Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Music from the Dawn of Notation at St. Dominic’s

Last night St. Dominic’s Catholic Church hosted a performance of the Tasto Solo duo, whose members are soprano Anne-Kathryn Olsen, accompanied on organetto by Guillermo Pérez. As basic linguistics suggests, the organetto is a portable instrument, easily held on the lap or, as Pérez observed in providing an informative introductory talk, carried during a procession. The left hand pumps a basic form of bellows, leaving only the right hand free to play the keyboard.

The title of last night’s program was La Flor en Paradis [the flower in paradise]: the roots of song in medieval Europe. However, as might be guessed by there being two performers, the choice of selections was as much about the origins of polyphony as it was about those “roots of song.” The program began with settings of three sections of the Mass text. These established the polyphonic foundations that would subsequently serve more secular music.

Actually, there was only one foundation, the emerging practice of organum. The most elementary form of organum involves the superposition of two distinct voices. One, known as the cantus firmus, involves singing a plainchant melody but sustaining each note in such a way that the second voice can embellish it with a sequence of notes (often going on at considerable length). As this practice began to flourish, organum singing advanced to a point at which two independent voices would sing above the chant line simultaneously; and the first principles of “polyphonic theory” began to emerge to address which simultaneities of different tones were permissible and which were not.

As this practice evolved, vocalists began to realize that the upper voice(s) did not have to sing the same syllable as the chant line. This led to assigning the words of secular poetry to those upper lines. In other words those “roots” of song as we now know it involved secular texts springing forth from the “roots” of sacred chant.

Most of last night’s selections involved the performance of three-part organum. Pérez could play both the sustained chant tones and one of the upper voices with a single hand. Olsen then accounted for the other upper voice and its associated text. Originally, all three parts would have been sung. Furthermore, it was often the case that, in a three-part organum, the two lines above the chant syllables would set the words of two different poems. This superposition of words as well as notes led to the first use of the term “motet” (from mot, the French word for “word”). Last night’s program presented four of these motets.

Pérez also gave a solo performance of a selection of estampies. As the author of its Wikipedia page observes, “The estampie is the first known genre of medieval era dance music which continues to exist today.” That means that it was also one of the early forces bringing about the introduction of a steady rhythm in a musical performance.

Because he was playing solo, Pérez could take a freer approach than could have served to accompany listeners dancing to the music. Indeed, the origins of rhythm as we now know it only began to emerge about a century after the first ventures into polyphony. Only in the last of his selections did Pérez give a performance with a recognizable rhythm that would have served to accompany dancers.

Nevertheless, this is a minor quibble with an otherwise highly satisfying performance. Olsen’s voice was consistently clear (without having to worry about another vocalist singing different words). Pérez’ steady hand on the bellows elicited consistent intonation from his instrument, against which Olsen could orient her own pitches, most likely drawing upon Pythagorean intonation, based on natural harmonics, rather than an equal-tempered scale. (Pérez’ bellows work similarly showed a preference for Pythagorean intervals.) The reduced space of the Lady Chapel provided just the right acoustics to appreciate the intimacy of the performers by both Tasto Solo musicians.

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