The Sport of Love
Música Antigua de Albuquerque
Dennis Davies-Wilson, Jay Hill, Sheldon Kalberg, Allison Sahyoun, Art Sheinberg, Colleen Sheinberg
From the Liner Notes:
The 14th century, called in Italian the Trecento (literally, the “three hundreds”), was a period of enormous flourishing in all the arts. In music, one of the greatest innovations was the rise of secular polyphony. Music was now in demand for social occasions, and was desired purely for pleasure. The rise of this secular musical tradition went hand-in-hand with the growing view that worldly life was meant to be enjoyed. The mid-14th century was a period of great social, political and economic upheaval. Beginning in 1340, a series of crop failures brought famine to the peninsula. Then came the great plague of 1348, when the Black Death swept through the area, killing more than half the populations of Florence, Siena and Pisa. Such devastation led on one hand to widespread pessimism and a belief that the apocalypse was near, a view espoused by wandering groups of penitents who sought to atone for the world’s sins by self-flagellation. The opposite reaction was that expressed in Boccaccio’s Decameron, in which a group of educated wealthy young men and women take refuge from the plague outside Florence, passing the time by entertaining each other with stories, songs and dancing. Their philosophy held that when life was so uncertain, it ought to be enjoyed to the fullest with earthly pleasures.
The Sport of Love takes for its theme the imagery of the hunt as a metaphor for amatory pursuit. From the Trecento comes Gherardello's lively Tosto che l'alba, an example of the caccia, which means both "hunt" or "chase," and "canon" (round). In most medieval examples of love/hunt literature, the hunter is represented as the stalker and his lady as the quarry, following the example of Cupid, the mythological archer of love. In Jacopo's Vola del bel sparver, however, the roles are reversed, and the lady becomes the huntress pursuing the beautiful sparrow hawk through the woods.
The love/hunt theme continued into the Renaissance. The anonymous Caccia "Alla caccia su su" is much in the tradition of its medieval counterpart, describing the excitement of the hunt, calling all the hunting dogs by name and bringing to mind the sound of the hunting horn. The hunt imagery is also found in the madrigal form (Waelrant's Questa fera gentil), the strambotto (Coppini's Correno multi cani) and the often lewd carnival song, exemplified here by the anonymous Canto di uccellatori alle starne.
Examples of the genre from elsewhere in Europe during the Renaissance include Das Jägerhorn ("The Hunting Horn") from the Glogauer Liederbuch of c.1480, and Ludwig Senfl's rollicking Es taget vor dem Walde. Senfl's poignant tenorlied, Ich schwing mein Horn, describes the hunter's despair at the realization that he cannot catch his prey–the deer with her snow-white breast–and must with sorrow depart. From England comes Cornyshe's Blow thy horn, hunter, an example of the "foster" song (from the word "forester"), in which the hunter boasts of his sexual prowess.
In France, the hunt imagery still makes its appearance, as in Nicolas de Marle's L'Enfant Amour, in which Cupid, the archer of love, meets Diana, the huntress of Classical mythology. More typical, however, are the sentiments here expressed in several chansons whose lyrics refer to le jeu d'amours–"the game of love." These are courtly songs, but they are often lighthearted and humorous, and, as in the case of Amours me trocte par la pance, are often wonderfully risqué. The text of this last one begins, "Love runs round and round through my belly like a fox after a young hen," and ends with "Thus goes the game of love."
Track List:
01) Trotto, Anonymous (14th century) [1:20]
02) Tosto che l’alba, Gherardello da Firenze (c. 1320/5-1362/3) [2:39]
03) L’aquila bella, Gherardello [3:30]
04) Vola el bel sparver, Jacopo da Bologna (fl. 1340-1360) 92:32]
05) Lasso! di donna, Francesco Landini (1325-1397) [4:41]
06) Cosi pensoso, Landini [2:39]
07) Salterello, Anonymous (14th century) [1:30]
08) Canto di uccellatori alle starne, Alessandro Coppini (c. 1465-1527) [3:23]
09) Caccia “Alla caccia su su”, Anonymous (15th century) [1:42]
10) Correno multi cani, Anonymous (15th century) [2:00]
11) I vostri acuti dardi, Philippe Verdelot (c. 1470/80-before 1552) [2:15]
12) Questa fera gentil, Hubert Waelrant (1516/17-1595) [4:12]
13) So ben, mi, c’ha bon tempo, Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) [2:27]
14) Pavana & Gagliarda: La traditora, Anonymous (16th century) [2:51)
15) Das Jägerhorn, Anonymous, (15th century) [1:38]
16) Es taget vor dem Walde, Ludwig Senfl (c. 1486-1542/3) [1:42]
17) Ich schwing mein Horn, Senfl [3:12]
18) Es jagt ein Jäger g’schwinde, Senfl [1:38]
19) Pastime with good company, Henry VIII [1491-1547]
20) Blow thy horn, hunter, William Cornish (d. 1523) [1:54]
21) Blow thy horn, thou jolly hunter, Anonymous (1609) [1:21]
22) Je ne fus jamais si ayse, Pierre Certon (d. 1572) [2:15]
23) L’enfant Amour, Nicolas de Marle (fl. 1544-68) [2:09]
24) Pour voz plaisirs et solas, Alexander Agricola (1446?-1506) [2:08]
25) Il estoit une fillete, Clément Janequin (c. 1485--1558) [1:31]
26) M’amye a eu de Dieu, Janequin [2:01]
27) Amours me trocte par la pance, Jean Braconnier (d. 1512) [1:56]
Total Program Length: 63:30
Recording Information:
Recorded June and July, 1995, at the Cathedral Church of St. John, Albuquerque, NM
Recording Engineer & Editor: Eric Larson
Mastering Engineer: Joseph F. Korgie
Booklet Preparation & Editing: Colleen Sheinberg
Booklet Copy Editor: Katherine A. Dory
Graphic Design: Kimberly Smith Co.
Program Notes: Art and Colleen Sheinberg
Catalogue Number: DOR-93175
© 1999 Dorian Recordings, all rights reserved
Música Antigua de Albuquerque can also be heard on the Dorian label release, A Rose of Swych Virtu (DIS-80104) and on Música Antigua's self-released CD, Music to the Max.
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