This a-cappella ensemble (formed from former “Regensburger
Domspatzen” plus a soprano) has been awarded
the “Grand Prix for Vocal Music” at the “Tampere Music
festival” in Finland and the First Prize at the “German Music
Competition”. Their concert series “The Hilliard Ensemble
meets Singer Pur“ was sensational! On this CD they pre miere
contemporary works, supported by the Hilliard Ensemble.
A-cappella-Formation aus ehemaligen Regensburger Domspatzen plus eine Sopranistin, beim „Tampere-Musikfestival“ in Finnland mit dem „Grand Prix für Vokalmusik“ ausgezeichnet und 1. Preis des „Deutschen Musikwettbewerbs“, hat mit der Konzertreihe „The Hilliard Ensemble meets Singer Pur“ großes Aufsehen erregt! Auf dieser CD, unterstützt durch das Hilliard Ensemble, kommen zeitgenössische Kompositionen zur Uraufführung.
The Composers
Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm was born in Karlsruhe in
1952 and has remained in that city ever
since. He studied piano and composition with
Eugen Werner Velte at the Karlsruhe Conservatory,
where he himself has taught since 1972.
He was appointed professor in 1985. Rihm is
considered to be one of the most significant
composers of our era. His works now number
over 150; many of these are for music theater,
many others for orchestra, and he has written
vocal and chamber music as well. In 2003 he
was honoured with the international Ernst-von-
Siemens Music Prize. Once asked what he intends
with his music, Wolfgang Rihm answered,
“To move and be moved.”
Ivan Moody, born in London in 1964, studied
with Brian Dennis as well as Sir John Tavener.
The liturgy of the orthodox church has played
a major influence in his work. Many of his
compositions are related to liturgical themes.
Moody has received numerous commissions
from internationally known ensembles and
contributed to the newest editions of international
music encyclopedias with musicological
essays as well.
Salvatore Sciarrino was born in Palermo in
1947 and began to occupy himself with the
fine arts during his childhood. He began teaching
himself composition when he was twelve,
later studying with Antonio Titone and later, Turi
Belfiore. His works have been honoured with
numerous awards. He taught at the conservatories
in Milan and Perugia, where he currently
lives. Today, he teaches at the conservatory in
Florence. Sciarrino has always incorporated
new sounds into his compositions, but the relationship
between sound and silence has begun
to play an increasingly significant role for him.
This has made his music particularly transparent.
His means of musical expression, which
are exceptionally concentrated and full of nuance,
reflect the current times.
American composer
Joanne Metcalfwas
born in 1958. Her composition teachers
have included Louis Andriessen (Netherlands),
one of Luciano Berio’s most renowned and successful
students. Today, she is a professor at
the Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Numerous artists from Europe and the
USA have commissioned her to write works for
them. Her choral work Music for the Star of the
Sea won the Hilliard Composition Prize in 1994.
She composed Il nome del bel fior, which uses
a text from Dante’s “Paradiso”, for the Hilliard
Ensemble and Singer Pur in 1998.
(www.bel-fior.org) (
www.bel-fior.org)
Notes on this recording:
Contemporary music has played a major
role in the repertoire of Singer Pur since
the group’s inception. Because a number of
composers have asked us in recent years
if they could write compositions for our ensemble,
we have now decided to dedicate a
recording to these new pieces. All works on
this recording were commissioned by Singer
Pur. Wolfgang Rihm and Salvatore Sciarrino
composed their Passiontide motets to be a
musical focal point of Holy Week 2001 at the
Basilica dei SS. XII Apostoli in Rome with generous
support from the Siemens Arts Program.
Singer Pur has maintained a close friendship
with composer Ivan Moody since 1994. With
her epic cycle Il nome del bel fior, American
composer Joanne Metcalf has paid musical
tribute to our long years of cooperation with
the British Hilliard Ensemble. We would like to
take this opportunity to thank all composers
who have composed for us (and who may do
so in the future)!
“La circulata melodia” – the image of circular
motion which Dante used in his epic
“Paradiso” – is not only musically perceptible
in Joanne Metcalf’s composition. The other
compositions on this recording also feature
repeating melodic turns of phrase and repetitive
moments. The picture on our cover
portrays the “Ouroboros”, an ancient symbol
used by many cultures (including Christian
culture). The snake biting its own tail stands
for wholeness, dying and becoming, life and
death, and finally, for overcoming death. (kw)
Wolfgang Rihm
Subdued Glory
Passiontide motets (I–IV)
An eternal longing for the primary colours of
sound prevails, despite all attempts to conceal.
Sketched by splinters buried in old masks,
a large, tender countenance appears, capable
of profound dreams and with immense wisdom.
Its audible prey was always the injured sound,
the badly tuned instrument; the vox humana also
convulses at the thought. Silence. Then a whisper
– fleeting seconds paint an imagined scene
on the Mount of Olives. A gathering of quiet voices
echoing Christ. Tattered chords becoming
shaky, breathing movement. Airy architecture
arching from “sustinete hic” – “tarry ye here!”
to the artfully impure high tones of the “turbam
quae circumdabit me” – “the mob that shall
surround me”. Is there any deeper meaning to
being at the mercy of the crowd? Desperately diverging
harmonies search for one in the “vadam
immolari”. And the peace contained in farewell
emerges from the next sound, “pro vobis” – “[it
is done] for you”. The final paling and slow fall of
C minor to B minor transforms self-sacrifice into
a private mystery.
And see – we have also seen: “Ecce vidimus
eum”. Restrainedly, we begin again,
surging towards an intense climax. “Peccata
nostra portavit”: pure fourths and fifths in the
soprano voice proclaim consolation and joy.
Underneath, however, thirds constantly jut
up against each other, forming raw, massively
swelling, wounded music.
Suddenly, one episode later, time and memory
are annulled in a sequence of syllables and
rests, quasi senza tempo. But light enters a narrow
crack in the chamber of forgetfulness. The
ear combines remnants of glittery fabric, torn to
shreds and obscured by dust. “Velum templi...”
– which curtain, and which temple? Thoughts
about the story only resurface after a rhythmic
departure coming up from the depths. We remember
the trembling of the earth, the resurrection,
and the humility of a thief hanging next
to Jesus, whose words are heavily exhaled in
a dark quartet, void of upper voices. The vision
passes – only the questioning remains of a
dominant seventh mark the stillness.
The fourth motet now begins as a double
choir. “Tenebrae factae sunt” – “There was a
darkness”. High voices begin, answered from
the shadows. Lamentations of abandonment
are heard far away in the distance. Contrary to
the expectations of the vox magna, the composer
begins a quiet, unison, wavelike movement,
broken by long silences. A solo tenor
slowly surfaces. The last repetition of “ut quid
me dereliquisti?” is even sparer and more
dissonant than the thief’s words. Once again,
we hear the quartet before the musical dialog
begins to stumble dramatically. The yearning
for God could be translated in almost toneless
abstraction; but the theatrical distance ends
before the cry for the heavenly father. The
planning hand does not flinch at exploiting the
extremes of vocal ranges to create a drastic
representation. The last prayer explodes in a
fortissimo and is carried away by the wind:
“Into thy hands I commend my spirit” – “spiritum
meum… meum… meum…”
Michael Herrschel
Salvatore Sciarrino
Responsorio delle tenebre (2001)
(a sei voci)
Responsory of the darkness (2001), for six
voices
Our entire culture is based on various motives
from the Passiontide ritual. The
knowledge beyond the pain concerns us all:
it reveals and conceals itself in a wealth of
ancient images. We are talking here a
powerful, extreme images which reflect the
human condition.
This is why I was originally disappointed
when I was commissioned to compose music
for the 53rd psalm. Compared to others, it
appears to be quite “polished” and general.
Despite this, I accepted the challenge and decided
to expose the music in order to force it
to have a more intensive effect.
I wanted to write a sequence of responses,
i.e. groups of voices which respond back and
forth. The confrontation between modern and
Gregorian chant also brings with it a reunion
with the responsory tradition, which, although
present during a number of musical epochs,
has gone through many significant stylistic
changes.
On the other hand, the discontinuity among
the various forms of expression I have refined
in my long years as a composer displays my
intimate relationship to the sensibilities of the
modern world.
The “nucleus” of the Gregorian strophe
is heard once again in the modern spiritual
setting, and the new strophe embodies and
spreads like an echo coming from earlier, faraway
centuries.
When the composition was finished, the text
revealed its formal perfection to me: parallelism
and symmetry, an irregular number of verses,
the beginnings of an arch-form made of six
components, in which the third verse takes on
the role of a long keystone. It was important to
me to assign a certain logic to the word – voice
by voice – even if it is broken up again by the
musical articulation. I am quite aware that the
53rd psalm is considered by some scholars to be
a refined exercise in style. I now understand the
reasons for my initial perplexity, because perfection
is very close to coldness.
I have used the Vulgata, not only because I
love the Latin of St. Jerome, but also to place
myself squarely in the historical tradition of
compositions based on this Bible.
With the exception of the closing verse, the
verses are repeated in groups of three in order
to weave their characteristic closed form
together with the binary reciprocality of the
responsory. This increases the revelation of
continuity through discontinuity. The compositional
scheme has the following structure:
I III II IV VI V VII
2 1 3 5 4 6 7
I am a Sicilian on the mainland and feel like
an outsider – in contrast to the characteristic
orthodoxy of today’s composers.
There are two sides to my calling: on the one
hand, I have the courage to offer personal solutions,
on the other, I feel a certain pride in upholding
a tradition which can come to life through us
and in us again – thus transforming itself.
I am primarily known for my instrumental inventions,
but I have also formed a personal vocal
style with a characteristic Mediterranean
accent – an imperative instrument for the enchantment
of the melodrama.
I have made friends with all musical styles
and probably anticipated others. I have a clear
consciousness for the timeliness which characterizes
each new composition I write.
I eavesdrop on reality with both an insect’s
as well as a giant’s ear, and try to reflect these
within a cloud of wind and stone. These are
experiences related to hearing, which would
be more adequately described as ecological.
When we try to approach the unapproachable,
the perfect stillness, we discover our
own breathing. This means that there is always
a shimmer of hope in the official culture
scene.
My language grows out of a naturalistic immediacy
and from perception of the global; as
soon as the music starts, a door opens – and
we step inside.
Salvatore Sciarrino
(Übersetzung aus dem Italienischen:
Isabella Colliva)
Ivan Moody
Lamentation of the Virgin
Lamentation of the Virgin was written in 1995
for Singer Pur, who had already sung my music
astoundingly beautifully. When they asked
me for a new piece, I wrote two: one profane
(Le Renard et le Buste, a setting of La Fontaine)
and one sacred, the Lamentation of the Virgin.
This work combines a text from the famous
Benediktbeuren manuscript (the Carmina
Burana collection), a very powerful cry of pain
placed in the mouth of the Mother of God as
she sees her Son crucified, with a much-used
text from the services of the Orthodox Church,
the Trisagion: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy
Immortal, have mercy on us”. While the poem
from the Benediktbeuren manuscript is set in
vernacular mediaeval German, I have intercalated
the Trisagion in three languages: modern
German, and Greek and Slavonic, two of the
principal languages of the Orthodox Church.
The use of the three languages, in addition to
symbolizing the Trinity, stands for the universality
of the Trisagion prayer.
Lamentation of the Virgin is dedicated to the
singers of Singer Pur.
Ivan Moody
Joanne Metcalf (b. 1958)
Il nome del bel fior (1998)
The events of Canto XXIII of Dante‘s Paradiso,
completed in 1321, center around the
advent of Christ as symbolized by the dawning
sun that illuminates all stars, or blessed souls,
in the eighth circle of heaven. Under the influence
of this divine radiance, the stars blossom
into a beautiful garden and Beatrice directs
the pilgrim‘s gaze to „that rose through whom
the Divine Word was made flesh“—the Virgin
Mary, Mystic Rose of the liturgy. The voice of
the poet praises „the name of that fair flower“
and it is that same name, Maria, around which
Il nome del bel fior revolves, as does Dante‘s
own „circling, soaring melody.“
Il nome del bel fior comprises three main
sections in which the poet relates his vision of
the Virgin as a fair rose as well as the brightest
of all stars (recalling the familiar metaphor
of Mary as the star of the sea, or stella maris)
and jewel of heaven. These texted sections are
surrounded by melismatic elaborations of the
Virgin‘s name which, taken together, form an
extended musical meditation that begins simply
and starkly with the angelic countertenor solo
and concludes with the entire ten-voice heavenly
chorus. Dante‘s mystical, sensual words
are set in a manner that is at once rugged and
elegant: a vigorous, even primitive style of
choral writing, inspired in part by music of the
ancient Georgian singing schools, is carefully
woven into the graceful fabric of polyphony.
Increasingly intricate and extravagant rhythmic
relationships develop across the seven
sections of the work, a rhythmic flowering to
parallel the symbolic flowering of the Virgin and
other blessed souls under the Divine sun.
Il nome del bel fior was composed for the
Hilliard Ensemble and Singer Pur with the assistance
of a fellowship from the North Carolina
(U. S. A.) Arts Council.
Joanne Metcalf