Issue #69
Last Update October 31, 2010
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Review Mannerist Music by David Katz October 20, 2008 As part of its "Music Before 1800" series, Corpus Christi Church, on 121st Street near Columbia University, presented Pomerium's "Mannerist Music of the Renaissance". Pomerium is an a capella choral group formed in 1972 to perform music composed for the chapel choirs of the Renaissance. Their strong, sweet voices, superb execution and intelligent interpretation made this concert an artistic as well as educational triumph. Mannerism, a 16th Century "anticlassical" style, is characterized by unexpected chromatic movement and avoidance of symmetry of timing. The thirteen pieces presented in this concert, by Gesualdo, de Wert, de Silva, de Rore and de Lassus, illustrate the chromaticism, leaping vocal lines and intensified harmonies that form this style.
Unlike contemporary music, where atonality, extreme chromaticism and large leaps between adjacent notes shock the ear and eliminate much of the sense of musicality that the Western listener craves, these motets and madrigals use chromatic technique, dense harmony and disjoint melody to thicken and intensify the musical texture, not to remove it altogether. The most contemporary sounding of the numbers, the madrigal Calami sonum ferentes, by Cipriano de Rore, would fit nicely into a concert by a modern composer, the sometimes startling note progressions and chromatic movement sounding almost late 20th Century composer. Nevertheless, even this piece retains an over all melodic wholeness that few contemporary composers even strive for, much less achieve.
It was followed by the motet Vox in Rama, by Giaches de Wert, a less modern sounding piece, but one whose thick, lush harmonies thrilled, and showed Pomerium off as the fine ensemble that it is. De Wert contributed four other motets to the evening, and was the exemplar of leaping vocal lines for the concert.
The religious texts of the motets and the secular texts of the madrigals shared a deep sense of dread and sorrow. The program for the concert carried a special label for each of the pieces: "the Miraculous, Melancholy, Sorrow, Suffering, Betrayal, Admonition, Desperation, Terror, the Voice of God, Foreboding, Infatuation, Abandonment, and Pathos, that accurately represented these texts, yet the music was not the depressing litany that the texts and labels would imply. Instead, thanks to the skill of the composers and the artistry of the performers, the music that resulted was uplifting and consoling, if universally slow-paced. The inclusion of a few up-tempo numbers would have been appreciated.
Sopranos were Kristina Borger, Michele Eaton. Melissa Fogarty, Michelle Kennedy and Dominique Suhr. Silvie Jensen, mezzo-soprano, and Robert Isaacs, countertenor, rounded out the top of the chorus. Tenors were Thom Baker, Neil Farrell, Thomas McCargar, and Michel Steinberger. Basses were Mark Duer, Jeffrey Johnson, Peter Stewart, and Kurt-Owen Richards. Pomerium was conducted by Alexander Blachly, who founded the group.
Music Before 1800, Corpus Christi Church, 529 West 121 Street, New York City.
www.mb1800.org
Pomerium, www.pomerium.com.
New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com