Music from the Codex las Huelgas

Burgos Cathedral Towers, chalk drawing ©eop

Late in 2011 Anonymous 4 issued its second CD of Camino related music, Secret Voices: Music from Las Huelgas c. 1300 (Harmonia Mundi USA HMU 807510). It is not my favorite among their recordings, and its review in BBC Music was nuanced and not entirely positive, but for anyone with an interest in the music of the Camino at the time of its apogee, the CD is a must have.

Several of the few great compilations of medieval and early renaissance music, collections crucial to our understanding of European musical culture in the high Middle Ages, have direct links to the Camino Santiago de Compostela and the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James. Two of those collections were compiled for religious institutions adjacent and important to the Camino. One is, of course, the Codex Calixtinus usually held as a treasure in the archive of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. (Following its theft last year, its current whereabouts are unknown as far as I can determine.) Early in its career with its original personnel, Anonymous 4, the American female quartet specializing in medieval and renaissance vocal music, recorded a wonderful CD Miracles of Sant’Iago: Music from the Codex Calixtinus (Harmonia Mundi USA).

The second compilation of medieval liturgical music is the Codex las Huelgas assembled at the Convent (Monasterio) of the Huelgas, a lovely set of buildings the Camino Frances passes on its way out of Burgos. The Codex has provided material for numerous recordings, many with titles suggesting a link to the Camino and some quite good.  Small samples of the riches of the Codex are readily available, and mixed gender choirs and even all male groups have recorded some of the materials, though the convent was female and evidence suggests that at least some of the musical compositions in the Codex were written for female voices, perhaps, a rarity of the era, even written by women. It is thus a great pleasure to hear a female group of unparalleled technique and expertise in the music of the period record parts of the Codex in the voices the music was written for. Several of the selections on the CD are not included on any other recording I am aware of.

I am not working as their agent, but Ariama, an on-line supplier of  physical CDs as well as mp3 and flac downloads, currently has the new album on sale in all three formats. Ariama's website  allows one to listen online to samples of many of the albums it has for sale (like the record stores of my childhood with listening booths!), including both of those noted above.  

Loss of a Great Voice

Capital, Monasterio de Pedralbes, Barcelona

©EOP

For those of us who love the music of medieval and renaissance Europe, and especially that of Spain during the great age of pilgrimage to Santiago, November 2011 was a particularly sad month, for it witnessed the passing of a magnificent talent, the Catalan soprano Montserrat Figueras. With crystalline tone and great emotional intensity, Figuras brought to life the songs, and particularly the religious music, the lullabies and the laments, that were familiar to pilgrims on the route to Santiago in its great apex of the 15th and 16th centuries. In concert with her husband the inimitable master of early music Jordi Savall, her son and daughter and their several choral and instrumental groups including Hespèrion (later renamed Hespèrion XXI) and Capella Reial de Catalunya, Figueras performed and recorded some of the most haunting music of Spain's "Golden Age" (as I write I am listening to a gripping recording of Tomas Luis de Victoria's "Cantica Beatae Virginis" by those groups with Figueras as featured soloist). A multifaceted talent, she was also at home performing music by contemporary masters like the Estonian Aarvo Pärt. It will always be a regret that while I have had the great privilege of hearing her husband and her daughter Arianna Saval perform in concerts, I never had an opportunity to hear Montserrat Figueras live. 

Many of the world's major newspapers including the New York Times the Guardian and El Pais printed obituaries after her death. 

Her funeral was held in one of the most beautiful and beloved sites in Barcelona, the 
monastery of Pedralbes. 

While we no longer are able to hear her in concert, Figueras has left us with an extensive recorded archive in which she sang some of the most beautiful music ever written in Europe and around the Mediterranean Basin, and for that we must be thankful indeed.. 

Music

San Juan de Ortega, Burgos, Spain,  September 2011

©eop

Sitting in the family waiting area of Sibley Hospital nervously awaiting the surgeon's report (thankfully for a fairly minor procedure) on my wife, it seems a good time to get back on track and pen a few words. I had intended to have a completed report on my September-October walk on the Camino Frances posted by now, but events, including some family medical issues and the holiday season, have made that impossible. The season was not without its pleasures, not least two performances by the Folger Consort. In December they collaborated with Piffaro (the Philadelphia based wind band of which I admit to being something of a groupie) and vocal soloists to present a wonderful concert of renaissance era Spanish Christmas music, "O Magnum Mysterium." Last Saturday we went to the (earthquake damaged and partially shrouded) Washington National Cathedral to hear the instrumental musicians of the Consort and the ethereal voices of Anonymous 4 perform music by Hildegard of Bingen and various 12^th century French composers, a stunning experience hearing the music in the type of venue for which it was composed, played and sung by true masters of early music. At some date in the not too distant future, I would love to hear live performances of some of the instrumental and vocal music associated with the Camino de Santiago played and sung by the Consort and Anonymous 4. Perhaps they can be persuaded to give such a concert. There is a fantastic CD of music from the Codex Calixtinus by Anonymous 4, but despite the wonders of modern audio recording, a live performance is still special.

I must get back to surveying Camino music as several good recordings have recently come to my attention. This is being written a few days after the last music store in Washington, DC carrying classical CDs announced it is closing. No more browsing, the serendipitous source of many CDs in my collection. Scrolling through lists on websites is just not the same. On-line one can listen to snippets of the recordings, recalling the record store booths of my childhood where one could sample records, but reading the album notes while holding the disc has been my avenue of serendipitous discovery. At various music websites, it is easy to find recordings advertised and promoted by major labels, but much recorded early music, including that linked to pilgrimage, is on small or private labels with budgets barely large enough to cover production costs. Only with a little luck and reports from a network of others who share the arcane taste for early music can one find these titles.

With the holidays over and medical issues under control, I hope, the usually grim weather of winter is a good time to get back to writing about pilgrimage issues, so I plan to write some additional postings in the next few weeks. At least I have managed to go through many of the 2,000+ photographs from my autumn pilgrimage and do a bit of editing, so I might even post a photo blog on Flicker or similar.

Meanwhile, what is the fate of the purloined Codex Calixtinus? While I was on the Camino no one seemed to know if it had been located and returned to the Cathedral archive, and many peregrinos were unaware of the theft. Since returning I have not had the opportunity to do research on the topic, another task for the next few weeks.

Final comments on Ladino Music

Normally I do not respond to comments posted on websites to which I contribute unless they raise interesting questions or discussion topics. All too often comments are posted by self-appointed experts and various other cranks and are best left in obscurity. Occasionally a comment is so out of place, so egregiously offensive, so arrogant and ignorant, that it demands a rebuttal. Such is the case with a comment made by one Ms. Judith Cohen, a contributor to the website Klezmershack. I have now had some time to do some work on the issue and feel a rebuttal is appropriate.

Ms. Cohen:

Since you have taken it upon yourself to comment on my “research,” I shall take this opportunity to reciprocate and comment on yours. It is a universally accepted research protocol to read an item with some care before publishing a criticism of it. That is hardly an onerous task when commenting on a blog posting of far less than 1,000 words. The comment you posted shows that you did not read, or at least did not understand, the heading  “A BLOG INTENDED FOR PARTICIPANTS IN THE COURSE ON PILGRIMAGE OFFERED AT ALRI IN AUTUMN 2009. THE BLOG PRESENTS MATERIALS GERMANE TO THE COURSE INCLUDING SESSION OUTLINES, ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER,AND OTHER MATERIALS ENROLEES MIGHT FIND OF INTEREST” a clear statement that the blog is solely written for participants enrolled in a specific course on a specific topic. Neither have you read nor understood the initial sentence of the brief posting you so arrogantly dismiss. In that paragraph I state ‘While it is a bit remote from the specific topic of pilgrimage, in our meeting on Tuesday a question was asked about Ladino music, and I was intrigued enough to do a little research.” That statement should amply indicate to any one of normal intelligence that 1) I am not claiming to be an expert, indeed that I am a novice, an interested outsider, seeking additional information about a largely unfamiliar subject and 2) the posting is based on the research that can be done in a small amount of time.

Ladino music is remote from the course I am teaching and equally remote from my personal interests. The brief blog posting was for the benefit of students in the course (read the heading above!) who expressed an interest in the subject of Ladino music. It was neither intended as a general guide to the subject for all who might stumble upon it nor as an incitement for some self-appointed expert to expel venom. The student’s questions sparked in me a personal interest and a desire to learn a little more about Ladino music and to share my findings with members of the class I am leading. As an instructor I try to bring to the attention of my students those new and interesting ideas and topics I have encountered, especially when a student raises a question or otherwise expresses an interest in a topic. The informality of a blog eases that task and allows for the exploration of new fields and ideas outside the formal constraints of the classroom.

Contempt for novices wishing to learn a bit more about a subject is frequently expressed by “experts,” almost always either those with significant lacunae in their own knowledge or those who have a strong commitment to promoting unimportant trivialities, topics and ideas dismissed by serious scholars. The contempt arises, I suspect, out of a fear the outsider may discover the emperor indeed has no clothes. I have always found true scholars, those with genuine expertise on a topic and a passion for it, to be genial hosts when novices wish to explore.

I did not make and would never have made the patently absurd claim that Ladino music is solely that developed in Iberia during the middle ages. As anyone who has studied European culture and history or musicology is well aware, no western musical genre surviving more than a few years is static, no matter how insignificant it may be to the evolution of music or of culture overall. Even those dying genres leading to cultural dead ends degenerate enroute to their demise. The Ladino genre is more than a half-millennium old and most certainly has evolved, for better or for worse. I merely suggested its origin was in medieval Iberia, and a good place to begin an examination is to listen to recordings of that early music made by first-rate musicians. I am sure any respectable musicologist would consider listening to representative examples of its early music as a reasonable, if not the ideal, starting point for a more thorough investigation of a genre.

Shortly after beginning a search for materials on Ladino music on various websites and in several library catalogues (including, among others, the Library of Congress, Johns Hopkins University, and George Mason University’s library which is accessible to my students) I discovered, as any competent scholar doing serious research on the topic would soon discover, that Sephardic (or Sefardic) is the usual catalogue term pointing to sources of early Ladino music. At the same time that term, also used in catalogues of recordings for sale, points to more recent expressions. For an example, search the term “Ladino music” on Wikipedia, of which more below.  

If you wish to learn something about the subject of Ladino music, you would profit from a Google or Bing internet search and a search on one or more of the many university and research library catalogues available online. Entering “Ladino Music” as a search term, you will find most items linked to that term, including the ones on the first few results pages, go directly to Sephardic (various spellings) topics and primarily discuss the music of the 1492 Diaspora and its medieval precursors. In comparison, those sources give relatively few references on the evolution of the music since those early years, suggesting to an interested outsider that much of the subsequent development was inconsequential, perhaps even a trail leading to a cultural dead end. Library research using printed materials further indicated that most scholars devote their efforts to the early years. My motivation, in retrospect clearly misguided,  for including a reference to Klezmershack’s page on the topic was its inclusion of more recent examples of the genre. Very few of the other web sites I encountered provided that information, suggesting yet again that post Diaspora Ladino music is little more than a minor component of a moribund and dying folk culture, albeit one that persisted for a long time.

The statement about Savall and company is absurd; a suggestion to me that one who writes such a comment either knows very little about music and performance practice or else has a personal axe to grind. Eminent musicologists, experts in medieval, renaissance and baroque music, consider the performance practices of Savall and his collaborators to be excellent resulting in the closest possible approximations of the manner in which the music was originally performed given present day knowledge and materials. It is beyond belief that Savall and his collaborators would deviate from their rigorous adherence to authentic performance for just one type of music.

Given my reservations, all of them deriving from your comment, I have edited my original posting to withdraw the recommendation of Klezmershack and the page on Ladino music it includes. I do not have the time, the need or the interest to further evaluate that site. A careful review might prove it to be acceptable, but my reservations about its quality and scholarship, if indeed there was any, mean I cannot recommend it to my students. In its place I am inserting a link to the Wikipedia entry found when searching for “Ladino music,” a search which immediately links one to the online encyclopedia’s posting on Sefardic music. Despite the well-known issues with Wikipedia, I find it likely to be a more credible source of information on the topic than is Klezmershack.

Having already devoted too much time to finding and reading materials on Ladino music and listening to some recordings of more recent examples of the genre, I am leaving the topic, never to return. After considerable research effort and review of a substantial body of material, I find Ladino music has no relevance to my interests in music or to the development of western European or more general world culture. If a future student should ask about it, I will reply “Ladino music existed. Look it up in Wikipedia.” Aside from the wonderful performances of authentic early exemplars by Savall and his collaborators (and those of several other first-rate early music groups), my foray into learning more about Ladino music has led to the inescapable conclusions that post Diaspora Ladino music is unpleasant to listen to, at least for ears tuned to European and Asian music; it is of little consequence in the overall evolution of human cultures; and its only strong interest is to pseudo-scholars fixated on antiquarian trivia and to those obsessed with an inconsequential element of a marginal folk culture facing imminent extinction. Life is too short to pursue information about cultural dead ends and antiquarian trivialities. There are countless musical topics of greater interest and importance, perhaps early Bavarian bagpipe music or Bronze Age pan pipes in Greece. At least those genres did contribute to ongoing forms of world culture.

E. O. Pederson, Ph.D.

Ladino Music

While it is a bit remote from the specific topic of pilgrimage, in our meeting on Tuesday a question was asked about Ladino music, and I was intrigued enough to do a little research.

Ladino, a romance tongue closely related to medieval Castellano (Spanish), was carried from its homeland in Spain, especially in Andalucia and Castilla, to various parts of the Mediterranean shores when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. It was then spoken in a number of Jewish settlements scattered from Turkey and Greece westward to Morocco well into the 20th century. It is now rapidly fading as there are very few remaining native speakers. A website called "Jewish World Review" has a good summary of the history of Ladino. Another useful website (from Australia no less) is called "Hebrew Songs" and despite its name has some links to Ladino music.

Ladino music, especially those songs originally written in Spain is usually cataloged under the heading Sephardic (there are various other spellings sometimes encountered including "Sefardic") music. A number of good recordings are available including several by the estimable Jordi Savall and his wife the soprano Montserrat Figueras, the preeminent interpreters of early music currently working. Most of their catalog is available from Alia Vox (the website is in French) and can be purchased at good music stores (of which, sadly, the Washington Area has few). A representative recording on the Alia Vox label is titled Diaspora Sefardi, but it is only one of several excellent recordings by Savall and Figueras including Sephardic music.

While Wikipedia is often a dubious source, it does offer a quick way to get some basic information about a subject. A search for Ladino music links one immediately to the online encyclopedia's page on Sephardic music. When I originally posted this I recommended a website called Klezmershack which includes a bibliography and discography of Sephardic music, but subsequent doubts about the quality of that site lead me to withdraw the recommendation.

Comments including some interesting weblinks on Pilgrimage Music

I am not planning to post an outline for Session VI on 30 April as the session will be spent looking at some pictures of architecture and works of art with links to pilgrimage as well as listening to some music related to pilgrimage. There is no didactic goal beyond the recognition that some of the world's greatest works of architecture, art and music were created because of pilgrimage.

There are many way to investigate the topic of pilgrimage and the arts, and there are numerous websites dealing with the various works. I shall post at least two and perhaps three blog entries, beginning with this one on music.

Music:

The Codex Calixtinus housed in the Library of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is a fascinating compendium from the middle ages, a collection of theological texts, a music book, and what is arguably the first travel guide wver written in Western Europe about which we shall have alittle more to say in session VII on the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. We shall listen to a little of the music from the Codex in Session VI, and there is a good website from Vanderbilt University's Music Department on the Codex

Naxos, one of the most successful and innovative publishers of classical music, has a number of CDs with pilgrimage music including a fine recording " The Black Madonna: Pilgrim Songs from the Monastery of Montserrat" based on the Llibre Vermell housed at the Catalan abbey and a collection of pilgrimage music from the route to Jerusalem "On the Way to Bethlehem (Music of the Medieval Pilgrim)." We shall listen to short excerpts from both of those recordings.

Considered the preeminent interpreters of early music, the Catalan musicians  Jordi Savall (conductor, violist and master of several other instruments) and his wife the soprano Montserrat Figueras have individually and together with their groups including Cappella Reail de Catalunya and Hesperion XXI an unmatched discography. Several of their recordings relate to pilgrimage music, and most of their work is on CDs issued by Alia Vox.

A traditional recording of music from the Codex Calixtinus by the male Ensemble Organum "Compostela ad Vesperas Sancto Iacobi" gives a sense of what it must have been like to hear the music of pilgrimage in one of the great cathedrals or Abbey churches of the Middle Ages. The recording is available from Ambroisie (do not have a website address). The fantastic group has also recorded albums of music from the Church at Rome.

While most music related to pilgrimage was written for and performed by men, several female groups have issued stunning recordings. The now disbanded American quartet Anonymous 4  issued "Miracles of Sant'Iago: Medieval Chant and Polyphony from the Codex Calixtinus"available from  Harmonia Mundi.  The French choral group Ensemble Discantus issued "Compostelle: Le Chant de l'Etoile" one of my favorite recordings and available from Jade. (I had some difficulty pulling up the website). 

Pilgrims came from all over Europe, and a German recording of considerable interest is by the group Ensemble für Fruhe Musik Augsburg "Auf Jakobs Wegen: Medieval Pilgrimage to Santiago" (The website is only available in German).

Various other groups from Spain, France and elsewhere have issued recordings of pilgrimage music. A Microsoft, Yahoo or Google search using words like Compostela, Santiago, and pilgrimage along with "music" will yield a large number of hits. If I can find time toward the end of our term, I will post a column I wrote some time ago and update my recommendations for pilgrimage music,

When Tower went out of business, the best stocked local supplier of such recordings disappeared, but Melody Records just off Dupont Circle in DC is a good place to shop, and they will special order titles not in stock.  They are the only reliable supplier of classical music in the DC area I have been able ot locate. (Please do not buy from Amazon--they are quickly driving all of the good book and record stores in the US out of business! Support local merchants like Melody when possible.)