EASTERN EARLY MUSIC FORUM
Festal
Mass in
Friday 24th
- Sunday 26th March 2006
Tutored
by Michael Procter
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T the end of March, Michael
Procter directed a weekend course at Trinity College Chapel, where we sang the
motet Ave Maria ... virgo serena by
Josquin des Pres and the related work Missa
super Ave Maria by Ludwig Daser.
THE name of Josquin des Pres is no
doubt very familiar to most with an interest in Early Music; that of Ludwig
Daser probably less so. The extensive and authoritative notes provided in
Michael Procter's edition of the Missa
super Ave Maria explain that Daser's position at the Hofkapelle (German
'Chapel Royal') in the mid sixteenth century was similar to that of Salieri in
Vienna: Orlandus Lassus, recognised as a world class musician and clearly
likely to be appointed choir director at some point, joined the choir of the Hofkapelle
only a few years after Daser had been appointed to that post. Daser, however,
held Lutheran sympathies that soon led him to leave the Hofkapelle to work in
Protestant Wuerttemberg, resolving this potentially difficult situation.
THE motet Ave Maria ... virgo serena is, we learned, one of the best known
and most studied motets of the Renaissance period - and therefore (for some of
us at least) rather daunting to perform. The original version has four parts;
the version that we prepared for performance has six, the extra two (Sextus and
Quintus) having been added later to the existing 'SATB' arrangement (possibly
by Daser). The wealth of relevant scholarly writing should satisfy anyone
interested to learn more about the motet's structure and technical merit; I
will say only that the sense of serenity conveyed by a sensitive performance of
this work is quite remarkable.
ON the Friday evening of the
course we assembled, collected music began our first sing-through of the motet.
The choir seemed fairly well balanced - without the usual abundance of sopranos
jostling for the opportunity to sing the top line! There were times when the
alto line was a little lower than some expected, but the relevant singers
handled this challenge handsomely, and the rest of us enjoyed the deep sonority
of the line. We sang both four-part and six-part arrangements to appreciate
Josquin's original creation and the embellishing 'gloss', as Michael Procter
described it, of the added parts. Although the fatigue of our various working
weeks or hours of travelling to
ON Saturday morning, moderate
stretching exercises and gentle scales and arpeggios prepared us to sing with
relaxed focus. We then worked mainly on Daser's Missa super Ave Maria, a parody or 'homage' based on the themes of
the motet. We learned where it was important to sing softly and add emphasis
via the text rather than by using forceful tone or sheer volume, particularly
given the ringing acoustic of Trinity College Chapel. The rehearsals were
interspersed with short sessions singing 'scrambled' - in random positions
rather than with those singing the same line clustered together. These sessions
are always useful for developing confidence in holding one's own line, and gave
a pleasant opportunity to hear other lines more clearly and from all sides.
TEA breaks allowed us to examine
the statues and architecture of Trinity College Chapel and learn a little about
its history, as well catching up with acquaintances from other courses and
meeting new people with enthusiasm for Early Music. Nonetheless, it was a
fairly intensive working day, and when our energies waned a little we singers
welcomed impromptu breaks to hear Michael Procter's comments on the historical
context of the music or entertaining anecdotes on the vagaries of Bavarian
archivists and the challenges of running rehearsals in a foreign language.
Arriving on time for Sunday morning's 'top and tail' required us to overcome a
little challenge of our own: remembering to put our clocks forward for Summer
Time and then paying attention to them! We did appear as scheduled on Sunday
morning though, well rested, and refreshed by the bright, breezy spring day and
the sight of the daffodils and crocuses in the Trinity grounds. We sang briefly
to warm up and familiarise ourselves with the hymns for the Solemn High Mass in
which we were to perform the music we had rehearsed.
ON some short courses I have
attended, participants have felt somewhat at sea in the final performance, as a
result of attempting more music in the programme than can be performed
comfortably by an amateur group with limited rehearsal time. The scope of this
course at Trinity was more limited and the goals more realistic, which allowed
for a relatively secure performance where there was time to appreciate (at
least a few finer points of) what we had learned during the course. Throughout
the course Michael Procter had encouraged us to 'cherish' the music we were
making, or have a sense of creating something special or precious. Well, while
I am sure we did not all fulfil such aims constantly as we performed, I do
believe that we generated at least some of that spirit as we sang, and for the
influence of that attitude on the music it was certainly worth the effort.
I would like to thank Michael
Procter for leading the course with humour and patience as well as skill and
knowledge. Many thanks also to Selene Mills, whose organisation of the
logistics of the course was so efficient that we rarely noticed there was
anything to organise. Anyone who has organised such events will know, of
course, that there is always much work to do and there are always potential
problems. I am sure all who attended will look forward to any similar courses
run so smoothly and with the privilege of such a beautiful setting.
Laura Doherty
Extracted from EEMF
Newsletter 62, June 2006