Three Medieval English Songs

Three Medieval English Songs Paul Paccione

SATB Choir and Orchestra Merciless Beauty (Chaucer) I Sing of a Maiden (Anonymous) Welcome, Summer (Chaucer)

Three Medieval English Songs (1992) Instrumentation 2 flutes Oboe 2 Clarinets in Bb Bassoon 2 Horns in F SATB Choir Violin I Violin II Viola Cello Contra Bass This piece was first performed in Hainline Theatre on the campus of Western Illinois University (Macomb, Illinois) on May 4, 1993, by the Western Illinois University Singers and Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Stegall.

TIIREE MEDIEVAL ENGIJSH SONGS PROGRAMNOTES AbouttheTb:ds The texts date from the late 12th through the 14th centuries. It is probable that all the texts were originally meant to be sung. Howeve4 with theexception of Crist and Sainte Marie, none of the music has survived. I have arranged the texts in the form of a medieval triptych that is, a picture or carving in three panels side by side. The two outer panels (Movements I and III) are secular in nature, while the center panel (Movement II) is sacred. The central theme of all of the texts is the nature and spiritual effects of love.

Merciless Beauty (Cbaucer)

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) was an English contemporary of the great French poeUcomposer Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377). Of all of the poets and musiciani in Englancl and France in the 14th century Chaucer and Machaut were certainly the most important. ih" po"* Mereiless Beaut]' is in the form of the roundel and was modeled by Chaucer after the French * it "oorrd"l, was perfected by Machaut. It is a poem of 13 lines in which the first lines repeat in the middie and the end of the piece (the first refrain being of two lines and the second of threl lines). Though there are originally three verses to the poem, making this a triple roundel, I have set only the first two verses in Movement I. Each of the verses express a different experience or stage in the joys and agony of human love (Captivity, Rejection, Escape). Beginning with the troubadours in the 12th century, and continuing with Chaucer and Machaut, the courage to love was an expression of one's identity as an individual. For the first time in Western history, the medieval poet was involved with validation of individual experience through the poetry of love. The poem }deacjlesrEe.asly refers to the same sense the troubadours had that "through the eyes, love att"i.rs tt" t""rf-ttJ m_e9!ing of the eyes provides an opening of the heart to both love's joy and anguish, the wounds of which can only be healed by the one who has inflicted the blow.

I sing of a maiden (anonJrmous) This is a 14th-century hymn to the Virgrn. What music there may have been has been lost. The lyric is recognized for its *ineffable grace" and for achieving the highest level of lyrical beauty of which medieval poetry was capable. G. Saintsbury says: "in no previous verse had this Aeol-ian music - this'harp of Ariel'- that distinguishes English at its very best in this direction - been given to the world." (Short History of English Literature, 1913) The angel-like Cupid of the Middle Ages was a figure sometimes emblematic of Christ, and the Spring of Cupid's herald was also a traditional reiurrection symbol, "a foreshadowing type like

Ioveitself,ofthespiritualjoyoustime,lifeeverIasting."@,Joh-nGardner,

L977). All of the images in the poem borrow from church decorations (ie. flowers are always a central detail in the medieval paradise).

One of the accompanying texts in this movement, Crist and Sainte l{arie, survives as both music and words and is reputed to have been "revealed to" or composed by Saint Godric (d.1120). Saint Godric spent some time as a hermit; one day, when he was in prayer in his chapel of Saint Mary, he saw a vision of two angels in white, preceded by the Virgin and between them the soul oi hit recently deceased sister. His sister's soul from its position on the altar sang repeatedly to him the song Crist and Sainte Marie. The other accompanying text, Ki bien aime a tart oubl]e (He who

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loves well is slow to forget), is another hymn to the Virgin. The phrase seems to have been a common proverb in Medieval times. It is also the first line of a "lai" tune by Machaut ('Qui bien aime a tard oublie'). However, the text by Moniot de Paris, used in Movement II, was written a long time before Machaut.

TY

elome, $rrvnmsl (Chaucer)

This poem is also in the form of a roundel and occurs at the close of Chaucer's longer poem lbg Parlement of Fowles. A poet has been reading all day, falls asleep and dreams he is brought to a garden where he sees a multitude of birds carrying out their annual custom, where, under the supervision of the Goddess of Nature on Saint Valentines Day, the birds choose their mates. When they have at last chosen their mates, they fly away singing and chirping the roundel, We.lco.me.

Summer. The loud chirping wakes the poet who returns to his books. In the Parlement of Fowles Chaucer alludes to the tune "Qui bien aime a tard oublie,'by Machaut as the basis of the melody to which Weleome- Summer should be sung. It is not known how this could have been done, since the tune by Machaut is a different poetical and musical form (it is a "lai") and the form of Weleome.

Summeris a roundel but the association is nonetheless interesting.

AbouttheMusic The music of Three Medieval English Songs is meant to evoke, within a new and personal context, the sonorities, forms and musical gestures of the Medieval musical world in which the texts originated. Each of the three movements incorporate and reinterpret various elements and constructive devices of Medieval music.

The Medieval composers, with their focus on principtres of musical construction and various aspects of musical proportioning are, in fact, very closely allied with many of the composers of this century (ie. Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and more recently Steve Reich and Arvo Part). A preoccupation with older music is in faet a distinguishing characteristic of musical modernism, particularly in the first half of this century.

My main sources of influence in Three Medieval English Songs were the works contained in E. J. Dobson's and F. L. Harrison's massive collection of English texts and music up to about 1400: Medieval English Songs (1979). The recent recording of this music by the Hilliard Ensemble was also of invaluable help. In addition to the above, the composers whose music I more specifically chose as an influence included Guillaume de Machaut, the 15th century English composer John Dunstable and the neoclassical works of Igor Stravinsky. In the music's emphasis on the linear aspects of polyphony, the independence and individuality of superimposed melodies, that proceed with a minimum of harmonic restraint and the unprepared and accented dissonances, fh11lg Medieval English Songs alludes to the music of Machaut. In the canonic writing, the alternation of duets with full textures and the rhythmic proportioning of the movements (61 nSlZ in Movement

I, 9lqi, Movement ll, Lil4 in Movement III), along with

the alternation and combination of

patterns in 3ln arrd 6/9, the music is reminiscent of the motets of John Dunstable. In my orchestration, I have aimed for a transparency common to the neoclassical works of Stravinsky.

Merriless Beauty The idea of a triple roundel poem suggested for the musical setting the motet form - that is, the simultaneous presentation of the different verses (in this case the first two verses). The movement begins in a homophonic 'conductus" style common in Medieval music and then proceeds in a contrapuntal "motet" style with simultaneously sung texts.

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I singof a'neiden Movement II is primarily set in a simple, syllabic, "discant" or "conductus" style: voices proceeding in note-against-note counterpoint. An important aspect of the text setting is the use of a popular medieval technique referred to as "stimmtauch' or "voice exchange". This occurs

particularly in the soprano and alto duets and in the woodwind writing. With this simple device, contrasting tone qualities distinguish between simple repetitions in which the melodie and harmonic structure remains unchanged. The effect I was after was the stillness expressed in the text. In addition to employing the above compositional techniques, this movement contains direct references. The flute solo near the beginning of the movement is from the lai by Machaut, "Qui bien aime a tard oublie." This is the tune Chaucer refers to in the Parlement of Fowles. The opening verse of lr$iIg-qf,a-!0aidf.tris my own version of a type of medieval processional dance.

ThismusiciscombinedwithSaintGodric,ssong,@ig. 'lVelcome,

Sr tntner

The structure of Welcome. Summeris similar to Movement I. Both poems are in the roundel form.

In general, the voices and instruments exchange material between the two movements: what the voices did in Movement I, the instruments do in Movement III, and vice versa. The music of the spheres was a preoccupation of most medieval poets and musicians and it is believed that the structure of Chaucer's poem was built on musical principles, with all aspects of musical proportioning reflected in the verse structure.

Thus embodied in the proportional relations of Chaucer's stanzas and the relation of his rhymes are what were the three principle consonances of music (2:1, octave; 3:2, perfect 5th; 4:3, perfect 4th). I have tried to reflect these particularly at cadences and have used these proportions as a type of structural underpinning for the text.

There are many other allusions to medieval music in this piece as well as different techniques employed, however, I have now forgotten what they were.

Three Medieval English Songs was commissioned by and is dedicated to Western Illinois University's College of Fine Arts. I would like to thank Dean James Butterworth for his confidence and for providing the opportunity to compose such a work. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. James Stegall (Director of Choral Activities), Professor John Borg (Director of Orchestras) and the students, for the time and effort spent in preparing the work for performance.

The copying of the score and the preparation of parts was made possible by a grant from the W.I.U. Foundation. Finally, I would like to extend appreciation to my wife, Molly Paccione, and my friend, Eric Bichards: their advice and support were indispensable in the composing of this work.

Paul Paccione

T

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TIIREE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH SONGS

I. MercilessBeauty (GeofteyChaucer) Captivity Your eyen two will slay me suddenl54 I may the beauty of them not susteng So woundeth i! ttuoughout my herte lrene.

And butyourword will helen hastily, I[y hertes wounde, while that it is green, Your eyen two will slay me suddenly; f may the beauty of them not sustene.

IJpon my tnoth I say you faithfully, Thatye be of mylife and death the queen; Forwith nry death the brrthshallbe seen Your eyen two will slay me suddenly; I may the beauty of them not susteng So woundeth it thmughout ry herte kene.

Bejection hath yotr beauty fitm 5,our herte draed that me ne anaileth not to plain; For Daunger halt your mercXl in his chain So

Pit5r,

Guiltless my death thus have ye me purchased; sooth, me needethnotto feign So hath 5our beauty fiom your herte cbaed Pity, thatme ne availeth nottoplain.

Isayyou

AIas! that nattrre hath in you compassed Sogreatbeauff that no ynqn rtay attain To merc1r, though he stenre for the pain!

So hath your beauty from your herte clraned Pity, that me ne availeth not to plain; For Daunger halt your mercy in his chain" 16.halt,holds

1. eyenreyes

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II. I singof a maiden (anon.)

f sing of a'naiden That is makeles,

Kingof allekinges Toherson slre dres Ee came all so stille

Therehismoderwag

Ase

dewinA$ril

Thatfalleth on tJre grass.

Ee came all so stille Tohismoden'sbovr, Ase dew inApril That falleth on the flower.

Ee ce'ne all so stille Therehis moderlay, Ase dewinApril Thatfalleth on the spray.

Moderandmaiden IVas never nonebut she; Wellmay suc*r a lady Godesttoderbe.

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makeleg

withoutmate.

4. chesreJrose.

SaintGodriCs Song

Glist and Sainte lVlarie swa on scamel me i ledde.' (â‚Źlrrist and Saint lt{ary thus bmught rne to the (altar) table-)

Ki bien qi'''e s tart oublie Illonoitde Paris

Ifi bien aime a tart oublie;

llllais ne le puis oublier La doucevierge Marie.'

(Tle wholoves well is slowtoforget Butonerennotforget The sweetpure lt{ar:y. )

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f,tL

Welome, Strmmen ?arlement of Fowled (GeofrmyC1rauer)

ftrom tlre

Now welome, Srrrrnrtrer, with thy sunne sofr, That hast this winter's weather over.shake, And driven awa5rthe longe nightes blake!

Saint Valentine that art full high ou lofte;

lhtrs singen srnalle fowles for thy

sakeNow welcome, Sumoeri with thy sunne so& that hast ttds winter's weather oven-shake.

Well have they cause for to glraden o& Sine earfi dthem reorrered hath his makef fbll blissfui may they singen when they wake.

Now welcome, gumrmer., a{ft t}rv sunne soft, That bast this wintcr's weathen overshakg And driven away the longe uightes blake.

8. blalreblack

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