VOCES was formed in 1987 with the aim of singing Renaissance choral music in the liturgical context for which it was written: i.e. the services of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. In preparing for this evening's performance, the singers have spent today studying and rehearsing a collection of choral works, most of which they would not normally have the opportunity of singing in a liturgical setting. VOCES is not an regular choir, but a pool of singers from which can be drawn groups of various mixtures of voices to suit the event and the music. The resulting choir can range from 3 male voices to a mixed choir of about 30 strong. Singers are chosen for their quality of voice and musicianship, which make it possible to develop a specific sound and to prepare performances with restricted rehearsal time.
Concerts are normally free, allowing you to make your own decisions about the contribution you make to the retiring collection. After expenses this will be split equally between the Abbey and the Voces music fund. Neither singers nor conductor take a fee. As a rough guide, a ticket for a concert like this would normally cost you at least £10, and we hope that, if you have enjoyed the evening, you will give as generously with your money as the performers have given of their time in preparing and performing.
Several of the scores used this evening were obtained from the Choral Public Domain library ( Others are transcriptions by Martyn Warren.
We would be delighted if you felt moved to applaud, but given the nature of the music and location we would prefer that you did so at the end, rather than during the concert. For the benefit of other members of the audience, please try to muffle or stifle coughs during the singing.
We are very grateful to the Community of Buckfast for allowing us the privilege of singing in the Abbey. There will be no Office of Compline this evening.
Next concert:
Saturday14November 2009, Buckfast Abbey, 7.30pm
If you would like to be on our mailing list at no charge, please write to:Martyn Warren, 13 Keyberry Road, Newton Abbot, TQ12 1BX. Tel: (01626) 369622. Email: Visit:
Copies of our third CD ‘Plainsong and Polyphony’ with music by Victoria, Morales, Byrd, Josquin and others, as well as the anonymous 15th-century Dartmouth Magnificat, will be on sale outside the church after the concert.
Josquin des Pres
(c.1440-1521)
The Michelangelo of Music
Inviolata, integra et casta esJosquin
Mater ChristiJohn Taverner (c.1495-1545)
Mille regretzJosquin
Mille regretsNicolas Gombert (c.1500-1556)
M. mille regretz (Agnus 3)Cristobal Morales (c.1500-1553)
Peccantem me quotidieJachet Berchem (1505-1565)
Praeter rerum seriemJosquin
Magnificat praeter rerum (Gloria)O. de Lassus (1532-1594)
Missa praeter rerum (Kyrie)Cipriano de Rore (c.1516-1565)
Ave verumJosquin
Missa l’hommé arme sexti toni (Agnus Dei 3) Josquin
Omnes gentesChristopher Tye (c.1500-1573)
Ave maria … virgo serenaJosquin
VOCES
Director: Martyn Warren
Saturday 13 June 2009
Buckfast Abbey, 7.30pm
Entrance and programmes free – retiring collection
“... Josquin ... may be said to have been, in music, a prodigy of nature, as our Michelangelo Buonarroti has been in architecture, painting and sculpture; for, as there has not thus far been anybody who in his compositions approaches Josquin, so Michelangelo, among all those who have been active in these his arts, is still alone and without a peer; both one and the other have opened the eyes of all those who delight in these arts or are to delight in them in the future.” Bartoli, 1567.
“Josquin is master of the notes, which must express what he desires; on the other hand, other choral composers must do what the notes dictate.” Martin Luther.
“{Willaert’s] motet Verbm bonum et suave had been sung at Rome under the impression that it was by Josquin; when Willaert disillusioned the singers, they abandoned the work” Boorman, Musical Times 1971.
Josquin des Pres has featured increasingly frequently in Voces concerts in recent years. In part this is an accident of my thematic programming, but it also reflects the enthusiasm expressed by members of the choir for Josquin’s music. There is a sort of collective sigh after we have sung the final chord: no doubt an erudite scholar could tell us exactly what, in musical terms, creates that feeling, but it is enough for us that it happens. Of course we are not the first to feel this way. Josquinwas revered during his own lifetime and by the generations immediately following him, as illustrated by the quotations above.
Josquin originated from Hainault, was a choir-boy in St Quentin, and worked in Milan, Rome and Ferrara. An adviser to Ercole d’Este, Duke of Ferrara famously and unsuccessfully recommended the employment of Heinrich Isaac rather than Josquin, on the grounds that he would be cheaper and more biddable (‘... Josquin composes better, but he composes when he wants to, and not when one wants him to...). He subsequently became mâitre de chapelle to Louis XII of France, and ended his life as provost of Condé. Josquin built on a rich repertoire of music from fellow natives of Flanders (encompassing parts of modern-day Belgium and Northern France) including names such as Dufay, Obrecht, Binchois, Ockeghem, and many of the elements that we think of as characteristically Josquin have their precedents in this tradition. The obvious characteristics are imitative entries of voice parts, extensive use of duos, and homophonic (chordal) interjections: less obvious to the modern ear are the extensive use of canon in various forms (including upside down, and in reverse); use of plainchant as ‘head-motifs’ or as cantus firmus; and progressive diminution of note-values throughout a work. I lack the analytical skills and vocabulary to explain in technical terms what Josquin supplies in addition, compared with his predecessors, but as a performer I would pick out first the purity of musical line; then the way that two or more such lines are interwoven; and finally the resulting harmonies. The latter have echoes of the angularity of the medieval, but more often lean towards what we now regard as conventional Western harmonic structures, providingan essential foundation for the glories of the High Renaissance as realised by such masters as Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria and Byrd.
Rather than perform a whole programme of Josquin’s music – which the man himself would have regarded as odd – we here take the opportunity of putting it into context with its influence on other composers. In some cases that influence is very direct. The practice of basing one’s own work on that of another composer was common practice in the 16th century, and a mark of great respect. Josquin’s plaintive chanson Mille Regretz was enormously popular throughoutEurope–in Spain it was known as ‘the emperor’s song’, being a favourite of Charles V. We present two tributes –one of several elaborations of the song itself by Charles’ mâitre de chapelle Nicolas Gombert; and a parody mass by the Spanish Cristobal de Morales. The motet Praeter rerum seriem, itself based on a Gregorian melody, was also much parodied: here we have the Kyrie from a mass by the Flemish de Rore (who worked for the second Duke Ercole in the mid 16th century) and the final section of a Magnificat by Munich-based Lassus. Berchem’s Peccantem me quotidieimitates in a different way – the penitential text is supplemented by an ostinato, repeated at different pitches – with the same text and musical shape as that used in Josquin’s famous 5-part motet Miserere Mei Domine (there is also more than a hint of Mille regretz).
Other works suggest more indirect influences. For instance some works by Taverner and Tye, two English composers from the mid-15th century, exhibit imitation, and duos alternating with homophonic passages, which are strongly reminiscent of Josquin, albeit more earthy in style. In neither of these two is there an authenticated link to Josquin, as opposed to their being influenced by a general Flemish style, so there is conjecture here – make your own judgements.
Surrounding these we have the music of Josquin himself. As well as those already mentioned, we sing two motets to the Virgin Mary – Inviolata and Ave Maria...virgo serena, each suffused with fervent adoration. Ave verum corpus is a gentle, delicate motet for Communion/Corpus Christi for upper voices (possibly the first Josquin I ever heard). And from one of Josquin’s many settings of the ordinary of the Mass, we sing the third Agnus Dei ofMissa L’homme arme sexti toni, the delicate musical texture, like a limpid fountain in an emperor’s garden, perfectly suited to the most solemn and contemplative moment in the Mass.
Martyn Warren
Soloists:
Mille Regretz: Sally Harper (soprano), Colin Avery (alto), Jeremy Roberts (tenor), Tony Yates (bass)