Mummer’s Delight: A Renaissance Menagerie
Program and Notes
Music from the renaissance period, both instrumental and vocal, is replete with references to birds, animals,
and insects – some as vivid representations, others as metaphors or symbols of human emotions and states
of being. There are the dance of the bear, of the horse, and the ape in the temple. The lowly flea gets its
due, as do the crocodile, the goose, the nightingale and the cuckoo. While sometimes whimsical, the music
and the texts also have their serious side, as in the song of the swan who utters her only sound just before
death.
In today’s program, an Imaginary Menagerie is conjured up by the maestro with the help of her sidekick
and a group of musicians. Through music, narrative, movement and mime they bring forth creatures of the
sky, the earth and the waters. Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell, our talented and delightful guests, have
augmented Piffaro’s selection of music with a variety of texts spanning many centuries and continents, from
an old Chinese proverb to poems of 20 century European and American authors. (The opening lines and
citations are given for each of these texts in the program below.) Unlike many a Piffaro concert which might
focus on a specific region, composer or time period, the compositions themselves range widely across the
European continent – from England, France, and the Low Countries, to Germany, Italy and Spain – and
from a 15 century Flemish fanfare to a 17 century English masque dance.
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In addition to numerous references in music and poetry, the animal kingdom also gets it due in the plethora
of medieval and renaissance bestiaries in which descriptions and illustrations of each creature were
accompanied by moral lessons. In an introduction to his Historia Animalium Sacra, published in 1613, the
author Wolfgang Franzius writes,
“Dear Reader: I have compiled this history of the animals that you requested not from my own
thinking or from fables, but from very reliable scientific and religious sources, and not for use in
Medicine, but for the study of Theology. The purpose of my presentation is threefold:
1. to promote discussion; 2. to explain religious and secular texts; 3. to praise God”
(trans. Kerstin Potter)
You will hear his description of the flea recited in the program, and we have included a number of
illustrations from these bestiaries in our program book.
Processional
Bransles de Village…………………………………………………………… Anonymous (16 c. French, arr. Piffaro)
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bagpipes, guitar, percussion
Introduction
O for a muse of mire, that would descend
From brightest heaven now to wallow here…
(with apologies to Shakespeare, Henry V)
The troupe has entered, and the maestro introduces the proceedings with a speech adapted from
Shakespeare. The pieces that follow, one a dance, the other a French chanson, or song, share a musical
theme of repeated notes, imitating the sounds of a rooster in the case of Ballet des Coqs, and hens in Il est
bel et bon. They also serve as a welcoming fanfare to the proceedings that follow.
Ballet des Coqs………………………………………………………………............... Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
Il est bel et bon…………………………………………………………………………….Pierre Passereau (fl. 1509-1547)
shawms, sackbut, dulcians
The Hunter and the Hunted
Butterflies are white and blue
In this field we wander through…
(Mariposa, by Edna St. Vincent Millay)
Pallavicino’s Una farfalla (The butterfly) captures the flight of the butterfly so well in the quick and darting
eighth note passages. Die katzenpfote (The cat’s paw) has a manic energy reflecting that creature’s fast
movements as it goes after its prey, first the butterfly, and then the mouse. The familiar round Three blind
mice was adapted and sanitized in the early 20 century in an illustrated children’s tale by John W. Ivemay,
in which the mice recovered in the end by drinking a tonic which not only cured their blindness but grew
back their tails, and allowed them to live happily ever after! The Ravenscroft version is darker and in a
minor key, and may well have referred to the execution of three Protestant bishops by Queen Mary I of
England.
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Pavane “Mille regretz”……………………………………………………….. Tylman Susato, Danserye (publ. 1551)
Una farfalla………..………………………………………………………………...Benedetto Pallavicino (c. 1551-1601)
Die katzenpfote…………………………………………................ Anonymous, Glogauer Liederbuch (late 15 c.)
Three blind mice………………………………………………………............... Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1588-1635)
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recorders, harp
The Crocodile
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail…
(Lewis Carroll)
Here is an example of a creature serving as a symbol of human actions, but the music clearly reflects the
physical aspect of a crocodile’s slithery movements in the slow, descending passages heard first in the bass
line, then the top line. The translation of the song reads:
The crocodile groans over people when he has killed them,
but you were born from more cruel seed, lady,
because you make me die all the time and do not weep.
Il cocodrillo geme………………………………………………………………………………Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605)
dulcians, sackbut
The Flea and Love
Ah the flea…..The flea was created not by accident nor by the devil, but by divine decree…
(adapted from Kerstin Potter (trans. & illus):
“A Musical Bestiary: Animal Quotes from Wolfgang Franzius’ Historia Animalium Sacra; Wittenberg 1613”)
Ah, the flea indeed….its tiny size and its intimacy with the bodies of humans as well as dogs and cats! While
both reviled and pitied, it has had its moments in poetry and song, and numerous associations with amorous
dealings. Thus, we begin the set with a flirtatious love song, followed by Lady, the silly flea whose
protagonist pities the creature, and says to his lover that if he were a flea, “I would not bite you, but search
some other way to delight you.” The set concludes with a lively instrumental work, with passages suggestive
of the flea’s hopping motions, which comes from The Fitzwilliam Wind Band Manuscript, a collection of
six-part works copied out for an English wind ensemble of the late 16 century.
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Say, dear, will you not have me?………………………………………………………. Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
Lady, the silly flea…………………………………………………………………………… Giles Farnaby (c. 1566-1640)
Note felice…………………………………………………………………………………….. Jerome Bassano (1559-1631)
voices, recorders, harp, lute
A Veritable Menagerie!
I expect to pass through this world but once
(Etienne de Grellet du Mabillier, 1773-1855)
the dog
the owl
the cat
the cuckoo
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Orazio Vecchi and Adriano Banchieri, two Italian composers from latter part of the 16 century, both wrote
a number of light-hearted pieces celebrating love, spring-time and good times, in addition to more serious
madrigals. Tiridola, a joyous and sprightly piece, does just that, serving as a musical interlude in our
Imaginary Menagerie. Banchieri’s Contrapunto bestiale, however, brings us back into the midst, with a dog,
a cat, an owl, and a cuckoo vying for attention with their various calls. The cuckoo wins out, and is featured
in the final piece on the first half.
Tiridola, Serenata à 6…………………………………………………………………………………………………… Vecchi
Contrapunto bestiale……………………………………………………………………. Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634)
Cucú, cucú, cucucú………………………………….. Juan del Encina (1468-1529/Lucas Fernandes (1474-1542)
shawms, sackbut, dulcian, recorders, guitar, percussion
INTERMISSION
The Bear
Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to…
(Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880; Madame Bovary, ch. 12)
A bearmaster and his two dancing bears appear in Ben Jonson’s The Masque of Augurs, a courtly
entertainment, first performed, most likely, on Twelfth Night in 1622. They are part of what is called an
“anti-masque”, a comic scene and dance featuring rustic characters within a larger work. The melody of The
bear’s dance recalls the lumbering movements of the animal. Fortune my foe, a popular tune in Elizabethan
England, and set in many different arrangements, is the tale of unhappy love: “Fortune my foe, why dost
thou frown on me, and will my favour never better be?...” It is a fitting accompaniment to lament the sad
fate of dancing bears, forced to shuffle and dance to entertain the crowds.
Fortune my foe…………………………………………………………………. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)
The bear’s dance………………………………………………….from Ben Jonson’s The Masque of Augurs (1622)
Fortune my foe reprise…………………………………………………………………………..... Sweelinck, arr. Piffaro
dulcians, sackbut, percussion
Winged Creatures
Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.
(Chinese Proverb)
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!...
(John Keats 1795–1821, Ode to a Nightingale)
The swans now….
(The Wild Swans at Coole by W.B. Yeats)
Of all the creatures written about and praised in music and texts of the Renaissance, none receive more
press than our feathered friends, no doubt because of their capacity to express themselves in song. In fact, it
was the rage in early 17 century England to try to teach birds to sing by playing them tunes on the recorder!
And those are the instruments we use in Le chant des oyseaux (The song of the birds), whose opening text
reads: “Wake up, sleepy hearts, the god of love calls! On this first day of May, the birds will you marvel;
unstop your ears!” A rich cacaphony of bird calls resonates throughout the piece, rendered particularly well
on the flute-like tones of the instruments. The nightingale rates two songs, Rossignol and Engels
nachegaeltje (English nightingale), and understandably so. Its song has been described as one of the most
beautiful sounds in nature, inspiring poetry, music, fairy tales, and stories in cultures both east and west.
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The earthbound goose provides comic relief, performed on the buzzing and tuneful consort of krumhorns,
while the sad song of the swan - “The white and sweet swan dies singing” - ends the set.
Le chant des oyseaux……………………………………………………………….Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495- c. 1560)
Rossignol……………………………………………………………………............... Anonymous (English, early 17 c.)
Engels nachtegaeltje……………………………………………………………….......... Jacob Van Eyck (c.1590-1657)
Presulem sanctissimum/Den besten vogel………………………………………….. Georg Forster (c.1510-1568)
Il bianco e dolce cigno………………………………………………………………………. Jacob Arcadelt (1514-1557)
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recorders, harp, lute, krumhorns, shawm, sackbut, dulcians
The Ape
Here is another tune from an English masque, and an example of the music of an anti-masque, which often
characterizes an animal, or a low-life rustic, and is replete with short contrasting sections – slow, then manic
and with uneven metrical structure.
The Apes dance at the Temple…………………………………………………. Anonymous (English, early 17 c.)
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recorder, harp, lute
The Horse into Battle
A horse! a horse! My kingdom for a horse!
(Shakespeare, Richard III)
Franzius writes about the horse: “Horses are very much affected by instrumental and vocal music, and are
often moved to tears when listening to music. When a horse hears the trumpets sound it becomes exultant,
ready to charge the enemy, it is not afraid, but very excited….The Symbarites even trained their horses to
dance to the sound of the flutes for entertainment at banquets.” (trans. Kerstin Potter).
The set opens with an early Flemish fanfare, simply called “the French trumpet”. It evokes a call to battle,
and is followed by the iconic Pavane La battaille, one of many settings based on a programmatic chanson by
Clement Janequin filled with onomatopoeic words and musical sounds of battle.
L’homme armé (the armed man – “O, the armed man, fills the folks with dread alarms!”) provided a
melody that composers throughout the 15 and 16 centuries used as the compositional anchor for their
settings of the Ordinary of the Catholic mass. Employing a popular tune for this purpose was a common
practice at the time, and L’homme armé wins the prize for frequency, with over 40 separate compositions
by Flemish, French, Italian and Spanish composers. There is probably no deeper significance to the use of
this tune, other than the fact that it is very well adapted to contrapuntal treatment, with clear phrases that are
easy to recognize within the texture of a three to six part piece. Also, it lends itself well to the practice of
writing in canon (like a round), which the third section of Josquin’s Agnus Dei illustrates brilliantly. There
are three separate canons happening within this section, between the top two voices, the two middle ones
(each just a half note apart), and the two bass lines, which are a “crab” canon, that is, the lowest line is the
other in reverse! The six parts cascade one on top of the other as the section comes to a close.
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The troupe of players bids adieu with the ever-popular Bransle de chevaux (Dance of the horses), which, in
the second section of the dance, evokes the sounds of the pawing of horses’ hooves.
Tuba Gallicalis………………………………………………………………………………..Anonymous (Flemish, 15 c.)
Pavane “La battaille”…………………………………………………………………………………………….......... Susato
L’homme armé……………………………………………………………………………Anonymous (15 c., arr. Piffaro)
Agnus Dei from Missa “L’homme armé”………………………………………Josquin Desprez (c. 1450/55-1521)
Bransle de chevaux…………………………………………………………...Anonymous (French, 16 c., arr. Piffaro)
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shawms, slide trumpet, sackbut, dulcians, bagpipes, guitar, percussion