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CHANTICLEER An Orchestra of Voices
Eric S. Brenner, Dan Cromeenes, Dylan Hostetter, Justin Montigne, Benjamin Rauch, William Sauerland Soprano & Alto Ben Johns, Thomas McCargar, Matthew D. Oltman, Tenor Eric Alatorre, John Bischoff, Mark Sullivan Baritone & Bass
Joseph Jennings, Music Director La Guerre: Triumph & Tragedy of War La Guerre (La Bataille de Marignan) Clément Janequin (c1490-1562) from Missa de la batalla escoutez Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) Kyrie Gloria from Lamentations for Maundy Thursday Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (c1590-1664) Incipit, Lamentatio Aleph, quomodo sedit sola civitas plena populo Beth, plorans ploravit in nocte Credo from Missa de la batalla escoutez Guerrero from Lamentations for Maundy Thursday Padilla Ghimel, migravit Iudas propter afflictionem Jerusalem from Missa de la batalla escoutez Guerrero Sanctus-Benedictus Agnus Dei INTERMISSION
from Missa pro Victoria Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) Kyrie Gloria Tristis est anima mea Padilla Versa est in luctum* Padilla Credo from Missa pro Victoria Victoria Transfige, dulcissime Domine Padilla from Missa pro Victoria Victoria Sanctus-Benedictus Agnus Dei
Program subject to change. Program Notes by Ivan Moody Little performed and undervalued until relatively recently, the music of Francisco Guerrero, described by Francisco Pacheco – Velázquez’s father-in-law – in 1599 as “el más unico de su tiempo en el Arte de Música” (the most extraordinary of his time in the Art of Music), has now begun once more to be valued as it should. His range of expression is easily as great as that of Victoria, and his profundity matches that of Morales, his teacher at Seville Cathedral, of whose richly endowed musical activity Guerrero was in charge for nearly 50 years – he was appointed in 1554, and remained until his death in 1599. If it is perhaps in his motets (numbering 105, if one includes the numerous Marian antiphons) that Guerrero displays his gifts most fully, his 19 settings of the ordinary of the Mass nevertheless reveal a composer who, in writing liturgical music that, without even slightly stretching the bounds of liturgical propriety, was yet able to create something utterly personal – precisely, perhaps, because it is also so completely universal. The macaronically-titled Missa de la Batalla Escoutez is so-named because it is based on passages from Janequin’s well-known song La Guerre. (Macaronic refers to a jumble of Latin and vernacular words.) The song, first printed in 1528, commemorates the battle of Marignano of 1515, and was to become the basis for works by many composers, such was its popularity. In telling the story of a battle between the French and the Swiss Confederacy, the chanson contains the sounds of cannon, muskets, swords and trumpets, ending with the Swiss troops vanquished and fleeing. Guerrero’s Mass appeared in 1582, in his second book of Masses. In keeping with the composer’s character, the work is no mere piece of exhibitionism; rather, one is constantly surprised by the lyrical quality of the work, something one would not expect given the riotously descriptive nature of the model. Scored for five voices, there are innumerable opportunities in the work for textural variety, of which Guerrero avails himself fully, reducing the number of voices to three in the expected places, to four at the Crucifixus, and expanding, magnificently, to eight in the second Agnus Dei. Where Guerrero weaves motives from Janequin’s chanson into the fabric of his Mass, his younger, and nowadays far-better known, contemporary Victoria, in the double-choir Missa pro Victoria, built on the same model, makes full use of the opportunity for martial splendor. This is a late work, published in Missae, Magnifica, Motecta, Psalmi in Madrid in 1600, and one of a series of polychoral Masses which remain even today one of the least-known areas of the extraordinary priest-composer’s output. It is, in fact, a foretaste of the High Baroque – together with the other three Masses, the psalms, motets and Magnificats contained in the 1600 publication, it is an example of the radical change of stylistic direction of Victoria’s later years. One should not imagine from this, however, that Victoria sacrificed anything of his outstanding melodic gift: he simply allied it to new techniques, and in masterly fashion. The Missa pro Victoria is also historically important as being the first published choral music ever to include a fully notated organ part. * * * The basis for the administrative and liturgical organization of the Church in Mexico was copied from the Cathedral of Seville, which therefore became the mother church of New Spain, but the city of Puebla de los Ángeles did, exceptionally maintain some links with Toledo. The career of Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla is closely linked with the cathedral of Puebla. Padilla was born around 1590 in Old Spain, in Málaga, where he was taught by Francisco Vázquez. By 1613, he was maestro at the Cathedral of Jérez de la Frontera, and later held a similar appointment at Cádiz until 1620. It is not known exactly when he sailed for Mexico, but he had arrived there and become a singer and assistant at the cathedral of Puebla by 1622. He was promoted to maestro de capilla in 1629, and remained there until his death in 1664. The city of Puebla de los Angeles was being founded at the same time that Pizarro was invading Peru, in 1531. In appearance and structure it was completely of the Old World, though built with local labor. The cathedral was finished well before that of Mexico City, and a centre of devotion was established by the miracle of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgen morena. In 1640 the wealthy Bishop Palafox y Mendoza arrived in the city, and the cathedral was consecrated nine years later. The Bishop employed his wealth in the service of the Church, in particular sacred art, and during his episcopacy the Cathedral spent a great deal of money on the provision of music and musicians: in 1645, the choir had 28 men and 14 boys, and some of the singers were also instrumentalists. Given these resources, Padilla's music naturally makes greater demands on singers and players than that of earlier composers, and his music for two choirs, in particular, represents a high point in the history of Spanish American music. It is also evident that his music found favor with his superiors: shortly before his death, a substantial quantity of his work was copied into a sumptuous choirbook, now Libro de Coro XV of the archive at Puebla Cathedral. The range of Padilla's music covers tiny hymn settings, a fine set of Lamentations for six voices, a Passion, five Masses (four of them for eight voices), and an impressive series of double-choir psalms and motets. That Padilla was a real inheritor of the Iberian polyphonic tradition may be seen in the beautiful, flowing counterpoint of such works as the Lamentations, which adhere throughout to the Toledan Lamentation recitation tone. In his tiny para-liturgical motets Tristis est anima mea and Transfige, dulcissime Domine, both unusually scored for two sopranos, altos and bass (and thus probably related to the Toledan tradition of pieces for “three boys and their master”), we see another side of the composer, an almost private devotional intensity. While Tristis est uses words from the Gospels, Transfige is a setting of a text by St Bonaventure, to whose uncompromising imagery Padilla responds with music of passionate yearning. Versa est in luctum is another Iberian inheritance; versions of this text were set by Peñalosa, Victoria, Lobo and Vivanco, to name but four. It is a text, also not liturgical, that was associated with occasions of great ceremonial mourning. Lobo’s was written for the death of King Philip II, for example. Though the pretext for Padilla’s setting is not known, his imploring, elemental treatment of these desolate words is as masterly as any: “Spare me, Lord, for my days are nothing.” * * * Music Director Joseph Jennings adds: "The Lamentations of Jeremiah consists of five poems (chapters) in the form of laments written because of the siege and fall of Jerusalem in 587/586 BCE. They were probably written before 538 BCE, when the Jews were permitted by Cyrus to return to Jerusalem. The Hebrew title of the book is Ekhah, which means something like 'Oh How!'
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