Solo Voice Research Articles

The Three-Part Gospel Reading and the Medieval Magi Play

Research Article| April 01 1971 The Three-Part Gospel Reading and the Medieval Magi Play Theodor Göllner Theodor Göllner Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (1971) 24 (1): 51–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/830892 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Theodor Göllner; The Three-Part Gospel Reading and the Medieval Magi Play. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 April 1971; 24 (1): 51–62. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/830892 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1971 The American Musicological Society Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

1964: Abraham and Isaac

Stravinsky's ‘Sacred Ballad for Baritone and Chamber Orchestra’ is his only setting of Hebrew, his only work for solo voice on a religious text, and, indeed, his only ‘ballad’. Completed in 1963 and dedicated to the people of the State of Israel, it is the fifth in the late series of major religious works which began with the Canticum Sacrum of 1956. Its other predecessors are Threni (1958), A Sermon, A Narrative and A Prayer (1961), and The Flood (1962); its solitary successor is the Requiem Canticles of 1966.

Ferrabosco and Jonson's ‘The Houre-glasse’

In one of the recent volumes in the English Lute-Songs series, Ian Spink has assembled from manuscript sources fifteen songs by Alfonso Ferrabosco. The first is a setting of an anonymous poem, ‘All you forsaken lovers come,’ for a solo voice with bass, to which Spink has added inner parts. Spink's source is the ‘John Bull’ manuscript, MS. 52 D, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (c. 1620); another version—from which Spink takes two readings—is in British Museum MS. Additional 10337, the ‘Elizabeth Rogers Virginal Book,’ dated c. 1657. A third version of this song, but with a different and much more interesting set of words, Benjonson's “The Houre-glasse,’ is in a pair of manuscript part-books now in the Cathedral Library at Carlisle. These partbooks were compiled around 1637 by Thomas Smith, later bishop of Carlisle, and contain several songs not known elsewhere, such as the cycle of eleven songs about ‘John and Joan’ by Richard Nicholson. They also contain two Latin anthems by Ferrabosco (pp. 74, 75).

Some trends among younger composers

The composers in Hungary who have come to maturity after the mid-1950s have been more fortunate than their seniors in several respects. Not only are they farther out of the shadow of Bartók and Kodály, but their formative development has not been interrupted or impeded either by war or by the ideological problems that faced composers in the early 1950s. At the upper end of this group is György Kurtág (b. 1926), who after completing his studies in Budapest, and writing a number of successful prentice works, spent a year in Paris (1957–58), and put ‘Op. 1’ only to the string quartet which was the outcome of his experience there. Of autodidactic inclination, he was influenced less by particular major figures than by the general creative atmosphere around him, but became a disciple of Webern, not so much in technique as in his asceticism and self-discipline, his concentration on intensity of content and creative effort rather than on its extent. He has never been prolific, and his output since 1958 is remarkably slender—five works in ten years. Besides the string quartet these consist of a wind quintet, a series of piano pieces, a set of duos for violin and cimbalom, a piece for unaccompanied viola, and most recently an extended cantata for solo voice and piano, on texts by the 16th-century Hungarian writer Péter Bornemisza, which was performed at Darmstadt last year. This is a taxing virtuoso work for both performers, of exceptional range and force of expressive utterance. At the opposite extreme stand the delightful duos for violin and cimbalom, terse and unassuming, yet absorbing in content and distinctive in character, brilliantly exploring the possibilities of the unusual medium without any reliance on curiosity value or striving after effect.

Choruses from "The Lark," by Jean Anouilh. For Full Chorus of Mixed Voices (Or Septet of Solo Voices) A Cappella

Choruses from "The Lark," by Jean Anouilh. For Full Chorus of Mixed Voices (Or Septet of Solo Voices) A Cappella

REVIEWS OF MUSIC

REVIEWS OF MUSIC Get access Berkeley Lennox, Mass for five voices. ( Chester, London, 1965) Cavalli Francesco, Messa concertata for double chorus, eight solo voices and orchestra, ed. by Raymond Leppard. Vocal score. ( Faber Music, London, 1966, £1 5s.) Gilbert Anthony, Missa Brevis (S.A.T.B.). (Schott, London, 1966, 9s. 6d.) Lutyens Elisabeth, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (S.A.T.B.). (Schott, London, 1966, 9s. 6d.) Stravinsky Igor, Introitus T. S. Eliot in memoriam, for male chorus and chamber ensemble. Miniature score. ( Boosey & Hawkes, London, 1965, 4s. 6d.) Walton William, The Twelve, for chorus and orchestra. Version for chorus and organ. ( Oxford University Press, 1966, 6s.) P. le H. P. le H. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 47, Issue 4, October 1966, Pages 367–368, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/47.4.367 Published: 01 October 1966

REVIEWS OF MUSIC

REVIEWS OF MUSIC: SOLO SONGS Get access Bennett Richardv Rodney, The Aviary, for unison voices and piano. The Insect World, for unison voices and piano. ( Universal Edition, London, 1966, 6s. and 5s.) Berg Alban, Der Wein. Concert aria for soprano and orchestra. Octavo score. ( Universal Edition, Vienna, 1966, 16s.) Britten Benjamin, Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, Op. 74. ( Faber & Faber, London, 1965.) Bush Geoffrey, A Lover's Progress. Song cycle for tenor, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Score. ( Novello, London, 1965, 8s. 6d.) Carr Edwin, An Edith Sitwell Song Cycle, for mezzo-soprano, oboe and piano. ( Ricordi, London, 1966.) Crosse Gordon, Corpus Christi Carol, for solo voice, clarinet, horn and string quartet. Octavo score. ( Oxford University Press, London, 1966, 10s. 6d.) Finzi Gerald, Oh fair to see. Seven songs for high voice. To a Poet. Six songs for low voice. ( Boosey & Hawkes, London, 1965, 12s. 6d. each.) Perti Giacomo Antonio, Laudate pueri, for mezzo-soprano, violin, viola and continuo, ed. by Jean Berger. ( Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966, $2.75.) I. D. B I. D. B Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 47, Issue 4, October 1966, Pages 379-b–381, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/47.4.379-b Published: 01 October 1966

THE LUTE INSTRUCTIONS OF JEAN-BAPTISTE BESARD

J EAN-BAPTISTE BESARD (c. 1567-c. 1625), a peripatetic Burgundian gentleman educated in Italy who worked in Germany, was a man of wide interests; he seems to have been at once a jurist, a physician, and a lutenist. He was responsible for five books, two published in Cologne in 1603 and 1604, and three published in Augsburg in 1617. The volume of 1604 was part of a series of collected historical documents: Mercurii Gallobelgici, sive rerum in Gallia et Belgio potissimum Hungaria quoque: Germania, Polonia, Hispania, Italia, Anglia, alijsqu [sic]; Christiani orbis Regnis, & Provincijs ab Anno 1598 usq; ad Annum gestarum.' One of the volumes of 1617, the Antrum philosophicum, was a large compendium of medical knowledge of the time. The other three publications concern us here. The first is Besard's Thesaurus harmonicus divini Laurencini Romani, nec non praestantissimorum musicorum, qui hoc secolo . . . excellunt, selectissima omnis generis cantus in testudine modulamina continens ... (Cologne, 1603).2 It is a major collection of lute music in French tablature containing 403 compositions divided into ten books according to genre. The music is for solo lute, or lute and voice (three compositions are for two lutes), and represents twenty-one different composers. In addition to the ten books of music, Besard appended to the Thesaurus a set of instructions on how to play the lute, the De Modo in testudine

TWO GEORGIAN CLASSICS: ARNE AND STEVENS

THE Georgian period saw a very considerable outpouring of Shakespearean music. Practically every new revival of the plays brought some fresh addition to the growing corpus of 'traditional' Shakespeare music, and as often as not some bogus variant of the poetry as well, for eighteenth-century actor-managers, although they paid endless lip-service to 'The Bard', were almost as resolute in their determination to bring him up-to-date as certain modern conductors have been in performances of Handel. One fascinating point is that even the least talented of composers seemed to rise above himself when setting the Shakespearean lyrics, and many a fifth-rate eighteenth-century composer produced at least one good Shakespeare setting, for solo or ensemble voices. Most of that music is now forgotten, after being in general use for a century or more and finding its way into the various nineteenth-century anthologies of 'Music for Shakespeare'. But there were two Georgian composers whose Shakespearean music is still being generally sung. I refer to Thomas Augustine Ame (I7IO-I778) and Richard John Samuel Stevens (1757-I837). Arne is world-famous, and is so almost as much for his settings of 'Under the greenwood tree' or 'Blow, blow thou winter wind' as for 'Rule, Britannia'. Stevens is not so wellknown by name, but there are many to whom 'Ye spotted snakes' or 'Sigh no more, ladies' or 'The cloud-cap't towers' are hauntingly familiar, although they might not be able to name the composer. One can hardly imagine a greater contrast between two contemporary musicians than that presented by Arne and his young acquaintance Stevens. Arne was careless and casual, but richly gifted and a prolific composer. Stevens was careful and painstaking, with a thin thread of talent which he used sparingly, usually referring to musical composition as 'study'. If all Arne's autograph full scores could be recovered from the dustbin of time they would make almost as brave a showing on the library shelf as those of Handel, in quantity if nothing else; but he seems to have taken as little care of his scores as he did of his money. Stevens, on the other hand, was tidiness personified and left careful fair copies of all his musical i46

PETRARCHISM IN EARLY TUDOR ENGLAND

For historians of English literature, Petrarchism in early Tudor England is associated with the court of Henry VIII, and is represented by those poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, which, owing their origin to a source in the Canzoniere of Petrarch, had introduced the sonnet form into English verse. It is well-known that Petrarchism in Italy had extended beyond the realms of literature into those of music, in which the sonnets are predominant; and the arts, where the Trionji hold pride of place. At the many small courts, such as that of Isabella d'Este at Mantua, where Petrarchism flourished, music had been specially composed for some of Petrarch's canzoni, and to this music original poems, written in the same style, were either sung by a group of voices, or were adapted to a solo voice with lute accompaniment. Manuscript copies and printed editions of the Trionji were extensively illustrated, the narrative and dramatic elements of these poems being particularly suited to pictorial representation, and their themes having affinities with those of other Triumph subjects. In course of time, the visual representation of the themes of Petrarch's Trionji had acquired such vitality, that they had escaped from the limits imposed on them by the small compass of even the largest book, and had been put to such varied uses as decorations for a part of the theatre at Mantua; or for the wooden panels of cassoni. In an entirely different medium, they had been adapted to the extensive scale required by tapestries used as mural decoration.

Supplementary Sound for Opera

A supplementary sound system was one of the technical innovations of the 1961 summer season of grand opera at the Cincinnati Zoo Pavilion, a covered but unenclosed area seating 2500 people. Neither the 85-piece orchestra nor the Metropolitan and European soloists and the chorus required or were provided sound re-enforcement. The versatile, flexible sound-amplification and reproduction system was intended and used instead for a variety of supplementary purposes as follows: (a) auditory relocation of individual instruments or groups from the orchestra pit (actual) to backstage or on-stage (apparent) positions, to fulfill dramatic requirements; (b) solo voice modification and motion, when “supernatural” timbre or spatial effects were appropriate; (c) sound effects which were difficult for the orchestra percussionists to produce as realistically or dramatically as desired; (d) electronic musical instruments. Microphones in the orchestra pit and backstage, stereo tape playback, and a Baldwin electronic organ were the program sources. Sound effects filters, artificial reverberation, and a Choratone (for organ) were available for modification effects. In addition to patch panel interconnection, a keyboard of variable resistance switches provided rapid, smooth transitions among the seven amplification channels leading to different loudspeaker locations (e.g., backstage, on stage, proscenium, ceiling, and rear).

Lord, My God, Assist Me Now. For Solo Voices, Mixed Chorus, String Orchestra and Organ

Lord, My God, Assist Me Now. For Solo Voices, Mixed Chorus, String Orchestra and Organ

A German Requiem. Solo Voices, Mixed Chorus, Organ & Bass Viol

A German Requiem. Solo Voices, Mixed Chorus, Organ & Bass Viol

Psalm Passion. For solo Voices, Chorus, & Orchestra

Psalm Passion. For solo Voices, Chorus, & Orchestra

REVIEWS OF MUSIC

Journal Article REVIEWS OF MUSIC Get access George Dyson, Hierusalem (St. Augustine), hymn for soprano, chorus & strings, with optional harp & organ. Vocal Score. ( Novello, London, 3s. 6d.) Herbert Howells, An English Mass for chorus, strings & organ. Vocal Score. ( Novello, London, 6s. 6d.) Alan Rawsthorne, Four Seasonal Songs. ( Oxford University Press): 1. Now the earth, the skies, the air (anon., c. 1606), for S.A.T.B., Is. 2. To the Spring. ( J. Davies 1599), for S.S.A.T.B., Is. 3. Autumn ( c. Sylvester 1618), for S.A.A.T.B.B., Is. 4. Now the lusty Spring is seen ( c. Fletcher 1610), for S.A.T.B., Is. 6d. W. K. Stanton, Of one that is so bright and fair (Stella Maris), for solo voices, chorus and organ ( Oxford University Press, 6d.) Rise, O my soul!, motet for S.A.T.B. ( Oxford University Press, 6d.) Three 17th-Century Airs (Caccini, Monteverdi & anon.) for high voice and guitar, arr. by John Runge. ( Schott, London, 2s. 6d.) Arnold Van Wyk, Van Liefde en Verlatenheid (Of Love and Forsakenness), 5 songs for voice and piano. ( Boosey & Hawkes, London, 12s. 6d.) I. K. I. K. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3, July 1957, Pages 304-b–305, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/XXXVIII.3.304-b Published: 01 July 1957

REVIEWS OF MUSIC

REVIEWS OF MUSIC Get access Joseph Haydn, Concerto in C for Piano (Harpsichord), 2 Horns and Strings. Ed. by Gertrud Wertheim. ( Boosey & Hawkes, London. Full Score 10s.; arr. for 2 pianos, 4s., two copies required.) Reginald Hunt, The Wondrous Cross, a short setting of the Passion for Solo Voices, Chorus, Congregation and Organ, Vocal Score. ( Oxford University Press, 6s.) William Walton, Te Deum Laudamus (Coronation Te Deum) for Chorus and Orchestra, Vocal Score, Latin text edition. ( Oxford University Press, 3s.) Antonio Tommaso Vitali, Concerto di sonate for Violin, Cello and Continuo. Ed. by Doris Silbert, Gertrude Parker Smith and Louise Rood. Score. ( Smith College, Northampton, Mass., $3.00.) Gioacchino Rossini, Prima scelta di pezzi per pianoforte (‘Quaderni Rossiniani’, Vol. II). Ed. by G. Macarini-Carmignani. ( Pesaro, 1954.) Alec Rowley, Four Impressions for Piano Duet. ( Curwen, London, 3s. 6d.) B. W. G. R. B. W. G. R. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 37, Issue 3, July 1956, Pages 307-b–308, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/37.3.307-b Published: 01 July 1956

Missa Brevis in F Major, K. 192, for Four Solo Voices, Four-Part Chorus of Mixed Voices, Two Violins and Continuo

Missa Brevis in F Major, K. 192, for Four Solo Voices, Four-Part Chorus of Mixed Voices, Two Violins and Continuo

The New in Music

In the year 1601 there appeared in Florence a musical work entitled Le Nuove Musiche (The New Music). The composer was Giulio Caccini, one of the leading members of the circle associated with the noble dilettanti who in attempting to revive the Greek drama laid the foundations of a new branch of music—opera. Le Nuove Musiche contains a collection of songs for solo voice to harp or lute accompaniment, of the kind that Caccini, who was singer to the Tuscan Court, had been singing for many years. The work—called not New Music, but The New Music—was a contribution to a current controversy in which the opposing side supported the “old” manner of musical composition, the one in which two or more melodies are woven together to form an elaborate pattern. (This manner of composition is known as polyphony, and in modern times the style has been called after one of its greatest masters, Palestrina). Consequently, Le Nuove Musiche has a long preface in which Caccini expounds the meaning of his songs, declaring, among other things, that the new style considers its principal task to be to interpret the poetry, to give rightful scope to the words by careful enunciation, and to let the tune bring out the phrasing of the poem, an aspect which, in the modernists' view, had been singularly neglected in polyphonic compositions.

In Certainty of Song. Cantata... for Mixed Chorus with Chamber Orchestra (SATB and Solo Voices)

In Certainty of Song. Cantata... for Mixed Chorus with Chamber Orchestra (SATB and Solo Voices)

La Belle Dame sans Merci, for Women's Chorus, Soloists, and Chamber Orchestra; Or 4 Solo Voices and Orchestra

La Belle Dame sans Merci, for Women's Chorus, Soloists, and Chamber Orchestra; Or 4 Solo Voices and Orchestra