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Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani. Who decides what music gets published? In the mid-16th century, it was more complicated than printing a score from a computer. Technologies for music printing changed in the first part of the 16th century to allow for faster printing of music books. Cousins Robert Ballard and Adrian Le Roy formed a Parisian music printing firm, and in 1551, less than two years in the business, they became the official music printers to King Henry II. This hour, we’ll hear chansons, villanelle, and lute music published by these privileged printers, whom English speaking musicians now commonly refer to by the Anglicized name of their publishing house, LeRoy and Ballard. / Plus, on our featured recording, we’ll hear music composed by Ballard’s son, performed by lutenist Richard Kolb.
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Chansons a plaisir: music from the time of Adrian Le Roy
Fires of Love
Delphian Records 2008 / DCD34063
Adrian Le Roy
Tr.20 Le Roy: O Combien est heureuse (4:38)
The ensemble Fires of Love performed a chanson by Adrian Le Roy, or [French] Adrian LeRoy, a 16th-century lutenist and music publisher. The chanson, “Ô Cômbien est heureuse,” is a love song whose texts starts, “O how blissful the pain concealing an amorous flame that sets two hearts ablaze, when both soon expect to be happy.”
Technology to produce a book of printed music developed over the course of the 15th century after Gutenberg’s printing press for moveable type was invented. In the early 16th century, major innovations for music took place. In 1501, Ottaviano Petrucci was the first to print an entire book of music with rhythmic notation. His process produced a beautiful product but was very expensive and time consuming because each page of music had to be put in the printing press three times. In the late 1520s, French printer Pierre Attaingnant developed a much faster process called single-impression printing, which only required each page to go through the press one time. This allowed more music books to be produced faster and cheaper and was well-suited to getting popular vocal genres meant to be sung with friends, like the chanson and motet, out to eager buyers. It was this new single-impression technology that LeRoy and Ballard used at their printing firm. We’ll hear a piece by Attaingnant, followed by two composed by Adrian Willaert.
Chansons, madrigali, villanelle
Romanesque
Ricercar 1994 / RIC331
Pierre Attaingnant
Tr.4 Attaingnant: Dessus le marché d’Arras (1:20)
Adrian Willaert
Tr.5 Willaert: Allons, allons gay (2:52)
Adrian Willaert
Tr.17 Willaert: Jouissance vous donneray a 5 (2:34)
The ensemble Romanesque led by Philippe Malfeyt performed chansons from 16th century France. First, “Dessus le marché d’Arras” by printer Pierre Attaingnant, followed by two selections by Adrian Willaert— “Allons, allons gay” and “Jouissance vous donneray”. Both Willaert songs were published by the firm Le Roy et Ballard, or to use the anglicized version, LeRoy and Ballard, who received the title of music printers to the king after Attaingnant’s death.
In their first years of publishing, Le Roy and Ballard produced many books of vocal and instrumental music that reflected their own interests as well as the musical tastes of their family and friends. Le Roy was an accomplished lutenist and published many of his own compositions. Ballard relied on his networks of friends and family members with court connections to know what composers and genres were in style. [His wife, Lucrèce Dugué and her family were knowledgeable about court life, as her father Jean Dugué was organist to the king and several other family members held court positions in and out of music.]
In the second half of the 16th century, the French chanson as a genre exploded in popularity with some help from the new technology of single-impression printing. Songs in this genre often involve all voice parts moving in the same rhythm and repeated sections, but some also include imitative passages passing the same melodic idea between different parts. Many have texts about love and others are drinking songs—a preview of a later development the chanson a boire, or songs for drinking, for two voices or voice and continuo in the 17th century.
Chansons nouvelles: Parisian chansons and dances c1530-1550
Virelai
Erato 1998 / 190296489754
Pierre Moulu
Tr.30 Moulu: Amy, souffrez que je vous aime (3:02)
Éloge du vin et de la vigne en chansons & danses de Rabelais à Henri IV
La Maurache
Arion Music 1993 / 3325480682483
Orlande de Lassus
Tr. 21 Lassus: O vin en vigne (Bonte divine, vien et monstre) (1:35)
Claudin de Sermisy
Tr.16 Sermisy: Vignon vignette (arr. J. Skowron for vocal ensemble) (5:34)
Songs meant for romance and merriment. Two French chanson: Pierre Moulu’s “Amy, souffrez que je vous aime” performed by the ensemble Virelai, followed by Claudin de Sermisy’s “Vignon vignette” performed by La Maurache directed by Julien Skowron. Songs and texts published in Le Roy and Ballard’s book Tiers livre de chansons in 1553 and later anthology collections.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
Chansons a plaisir: music from the time of Adrian Le Roy
Fires of Love
Delphian Records 2008 / DCD34063
Adrian Le Roy
Tr.2 Le Roy: Pimontoyse (0:59)
(fades out at :59)
Welcome back… we are listening to works printed by the Parisian publishers Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard, cousins whose 16th century music press is commonly referred to in English-speaking countries as LeRoy and Ballard. The firm printed more than French chansons about love and drinking. They also published vocal music from several European countries. Many 16th century composers wrote in different genres, not just the ones from their country of origin. Consumers of printed music who were acquainted with a composer primarily because of the composer’s works in a particular genre often would subsequently find more printed works by the composer in other popular styles of the time.
This may have been the case with Le Roy and Ballard’s 1581 print of Libro de villanelle, moreschi, et altri canzoni, with pieces written for 4,5,6, and 8 voices all composed by the Franco-Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus. Le Roy and Ballard had printed a volume of Lassus’s French chansons in 1576, and it sold well enough that four years later they produced a volume of Lassus’s vocal music that was entirely Italianate in style and text--even his name, written as Orlando di Lasso.
Humanità e Lucifero ; Maddalena
Europa Galante; Fabio Biondi, director
Opus 111 2003 / OP2001
Orlande de Lassus
Tr.18 O belle fusa! (0:43)
The Glory of the Italian madrigal: twenty madrigals
The Amaryllis Consort; Charles Brett, director
MCA Records 1986 / MCA-5842
Orlande de Lassus
Tr.1 Madona mia cara (2:06)
Madrigals
Czech Philharmonic Chorus; Josef Veselka, chorus master
Supraphon 1981 / 1412 2931--1412 2932
Orlando di Lasso
[Side 1] Tr.6 Lasso, Eco (01:27)
Music by Orlando di Lasso, published by Le Roy and Ballard in 1581: “O bella fusa” performed by members of Europa Galante followed by “Madona mia cara” sung by the Amaryllis Consort and concluding with the 8-part madrigal “O là, o che bon eccho” recorded by Czech Philharmonic Chorus [on a 1980 LP].
To say Orlando di Lasso was a prolific composer is an understatement. Not only did he write in almost every prominent vocal genre of his time--he wrote more in each genre than many of his contemporaries: at least 57 masses, 90 German lieder, 101 magnificat, 150 French chansons, and 200 Italian madrigals. This gave LeRoy and Ballard ample material to produce new books, such as their 1565 publication of some of Lasso’s 700 motets, which had been published not only by Le Roy and Ballard in Paris, but by other publishers in Nuremburg, Munich, Leuven, and Venice. / As the publishers switched genres, by the way, the language of the title and particular spelling of Lassus’s name changed— French chansons by Orlande de Lassus, Italian genres by Orlando di Lasso, and Latin motets by Orlandus Lassus. / Lasso’s motets were so numerous and popular that Ballard even snuck some in at the end of other collections of French songs, as with this motet Dic mihi quem portas.
Musica reservata: secret music for Albrecht V
Profeti della Quinta; Dolce Risonanza; Florian Wieninger, conductor
Pan Classics 2015 / PC10323
Orlando di Lasso
Tr.2 Lassus: Dic Mihi quem portas (3:30)
Tr.4 Lassus: Quo properas, facunde nepos Atlantis? (4:24)
Lagrime di San Pietro; Timor et tremor; Pronuba juno; Cum rides mihi; Psalmus poenitentialis
Chamber Choir of the ]
Hungaroton 1980 / SLPX 12081/SLPX 12082
Orlando di Lasso
[Side 3] Tr.5 Timor et tremor (5:06)
Three motets by Orlando di Lasso: “Dic Mihi quem portas” and “Quo properas, facunde nepos Atlantis?” performed instrumentally by Dolce Risonata; then, “Timor et tremor” sung by the Chamber Choir of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music [on a 1980 LP]. All published by Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard in the late 16th century.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
Cousins Le Roy and Ballard passed down many musical insights to the next generation in their family. Robert Ballard had two sons: Pierre, who ran the business with his mother after the founders died, and Robert II, who was not a printer, but rather a lutenist, having learned from Adrien Le Roy. He continued the family’s connection with court music-making by serving in different positions playing for and training the nobility, including as lute instructor for King Louis XIII. Robert II did not participate much in the printing side of the family business, but he did compose and collect music for their publications, especially his first book of lute works published in 1611. This is one of a few books in the Ballard family’s long history not in a notation system using a typical staff notation, but rather in tablature indicating the different strings on the lute, showing where the player should place the fingers on the fingerboard.
Our featured recording, released by lutenist Richard Kolb in 2019 on the Centaur label, contains many of the works from Robert Ballard II’s Premier livre de tablature de luth from 1611. While the works in this book are arranged into suites, they combine older dance forms like the courante with references to specific court ballets such as Ballet de la Reyne.
Premier livre de luth, 1611 / Robert Ballard
Richard Kolb
Centaur 2019 / CRC3747
Robert Ballard II (1575-1650)
[Subsection: Ballard: Premier livre de luth, Suite No. 3]
Tr.9 Courante d’Angélique 5 (2:14)
[Subsection: Ballard: Premier livre de luth, Suite No. 2]
Tr.5 Ballet des contre-faits d’amour (chants 1, 2,3) (2:24)
Tr.6 Courante d'Angélique 9 (1.54)
[Subsection: Ballard: Premier livre de luth, Suite No. 1]
Tr.2 Ballet de la Reyne (chants 1, 2, 3) (3:59)
Lutenist Richard Kolb performed works by Robert Ballard II on a 10-course lute on our featured recording, Premier livre de tablature de luth, 1611, we heard “Courante d’Angélique 5” [from Suite No. 3], followed by “Ballet des contre-faits d’amour" [from Suite no.2], and we concluded with “Ballet de la Reyne.”
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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 Devon Nelson.
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.
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