One unfortunate side effect of starting my journey from the very beginning of Western music was the relative obscurity of the subject matter -- medieval music isn't exactly a big draw and you really have to plan carefully if you want to attend a professional performance. As a consequence, it took me a full six months before I was finally able to make it to a concert with music from the time periods covered so far in the Journey. I thought it would be worthwhile to describe the experience here, especially considering that the performance included material that I hadn't covered in previous entries.
Unlike the other sections of my blog, the concert reviews will discuss the entire experience, including the skill of the performers and the atmosphere they create. Whereas most of my entries are designed to help develop familiarity with the different composers and styles of times gone by, I view the concerts as a sort of culmination -- whatever this music might have to offer, the live performance should present it in its purest form.
It is perhaps unfortunate, therefore, that I wasn't able to find a recording to familiarize myself with before attending this particular concert. The program was entitled "Secret Voices," and the set was performed by Anonymous 4, a famous quartet of vocalists/scholars based in New York City. Named after the author of an ancient treatise on medieval music (circa ~1280), Anonymous 4 has been performing medieval vocal music for over fifteen years. My first exposure to them was in a recording of ballate by Francesco Landini called "The Second Circle," where they delivered beautiful renditions, despite my general distaste for the composer. In "Secret Voices," their set is composed entirely of music from the Codex Las Huelgas, a tome of polyphony that was compiled for use in a medieval Spanish nunnery. Although scholars aren't sure whether the nuns themselves sang this music -- it was supposed to be forbidden for women to sing polyphony in those days -- Anonymous 4 choose to believe that they are following in the footsteps of these ancient pioneers.
Needless to say, the performance itself was excellent -- if there were flaws in their renditions, they were beyond my ear to catch -- but I still found myself somewhat disappointed by the experience. Some of the material was intriguing, including the rhythmically-bold Parens patris natique and the conductus that inspired "Secret Voices," Mater patris et filia. However, a great deal of the rest felt like filler; I find it hard to believe that the hexachord excercise, Fa fa mi/Ut re mi was, as the program declared, among the "greatest music of [the nuns'] time." Even the canon, Benedicamus Domino a 3, failed to impress with its barely-overlapping phrases.
I would note also that the quartet chose not to use any form of sound system for their performance. I was seated in the middle of a small auditorium and could hear them clearly enough, but even with skilled singers, a quartet of unamplified female voices will tend sound thin in a large concert hall. I've listened to a lot of pretonal music for my blog, but even I felt like their sound needed a stronger foundation... perhaps the Cistercian probation on women singing polyphony was motivated by more than simple gender discrimination.
Regardless, I want to tip my cap to Anonymous 4 for their efforts. Few music groups will devote themselves solely to early music, and fewer still will restrict their repertoire to the Medieval period. These are truly the origins of Western music. If I had an opportunity, I would see them again in a heartbeat and I recommend that others do the same.
Related Links: Secret Voices Program
Unlike the other sections of my blog, the concert reviews will discuss the entire experience, including the skill of the performers and the atmosphere they create. Whereas most of my entries are designed to help develop familiarity with the different composers and styles of times gone by, I view the concerts as a sort of culmination -- whatever this music might have to offer, the live performance should present it in its purest form.
It is perhaps unfortunate, therefore, that I wasn't able to find a recording to familiarize myself with before attending this particular concert. The program was entitled "Secret Voices," and the set was performed by Anonymous 4, a famous quartet of vocalists/scholars based in New York City. Named after the author of an ancient treatise on medieval music (circa ~1280), Anonymous 4 has been performing medieval vocal music for over fifteen years. My first exposure to them was in a recording of ballate by Francesco Landini called "The Second Circle," where they delivered beautiful renditions, despite my general distaste for the composer. In "Secret Voices," their set is composed entirely of music from the Codex Las Huelgas, a tome of polyphony that was compiled for use in a medieval Spanish nunnery. Although scholars aren't sure whether the nuns themselves sang this music -- it was supposed to be forbidden for women to sing polyphony in those days -- Anonymous 4 choose to believe that they are following in the footsteps of these ancient pioneers.
Needless to say, the performance itself was excellent -- if there were flaws in their renditions, they were beyond my ear to catch -- but I still found myself somewhat disappointed by the experience. Some of the material was intriguing, including the rhythmically-bold Parens patris natique and the conductus that inspired "Secret Voices," Mater patris et filia. However, a great deal of the rest felt like filler; I find it hard to believe that the hexachord excercise, Fa fa mi/Ut re mi was, as the program declared, among the "greatest music of [the nuns'] time." Even the canon, Benedicamus Domino a 3, failed to impress with its barely-overlapping phrases.
I would note also that the quartet chose not to use any form of sound system for their performance. I was seated in the middle of a small auditorium and could hear them clearly enough, but even with skilled singers, a quartet of unamplified female voices will tend sound thin in a large concert hall. I've listened to a lot of pretonal music for my blog, but even I felt like their sound needed a stronger foundation... perhaps the Cistercian probation on women singing polyphony was motivated by more than simple gender discrimination.
Regardless, I want to tip my cap to Anonymous 4 for their efforts. Few music groups will devote themselves solely to early music, and fewer still will restrict their repertoire to the Medieval period. These are truly the origins of Western music. If I had an opportunity, I would see them again in a heartbeat and I recommend that others do the same.
Related Links: Secret Voices Program
