Together with colleagues such as Carol Price and Carrie
Nixon, Jeff aspires to preserve, perfect, and with due
discretion to add to the rich heritage of plainsong and
polyphony alike. The Chabanel Psalms may be of special
interest, because like the liturgical polyphonic creations
of many eras, they are impelled by the tranquil currents
of Gregorian tradition while also drawing upon various
elements of contemporary musical culture, sacred and
secular.
Thus as Jeff explains in a fascinating exposition of the
modus operandi of his Psalm settings, he is especially
influenced by the Belgian school of chant accompaniment
exemplified by Flor Peeters and the Nova Organi Harmonia.
While the Belgian style evolved through the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, it has some elements which seem very
much in resonance with the early 21st century also.
First of all, Jeff understands that even a simple
"accompaniment" should be looked at ideally as a meeting of
coherent melodic lines, a contrapuntal virtue that makes his
textures apt for an organ accompaniment or a performance by
a vocal ensemble.
Another notable aspect of the mature Belgian style to be
heard in the Chabanel Psalms is the feasibility and
effectiveness of basing an accompanying texture on the
diatonic notes of the chant itself. While accidental
inflections sometimes occur in 12th-13th century polyphonic
settings, and are standard in 14th-17th century modal
practice, Jeff brilliantly draws upon a 20th-century
tradition of diatonic modality, sacred and secular, in the
Chabanel cycle for the liturgical year.
To be precise, I should add that some chants treat fluidly
the degree of B/Bb (German H/B), with both forms of this
degree being considered part of the "regular" or musica
recta gamut. However, as in much 12th-13th century
polyphony and also the masterful Belgian settings, we find
also in the Chabanel cycle that other types of inflections,
for example to achieve ascending or descending semitonal
melodic movements at cadences, are not required in order
to write convincing and satisfying conclusions. This
liberating lesson leaves one with many alternatives in
setting the chant, with inflections as one historical option
rather than a mistaken categorical imperative.
As a medievalist especially interested in the polyphonic
Gothic tradition of the 13th and 14th centuries, I may have
a special aural vantage point in appreciating another
feature of these settings: the use of evocative and fitting
sonorities with a very rich history. Thus we often hear the
fifth and fourth together above a bass note: Is this a
mildly unstable but relatively concordant sonority in the
style of Perotin around 1200; or a suspension in the manner
of classic 16th-century polyphony; or quintal/quartal
harmony in a 20th-century fashion à la Debussy and Bartok?
Similarly, as Jeff notes, a very characteristic sonority is
a minor seventh plus a fifth or minor third above the bass,
a "minor-minor seventh" as he described it; and also the
more dramatic tension of a major seventh and third above the
bass, a "major-major seventh." It is fascinating that
Perotin and his 13th-century colleagues made very effective
use of both these sonorities in a Gothic context, with
Machaut in the following century showing a proclivity for
the minor seventh, which the theorist Jacobus of Liege
around 1325 actually classified as an "imperfect concord."
Of course, Perotin and Machaut were composing in styles
where thirds and sixths were decidedly unstable intervals,
while the Belgian school and Chabanel settings are largely
tertian in nature, but also quite catholic in drawing on a
variety of interval structures.
For one attuned to history, the allusions and resonances
(whether in the ear of the composer or the listener) will be
rich and at the same time exquisitely consonant with the
nature of the chant. After about 1150 years of attested
polyphonic chant settings, this situation may be almost
inevitable; and the Chabanel Psalms handle it with musical
taste and reverent grace.
In striving to further the "development" of chant-based
polyphony, Jeff delicately balances liturgical propriety
with artistic possibility. I am reminded of St. Carlo
Borromeo, who as a Cardinal interested in exploring the
range of "intelligible music" (meaning especially clarity of
text) which the Council of Trent had decreed, was ready to
invite settings of the Mass from various composers, including
Nicola Vicentino, famous for his chromatic and indeed
"enharmonic" or microtonal techniques. Also, one recalls
St. Roberto Bellarmine, who admired the beauty of a new
madrigal collection and composed spiritual texts which would
be suitable for singing in religious communities.
As a tour of Jeff's sites on the Web will make clear, the
Chabanel Psalms represent one side of a movement to
celebrate the heritage of plainsong and polyphony, a
movement which can be expressed in many styles of
composition and performance, sometimes drawing on modern
digital technologies.
Thus I delighted to hear performances of 16th-century
polyphony in mp3 audio format, one of which featured his
colleague Carol Price singing not one but three of the
voices of a transporting Nanini setting of Laudate pueri,
while Jeff sung the lowest voice, something made possible by
a kind of electronic layering. Intended in part as a present
to Carol's mother, this recording is also a gift to all the
world, and to our common Creator.
Another very moving piece is a setting by Carrie Nixon of
Lux Aeterna from the Requiem Mass, composed in a style
that might suggest the fauxbourdon of the early Dufay around
1425, and for me also evoked a Passion setting of this epoch
from England. The great purity and "transparency" of the
voices made a special impression upon me, with this luminous
transparency fitting both the musical style and the text.
Polyphonic liturgical cycles have a long history, with the
Magnus liber organi developed by Leonin and his successors
in the late 12th century as a very famous example. In times
of liturgical tension and reappraisal, as in the Tridentine
era and also today, such endeavors may have a special
importance in not only continuing a tradition of musical
creativity from generation to generation, but also
addressing and finding a satisfying resolution to a crisis
of musical and spiritual direction alike.
The Chabanel Psalms are an invitation for those of us who
compose or improvise chant-based polyphony to go and do
likewise, perhaps setting off on other directions which may
be at once "ever old and ever new," and more richly informed
by this most outstanding example.
— Margo Schulter
mschulter@calweb.com
Sacramento, California, USA |
