August 23, 2017

  • Renaissance Journeys with Piffaro

     Back Before Bach: Musical Journeys

    Piffaro
    Navona Records 6106
    Total Time:  61:00
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Navona branches backward a bit from its more typical contemporary releases for this intriguing new album by America’s premiere Renaissance band, Piffaro.  Based in Philadelphia, Piffaro has been bringing Medieval and Renaissance music to a growing public for some 35+ years.  The group uses carefully reconstructed instruments to help lend an authentic sound to the music.  The present recording is a sort of musical journey that works across history from the earliest appearance of a tune through its several incarnations.  The concept is to follow these threads to help provide a foundation of musical influences and sounds that would be in the background of the Baroque’s most famous of composers, Johann Sebastian Bach.

    The German Bands of Bach’s childhood opened his ears to the potential of wind instruments.  Melodies and hymns would also find their inspiration in some of the chorales that would be the culmination of his own cantatas.  To help provide context for Bach’s music, each collection of pieces here begins by exploring some of the unique Renaissance instruments that would have been common for use in the selections here.  Then the works are grouped to provide a sort of intriguing journey that explores these unique sonorities as both the tunes themselves and the instruments evolve to set the stage for Bach’s own work.  This is particularly pronounced in the 8 pieces related to “Christ ist erstanden.”  We begin with a brief setting from the Glogauer Liederbuch and then are treated to versions by Heinrich Isaac, Heinrich Finck, Stephen Mahu, Johann Walther, and Michael Praetorius.  These settings shift from three to five lines and will culminate in the chorale setting to Bach’s cantata, BWV 276.  One might think that exploring the same tune like this would be wearisome, but quite the opposite is true as one can hear the subtle development of harmony and the way a shift in instrument use also impacts the color and tenor of the tune itself.  A similar approach is taken for the Chorale, “Christum wir sollen loben schon” which begins with the Latin hymn from the Coelius Sedulius and then moves into motets, hymns, and chorales by Walther, Praetorius, and Samuel Schiedt.

    If there is one thing that tends to grab the modern listener’s attention to this music it is generally that for dancing as this tends to appear in period television and film (albeit often very contemporized!).  Piffaro pulls together a number of dances to provide some of the vernacular styles and sounds of the period to balance those heard in the sacred expressions.  There are three segments on the disc devoted to this music which was often not notated.  The first collection of these. “Innsbruck, Ich muess dich Lassen” explores the sounds of krumhorns and bagpipes for this tune that would become a popular hymn.  A later suite of German dances provides some of the rhythmic drive that would inform Bach’s work, the Scheidt “Allemande” certainly will catch the dance-like patterns.  The collection explores the sound of sackbuts and shawms that are spread out in collections of pieces.

    To get a feel for the chromatic writing of the period, Piffaro sets aside a section of four pieces exploring the music of Orlando di Lasus, Jakob Handl, and Melchoir Franck.  They then shift to recorders to explore the development of a Rhenish tune.  The blend of popular songs, dances, and sacred hymns/chants makes this a fascinating listening experience.

    Back Before Bach is indeed a rather fascinating musical journey.  The ensemble is captured in a dry acoustic which allows for crisp and clear sound.  One can almost imagine oneself transported to a court, or perhaps a merchant home where a group of musicians has been hired to entertain one for the night, especially in the dances.  The sacred musical ideas are equally compelling to hear the slight changes in melodic stress and the gradual shift from open to closer harmonies.  While the subtleties of some aspects may be lost on some learners, the recording is an invaluable educational tool to help students hear how this music evolved.  One tends to forget that Bach’s music can really dance, even in his sacred works, and this quality surely gets more support in this masterful release of period music.