"QUANDO CALA LA NOTTE"
WHEN THE NIGHT DESCENDS
CORINA MARTI
Early Renaissance harpsichord
ENEA SORINI
Voice
Concert proposal
WHEN THE NIGHT DESCENDS
Now that the sky and the earth and the wind are silent,
and the wild creatures and the birds are reined in sleep,
Night leads its starry chariot in its round
and the sea without a wave lies its bed,
I look, think, burn, weep: and she who destroys me
is always before my eyes to my sweet distress:
war is my state, filled with grief and anger,
and only in thinking of her do I find peace.
So from one pure living fountain
flow the sweet and bitter which I drink:
one hand alone heals me and pierces me:
and so that my ordeal may not reach haven,
I am born and die a thousand times a day,
I am so far from my salvations.
(Petrarch, Canzionere, No.164. Translation: A.S. Kline 2002/Poetry in Translation)
Night, which brings not only counsel, silence and peace but also melancholy and fears,
has always proved inspirational for poets, musicians and painters. It is the ideal time for
retrospection and gives us the chance to reflect on existence, life and death.
Within the framework of an imagined twilight, Corina Marti and Enea Sorini here present
a meditation on themes of love, in the form of a collection of sixteenth- century frottole.
In Ohimè il cor, ohimè la testa the lover, with innumerable sighs (“ohimè”) bewails
faithless, deceitful love and also his foolish heart for believing the blandishments and
ambivalent words of a “great beauty”. By contrast La mia vaga tortorella praises the
beauty of his beloved who, like a turtle dove, bewitches her man with her singing.
Unrequited love as a source of suffering is the focus of Tu mi tormenti a torto, whilst in
Ecco che per amante, a quell ch’io arrivo! love transforms the lover into a scary shadow
of itself. The mischievous side of love is present here too, for example in Deh chi mi sa dir
novella, where the lover desperately seeks his pretty little nun. Finally, the lover in Surge
da l’orizonte il biondo Apollo feels, at sunrise, like someone who is resuming his daily
tasks after a peaceful night, recovered from the previous day’s toil, but still consumed by
love’s ardour. Unlike the creature of the forest, he is incapable of finding joy, delight and
amusement.
The frottola, a strophic form that flourished in northern Italy, frequently dealt with
themes of love and arose from the practice of using musical improvisation to accompany
the declamation of poetry. The texts that were set to music belong to a wide range of
genres: canzoni, ballate, ode, sonnetti, barzelette, capitoli and strambotti. Composed
polyphonically but often performed by a single singer with instrumental accompaniment
(usually a lute, but sometimes also viols or harpsichord), the frottola became widespread
Victoria Grace Stoten
Alemannenstraße 22
D-78224 Singen, Deutschland
TEL: +49 7731 95 58 07
FAX: +49 7731 95 58 09
Ust-IdNr. DE 269162211
e-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.vgsconnect.com
as a result of the printed editions by Ottaviano Petrucci. Between the years 1504 and 1514,
Petrucci published eleven volumes of frottole; these were reprinted on numerous
occasions and enjoyed great success owing to their lightweight character. Well-known
names among the authors of frottole include Marchetto Cara and Bartolomeo
Tromboncino, who were at the same time active as lutenists, singers and teachers at the
Gonzaga Court in Mantua- Cara in the service of Francesco Gonzaga II and Tromboncino
in the service of his wife Isabella d’Este. Although as a musician Cara travelled from court
to court, his activities centred on Mantua. Tromboncino led a more erratic life: after an
honour crime, the murder of his wife, he did not stay long in the service of the Gonzaga
family but moved to Lucrezia Borgia’s residences in Ferrara and Venice.
Meanwhile, in Rome, Andrea Antico was producing frottole for keyboard instruments: his
Frottola intabulate da sonare organi- the first edition of an organ tablature in Italyappeared in 1517. The frontispiece shows a nobleman at the harpsichord: next to him
stands a lady scaring away a monkey that is holding a lute- probably an allusion to
Petrucci, who published various collections of lute music, or perhaps just a reference to
the older form of accompaniment, suggesting that it was fit only circus animals and was
less “noble” that organ tablature. This might also explain why Antico did not hesitate to
borrow material from his competitors’ collections.
Most of the ricercares, pavanes and other harpsichord tablatures played in this
programme come from the manuscript of catell’Arquato. Others come from a manuscript
of Johannes de Lublin (Ms 1716 in the Polish Academy of Sciences Library in Krakow)
and from the two volumes Recerchari, motetti, canzoni by Andrea Antico. In Virgine
bella by Petrarch the omnipresent love theme is transformed into sacred love. In the
pieces that were originally vocal music, however, secular love is to the fore, for instance in
O passi sparsi, Animoso mio desire and Madame vous aves mon cuor, one of the jewels
by Marco Antonio Cavazzoni, a composer by whom, unfortunately only a small number of
works have survived.
The frottola died out around 1530, and its place was taken by a new genre: the madrigal.
What dew, what weeping,
What tears were thy
That I saw falling from the nocturnal mantle
And from the bright countenance of the stars?
And why did the white moon
Sow a pure cloud of crystal stars
In the fresh grass’s lap?
Why, in the darkness,
Was there heard, almost lamenting around,
The soughing of the winds until daybreak?
Were they perhaps signs of your departure.
Life of my life?
(Torquato Tasso, Rhymes, No 324)
Victoria Grace Stoten
Alemannenstraße 22
D-78224 Singen, Deutschland
TEL: +49 7731 95 58 07
FAX: +49 7731 95 58 09
Ust-IdNr. DE 269162211
e-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.vgsconnect.com
FURTHER INFORMATION
WEBSITES
CORINA MARTI, Co-Artistic Director of LA MORRA www.lamorra.info
ENEA SORINI , www.eneasorini.it
AUDIO
Please visit the label Carpe Diem Records to hear some of the tracks from the recording.
http://www.carpediem-records.de/en/quando-cala-la-notte
VIDEO
A trailer for the CD on YOUTUBE can be viewed here:
Corina Marti: Quando cala la notte "Recercare"
Watch a live performance here: Live performance 2016
For further information and booking enquiries please contact:
Vicki Stoten
Artist Representative
[email protected]
+49 7731 95 58 07
Victoria Grace Stoten
Alemannenstraße 22
D-78224 Singen, Deutschland
TEL: +49 7731 95 58 07
FAX: +49 7731 95 58 09
Ust-IdNr. DE 269162211
e-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.vgsconnect.com