It is during the run up to Christmas that choirs cast round for interesting and approachable contemporary pieces to go into seasonal programmes. So we get a rash of modern and 20th century pieces setting Medieval and 16th century words.
As choral singers, we have all been there, the first rehearsal where you have to parse the text, check the composer's notes for meanings or unfamiliar words, check for unfamiliar spellings of familiar words, and words with extra syllables.
Then there is the vexed question of pronunciation. With a period piece it is clear that using period pronunciation is a valid approach, if you are singing a 16th century song then using some sort of period way of pronouncing the words is a clear choice. But for a piece written yesterday, what do you do about the words?
This is particularly true of all those rhymes which work if you say the piece in period pronunciation but with don't work at all (rhyming 'day' with 'by' for instance) and can provide a series of annoying near misses in modern usage is used. With an early English text with a strong rhyming scheme, such false rhymes can rather stand out.
Take the anonymous 15th century text, 'Ther is no rose of swych virtu'. Most of the rhymes work in modern pronunciation without any alteration, which means that two verses rather stand out as not rhyming:
For in this rose conteyned was
Heven and erthe in lytle space.
Res miranda.
The aungelys sungyn the sheperdes to:
"Gloria in excelsis Deo."
Gaudeamus.
With the best will in the world, rehearsal will be punctuated with discussions about pronunciation and meaning. So why do it, what is it about Christmas that makes composers reach for a Medieval text? Granted the words have a vigorous energy and communicativeness, but surely this can be achieved in Modern English too.
As a singer, I find the tendency puzzling and enervating, I want to concentrate on the music rather than struggling with the Medieval equivalent of 'faux amis'.
As a composer I am completely befuddled. These are texts, striking though they are, that never fail to put me off the idea of setting them.
And, in case you feel that I am the musical equivalent of the Grinch That Stole Christmas, I have written a number of carols treating subjects like the Shepherds and the Magi in modern language. My only lapse into the Medieval Tendency was Julian Merson's charming carol There is a Rose of such vertu, where the nicely direct language and the distinctive macaronic text engaged me so much that I did an arrangement of it for London Concord Singers.
Wednesday 26 December 2018
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Septura I first became aware of the brass septet, Septura , when noting their 2017/18 concert series Kleptomania at St John's Smith...
-
Britten: Death in Venice - Tim Mead, Leo Dixon - Royal Opera ((c) ROH 2019 photographed by Catherine Ashmore) 2019 seems to have b...
-
Ben Goldscheider Jörg Widmann, Beethoven, Schumann, Huw Watkins, York Bowen; Ben Goldscheider, Richard Uttley; Wigmore Hall Reviewed 17 Marc...
-
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Jessica Cottis Catalyst : Coleridge-Taylor, Julius Eastman, Gavin Higgins, Dani Howard, Prokofiev...
-
Thomas Elwin as Lensky in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at West Green House Opera in 2021(Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis) West Green House...
-
The Afghan Youth Orchestra On Thursday 7 March 2024, the Afghan Youth Orchestra makes its debut at the Southbank Centre at the start of its ...
-
Bizet: Carmen, Act One - Blaise Malaba, Aighul Akhmetshina - Royal Opera House (Photo: ROH/Camilla Greenwell) Bizet: Carmen ; Aigul Akhmets...
-
Listening to the sublime closing duet of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea it is perhaps difficult for us to accept that this music ...
-
Norwich Cathedral Organ (Photo: Bill Smith/Norwich Cathedral) From an epic concert featuring three Cathedral Choirs to the ‘Battle of the Or...
-
Mural: chamber music by Gabriel Vicéns; Stradivarius Reviewed 15 April 2024 At times fierce and concentrated, Gabriel Vicéns music can evok...
No comments:
Post a Comment