey’s Dompe (2:15)

Philip Thorby led Musica Antiqua of London on two anonymous sixteenth century dances, “King Henry VIII pavyn” and “My Lady Carey’s Dompe.”

Next, a pair of royal galliards by John Dowland.

MUSIC TRACK
John Dowland: The Queen’s Galliard
Nigel North
Naxos | 8.570284 (2009)
John Dowland
Tr. 1 The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth, her Galliard (1:14)

MUSIC TRACK
The Food of Love
The Baltimore Consort
Dorian Sono Luminus | DSL-92234 (2019)
John Dowand
Tr. 16 The King of Denmark’s Galliard (1:48)

MUSIC TRACK
Giosquino: Josquin Desprez in Italia
Paolo Da Col, Odhecaton, Gesualdo Six, La Pifarescha
Arcana | A489 (2021)
Josquin Desprez
Tr. 14 La Bernardina (1:15)

Untexted polyphony by Josquin Desprez for an unknown dedicatee, “La Bernardina,” performed by Paolo Da Col and La Pifarescha. Before that, two gailliards by John Dowland. Nigel North played “The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth, her Galliard,” and The Baltimore Consort performed “The King of Denmark’s Galliard,” written for a royal patron.

Our featured release this hour is a 2023 Hyperion release by the ensemble Cinquecento, Ludwig Daser: Missa Pater noster and other works. Daser was a choirboy in the Munich court chapel and student of Ludwig Senfl, and after attending university for theology, he returned as a tenor and took over the chapelmaster position in 1552. We’ll hear the Kyrie from his Missa Pater noster, based on the melody of the Pater noster plainchant.

MUSIC TRACK
Ludwig Daser: Missa Pater noster & other works
Cinquecento
Hyperion CDA68414 (2023)
Ludwig Daser
Tr. 3 Kyrie I (2:14)
Tr. 4 Christe (2:34)
Tr. 5 Kyrie II (2:11)

The Kyrie from Ludwig Daser’s Missa Pater noster, from this hour’s featured release by vocal ensemble Cinquecento.

Daser, who had Protestant leanings, left his position at the Catholic court of Munich in 1562, when he was replaced as chapelmaster by Orlando Lassus. Ten years later, Daser moved to Stuttgart to serve as chapelmaster to the Protestant Duke Ludwig the Third of Württemberg. Let’s hear one of his German chorale settings written for Stuttgart.

MUSIC TRACK
Ludwig Daser: Missa Pater noster & other works
Cinquecento
Hyperion CDA68414 (2023)
Ludwig Daser
Tr. 24 Jauchtzet ir Himmel (2:31)

Ludwig Daser’s chorale setting “Jauchtzet ir Himmel; Sing, you heavens, for the Lord has done this,” performed by Cinquecento on their 2023 Hyperion release Ludwig Daser: Missa Pater noster and other works.

[Fade in theme music]

Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
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. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.

The writer for this edition of Harmonia is Chelsey Belt.

Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.

[Theme music concludes]