Organ and literature

28 OCT | Saturday 9.30 pm
Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz
Ponta do Sol

Organ and literature
Jan Willem Jansen, organ
António Plácido, voice

The relationship between music and word begins in the mists of time. The first examples of musical notation in Christian civilization are related to chanting, and the melody is clearly subservient to the text. But long before the Christian era, music was already present on many occasions dominated by the word. Poetry itself, even when not sung, was frequently emphasized by the intervention of a musical instrument. This programme revisits this relationship between word and music, juxtaposing texts by Portuguese authors with organ works originating from different regions of Europe. The literary component of this programme includes poems by Camões and Fernando Pessoa, but it is centred on texts by the Madeiran poet and teologian José Tolentino de Mendonça, a significant voice in contemporary Portuguese poetry.

On the other hand, the main part of the musical programme comprises some of the earliest pieces written for organ. Fragments, litanies, songs and dances follow each other in a surprisingly simply language that, paradoxically, casts a shadow over works closer to us, such as those by Pachelbel, Reger and Messiaen...

The volume of tablature collated by the monk Adam Ileborg in 1448 contains five preludes (Preambula) and three pieces (called Mensurae) on the tenor “Frowe al myn hoffen an dyr lyed”. In the preludes, short, compact but of an extraordinary amplitude, we already find elements of what would later become the stylus phantasticus. The indications voluntaria and per modum praeambuli at the end of the Mensurae may be interpreted as meaning “as you wish”, or ad libitum, and presage the ornamental endings of the great fantasies of the North German chorales.

The so-called Robertsbridge Codex, preserved in the British Library, is a large volume originating at the Abby of Robertsbridge, Sussex, dating from 1320-1350. At the end of this volume there are two pages of music, which were certainly part of a larger volume. Two complete estampies and two arrangements of motets have been preserved. The estampie is a mediaeval form which comprises various couplets all ending with the same refrain (a kind of rondo). The two motet arrangements are based on originals by Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361), contained in the famous Roman de Fauvel. This manuscript would seem to be of French or Italian origin and is, probably, the oldest known example of original music for keyboard.

Through the music of Conrad Paumann or that preserved in the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, we may see the evolution of keyboard technique. The music becomes more rhythmical and virtuosic and shows a different balance in relation to harmony and the melodic melismas. The pieces by anonymous English composers performed in the programme have in common the use of a basso ostinato - a musical line or motif in the bass which is repeated continually, over which the organist develops varied and lively melodies. This musical form would later come to be known as the passacaglia or chaconne.

One may appreciate the differences and similarities between the approaches to recurring themes in the history of mankind – such as God, love and death – present in these texts without music and in these musical works without texts presented during the course of this programme. It is perhaps the timelessness of these themes that seems to liberate art from the barriers of time, allowing the magical reduction of the apparently immense distance which separates contemporary poetry from fourteenth-century music.

Annonym
(Tablature of Adam Ileborg, 1448)

¬ Preambulum super d, a, f et g

¬ Mensura trium notarum super illum tenorum Frowe al myn hoffer an dyr lyed

¬ Praeambulum in C et potesti variari in d, f, g, a

José Tolentino de Mendonça (1965)

¬ A infância de Herberto Helder

Annonym
(XVI England, 16th c.)

¬ My Lady Carey’s dompe

¬ The short mesure off my Lady Wynkfylds rownde

¬ Upon la mi re

José Tolentino de Mendonça

¬ Da verdade do amor (Baldios)

Annonym
(Fundamentum organisandi magistri conradi Paumanns, 1452)

¬ Elend du hast umfangen mich

Annonym
(Buxheimer Orgelbuch, c.1460-70)

¬ Adieu mes tres belle

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)

¬ Presságio

Annonym
(Robertsbridge Codex, c.1330)

¬ Estampie

Annonym
(Collection of Ludolf Wilkin de Winsen, 1431)

¬ Wol up ghesellen yst an der tyet IV or notarum

Fernando Pessoa

¬ O guardador de rebanhos

Annonym
(published by Claude Gervaise, c. 1550)

¬ Danceries
› Branle de Bourgogne
› Branle de Poitou
› Gaillarde
› Branle gay
› Branle de Champagne

José Tolentino de Mendonça

¬ Murmúrios do mar

Pablo Bruna (1611-1679)

¬ Tiento de medio registro de mano derecha de 1er tono

Fernando Pessoa

¬ O menino de sua mãe

Tarquinio Merula (c. 1590-1665)

¬ Cromatico ovvero capriccio primo tuono

Luís de Camões (c. 1524/5-1580)

¬ Alma minha gentil que te partiste (Sonetos)

Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410-1497)

¬ Miserere / Mort, tu as navré ton dart
(Lamento on the death of Gilles Binchois, 1460/61)

José Tolentino de Mendonça

¬ Final

Participants

Jan Willem Jansen

Following his studies with Jan Warmick, Willem Mesdag and Wim van Beek, in 1977 he received his soloist’s diploma from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, later continuing his studies in harpsichord with Ton Koopman in Amsterdam. He then studied further in France with Xavier Durasse, whose teaching colleague he would become at the Conservatoire of Toulouse, where he currently teaches organ and harpsichord. He is also co-founder of the Department of Early Music at the same establishment, and is responsible, with Michel Bouvard, for the new higher department of Organ and Keyboard. Co-founder in 1996, with Michael Bouvard, of the International “Toulouse les Orgues” festival, Jan Willem Jansen was for many years its artistic director. During the 1997 edition, he recorded for the Tempéraments collection the complete organ works of Nikolaus Bruhns, together with cantatas by the same composer, performed by Parlement de Musique under the direction of Martin Gester. In 1998, he recorded a CD dedicated to Joan Cabanilles, on the historic organ of the Church of San Pablo in Zaragoza. His activity as a performer has led him to play with the most important European baroque ensembles, such as La Chapelle Royale de Paris, Collegium Vocale de Gand, Hesperion XX, Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse and the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges. He is also the titular organist of the Ahrend organ of the Musée des Augustins as well as of the historic instrument at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Daurade in Toulouse.

António Plácido

A founding member of the Experimental Theatre of Funchal, António Plácido has developed a career as a stage actor, with some ventures into staging, both in the Experimental Theatre of Funchal and the A Lanterna theatre group in Machico. He has also worked as a diseur, with various poetic recitals over the course of the year, both collective and individual. As such, he has been, since 2013, a member of two musical ensembles dedicated to the dissemination of poetry: Vértice, which is dedicated to the setting and performance of poetry from Madeira from all periods, with performances in Funchal and various places in Madeira, and Apanhados com a Boca na Palavra, which performs poetry by young and established poets from all over the world, with a number of performances in Funchal. Individually, in 2017 he took part in an homage to Carlos do Carmo, at the invitation of the Academic Association of the University of Madeira.

Notes about the organ

D 17

Church Nossa Senhora da Luz, Ponta do Sol

This instrument is a positive organ installed in the choir gallery. It was made by the builder Filipe da Cunha, who constructed it in 1760 in Lisbon, according to the inscription on the interior of the lower windchest. Although there have been minor repair works, the instrument has largely retained its original character and was restored in 2005-6 by the master organ-builder Dinarte Machado who restored it to its original pitch and temperament, as well as the original system for supplying wind.

Manual (C, D, E, F, G, A-d’’’)
Flautado tapado de 6 palmos (4’)
Quinzena (2’)
Dezanovena (1 1/3’)
Vintedozena (1’)
Sesquialtera de II