Generous review of EX NIHILO cd by Albert Mena on Medio Tono!
English translation here, Spanish original beneath:
“The ensemble Graindelavoix is one of the greatest musical surprises of the last two decades, for its (miraculous) stylistic consistency, for the rigorous quality of the albums released in the last 18 years and for its ability to find the nuances that express the intentions of the composers performed, since the volume dedicated to Ockeghem's choral music in 2006 that gives, for example, to the Missa Caput an air of privacy and intimacy of enormous vertical force, elevating the message from individual humility to the beauty of collective art. Some critics at the time mentioned that the voices did not sound blended and that their individual personalities did not flow into a collective polyphonic sound. Little did they imagine that, 18 years later, this would be one of the characteristic features of the group, and that precisely one of Björn Schmelzer's jobs at the head of the group would be to cure the voices of the members to enrich with timbres, effects and humanity works that had traditionally been interpreted with a striking lack of color.
Composer Joan Magrané said that the ensemble possessed a sensational technical and expressive quality, before and after they presented one of his works (Miserere mei Deus) at the Auditori de Barcelona, along with Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsoria. These, recorded in 2020, were another step in the aesthetic consolidation of Schmelzer and his team, giving exceptional prominence to the timbres of each performer, but without losing sight of the overall sound. This album starts with one of the voices that has accompanied Graindelavoix for most years, Marius Peterson, a tenor with a more than recognizable instrument, capable of offering dramatic outbursts of considerable epicness that bring him to the forefront, as well as skilled in contributing to the harmonic lines of the ensemble. It is only necessary to compare what was offered by another genius of contemporary baroque interpretation, Philippe Herreweghe, and his Collegium Vocale Gent, in 2013, to realize the enormous conceptual and musical work of the Graindelavoix to revolutionize the dramatic construction of the work and allow us to peer into the abysses of expression, for example, in Tristis est anima mea with the rhythms, the descending lines, the sets of definition, the sfumati.
The band's latest album is Ex Nihilo. Polyphony beyond the order of things, which features one of the voices that has accompanied Graindelavoix the most, the Belgian bass Arnout Malfliet, as well as two of the female voices incorporated in recent years, Florencia Menconi, Argentine mezzosoprano based in Basel, and Teodora Tommasi, Italian soprano and instrumentalist. All are examples both of the individual virtuosity that the members bring to the ensemble and of Schmelzer's work to channel it under a unique and far-reaching vision. An example is found in the aching beauty of Bernardino de Ribera's Vox in Rama, with the unison voices creating a velvety, emotionally charged color, to which texture is added through agilities that do not break the ensemble, coloring the vowel changes with more or less air and making consonants appear and disappear to emphasize and give impetus to the emotional journey of the piece. Exquisite.
If music is essentially a collaborative work, in Graindelavoix the musical expression is the individual explosion within the collective unity. The recording and editing work has also evolved under the executive production of Carlos Céster with the production and distribution company Glossa Music. And Schmelzer's informative work cannot be overlooked, offering in podcasts and articles his vision of historicism, the lessons learned from studying figures such as Nicolaus Cusanus and the philosophy and mentality of Europe throughout the history of music. Live Graindelavoix's flame shines brightest, as the choices of the performers and the beauty of Schmelzer's work come together to create a sound of exquisite quality, of sublime trills and textures, of volumes regulated to the impossible. If you have the chance, don't miss it.”
Fijn artikel van Sofie Taes in De Standaard vandaag!
Aanleiding: de nieuwe EX NIHILO cd release en de tournee die vanavond start voor een uitverkochte Bijloke in Gent (concert in de Karmelietenkerk).
Wie nog graag komt luisteren is welkom zaterdag in de abdijkerk van Grimbergen!
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20241106_96386269
NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2024 EX NIHILO CD RELEASE!
Thursday 07.11.2024
EX NIHILO - POLYFONIE VAN HET ONMOGELIJKE
Gent (B)- Muziekcentrum De Bijloke
Friday 08.11.2024
EX NIHILO - POLYFONIE VAN HET ONMOGELIJKE
Hasselt (B)- CC Hasselt
Saturday 09.11.2024
EX NIHILO - POLYFONIE VAN HET ONMOGELIJKE
Grimbergen (B)- CC Strombeek
Sunday 10.11.2024
EX NIHILO - POLYFONIE VAN HET ONMOGELIJKE
Roeselare - Rumbeke (B)- CC De Spil
EX NIHILO - Polyphony beyond the Order of Things
Works by Josquin Desprez, Jacob Obrecht, Johannes Ockeghem, Bernardino de Ribera & Giaches de Wert
On their newest recording for Glossa, Graindelavoix and Björn Schmelzer present a fascinating array of Renaissance motets based on the theological concept of "creatio ex nihilo", creation out of nothing, as exemplified in the mystery of the Incarnation, the idea of God becoming a man; a concept that equally inspired artists in the past to emancipate their art practice.
Well-known pieces like Josquin Desprez's Praeter rerum seriem are combined with less famous works by the same composer, and very fine contributions by Obrecht, Ockeghem, Ribera and Wert.
Björn Schmelzer bases his intriguing approach to the performance of these pieces on a 1561 quote by the Flemish pedagogue Johannes Molanus:
"[Mensural polyphony] is a singing without sense or content, in which the voices are resounding emptily in so-called proses, motets, and artificial songs in foreign languages, ornamented for the delectation of the ears, which have no meaning that could be understood even by the singers themselves.”
Schmelzer adds: "Polyphony owes its existence to the bizarre articulation of a void, an articulation that is itself void of content and meaning. [...] In no way polyphony improves intelligibility or contributes to a greater understanding of the liturgical texts, having in fact the reverse effect…"
The new release will be celebrated with a small tour through Flanders and concerts with long-time partners such as the Ghent Bijloke, the cultural centers of Hasselt and Strombeek and the cultural center of Roeselare, which concert will take place in the beautiful church of Rumbeke, the birthplace of composer Adrian Willaert. For this occasion, and only here, Josquin’s motets will be confronted with the compositions of the same text by Willaert. In Gent Graindelavoix will perform in the wonderful acoustics of the Karmelietenkerk, in Hasselt in the gothic cathedral; the Strombeek concert is organised as usual in the impressive Grimbergen abbey church.
With Teodora Tommasi, Florencia Menconi, Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, André Pérez Muíño, Marius Peterson, Tomàs Maxé, Arnout Malfliet & Björn Schmelzer
EX NIHILO - Polyfonie van het onmogelijke
Werk van Josquin Desprez, Jacob Obrecht, Johannes Ockeghem, Bernardino de Ribera & Giaches de Wert
Op hun nieuwste opname voor Glossa presenteren Graindelavoix en Björn Schmelzer een fascinerende reeks renaissancemotetten gebaseerd op het theologische concept van "creatio ex nihilo", schepping uit het niets, zoals geïllustreerd in het mysterie van de Incarnatie, het idee van God die mens wordt; een concept dat kunstenaars in het verleden evenzeer inspireerde om hun kunstpraktijk te emanciperen.
Bekende stukken zoals Praeter rerum seriem van Josquin Desprez worden gecombineerd met minder bekende werken van dezelfde componist en zeer fraaie bijdragen van Obrecht, Ockeghem, Ribera en Wert. Björn Schmelzer baseert zijn intrigerende benadering van de uitvoering van deze stukken op een citaat uit 1561 van de Vlaamse pedagoog Johannes Molanus:
"[Mensurale polyfonie] is zingen zonder zin of inhoud, waarbij de stemmen leeg weerklinken in zogenaamde prosen, motetten en kunstmatige liederen in vreemde talen, versierd voor het vermaak van de oren, die geen betekenis hebben die zelfs door de zangers zelf begrepen zou kunnen worden."
En Schmelzer zelf voegt eraan toe: "Polyfonie dankt haar bestaan aan de bizarre articulatie van een leegte, een articulatie die zelf leeg is van inhoud en betekenis. [...] Op geen enkele manier verbetert polyfonie de verstaanbaarheid of draagt het bij aan een beter begrip van de liturgische teksten, integendeel..."
De nieuwe release wordt gevierd met een kleine tournee door Vlaanderen en concerten met vaste partners zoals de Gentse Bijloke, de culturele centra van Hasselt en Strombeek en het cultureel centrum van Roeselare, waar het concert plaatsvindt in de prachtige kerk van Rumbeke, de geboorteplaats van componist Adrian Willaert. Voor deze gelegenheid, en alleen hier, zullen de motetten van Josquin geconfronteerd worden met de composities van dezelfde tekst door Willaert. In Gent treedt Graindelavoix op in de prachtige akoestiek van de Karmelietenkerk, in Hasselt in de gotische kathedraal; het concert in Strombeek wordt zoals gewoonlijk georganiseerd in de indrukwekkende abdijkerk van Grimbergen.
Met Teodora Tommasi, Florencia Menconi, Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, André Pérez Muíño, Marius Peterson, Tomàs Maxé, Arnout Malfliet & Björn Schmelzer
The new CD can be ordered with Graindelavoix’s shopify here!
Or available through your local music shop or online seller.
De nieuwe CD is hier te bestellen via Graindelavoix' shopify!
Of verkrijgbaar via je lokale muziekwinkel of online verkoper.
To celebrate today's digital release of Ex Nihilo, here is the videoclip of the very first track: our take on Josquin Desprez’s 6 voice motet Praeter rerum seriem (beyond the order of things)
Enjoy!
Tomorrow at Hotel Max Hallet in Brussels the vital anachronism of art nouveau with late ars nova polyphony…
With Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, Marius Peterson, Arnout Malfliet and Björn Schmelzer
https://www.festival-artonov.eu/event/contre-nature
Four on four stars for our Renaissance Blade Runner by La Libre Belgique and Camille De Rijck...
Read the interview here:
Björn Schmelzer’s recent article "Performing by the Book (Next to the Book You Were Looking For) or: Aby Warburg’s “Good Neighbour” “ is released in a new book edited by Bruno Forment and the Orpheus Institute.
From "Warburg and finding the book next to the book you were looking for", over artistic procrastination and the unfinished, to "squeezing out the score":
this is obliged reading for all who like to understand more about Graindelavoix’s aesthetics and Schmelzer’s conceptual ideas and choices in particular!
The book and Björn’s article can be consulted and downloaded for free here:
OAPEN Library: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/93650
JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11955034
or the article in pdf directly here.
Tomorrow, 4 October, is the official release of our new CD:
EX NIHILO - Polyphony beyond the Order of Things.
It opens with Josquin’s Praeter rerum seriem (“beyond the order of things”) and contains other motets by Josquin next to works by Obrecht, Ockeghem, De Wert and De Ribera.
Please watch here the videoclip of Bernardino de Ribera’s Vox in Rama in avant-première.
Wynold Verweij schreef een fijne review over het Leuvense concert van eergisteren.
Lees hier:
https://onlythesoundremains.com/machaut-en-kurtag-lijken.../
Quick english translation here beneath:
Machaut and Kurtág seem to be two peas in a pod
That the French composer Guillaume de Machaut composed his Messe de Nostre Dame around 1360 in memoriam of himself was not exactly a gesture of modesty. But that his life's work would be mirrored by the Hungarian composer György Kurtág (1926) was unthinkable until recently. Yet that is exactly what the vocal ensemble Graindelavoix and pianist Jan Michiels have done. And they proved capable of warming up the stone-cold Sint-Geertruikerk (°1220) in Leuven.
By Wynold Verweij
'Epitaphs for Afterwardsness' is the title of the concert – not free of jargon and somewhat angular. It refers to the fleeting nature of music that can only reveal its meaning if the listener is given the opportunity to look back at the time that has passed. And from that perspective, pianist Jan Michiels began with a calm, breathing interpretation of Kurtág’s Blumen die Mensche, nur Blume, an ode to transience, played on a muted buffet piano that sounded full and yet calming. Michiels’ opening proved to be the ideal stepping stone for Kyrie 1-2 from Messe de Nostre Dame, sung by seven voices of Graindelavoix, including conductor Björn Schmelzer. Countertenor Andrew Hallock and soprano Florencia Menconi occasionally took the lead, if only to make the transition to and from Kurtág as natural as possible. The compilers have succeeded in carefully aligning the nature of the Kyrie as a lament full of sin with Kurtág’s pieces. So much so that one might get the impression that he and Machaut worked on the piece together.
Around the mass movements that refer to the prospect of hope and redemption, such as Sanctus and Ite Missa, space was made for other composers such as Johann Walter (Christ lag in Todesbanden) and György Ligeti. Jan Michiels played the latter's thunderous L'Escalier du diable, in which he played as if he were running back and forth in panic in the staircase of M.C. Escher, looking for an exit. Michiels played both an upright piano and a grand piano. Why? Michiels: "The upright piano with supersordino is Kurtág's favourite instrument - intimate, concentrated expression that contrasts in our programme with the Ligeti frescoes on the monumental concert grand piano." The icing on the cake was Brahms' piano arrangement of the last part of Bach's violin partita Chaconne - for the left hand. Michiels alternated the harmonic progression in the stately motifs with dizzying runs across the width of the keyboard – a sample of breathtaking virtuosity. Add to that singers who walked vocally along the galleries and the magic was complete. The middle of the church was lit by only three old-fashioned light bulbs during the concert. More was not needed to warm and enlighten the souls of the listeners.
Wynold Verweij
Dat het vocaal ensemble Graindelavoix en pianist Jan Michiels elkaar hebben gevonden in het concertprogramma Epitaphs of Afterwardsness is niet vanzelfsprekend, en juist daarom uitdagend. Graindelavoix, dat in zijn polyfonisch repertoire haarscherp langs perfectie scheert en Jan Michiels, die de muziek van de 20e en 21e eeuw steeds van nieuwe perspectieven voorziet, ontmoeten elkaar in een kruisbestuiving tussen de middeleeuwse componist Guillaume de Machaut en de Hongaarse componist György Kurtág (°1926). Een gesprek met Björn Schmelzer, oprichter en dirigent van Graindelavoix.
Epitaphs of Afterwardsness is opgebouwd uit tien onderdelen van Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame (voor 1365), gezongen door zes zangers van Graindelavoix. Elk van de delen wordt geflankeerd door pianofragmenten (Jan Michiels) van vooral György Kurtág, maar ook van Xenakis, Ligeti, Walter en JS Bach. Door de stukken van Machaut tussen stukken van o.a. Kurtág te zetten ontstaat de neiging van de uitvoerders om de componisten met elkaar te vermengen.
“Je krijgt soms het gevoel dat Kurtág ouderwetser klinkt dan Machaut“
Aan Björn Schmelzer de vraag hoe dat werkt. Schmelzer: “Dit leidt ertoe dat de muziek van zowel Kurtág als Machaut en de anderen begint te zweven in een beleving die niet meer aan tijd is gebonden. Simpel gezegd: nadat wij een deel van Machaut hebben gezongen speelt Jan Michiels en dan luisteren wij natuurlijk naar dat pianostuk. En Jan luistert naar onze Machaut. Dat is van een rijkdom die niet te vatten is. Je wordt als uitvoerder deelachtig aan een actieve luisterervaring. En het is alsof je, op het moment dat je Machaut hoort na Kurtág, alsof Kurtág in Machaut en Machaut in Kurtág doorklinkt. En je krijgt soms het gevoel dat Kurtág op veel momenten ouderwetser en archaïscher klinkt dan Machaut. Dat levert een enorme vitale anachronie op. Want als je alleen maar naar 14e eeuwse muziek luistert, heb je na een half uur of na zelfs tien minuten zoiets van: dat heb ik nu wel gehoord. Maar hier heb je een continue switch van perspectief.”
De titel van het concert Epitaphs of Afterwardsness verwijst naar een begrip uit de psychoanalyse, waar Sigmund Freud stelt dat een trauma nooit op het ontstaansmoment zelf, maar pas later betekenis krijgt. En dat werkt niet alleen zo bij trauma’s maar ook bij luisterervaring van muziek. Schmelzer: “Dat is iets wat wij voortdurend meemaken als we naar muziek luisteren. Dat wil zeggen dat op het moment dat je een noot hoort en vervolgens een tweede noot, dat die eerste noot anders klinkt. Het is iets dat je in een vorm van tijdsduur ervaart. Je weet niet wat je hoort. Je hoort iets, maar je weet niet wat het is. En op het moment dat je verder luistert krijgt het betekenis, zeg maar retroactieve beluistering. Muziekstukken herdenken continu zichzelf, zij zijn epitafen (herdenkingen) van zichzelf. Dat rare spiegelende idee is eigenlijk de motor van ons programma.”
“Van belang is hoe wij, vandaag, die muziek ervaren”
Schmelzerstaat sceptisch tegenover geschiedkundigen die zich toeleggen op onderzoek naar de feitelijke situatie van historische evenementen. “Ik vind dat een ramp voor de musicologie en voor de kunstwetenschap in het algemeen”, zegt Schmelzer, “dit programma is ook een pleidooi voor een niet-historicistische visie op muzikale werken. En het is pas in het achteraf (afterwardsness) dat muziekstukken, maar ook kunstwerken in het algemeen, betekenis krijgen. En je kan de betekenis van een kunstwerk dus niet reduceren tot zijn al dan niet gefantaseerde oorspronkelijke betekenis of intentionaliteit van de componist. Van belang is hoe wij, vandaag, die muziek ervaren. Onze ervaring is authentiek, precies omdat ze zich achteraf manifesteert, vanuit een moment van terugkijken.”
Jan Michiels en u delen bewondering voor het werk van de Franse schrijver Marcel Proust. Hoe komt die in dit concert tot uitdrukking?
Schmelzer: “Proust heeft ooit geschreven dat dat kunstwerken doodgaan. Ze sterven in hun oorspronkelijke context en ze worden dan herboren in hun eigen vervreemding, zoals ze in een museum hangen. En het is pas dan dat ze echt als kunstwerken relevant worden. En dus wat Marcel Proust eigenlijk zegt, is dat een kunstwerk alleen maar kan bestaan bij de gratie van zijn intrinsiek verlies. Van zijn afsterven. Ook muziek is een continue zwanenzang. Op het moment dat het stuk eindigt, ben je ofwel verzadigd, ofwel wil je het stuk opnieuw horen. En dus je kan niet anders dan bij muziek de plaat opnieuw opzetten. En in een soort van herhalingsdwang terechtkomen. Dat is intrinsiek aan een muzikale ervaring. Onze zangers zingen dan in de zijbeuken en nissen van de kerk, je hoort hun ghost voices. Maar het verwijst natuurlijk naar het feit dat de meeste van die stukken een herdenkingsfunctie in zich bergen. Een hoop musicologen hebben gesuggereerd dat Machaud de Messe de Nostre-Dame voor zichzelf heeft geschreven. Voor zijn eigen nagedachtenis.”
Intrinsiek verlies komt ook tot uitdrukking in het slotstuk, Chaconne van JS Bach. Chaconne is afkomstig uit zijn tweede vioolpartita en is voor piano bewerkt door Johannes Brahms. Naar eigen zeggen bleef Bach’s melodie, wegens zijn emotionele lading, door zijn hoofd spoken.
Schmelzer: “Jan en ik hebben gekozen voor deze versie, ook omdat het een bewerking is voor één hand. Alleen de linkerhand. Maar wacht. Het is beter om te zeggen dat het niet voor de linkerhand maar zonder de rechterhand is geschreven. Want je voelt die amputatie. Je voelt dat gemis van die rechterhand. Het is natuurlijk ongelooflijk hoe Jan dat klaarspeelt. Het klinkt gothic. Je voelt die afwezigheid van die andere hand. Die andere hand ligt op zijn schoot. Als een soort slappe hand. Je voelt die amputatie, dus dat gebrek, dat gemis – ziedaar het concept van ons programma.”
Wat is eigen aan het geluid van Graindelavoix? Wat maakt Graindelavoix tot Graindelavoix?
Dat heeft te maken met de samenstelling van de naam Graindelavoix. Grain is eigenlijk the bone in the throat. Als je zingt, er iets is dat je niet in de hand hebt. In klassieke muziek, vooral ook in de westerse canon, zijn veel zangers erg bezig met het controleren van hun stem, van hun techniek. Het continu beheersen en het domesticeren van alles wat ontsnapt aan die techniek wordt niet gezien als een respectabele slip of the tongue. Maar dat onvolmaakte maakt vocale muziek juist zo interessant. Bij vocale muziek heb je continu dat soort van lapsussen: een intonatieprobleem, of een inflexie, of je hebt iets dat afwijkt van de partituur, een blue note of een glissando – al die dingen zijn, bij wijze van spreken, bone in the throat. Graindelavoix richt zich op alles wat ontsnapt aan het jargon, aan de canon. Daarmee willen wij werken. Dat is de continuïteit van alles wat wij doen. Voor mij is dat oude muziek in een hedendaagse praktijk. Het heeft niets te maken met het heropleven van oude muziek. Ik denk dat ons ensemble ondertussen zo gegroeid is dat we proberen daar een adequaat klankbeeld tegenover te brengen. Dat is wat het ensemble kenmerkt. Een enorm flexibele, plastische manier van om te gaan met die polyfone, contrapuntische schriftuur.”
WAT: Epitaphs of Afterwardsness
WIE: Graindelavoix o.l.v. Björn Schmelzer; Jan Michiels (piano)
FOTO’S: Cyrille Voirol (incl. featured image), Roger Lleixà
WAAR:
Maandag 30 september 2024 – Festival 20·21, Sint-Geertruikerk, Leuven, 20h30. Tickets: festival2021.be
Maandag 24 februari 2025 – Bozar, Brussel, 20h00. Tickets: bozar.be
This is not a gathering of the Internationale Situationniste but the ensemble Graindelavoix and some of its board members in Antwerp cafe De Kat after the Media Vita concert yesterday. We loved it and we loved the empathy of the public; many thanks to Bart for this invitation and to his sweet collaborators.
Equal thanks to Xavier of Utrecht festival for giving us the opportunity of two laments concerts, to his collaborators and to the caring volunteers who became meanwhile almost like old friends.
Looking forward to perform Machaut/Kurtag with our brother-in-arms Jan Michiels at Bellelay abbey very soon; we love to return to this place, if only because of the fact that the Suisse writer Robert Walser lived here for a while with his sister Lisa…
See you all soon!
De oplossing ligt niet in het vinden van een antwoord, maar in het durven blootleggen van het probleem. 'Media vita in morte sumus' (Midden in het leven zijn we door de dood omgeven), die woorden bevestigen de dialectiek van ons bestaan. Wij leven in een tranendal en een avond lang naar de affirmatie daarvan luisteren kan volgens mij een vreemde troost zijn”, aldus Björn Schmelzer, artistiek leider van graindelavoix.
graindelavoix staat vanavond in een volledig uitverkochte Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk in Antwerpen met een bezwerend Media vita-concertprogramma.
Gelukkig zij die erbij kunnen zijn. Voor de anderen bieden we als troost een interview met Björn Schmelzer, artistiek leider van graindelaboix:
Souvenirs and a nice review from our Torroella concert. Many thanks to Monse Faura and her wonderful production and technical team!
https://www.classics.cat/critiques/detall?Id=4514
Graindelavoix Lamentations of David for Jonathan and Absalom
Church of Sant Genís, in Torroella de Montgrí
The capacity of art, beyond the aesthetic enjoyment it can give, is very powerful. Since the beginning of humanity, there has been a need, in certain situations, to go beyond mere communication to express ourselves. Music, singing, were among the first. To celebrate a good hunt, to soothe a child's cry, also to express love or pain.
The excellent concert by the Flemish group Graindelavoix, with a set of motets from Laments of David for Jonathan and Absalom, was a very good example of the salvific capacity of music, a suitable space in which to find rest from pain.
Based on biblical texts, David's lamentations for the death of his son Absalom served as an inspiration to numerous composers to express the pain of the death of a child or, by extension, of a loved one. The careful selection of motets by composers from the end of the 15th century (Desprez or de la Rue) to the middle of the 17th from different countries in Western Europe served Graindelavoix, led by its creator and director Björn Schmelzer, to create, with a great efficiency of resources, sublime sound structures that filled the church of Sant Genís de Torroella with memories. The eight magnificent performers were directed with passion and intensity by Schmelzer demonstrating how the richness of polyphony is able to create an evocative intensity, how the surrounding conjugation of voices achieves with the effects of depth, of volumes and hierarchical planes, a three-dimensional effect, which can almost be touched. A polyphony and a counterpoint that become the ideal means to articulate proposed answers to the ontological and spiritual question. Polyphony, as Ramón Andrés describes it: this writing that shows the multiplicity that we are.
Carefully placed in a circle looking inwards, gathering together, the different combinations of the eight voices created a kind of auditory trompe l'oeil, articulating very effective acoustic illusions. Illusions, true, but enough to gently touch the soul of all of us who were transpiring from the heat on an evening in mid August in the middle of the Empordà.
Ignasi Albors
(English based on google translate)
Another glimpse at the Laments of David program, Friday 16 August in Torroella de Montgrí!
With Florencia Menconi, Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, Gabriel Belkheiri, Andrés Miravete, Marius Peterson, Tomás Maxé, Arnout Malfliet & Björn Schmelzer
(Then David mourned by Thomas Tomkins)
This Friday 16 August we will perform Laments of David at the festival of Torroella de Montgrí!
Listen here to the version of Lodovico Agostini with the voices of Gabriel Belkheiri, Andrew Hallock, Florencia Menconi, Albert Riera, Andrés Miravete, Marius Peterson, Tomás Maxé and Arnout Malfliet with Björn Schmelzer (art.direction)
Thanks to Jorge Martín Valle of ars subtilior editions for letting us discover this unknown piece and the superb transcription!
Yesterday we finished and mastered our upcoming recording EX NIHILO (Polyhony beyond the Order of Things)
Thanks to our sound wizard Alex Fostier!!
Release expected in fall 2024, don’t miss the Belgian release concerts beginning of November!
Recording stills: Raul Domingues
Extensive review of our last week’s Mannheim concert!
Read an English translation here...
https://www.nussbaum.de/.../graindelavoix-besonderes-des...
Unnatural music from the Middle Ages - this was the motto of the "Contre Nature" project by the "Graindelavoix" collective in Schwetzingen.
The experience of art - or music - being regarded as degenerate or unnatural if it does not follow any set rules is boundless and timeless. Against Nature - or in French: "Contre Nature" - was the name of the project by the experimental music collective "Graindelvoix" led by Björk Schmelzer from Antwerp.
It was no easy excursion into the 14th century when Graindelavoix performed a capella in the castle's "Long Hall" on the first Thursday evening in June. The vocal ensemble consisted of four singers with bass, baritone, tenor and countertenor voices, as well as two sopranos. They performed a total of nine songs from the late Middle Ages.
Review
And so that you weren't left completely alone with the rather unusual music, there was a pre- and post-performance discussion. - The 75-minute, well-attended concert was part of the Mannheim Summer.
There were two ways of approaching the performance. Either you left all possible expectations and prejudices behind, opened your ears and heart and simply enjoyed: lively, soulful voices moving from left to right in the room, dancing around each other, coming together, finding short parallel paths and harmony, intertwining and separating again, only to start another game.
Clearly identifiable, continuous melodies, verses, continuous rhythms or at least comprehensible lyrics were out of place. Thoughts were allowed to flow. One visitor described the experience as "meditative". "Calming", said another. Or you could take an informative look at the music before or after: the provocative title "Contre Nature" invites you to do so.
Unnatural
The concert began with the "Sanctus" from the "Messe de Nostre Dame" by Guillaume de Machaut, a canon of the recently completed Reims Cathedral who was born in Champagne.
This mass, which was later followed by the "Agnus Dei", is a milestone in music history: it is one of the oldest polyphonic settings of the Catholic liturgy, the Ordinary. Polyphony was a novelty at the time. Before that, liturgical chants were monophonic "Gregorian chorales". Contemporaries of the 14th century used the term "ars antiqua" to describe this older, monophonic compositional technique.
Different voices
In contrast to this was polyphony, the "ars nova", the new art. To explain briefly: in polyphony, the different voices developed independently, not as subordinate accompaniments, but as independent melodies and even with their own rhythm. In the old technique, the melody-leading voice was still the low tenor, but Guillaume de Machaut - one of the greatest composers of his time and an avant-gardist - assigned the melody to the upper voice, just as we are used to today. For all its complexity, there were fixed rules.
Nevertheless, this complex music provoked criticism - and even temporary bans - from the church fathers, who had always been rather conservative, on the grounds that it was "unnatural". But Machaut and his successors also composed for the nobility, who paid little heed to the church's objections.
The monstrous
In fact, Machaut's successors refined polyphonic music even further; a kind of mannerism emerged, a term from the visual arts in which things are depicted in an even more artificial way. Music historians call this further development at the end of the 14th century "Ars subtilior".
The music is "strange, disconcerting, full of dissonances and unusual leaps" - according to the text accompanying the concert in Schwetzingen.
The canons "Hélas Avril" by Matteo da Perugia and "Le ray au soleyl" by Johannes Ciconia are examples of the same melody being sung at different tempos; they seem to move forwards and backwards at the same time.
Echo or imitation
The ballad "Science na nul annemi" - Knowledge has no adversary - by Matteus de Sancto Johanne has almost theatrical-emotional moments: "Qui plus haut crie: "Hay avant," c'est trop bien fait, disons ainsy" (When someone shouts at the top of their voice: "I say: Ahead!" they are in a sense outdoing themselves) sounded like a two-part call with an echo or imitation.
The strange becomes the miraculous, the "mirabilium", the "merveil", the "monstrous". If the old laws of music had been interpreted as natural and pleasing to God, the new became the "unnatural". However, unnatural does not necessarily mean that it does not or must not exist, but rather calls for a confrontation.
Expressiveness
Graindelavoix face up to this confrontation. Because, according to founder Björn Schmelzer, on the one hand he resists clichéd associations with early music; on the other hand, the music of the past is our heritage, a reflection on the problems of our time and therefore contemporary.
For today's musicians and listeners, performance practice is becoming increasingly important. In the search for the living core (the group's name actually translates as "grain of the voice"), the focus is not on trained voices in the classical sense, but on the power of individual expression and creative interpretation of singers from different cultural backgrounds.
For the audience, this makes the performance earthy, tangible and miraculously emotionally comprehensible. The concert ended with a hearty round of applause. (rw)
"It's precisely distance, alienation and displacement that enable us to appreciate these repertoires. And at the same time, I don't believe that contemporaries understood the art of their time any better, nor that music and art were, so to speak, more rooted in life and shared by all. Medieval and Renaissance art, like the art of modernity, was deliberately strange, impossible, singular, eccentric, ambiguous and ambivalent."
Crescendo Magazine interviewed Björn Schmelzer about latest Graindelavoix CD!
Read full interview in English translation or in French here https://www.crescendo-magazine.be/bjorn-schmelzer.../)
"Björn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix remain true to their path. Top class in their astonishing aesthetic consistency, and irreplaceable."
Exhaustive and interesting review of our new CD by Matthias Lange in klassik.com!
Read the German original here or the English translation below...
https://magazin.klassik.com/reviews/reviews.cfm...
When you pick up a record by Björn Schmelzer and his vocal ensemble Graindelavoix, you should not expect a repertoire piece that is interpreted in a state-of-the-art artistic style. The formation is always concerned with shedding new and unexpected light on relevant things, contextualizing them, and looking for what is more in the shadows. In all their interpretations, the conductor and ensemble consistently refuse to achieve vocal technical perfection - although all eight performers are professional and skilled in this respect - and, from Björn Schmelzer's point of view, merely supposed historical correctness and adherence to principles - after all, we know too little about the actual performance practice around 1500 to be able to place our own artistic work under the sign of what is definitely correct.
This also applies to the current production, which was published by Glossa under the title 'Earthquake Mass' and essentially contains an interpretation of the Missa Et ecce terrae motus by Antoine Brumel. Björn Schmelzer writes about his approach to Brumel's enigmatic masterpiece: 'If you take such extraordinary works seriously and as essential, you inevitably change the existing image of the past, and I am convinced that in doing so you also change your own time. This is the anti-historical position that I want to take with Graindelavoix: Historicism always takes the historical context and symbolic culture as a yardstick and sees works of art as illustrations of it, but I am interested in how works of art and music contradict or even break with their context.'
This way of thinking in broken perspectives is also inspired by the tradition of the Mass itself: the only surviving copy is affected by ink corrosion, so that not insignificant parts of the composition are illegible and need to be supplemented for a performance. Schmelzer solves this, as one already suspects, with a creative liberation: he structures the Mass movements through sometimes large-scale instrumental pieces of the most gradual development - the introductory 'Il Culto delle Pietre' lasts almost a quarter of an hour, a sound emanation of irritating flatness, controversially instrumented with serpent, cornett, two natural horns and electric guitar. The Portuguese guitarist and composer Manuel Mota proves himself here and in other, more concise sentences as a creative co-creator, in the context of art in times of disasters - Björn Schmelzer expands the network of relationships to include references to Pieter Bruegel and an Italian documentary film from the 1960s, but further explanations on this will be omitted at this point: it is about the music.
Unorthodox approach
This can also be said against the background of the complexity of thinking and conception: Brumel's mass has the typical Graindelavoix sound, grainy and expressive, occasionally playing with the effect of sound production under pressure, not impure, but in the constant search for sound also idiosyncratically ornamented, even glissanding, often drifting away restlessly. And yet the resulting sound structure never seems irritable, embedded in a constant, astonishingly safe flow that unfolds a very special magic. The voices of the two women and six men are incredibly strong in character and typical of the register; the basses stand out with all their darkness at the lower end of the sound spectrum. In the Agnus Dei, which is particularly affected by the damage to the surviving material mentioned above, gaps and cracks in the structure are made audible. Intonation is a special discipline in this context: the ensemble produces such a special sonority that primary assessments of this category - pure, free or floating - seem less important than the overall result. In the past, it has occasionally been pointed out that this special type of intonation is very similar to the practice of Marcel Pérès' Ensemble Organum - rough, raw, but coherent and with touching, seemingly archaic effects.
This is also the case here. The wind instruments that sound are intended to symbolize the moment of the apocalyptic and - in the form of serpent, cornet and horns - to sound as if it were 'anachronistic historicity'. They give the events colors, effects and moods, blend into the vocal sound in the instrumentally supplemented movements with flowing contributions, and formulate transitions between the spheres. Manuel Mota lets his electric guitar clear its throat harshly in a wide area, giving the serpent a grainy sound base - in its noise-like effect, it resembles a radio station that is not quite correctly tuned, as older people will remember.
Mota's music and his playing as a whole follow a sound installation approach that is more committed to the spherical effect than to the concrete, comprehensible, actually formulated musical form.
Instrumental areas
The tempi in the vocally dominated parts flow in a pleasingly fresh manner and are far from static; the almost still instrumental areas are in stark contrast to this. The recording, made live in Bern, is technically top-class all round: the sound is clearly illuminated down to the finest vocal movement; nevertheless, a warm harmony could be recorded, supported by moderate spatial expansion.The instruments are placed in an absolutely convincing relationship to the vocal sphere.
Anyone looking for 'classical' interpretations of the impressive Brumel Mass will be well served by the available interpretations by the Huelgas Ensemble or the Tallis Scholars. Here you are dealing with an idiosyncratic, individually contoured approach - also top-class in its astonishing aesthetic consistency, and also irreplaceable. Despite the excellent sound realization, the live experience of this highly contextualized sound concept might be preferable to the experience on recording. Björn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix remain true to their path.
Première of our new program tonight in Cologne at Zamus Festival in St Ursula Church!
Don’t miss it!
With:Teodora Tommasi, Florencia Menconi, Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, Andrés Miravete, Marius Peterson, Tomás Maxé, Arnout Malfliet and Björn Schmelzer
Uraufführung
„Mitten wir im Leben sind mit dem Tod umfangen,“ so übertrug Martin Luther einen beliebten gregorianischen Gesang aus karolingischer Zeit ins Deutsche: „Media vita in morte sumus“. Einen gefährlichen Gesang! Lange verstand man ihn auch als Beschwörung oder gar als Verwünschung. Kein Wunder, dass 1316 die Synode von Köln seine Aufführung ohne Erlaubnis eines Bischofs ausdrücklich verbot – insbesondere, wenn er sich „gegen lebende Menschen“ richtete. Der dialektische Gedanke vom Tod im Leben mag den beschwörenden Charakter befördert haben, aber zweifellos lag das auch an der eindringlichen Melodie, deren ursprüngliche Form in den meisten mehrstimmigen Vertonungen Fassungen noch deutlich wahrnehmbar bleibt. Das fulminante belgische Vokalensemble Graindelavoix erkundet das Nachleben von „Media vita“ in einer kleinen, aber faszinierenden Auswahl ausdrucksstarker polyphoner Bearbeitungen durch Komponisten wie Nicolas Gombert, Ludwig Senfl, John Sheppard, Orlando di Lasso und José Gay. Da scheint jede Version eine Nachahmung der vorangegangenen zu sein, die mit noch einmal gesteigerter Kunstfertigkeit die Zuhörenden in ihren Bann zieht – ohne jedoch Schaden anzurichten …Das Konzert wird 18.06.2024 in WDR 3 Konzert ab 20:04 Uhr gesendet.
What are the features of a classic early music love letter?
- Dressing the beloved in a college student uniform, touching upon their historical soft spot.
- Setting the mood with a history lesson, with affectionate scolding through a little bit of music history…
- Undressing the beloved, leaving on merely the corset of rigid music theory, revealing the aberrations and imperfections of the flesh (appropriate vocabulary here: transgression, taking liberties, loose approach….)
- The love scene, successful on its own terms, should take place in a cavern or cellar with huge, immersive acoustics
- Feeding the lover with an alphabet soup (seen on Sesame Street)
- Augmenting one’s pleasure by focusing first on the extraneous and frivolous excess, then twisting it into a disciplined immaculate love object.
- Dirty talk to the beloved should focus on post-structuralist terminology: you dirty poststructuralist!
For advanced lovers: classic fantasies, for better or worse, about defiling dead polyphonists, turned in their graves...
Important note: violence described above should be understood in a post-structuralist sense.
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/.../brumel-earthquake-mass...
Check out the first episode of the new graindelavoix podcast NACHLEBEN about Nicholas of Cusa and Polyphony!
Watch full episode here:
Listen to a nice presentation of our new Brumel CD by Rudolf Aigmüller on Austrian Ö1-ORF:
https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20240408/755500/Musikalisches-Erdbeben
"Und siehe, es geschah ein großes Erdbeben. Denn ein Engel des Herrn kam vom Himmel herab, trat hinzu und wälzte den Stein weg und setzte sich darauf". So beginnt bei Matthäus im 28. Kapitel seines Evangeliums die Erzählung von der Auferstehung Christi. Diesem Vers liegt Antoine Brumels Messe zugrunde, somit steht das Erdbeben auch hier im Zentrum. Die Neuinterpretation durch Björn Schmelzer lässt es dementsprechend musikalisch beben, denn im 15. Jahrhundert gab es Kriege und Seuchen genau wie heute, und darauf solle die Messe aufmerksam machen, so der belgische Dirigent und Musikwissenschaftler Björn Schmelzer. Keine historische Rekonstruktion einer fünfhundert Jahre alten Messe, sondern die kompromisslose Neuinterpretation steht im Zentrum einer Produktion mit dem Ensemble Graindelavoix und dem Gitarristen Manuel Mota.
