jwilzewske: Leçons de Ténèbres: Antiphonal Gestures in Claudin de Sermisy’s Chansons

J`attends secours de ma seule pensée --
J`attends le jour, que l`on m`éconduira,
Ou que du tout la belle me dira,
‘Ami, t`amour sera récompensée.’
Mon alliance est fort bien commencée,
Mais je ne sais comment il en ira
Car, s`elle veut, ma vie périra
Quoiqu`en amour s`attend d`être avancé.
Si j`ai refus, vienne Mort insensée --
A son plaisir de mon coeur jouira.
Si j`ai merci, adonc s`éjouira
Celui qui point n`a sa Dame offensée.”
— Clément Marot (1497-1544)

(I wait for rescue from my thoughts alone --
I wait for the day when I will be rejected,
Or else the lovely lady will tell me,
‘Friend, your love will be rewarded.’
My relationship has started well,
But I cannot tell the outcome
Because, if she wishes, I can die
Despite my hope to win her love.
If I am refused, let death come --
She will play with my heart at her pleasure.
If I am shown mercy, he who has not
offended his lady will find joy.)

DSM: The antiphonal ‘call-and-response’ structure is a way to valorize the subject of the chanson. Le Jardin de Mélodies, the King’s Noyse performance last night at Jordan Hall in Boston opening the Boston Early Music Festival, was surely that – an enthusiastic valorization!

CMT: Your ‘antiphonal’ comment is specifically concerning the Claudin de Sermisy piece, ‘Auprès de vous’, where the strings (David Douglass [violin], Robert Mealy [viola], Shira Kammen [viola], Julie Andrijski [viola], David Morris [bass violin], Paul O’Dette [lute], Pat O’Brien [lute]) seem to call and answer to each other and overlap each other?

DSM: Yes. Rhetorically, the ‘call-and-response’ suggests that the courtly renaissance lover is subordinating his interests to those of the loved one, will not stray from the loved one to whom the chanson is sung, will remain ‘next to her’. Phrases performed by two or more semi-independent choirs interacting with one another, singing alternating musical phrases – this is essentially antiphonal, isn’t it? Or at least, historically, antiphonal psalmody was the singing or musical playing of psalms by alternating groups of performers. This Sermisy piece – these waves of sound, in the manner that Auprès de vous (‘Next to You’) creates them, strongly convey the idea that the lover is deeply affected by the loved one.

CMT: The antiphonal ‘waves’ and ‘call-and-response’, to me, signify also an element of epistemological doubt that this courtly lover has, about how requited the attachment is or will be. The piece has an antiphonal call-and-response character, but it’s essentially a soliloquy – almost as though the lover is pacing around. There’s an existential tension that accompanies these spatial acoustic displacements in this Sermisy chanson. The antiphonal effects suggest a vulnerability that the lover feels, upon realizing or fully gauging his profound dependency on the loved one. Of course, in courtly love this might all be merely for ‘show’. But in Sermisy’s score – or in the King’s Noyse’s interpretation – there is an aspect of genuine vulnerability. Very sweet. Poignant even. Lessons in darkness!

DSM: What a fine opening of BEMF this was! Wonderful!

jwilzewske

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Leçons de Ténèbres: Antiphonal Gestures in Claudin de Sermisy’s Chansons

No comments:

Post a Comment