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Nowell’s Delight A Renaissance Christmas Celebration To order any of our several CD's, print and mail our on-line CD order form. |
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Program Notes
Nowell’s Delight A Renaissance Christmas Celebration This compilation of pieces drawn from Piffaro Christmas concerts over the past ten years represents the variety of carols, villançicos, noels, motets, chorale settings and ballads that have become the signatures of Piffaro’s holiday offerings. It is a live recording with all the excitement and intensity of live performance, along with the occasional coughs, bumps and slight imperfections that are the inevitable by?]products of concert hall tapings. From the programs of the last decade, we have chosen pieces from concerts with soprano Laura Heimes that offer the distinctive features of four national styles – English, Spanish, French and German – as well as the colorful variety of Piffaro’s many consorts of instruments. The 15th century English carols that open this recording are the earliest offerings, and perhaps most strongly evoke associations with the season. From the declamatory Nowell: out of your sleep, performed on three shawms, to the gentle Lullay: I saw, with voice and flute, they charm listeners with their triple meters, their straightforward homophonic style, and their story-telling texts. They frequently alternate verses and burdens (refrains) in two and then three parts, the third part often written in parallel motion to the upper voice, creating a distinctive feature of early English composition called “faburden”. Spain is represented by four anonymous villançicos from 16th century sources. Two of these songs Vos virgen soys nuestra madre and Soberana Maria, played instrumentally, are hymns to the virgin. The third, Que bonito niño chiquito is a playful lullaby about the infant Jesus, and finally, Angeles del zielo, in an instrumental version, depicts angels somersaulting joyfully in the sky at the birth of the Christchild. This last piece in particular is filled with the jaunty rhythms so particularly associated with Spanish music. The set of French noels and chansons are primarily from the mid 16th century, a time when hundreds of noel texts were written and published for popular consumption. It was the custom to set these texts, many of which recounted the Christmas story in colloquial fashion, to pre-existing melodies and compositions. Both Nouvelles, nouvelles and Or vous tremoussez are examples of this practice. The latter noel is based on the melody found in the three part chanson D’ou venez vous, Madame Lucette. In contrast, the motets Sus debout and Cum natus esset Jesus, are rich, polyphonic settings of sacred texts. Michael Praetorius exemplifies the tradition of Lutheran chorales from late 16th century Germany. His many volumes include a wealth of wonderfully written chorale settings ranging from simple hymns to complex double choral compositions. En natus est Emmanuel and Resonet in laudibus combine both those elements, while Regnart’s Stella, quam viderant Magi is a polyphonic composition in the tradition of Flemish composers like Josquin Desprez and Nicolas Gombert. The last set of pieces is a return to England with an unusual carol, Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, that probably traces its origins to Cornwall and a tradition of morality plays performed at the Christmas season. References in the text “to see the legend of my play”, and the refrain with the invitation to the dance (not found in any other carols of the medieval or pre-Reformation periods) are clues to this provenance. Greensleeves needs little introduction except to say that the ground bass pattern upon which it is built spawned more arrangements and ballad texts than almost any other from this period. The final version here, The old yeare now away is fled, is followed by a short Piffaro rendition of the country dance tune Goddesses, which shares a similar bass pattern. -Joan Kimball |
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Credits
Concert Recordings: George Blood Audio CD Compilation and editing: George Blood Audio To Top of Page
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PIFFARO, The Renaissance Band Joan Kimball & Robert Wiemken, Directors 2238 Fairmount Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19130 info@piffaro.com phone/fax (215) 235-8469 |
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