Songs and Dances at the Gates of Renaissance

European music and dances from the end of 14th till the beginning of 16th century
Music: KVINTERNA, artistic director Hana Blochová Dance: CHOREA HISTORICA, artistic director Eva Kröschlová
Costumes: Markéta Stormová, Pavla Vaculíková, Hana Blochová
Masks: Václavka Křesadlová
Direction, dance arrangement and choreography: Eva Kröschlová
Premiere 2.7.2003 International Opera Festival Smetanova Litomyšl.

Whilst to the north and west of the Alps the medieval period was still going strong, in Italy the Renaissance was literally being born. The main dance of the late medieval period was the so-called "low dance" - basse danse, baxa dansa, baixa dansa, bassa danza. This was a court dance that expressed gentility and grandeur, and its origins are either France or Spanish, although it may even have come from Italy. It was danced in castle halls and courts usually in several pairs, and in Italy also in solo pairs or trios. Alongside this were the round and chain dances, which we know only from pictures and literary and musical documents. We therefore know from certain pilgrims songs from the Red Book of the Catalan monastery in Montserrat that they were danced to in round form.The Red Book (Llibre Vermell) was found in Spain in the 19th century bound in red velvet. As well as theological texts, papers refering to the privileges belonging to the monastery and a list of the miracles that had been performed by the Black Madonna of Montserrat, it also contains ten pilgrims´ songs dedicated to the miraculous Madonna, written for pilgrims to sing and dance to the while they were staying at the monastery. The songs are written in various languages (Latin, Catalan, etc.), and differ in style and notation, but all fall into the ars nova musical style. It is unique collection of songs dedicated to the Madonna, for example virelai Stella splendens, Polorum regina, Cuncti simus.

El Cancionero de palaciofrom 1474 - 1516 is also an excellent source. This is a collection of songs commissioned by the 15 th century Catholic King Ferdinand II, King of Catalonia and Aragon (1452 - 1516) and Isabella I, Queen of Castile and Leon (1451 - 1504), and contains amorous and spiritual songs of the villancicos type written by Juan del Enzina, Francisco Millán, Gabriel, Jacobus Milarte and others - a total of 458 such songs, stemming from Spanish musical tradition, has been preserved, and were first heard at the court of the aforementioned Catholic monarchs. The texts of the songs are always highly accented and moral. The well-known musical composer Juan del Enzina (1469 - 1529) wrote a total of 72 books of renaissance songs (of which we shall hear Mas vale trocar and Hermitaňo), Francisco Millán was one of the most popular singers at the court of Isabella of Castile, and Gabriel (No so yo quien la descumbre) was a composer and singer at the court of Ferdinand II.

The term Danse macabre(Dance if Death, Totentanz) is also linked to the late medieval period, and is a theme that touches on almost all areas of arts. The image of the dead moving in a dancing motion has prehistoric roots, although the concatenation of the living and the dead is a motive that is not typical until the late gothic period. The after-effects of the Crusaders and the Papal schism, the heretic movements, peasants´ uprisings, black death and leprosy - all combined to heighten the inflammability between the religious and over self-denial of uncertainty pertaining to the afterlife. The macabre dance involving the living and the dead symbolises death and frustration, in which all are equal, be they lord or slave. According to images in the walls of graveyards and churches, numerous poems and later woodcuts we can imagine the choral accompaniment led by Death, followed by persons according to rank from the Pole and the Emperor down to the beggars. Probably the oldest the oldes song on this theme is to be found within the aforementioned Red Book.

The term Morisca is a complicated one. It describes three centuries of various type of dance, be the pantomimes or theatrical. The word derives from the Moors who had been converted to Christianity, whose descendant living in Spain called themselves Moriscos. One such type of dance is in the form of a line or round sword dance portraying the battle between the Christians and the Moors or Good and Evil, as also appeared in much more primitive societies with the different weapons. Another type were magic dances involving "fools" dressed in black and wearing bells. This dance is probably the image portrayed on the woodcut by Israel von Meckenem (cca 1460), which inspired the dance that you will see today. Musical records have been preserved from the 16th century, but the melodies are so simple that they could have come form an even earlier age.

Sephardic ballads (Sefarad - biblical term for the Iberian peninsula) and there is also the space for the songs of the Sephardic Jews in today's programm. These "eternal pilgrims" began to settle in Spain from the 3rd century AD together with the Arabs. From the 10th to the 13 the centuries under the rule of the Almohed Dynasty a distinctive type of music developed which was influenced by the multicultural situation, whereby Christian, Jews and Arabs lived alongside one another. Mainly renaissance records of secular ballads have been preserved - it is clear, though, that many of them hark back to much earlier medieval ballads, which often give away their distant oriental origins. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain on the decree of Isabella I of Castile in 1492, their songs appeared elsewhere in Europe - for example in the Balkans and in Turkey.

The first Catalan and Burgundian records of the "low dances" are anonymous. However, Italian hand-written records are always signed by their authors, well-regarded dance masters, who created a new dance form called "ballo" or "balletto" for two to twelve noble dancers. Each dance was connected with a particular musical composition, whose structure conformed to the choreographic structure and usually made use of the tempo and metrically varied dance rhythms. These dances were based on the creation of spatial patterns, which metamorphosed into symbolic meaning that was part of ancient wedding or contemporary guild dances. In their tracts the dances masters describe both the movements and dance steps and also the actual dance theory behind it, which encompassed the synthesis of movement, music and space. The dancers took it the heart that they had to actually "live" the dance and ensure that each dance was a work of art. They thus associated themselves with the new worldview of the young generation of painters, sculptors, composers and architects, for whom the gates of a new area - the Renaissance - were opening.

Eva Kröschlová

 

Programme:

Pilgrims´ round dances and songs from the Montserrat monastery (source LV, arrangement Kv, choreography EK)
On das do mar
Stella splendens
Los set goytxs
Polorum regina

Spanish villancicos (pramen CP)
No so yo quien descumbre (Gabriel)
Enemiga le soy madre (anonym, Juan de Espinosa)

Burgundian court dances (prameny MsB a MT, arr. Kv a AS, taneční rekonstrukce IB a EK)
Franchoise nouelle – basse danse
Fleur de gaiette – carole
Danse de Cleves – basse danse
Beauté de Castille – basse danse

French and Spanish court songs
D´amour je suis desheritee
Arcángel San Miguel (pramen CP, Lope de Baena)
Hermitaňo (pramen CP, Juan del Enzina)

Danse macabre
Ad mortem festinamus (pramen LV, arr. Kv, choreografie EK)

Přestávka

Morisca (pramen TS, arr. Kv, choreografie EK)

Sephardic Jewish ballads (pramen SB)
Secretos descuvrir
Avrix mi galanica
Mas vale trocar (Juan del Enzina)

Court dances from Catalunya (prameny HI a GE, arr. Kv a AS, MsC - transkripce CM, rekonstrukce EK)
La Spagna – baixa danza
Ioyos – baixa danza

Sephardic Jewish ballads (pramen SB)
Morena
La rosa enflorece
Yo m´enamorí d´un aire

Court dances from Romagna, Umbria and Marche (prameny GE, DP, G, GA, GAD, arr. Kv, PD a IH, taneční rekonstrukce EK, BS, VD; bassa danza Venus od Lorenza Medici v G, arr. PD, taneční rekonstrukce BS a EK)
Colonnese - ballo in 6
Venus – bassa danza in 3
Verceppe – ballo in 5 – una scaramucha
Piva – danza villanica
Petit riense – ballo in 3

Sources:
LV - Llibre Vermell - collection of songs, Montserrat (end of 14th cent.)
CP - El Cancionero de Palacio (1474 - 1516), manuscript, Madrid No.1335
MsB - manuscript from Brussels (15. stol.)
MT - Michel Toulouze (cca 1472 - 86)
MsP - manuscript from Paris (15. stol.)
HI - Heinrich Isaac
MsC - manuscript from Cervera (ca 1490)
JW - J. Weck (1513)
TS - Tielman Susato (1551)
SB - Chanale Milner - Paul Storm: Sefardische liederen en balladen, Haag 1974
GE - Guglielmo Ebreo (1463)
DP - Domenico da Piacenza (ca 1450)
GA - Giovanni Ambrosio (ca 1470)
G - Maestro Giorgio (2. pol. 15.stol.)
GAD - G. A. Dalza (1508)

Music arrangement:
Kv - Kvinterna
SA - Susanne Ansorg
PD - Peter Dechant
IH - Ian Harrison

Dance reconstructions:
EK - Eva Kröschlová
IB - Ingrid Brainard
CM - Carles Mas
BS - Barbara Sparti
VD - Véronique Daniels