Absalon, film mi The images of David weeping for his son Absalom, Jacob desiring his grave when confronted with the blood-stained clothes of his son Joseph, and possibly Job in his misery, are all conflated in the text of an extraordinarily emotional motet, Absalon, fili mi. A late (and possibly untrustworthy) printed source calls the great Josquin Desprez its composer, and music historians for years have lauded it and sought possible occasions for its writing, such as the memorial service for Philip the Fair, son of the Emperor Maximilian, in 1506. A strong case has also been made on stylistic grounds, however, for attribution to Josquins contemporary, Pierre de la Rue. Whichever man may be credited with Absalon, the powerful character of the music remains. The motet is scored for four voices, but in an extremely low register: the final chord contains a B flat below the contemporary bass clef! The mensuration (time signature) in the earliest reliable source is also slow and somewhat unusual. The key signature uses more flats than any other piece by Josquin, and more are introduced as the composition proceeds. In fact, the final line of text, describing the mournful desire to descend into Sheol, weeping, is sung to a motif of a falling-third interval; this motif repeats sequentially and descends by fifths into the harmonic depths from B flat, to E flat, A flat, D flat, and finally to G flat, a truly unheard-of sonority for the time. Then the entire progression repeats. This passage would have absolutely stunned any culturally competent listener in the Renaissance; it still wields its affective power today.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 07:11:10 +0000