This Day in Early Music: July 23, 1384 the public crier of - TopicsExpress

This Day in Early Music: July 23, 1384 the public crier of Marseilles, Petrus Allaman (who went by the name Tambourin) wrote his will in a beautiful hand. He made certain to provide for the musicians who would play at and attend his funeral: I leave to all the mimis and ministreris of the city of Marseilles one-half of a sheep and two dozen loaves of white bread and one scandalhum of wine. Likewise I leave one silver gros to those of the minstrels who will bury my body. Today I perused a very interesting article by Gretchen Peters: Urban Musical Culture in Late Medieval Southern France: Evidence from Private Notarial Contracts. Its found in Early Music, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Aug., 1997), pp. 403-410, on JSTOR at jstor.org/stable/3128424. Despite the dry-sounding title, its really a compelling look into the lives of a few working musicians in late 14th and 15th century France based on primary source material - wills, contracts, and other notarial records. Apparently, there are plenteous records that survive, but they havent been catalogued and organized. Perhaps some ambitious graduate student needs an excuse to spend a couple of years in Southern France documenting all of these haphazardly arranged records... Peters writes about Tambourin: The will of Petrus Allaman alias Tambourin, a public crier in Marseilles from at least 1378 to 1395, offers a glimpse into the funeral customs of the minstrel community in that city. In addition to standard features specifying the church at which he wished to be buried, arranging memorial services, and appointing his universal heir, Petruss will allocates a meal and a sum of money to minstrels attending his funeral...Petruss will reflects the common custom and obligation in the Middle Ages of guild members to attend the funerals of their colleagues. Lets explore some of the music that made up the musical landscape of Tambourins time. The ensemble Trefoil (Drew Minter, countertenor; Mark Rimple, countertenor; Marcia Young, soprano) has an album called Masters, Monsters & Mazes: Treading the Medieval Labyrinth. You can hear a sample at msrcd/catalog/cd/MS1095. They write in the liner notes: The complex polyphony of late 14th-century France was performed by small groups of professional minstrels. Each court had its musician-clerks, usually a trio of singers, who were well-versed in the current musical trends and techniques. Some of these clerks were composers, and others may have also been instrumentalists who used vocal music as the basis of a new style of florid counterpoint. In the last quarter of the century, a rhythmically complex style known today as the ars subtilior required these clerks to be fluent in an intricate system of musical notation that included a wide variety of numerical formulae, different uses of colored ink, and a number of exotic note shapes. Trefoil read from the medieval notation for this recording, which adds a whole new level to their interpretation. Johannes Cuvelier was a composer who was active around the time of Tambourins death, and his works were published in the Codex Chantilly. This is a beautiful manuscript that shows the height of the Ars Subtilior movement of music composition - have a look at imslp.org/wiki/Codex_Chantilly_%28Various%29. One composition is written in the shape of a heart, another canon is in a circular form. Here is the Ensemble Musica Nova from Lyon, France performing a piece from that manuscript - Alma polis religio by Johannes de Porta. This might be a little later than Tambourins life, but he would have been familiar with the style. youtu.be/th3ZVc67I8E One of my favorite pieces in the Codex Chantilly is La harpe de melodie by Jacob de Senleches, and as you may guess, the song is written in the shape of a harp (and is also a canon, with an independent tenor line). Ive been lucky to sing this with the Washington, DC ensemble Armonia Nova, but dont have a recording to share. There are a few CD-ripped YouTube videos of this amazing piece, and I have to share just one because its such a great song. Here is Gérard Lesne / Ensemble Alla Francesca youtu.be/2mMRi2qJiCM. If you loved it so much you want to listen twice, you should buy the mp3 at amazon/La-harpe-de-melodie-virelai/dp/B000TPCG5I (or the outlet of your choice). Thats all for this morning!