Lionheart’s ‘Tydings Trew’—Normative Acoustic Truth, Burdens Borne Collectively

T    hese carols and the braided interrelationships of the parts—with a soloist prominent at times, and every individual dissolving his individuality into the sound of the ensemble at other times—vividly remind us of the spirit of this holiday season, which has everything to do with community, sharing, and giving thanks.”
  —  Cynthia Siebert, CEO, Founder and Artistic Director, Friends of Chamber Music, remarks introducing Lionheart, 04-DEC-2008.

C arols received an inspired work-out last night in Lionheart’s recital last night in Kansas City, as part of the Friends of Chamber Music Early Music series.


    [50-sec clip, Lionheart, Tydings Trew, ‘Carol: As I Outrode this Endres Night’, 1.2MB MP3]

A    s I outrode this endres night,
Of thre ioli sheppards I saw a sight,
And all abowte there fold a star shone brite—
They sange ‘Terli, terlow!’,
So mereli the sheppards there pipes can blowe.

Doune from heaven, from heaven so hie,
Of angeles ther came a Great Companie,
With mirthe and ioy and great solemnitye,
They sange ‘Terli, terlow!’,
So mereli the sheppards there pipes can blowe.”
  —  Medieval English Carol.

This carol was placed 7^th in the program of 22 pieces (carols, motets, canticles, antiphons, chants) and was sung last night as a trio. The tenor, baritone, and countertenor voices were deliciously intertwining, the openness of the harmonic textures contrasting wonderfully with the close-harmony, denser textures of much of the five-part and six-part singing earlier and later in the program.

• Lawrence Lipnik, countertenor
  
• John Olund, tenor
  
• Michael Ryan-Wenger, tenor
  
• Jeffrey Johnson, baritone
  
• Richard Porterfield, baritone
  
• Kurt-Owen Richards, bass

Lionheart’s conception of ‘Tydings Trew’ traces the origins of modern Christmas to the efforts of monks in medieval England, essentially to the Franciscans’ arrival in England in 1224. They note that caroling is far older than its co-optation by Christianity. The carol was originally a dance where participants held hands in a ring or in a line, and as they moved they sang a refrain. During several of the pieces in last night’s concert, members of Lionheart moved in a circular pattern around the altar, which stands in the center of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception sanctuary under the barrel-shaped ceiling. The antiphonal effects with the advance and recession and recurrence of each individual part as its singer moved in this 10-meter circle were ethereal—adding extra poignance and spatial color to the beautiful textures and harmonies. And the ‘collectivity’ or ‘group-normativity’ of the expressions conveyed by each part—to which Cynthia Siebert had alluded in her introduction—was especially apparent at these moments as well. The bodies of the singers move fluidly, as if held in orbit around a collective ‘center’—by centripetal force? by the force of gravity? by the force of shared spiritual belief associated with the carol/chant texts? by the force of secular belief in the power of music? Whatever! The effect is positively spell-binding. Or, at times, tear-making. Extraordinarily moving, at any rate.

Interestingly 14^th- and 15^th-Century English society engaged in caroling not only at Christmastime but also for nearly all other of the Church feastdays. According to historical research that Lionheart’s members cite, the musico-poetic form of the ‘missionized’ carol remained basically the same as that of the profane carol forms that had gone before. The chorus sings the refrain (called the ‘burden’) before and after each verse. Between repetitions of the burden, a soloist or a subset of the ensemble members sings one or more additional verses to a variation of the main melody, usually more embellished and virtuosic. Lionheart notes that the English carol therefore resembles the form and function of the Italian lauda spirituale, which was also Franciscan in its origin.

As an encore, Lionheart delivered an especially rich and touching account of the Gustav Holst – Christina Rosetti carol, ‘In the Deep Midwinter’. T’was a feast for the packed Cathedral-full of people attending. First-rate early music—and vocal music in general—bring Kansas Citians out in enthusiastic droves, and this event was no exception. Thank you, Lionheart!

• Lionheart webpage at ChantBoy.com.
  
• Lionheart page at Bernstein Artists Management.
  
• Lionheart at Friends of Chamber Music, Kansas City, 04-DEC-2008.
  
• Siebert C. Friends of Chamber Music podcast on Lionheart. 01-DEC-2008.
  
• Lionheart. Tydings Trew. (Koch, 2003.)
  
• Apel W. The Notation of Polyphonic Music. 5e. Medieval Academy of America, 1961.
  
• Caldwell J. Editing Early Music. 2e. Oxford Univ, 1995.
  
• Cyrus C. Introduction to Medieval music. Vanderbilt Univ, 15-OCT-1999.
  
• Duffin R. A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music. Indiana Univ, 2002.
  
• Hoppin R. Medieval Music. Norton, 1978.
  
• Knighton T, Fallows D. Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music. Univ California, 1998.
  
• McCully C. Non-linear phonology and Elizabethan prosody. Trans Philological Soc 1990; 89:1-35.
  
• McGee T, Rigg A, Klausner D, eds. Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Indiana Univ, 1996.
  
• Misak C. Truth, Politics, Morality: Pragmatism and Deliberation. Routledge, 1999.
  
• Parrish C. The Notation of Medieval Music. Faber, 1957 / Pendragon, 1978.
  
• Robbins R. The burden in carols. Modern Language Notes 1942; 57:16-22.
  
• Slob W. Dialogical Rhetoric: An Essay on Truth and Normativity. Springer, 2002.
  
• Wakelin D. M.S. S.54: Anthology of 16 medieval English carols. Cambridge Univ, St. John’s College, 2005. [80KB pdf]
  
• Yudkin J. Music in Medieval Europe. Prentice Hall, 1989.
  
• Traditional Music (U.K.) webpage of Wm. Sandy’s 1833 ‘Christmas Carols, Ancient & Modern’
  
• Cambridge University, ‘Keeping the Score’ exhibition, 2007

N    otre Dame organum, which employs a rhythmic notation, seems to modern ears much more evolved than its stylistic predecessors. Notre Dame organum employs three distinctive rhythmic styles: organum purum in which both the upper voice and the lower voice move freely without a specified rhythm, copula in which the upper part moves in a strict rhythm while the bottom voice moves freely, and discant in which both parts move in strict rhythm. In all three styles, the lower voice, known as the tenor (from ‘tenere’, to hold), tends to move more slowly than the top voice; in organum purum or copula, the top voice can have thirty or more notes for each note of the tenor. The notation for the rhythmic sections is based on a group of patterns known as rhythmic modes; once a pattern is selected (e.g. short-long, short-long, short-long), it continues until a new pattern is adopted. The writer of Anonymous IV (named for its order among the anonymous treatises contained in Coussemaker’s nineteenth-century ‘Scriptorum de musica medii aevi’, 1864-1876) discusses six rhythmic modes, and describes the effects that composers were able to achieve with them.”
  —  Cynthia Cyrus, Vanderbilt University.

• Long-short (trochee)
  
• Short-long (iamb)
  
• Long-short-short (dactyl)
  
• Short-short-long (anapest)
  
• Long-long (spondee)
  
• Short-short (pyrrhic)