Sacred Music - From The Middle Ages To The 20th Century [CD 8]

CD 8

Tiburtio Massaino (c.1550-c.1609)
01. Prima [05:07]
02. Secunda [05:31]
03. Tertia [07:02]
Roland de Lassus (1532-1594)
Lamentationes Hieremiae
Feria sexta in Parasceve à 5
04. prima [07:35]
05. Secunda [07:13]
06. Tertia [06:58]
Huelgas-Ensemble, dir. Paul Van Nevel
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER (1643-1704)
07. Lecons de Tenebres du Mercredy Sainct-Seconde Lecon [16:01]
FRANÇOIS COUPERIN (1668-1733)
08. Lecons de Tenebres-Troisieme Lecon [12:51]
Concerto Vocale, dir. René Jacobs
ERNST KRENEK (1900-1991)
09. Hieremie prophetae Lamentationes-Lectio secunda [09:08]
RIAS Kammerchor, dir. Marcus Creed

LAMENTATIONS AND LECONS DE TENEBRES

The Lamentations (Threnoi, Threni, Lamentationes) of the Prophet Jeremiah were written at the time of the destruction
of Jerusalem and the fall of the kingdom of Judah in 586 BC. The text was written by eyewitnesses and definitively compiled
during the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah was therefore certainly not the sole author of the Lamentations, and some
authorities even think that he had no hand at all in the writing of the text.

The Lamentations consist of five chapters, or rather songs or cantos. The structure of the first, second and fourth chapters
is identical. Each of them comprises twenty-two verses, corresponding to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The
Latin Vulgate endeavoured to preserve a trace of this alphabet by beginning each verse with the first Hebrew letter of the
verse. So the first verse of Chapters 1, 2 and 4 begins with the letter ALEPH followed by the Latin text, the second verse begins
with BETH, the third with GHIMEL, and so on. In addition, the first Lamentation starts with the heading ‘Incipit Lamentatio
Hieremiae Prophetae’, which, however, is not always sung.

The structure of the third Lamentation differs from that of I, II and IV. The shorter verses (I and II consist of verses in three
sections, IV of verses in two sections) are linked in groups of three in the third Lamentation. Each of these grouped verses
begins with the same Hebrew letter, so that the chapter comprises not twenty-two but sixty-six verses. The Vulgate, too, always
repeats this letter. The structure of Song III is therefore: ALEPH (…), ALEPH (…), ALEPH (…), BETH (…), BETH (…),
BETH (…), etc. The fifth and last chapter differs from the others in various ways. In the first place this chapter has the
character of a prayer (the Vulgate begins with the title ‘Oratio’). Moreover, there is no mention of the letter at the beginning of
each verse. Finally, they are very simply structured in two distinct sections.

The text of the Lamentations is highly emotional, rich in imagery and in a language replete with rhetorical turns of phrase.
It is a text which, as has been mentioned, was written by eyewitnesses and therefore manifests – how could it not? – an
intimate relationship with the sorrow, helplessness, bitterness and supplications of the population of Jerusalem. It is precisely
this aspect of the combination of dramatic elements and meditative fragments, together with the incantatory citation of the
Hebrew letters, that undoubtedly attracted the attention of medieval and particularly of Renaissance composers. Otherwise
how can it be explained why a text which – unlike the Mass, for instance – was used only once a year (during Holy Week)
inspired so many composers?

From the Middle Ages onwards, sections of the Lamentations were used at one specific juncture in the Divine Office, namely
during Matins on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Matins, a service of prayer and chant that took place before
dawn, consisted of three parts, the three Nocturns. Each of these Nocturns consisted successively of three psalms and three
lessons (lectiones


the three lessons. A total of nine lessons were therefore devoted to the Lamentations. The use of the Lamentations during Matins
had another peculiarity. At the end of the verses each lesson was concluded with the verse, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad
Dominum Deum tuum’. This was not a Biblical text, but it served as a kind of refrain that was repeated after each lesson. – P. V. N.

The popularity of the Lamentations of Jeremiah during the Baroque period is a well-known phenomenon, thanks chiefly to
the innumerable lecons de tenebres written by such French composers as Lambert, Charpentier, Delalande, and of course
Francois Couperin. Their works have introduced a wide audience to this specific religious ‘genre’, notably since the Baroque
revival of the 1970s.

The disadvantage of this craze for the Baroque lecons is that they have tended to overshadow both the Lamentation settings
which preceded them and those which came later. It must be said, though, that in this respect the post-Couperin era was
fairly lacklustre, as if the complaint on the fall of Jerusalem was no longer quite in tune with the times. Having become
a source of entertainment by the end of the Grand Siecle, then, the lecons de tenebres could hardly expect to survive
the Enlightenment . . . and it was only in the twentieth century that the highly unusual text and poetic structure of the
Lamentations were once again to interest certain composers, including Ernst Krenek in 1941 and Igor Stravinsky in 1958.

Paradoxically enough, the masters of music did not wait for the opportunity afforded by the Baroque affetti to measure
themselves against the text attributed to the prophet Jeremiah. Numerous variants of the tonus lamentationum (found from
the twelfth century onwards) circulated in the Middle Ages, clearly indicating a substantial interest in the Lamentations during
that period. But it is really at the Renaissance that one observes a fairly phenomenal expansion in the number of settings, as
exemplified by the works on this recording. – C. G.

Tiburtio Massaino (c.1550-1609) was an Augustinian monk and composer-singer in Cremona, Innsbruck (at the court of
Archduke Ferdinand II), and Salzburg where he was arrested on suspicion of homosexuality. He subsequently fled to Prague
where he became a singer in the court chapel of the Emperor Rudolph. From 1594 he was back in Italy as maestro di cappella
in Lodi and Piacenza. His Lamentations a 5 were published in 1599 and were dedicated to the monastery of Monte Oliveti in
Piacenza. So Massaino wrote his Lamentations for the surroundings where they belong: the closed monastic community. The
music is in a polyphonic idiom, but mostly syllabic. The structure is supported by a rich harmonic tone palette that does not
shun the occasional surprise, as on the text ‘et lachrime’ of the BETH verse. The melismatic ‘acclamationes’ of the Hebrew
letters are, compared to those of his contemporaries, short (five to six breves). The ‘Hierusalem’, which uses a slow-moving
falling motif in the voices on the word ‘convertere’, is particularly beautiful.

The Lamentations in five voices of Orlande de Lassus (1532-94) are among the late works of the great master. They were
published in Munich in 1585 by Adam Berg together with ten motets. Like Massaino, Lassus had monastic practices in mind
when composing his Lamentations, because in his foreword, dedicated to Abbot Johannes of Benediktbeuren, he writes that
he wishes only to serve liturgical practice. And indeed, Lassus wrote a complete cycle of Lamentations, i.e. three lectiones for
each of the three days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday.

This CD contains a recording of the Lamentations for Good Friday. Everything in this composition shows the hand of the
master. All of the Hebrew letters are spun out in a richly melismatic manner and are given a genuine ‘acclamatio’ character
(e.g. JOD). The contrapuntal richness of the verses is full of surprising turns and illustrates the text with great vividness.


second verse), ‘Sederunt in terra’ (first lesson, third verse), ‘tenebras’ (third lesson, first verse). In addition, the carefully
considered alternations of more homophonic passages and polyphonic interpolations are treated with consummate mastery,
with deliberate verbal repetitions (e.g. the question ‘Quis medebitur tui’ in the second lesson) supported by richly imitative
writing. Together with his swan song, the Lagrime di S. Pietro, these Lamentations comprise the master’s last testament. – P.
V. N.

‘They transform into an entertainment that which has been created for no other purpose than to produce in the Christian
soul a holy and salutary sadness’, complained a Paris priest about the lecons de tenebres. It is indeed appropriate, he argues,
that the Lamentations over the fall of Jerusalem should be performed during Matins for the sacrum triduum, in the form of
readings – or, at most, recited on the Gregorian lamentation tone: but can one permit these sacred texts to be given by singers
whom everyone knows from the theatre, in a specifically worldly style which is employed, in the first place, in the performance
of opera arias and airs de cour? Is it not true that this new music is degenerating into a ‘spectacle de musique extraordinaire
pour les Tenebres’, and that at a time when ‘music during a time of mourning is inappropriate and importunate’?

By the end of the seventeenth century the lecons de tenebres were more popular than ever in France, and enjoyed a golden
age in the reign of Louis XIV when they were indeed a very worldly affair. It was society, more than the composer, that was to
blame for this. The Lamentations of Jeremiah gave many composers the opportunity for writing music which grew out of a
specifically French tradition – music that was meant ‘to appeal to the ear as well as to move the heart’.

The Tenebrae of Charpentier form the highest as well as the terminal point of what we can call the ‘high melismatic style’.
Throughout his career Charpentier experimented with this most intimate of all vocal genres.

After Charpentier there is an evolution towards a growing contrast between the letters (in melismatic style: the archaic
element) and the verses (in motet style: the ‘new’ element). Brossard, Couperin and Delalande had their lecons de tenebres
printed in 1721, 1714 and 1730 respectively, which testifies to the vast popularity of the genre; but strictly speaking, these
works are no longer true lamentations.

The melismatic Lecons de Tenebres of Charpentier were written for nuns. The names of the sisters who sang them are known:
Mere Ste Cecile and Mere Camille, who performed the soprano parts (dessus and bas-dessus), and Mere Desnots, a ‘female
haute-contre’, that is an extremely low alto. Charpentier had this to say about the scoring of the continuo part: ‘If a bass
viol or violin can be added to the accompaniment of the organ or the harpsichord, so much the better.’ In this recording
these three instruments are employed as the continuo group, together with the theorbo – the instrument on which Lambert
accompanied his own Lecons de Tenebres.

Couperin composed his Lecons de Tenebres between 1713 and 1717. The first three, for ‘Mercredy Saint’ (Holy Wednesday),
were printed; of the other six unfortunately all trace has been lost, although the composer informs us in his Preface that he
had already composed three lecons for Good Friday, and intended publishing the entire cycle at a later date. Couperin’s Lecons
are, in the first place, absolute, timeless music which relegate the stylistic considerations of the day to a secondary, relatively
insignificant position. Neither does Couperin regard the original scoring for two sopranos as obligatory:

‘The first and second lessons for each day are always in one part, and the third in two; thus two voices suffice for their
performance; although the vocal part is written in the treble clef, all other kinds of voices may sing them, all the more so as
most people today who accompany know how to transpose’ (Preface).

In none of his predecessors or contemporaries is the contrast between the instrumental, transparently celestial character of


From a musical point of view Couperin is here speaking (and how mellifluously he does it!) the language of the tragedie
lyrique in which declamatory and lyrical elements are fused into a single unity. The verses form a great lyrical recitative, and
in the sections where Couperin specifically indicates a ‘recitatif’ one does not notice a very great difference from those sections
which do not bear the indication, except that the recitatifs properly speaking usually begin with a long held chord in the bass.
The most moving of the lecons is the third: a virtually unbroken Recitatif en duo in which Couperin clearly appears as heir
to Monteverdi and Carissimi. – R. J.

Born in 1900 in Vienna, Ernst Krenek traversed the century as hardly any other artist did. Beginning with the
Expressionism of his early works which still betray the influence of his teacher, Franz Schreker, he moved into a period
of atonality, the culminating point of which was what he regarded as his most significant and longest work, still written in
the Mahlerian orchestral tradition, the Second Symphony of 1922. He then sought a new, more topical mode of expression
in neo-classicism (Concerto Grosso, 1924), which he used in his opera, Jonny spielt auf (1924), written under the
influence of American entertainment music. Out of this dead end and before embracing the twelve-tone technique,
Krenek made one last essay in a virtually undiluted Romantic idiom: the Schubert-inspired song cycle Reisebuch aus den
osterreichischen Alpen (1929). His newly adopted tendency towards dodecaphony was the result of a protracted quest
for material, prompted notably by his conversations with Theodor W. Adorno. It is first manifested in the opera Karl V of
1938, the year he emigrated to the USA.

In November 1941, he began writing his op.93, the Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae. Krenek saw a dismal period ahead of
him: Europe was thousand of miles away, the possibility of any kind of future was uncertain, he lacked friends and intellectual
conversation, America was preparing to enter the war, and his own livelihood was by no means sure – exile was exacting its
bitter toll.

Krenek composed this despairing lament of the Prophet on the fall of the Holy City regardless of whether it could ever be
performed, because perhaps music might never be played or sung again. The selection of the texts from the Lamentations
of Jeremiah was made by Krenek himself. He did not, however, intend writing a liturgical work for church use, but chose
this particular sequence of texts ‘because it has been hallowed by the authority of the institution that made it, an institution
into which I was born and to which I am deeply attached, since National Socialist Germany has begun to threaten my native
Austria with annihilation’.

Inspired by his studies of medieval music, and always concerned by the melodic development, Krenek began to arrange the
twelve-tone row modally, shunning neither consonances nor octaves in the development. He broke the tone-row into two
complementary six-tone groups and applied the principle of rotation, i.e. the first note of the hexachord is placed last, new
six-tone groups arise and thereby a new twelve-tone row which is so similar to the original row that structural and idiomatic
relationships can be reconstituted by the ear. – E. S.