[Theme music begins]

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

Come along with us this hour on a musical pub crawl! We’ll hear from hard-partying musicians of the past and enjoy tunes about beer, tavern life, and the consequences of imbibing. Consider with us how drink features in love songs and how drunkenness is portrayed in opera. We’re still tapping history’s seemingly bottomless keg of drinking songs, so raise a glass and join the convivial chorus for a round of intoxicating early music. Then, our featured recording takes us outdoors for La Rêveuse’s Le Concert des Oiseaux and Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril, combining Baroque classics with birdsong and new works dedicated to animals facing extinction.

[Theme music fades at :59]

Everybody’s Tune: Music from the British Isles and Flanders, 17th century
Les Witches
Alpha | ALPHA823 (2014)
Anonymous
Disc 2 Tr. 10 Pavane dan Vers (4:46)

Les Witches with the anonymous Pavane dan Vers. This pavane, along with a number of other dances and psalms, survives in the Suzanne van Soldt manuscript, a 1599 collection of popular tunes for the young Suzanne’s entertainment at the keyboard. Suzanne was part of a Dutch Protestant family who fled to London during the Spanish invasion of Antwerp.

While we might associate the rock-and-roll lifestyle with the 20th century, this stereotype also resonates with musicians of the distant past. Among the few surviving biographical details we have about sixteenth-century Flemish church singer and composer Jacobus Clemens non Papa is that he was [quote] “un grant ivrogne et tres mal vivant; a great drunkard who lived immorally,” despite having taken priestly orders. The sobriquet “non papa; not the pope” humorously distinguishes him from Pope Clement the Seventh who reigned during Clemens non Papa’s lifetime, but may also hint at his debauched lifestyle. We’ll hear one of his chansons about an amorous encounter in the woods.

The Rose, the Lily, and the Whortleberry: Medieval Gardens
The Orlando Consort
Harmonia Mundi | HMU907398DI (2005)
Jacobus Clemens non Papa
Tr.23 Au ioly bocquet croist la violette “In the inviting grove grows the violet” (1:13)

The Orlando Consort singing sang a chanson by Jacobus Clemens non Papa whose title translates to “In the inviting grove grows the violet.”

Josquin Desprez, another Flemish musician active a little earlier than Clemens non Papa, wrote the frottola “El Grillo; the cricket” in honor of his singer colleague Carlo Grillo in Milan. The text begins: “The cricket is a good singer who can hold long notes; drink up and sing, cricket!” It continues with some commentary about how this cricket can go at all night without stopping; I’ll leave to you whatever conclusions you may draw about Signior Grillo.

Josquin Desprez: Tant vous aime
Doulce Memoire, Denis Raisin Dadre
Ricercar | RIC436 (2022)
Josquin Desprez
Tr. 15 El grillo (1:27)

“El Grillo; the cricket” by Josquin Desprez. Denis Raisin Dadre led Doulce Memoire.

Musicians who liked a drink certainly left us a wealth of songs in praise of it. Up next, The King’s Noyse with a pair of seventeenth-century ballads about beer.

Royal Delight: 17th C. Ballads and Dances
The King’s Noyse
Harmonia Mundi | HMX290737071DI (1993)
Traditional
Disc 1 Tr. 24 The Little Barley-Corne (3:32)
Disc 2 Tr. 23 Nottingham Ale (2:47)

“The Little Barley-Corne” and “Nottingham Ale,” sung by Ellen Hargis with The King’s Noyse.

Back toward Flanders, Servaas de Koninck was a prolific composer of chamber and theater music during the late seventeenth century. One of his last publications was a book of Dutch language love and drinking songs. We’ll sample one of each.

Servaas de Koninck: Love and drinking songs of the Netherlands
Dopo Emilio
Etcetera | 8718011614469 (1994)
Servaas de Koninck
Tr. 31 Over zoete Nachtegaalen “Of sweet nightingales” (2:58)
Tr. 29 In het glaasjen of myn Tryntjen “In the glass of my tears” (1:00)

Ensemble Dopo Emilio with two pieces whose titles translate to “Of sweet nightingales” and “In “In the glass of my tears” by Servaas de Koninck, from his 1700 collection “Dutch love and drinking songs.”

As De Koninck’s pairing suggests, booze frequently appears as a device in love songs. Robert Burns’ 1789 poem “My love she’s but a lassie yet” positions drink alongside love as the two pleasures of a man’s life. Let’s hear a traditional interpretation to the tune of Lady Bandinscoth's Reel.

Robert Burns: The Complete Songs
Jim Reid
Linn Records | CKD811 (2015)
Traditional
Disc 1 Tr. 9 My love she's but a lassie yet (1:38)

Robert Burns’ “My love she's but a lassie yet,” sung and played by Scottish guitarist Jim Reid.

[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]

(1:00) Mid Break Music Bed

Servaas de Koninck: Love and drinking songs of the Netherlands
Dopo Emilio
Etcetera | 8718011614469 (1994)
Servaas de Koninck
Tr. 2 Trio, Op. 1: No. 11. Rigaudon (excerpt of 1:24)

(fades out at :59)

Welcome back… we’re continuing our pub crawl this hour with more early music about drinking.

Henry Purcell’s 1692 Fairy Queen was composed as a set of masques to be performed alongside a spoken play, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It also happens to feature one of the most amusing “drunk” scenes in Baroque musical drama, in which the fairies of Titania mock an inebriated poet who stumbles into their midst, challenging him to a game of “blindman’s bluff.” Purcell might have designed this poet character as a jab at playwright colleague Thomas d’Urfey.

Purcell: The Fairy Queen
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers
Coro | COR16005 (1991)
Henry Purcell
Disc 1 Tr. 7 Act I: Fill up the bowl, then… (Blindfolded Poet, Fairies, Chorus) (6:12)

Harry Christophers led The Sixteen on “Fill up the bowl, then…” from Act I of Henry Purcell’s Fairy Queen.

No pub crawl is complete without a chorus or two of a classic drinking song. We’ll partake of a few from across the centuries, starting with a Latin tavern tune from the Carmina Burana.

Grantjoie: A Minstrel’s Journey
Strada
Analekta | AN28811 (1997)
Anonymous (Carmina Burana)
Tr. 6 In taberna quando sumus [When we’re in the tavern] (3:47)

“In taberna quando sumus; When we’re in the tavern” from the Carmina Burana, performed by Grantjoie.

Next, we’ll hear a traditional German drinking song whose title “Trinkt und singt,” drink and sing, is commonly found on antique beer steins, often as part of the motto “who does not love, drink, and sing will never achieve true happiness.”

Food, Wine & Song: Music and Feasting in Renaissance Europe
The Orlando Consort
Harmonia Mundi | HMU907314DI (2005)
Anonymous
Tr. 22 Trinkt und singt (1:36)

Music from the Time of Christian IV
Ulrik Cold, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Rogers Covey-Crump, Jakob Lindberg
BIS | BIS-CD-391 (1988)
Soren Terkelsen
Tr. 18 En Dricke-Vise [A Drinking Song] (2:33)

We first heard the Orlando Consort with the anonymous German drinking song “Trinkt und singt,” in a version written before 1585. After that, from the early seventeenth-century court of Christian the Fourth of Denmark, Soren Terkelsen’s “En Dricke-Vise,” in a 1988 performance by Ulrik Cold and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

Juan del Encina’s festive villancico “Oy comamos y bebamos; Today let us eat and drink” appears in the Cancionero de Palacio, a Spanish songbook compiled between about 1465 and 1520. The text encourages the listener to enjoy Carnival to the fullest, in preparation for the lean times of Lent.

Cancionero: Music for the Spanish Court 1470–1520
The Dufay Collective
Avie Records | AV0005 (2002)
Juan del Encina
Tr. 29 Hoy comamos y bebamos (2:21)

Juan del Encina’s “Oy comamos y bebamos; Today let us eat and drink,” performed by the Dufay Collective.

And finally, a more contemplative drinking song by Heinrich Schütz, in the form of a madrigal for two voices and continuo. The text, by Martin Opitz: “Die Erde trinkt für sich:” [quote] “The earth drinks by itself, the trees drink earth, also the sea has the habit of drinking to the air, the sun drinks the ocean, the moon drinks the sun, so why, my friends, do you begrudge me my drinking?”

Heinrich Schütz: Madrigale & Hochzeitmusiken
Dresdner Kammerchor, Hans-Christoph Rademann
Carus | 04009350932777 (2018)
Heinrich Schütz
Tr. 8 Die Erde trinkt für sich, SWV 438 (2:03)

David Erler and Tobias Mäthger singing, with Matthias Müller, violone and Beate Röllecke organ, performing Heinrich Schütz’ madrigal “Die Erde trinkt für sich; the earth drinks by itself.”

French ensemble La Rêveuse released their latest album Le Concert des Oiseaux and Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril with Harmonia Mundi in February of 2023. The first thirteen tracks, Le Concert des Oiseaux or the concert of birds, combines seventeenth- and eighteenth-century chamber music with selections by Britten, Saint-Saens, and Ravel adapted for early instruments. Part two, Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril, is a suite composed for La Rêveuse in 2022 by Vincent Bouchot, formerly baritone with the early music group Ensemble Clément Janequin. We’ll start with a sonata featuring two of the most common bird protagonists in Baroque music, the nightingale and the cuckoo.

Le Concert des Oiseaux and Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril
La Rêveuse
Harmonia Mundi | HMM902709DI (2023)
Theodor Schwartzkopff
Tr. 3 Sonata al'imitatione del Rossignuolo e del Cucco (3:44) [ends with bird noises]

“Sonata al'imitatione del Rossignuolo e del Cucco; Sonata in imitation of the nightingale and the cuckoo,” by Theodor Schwartzkopff. Performed by La Rêveuse on their 2023 Harmonia Mundi release Le Concert des Oiseaux and Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril, the concert of the birds and the carnival of the endangered animals.

Next, we’ll hear the first movement of the titular suite, the “Tristesse du Pangolin,” sadness of the pangolin from the Carnaval des animaux en peril. Composer Vincent Bouchot was inspired to pair music about endangered species with instruments like the theorbo and viola da gamba that have been in danger of disappearing from the musical landscape themselves. Pangolin are a group of small, armored anteaters native to the forests of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. They are among the most trafficked animals in the world due to the purported medicinal property of their scales, which together with habitat loss has made them vulnerable to extinction. Bouchot characterizes the pangolin with Ravelian Chinoiserie and a 5/4 meter representing the animal’s five-clawed feet with which it skillfully unearths its meals of ants and termites.

Le Concert des Oiseaux and Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril
La Rêveuse
Harmonia Mundi | HMM902709DI (2023)
Vincent Bouchot
Tr. 14 Le Carnaval des animaux en péril: Prélude: Tristesse du Pangolin (3:12)

“Tristesse du Pangolin,” the sadness of the pangolin from Vincent Bouchot’s Carnaval des animaux en peril, performed by La Rêveuse.

We’ll close among the eighteenth-century birds, with Michel Courette’s impression of the cuckoo from his Pieces pour la Musette. The musette is a bellows-blown bagpipe in vogue among French courtiers at the time.

Le Concert des Oiseaux and Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril
La Rêveuse
Harmonia Mundi | HMM902709DI (2023)
Michel Courette
Tr. 8 Pieces pour la Musette, Op. 5: Suite No. 1: VIII. Le Coucou (2:22)

“Le Coucou” from Michel Courette’s Pieces pour la Musette, performed by La Rêveuse on this hour’s featured recording, Le Concert des Oiseaux and Le Carnival des Animaux en Péril.

[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 was 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]