Music As We Know It

In my previous blog entries I promised to continue telling you about lost in the history famous composers of the transitional era.  Although, they were extremely popular at the late medieval times, their heritage either vanished throughout the years or brought us some minimal but significant evidence about their talents.

Fate played one of the most peculiar tricks on famous Italian composer of the late medieval times Giovanni Mazzuoli. In fact I found during my web analytics research that there was the second name assigned to him  - Giovanni degli Organi.  Giovanni Mazzuoli was famous not only as a composer but also as a great musician organist  during his life from around 1360 till 1426.

Giovanni learned to play the organ from his father Niccolo. The latter trained his son while he was also serving as an organist of the church of Orsanmichele until 1376.  Thanks to his gift and intensive training, Giovanni was handed over the very same position after the death of his father in 1379.  He also played the organ in several other churches and cathedrals and taught his son Piero as his father did. Pieró assisted Giovanni during his last years of service.

When we say, that Giovanni was a famous composer we actually telling a little white lie.  None of his works reached our times. There are several works attributed to him, but specialists can not claim them his for sure.  So, how can serious web analysts judge his works and write his name to posterity?

An important source of medieval Italian music - Squarcialupi Codex -  is the illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence, Italy in the early 15th century. It consists of  216 parchment folios. Most of them are well-preserved and they are, in fact, in a great condition. There is a large section in Squarcialupi Codex dedicated exclusively to the musical pieces created by Giovanni Mazzuoli. The section is marked out under his name and a portrait is presented at his head. But for unknown reasons, the pages are blank. There is absolutely no music written there. All pages are decorated around the edges but left blank otherwise.

Another Italian manuscript San Lorenzo discovered not so long ago does contain his musical compositions.  Unfortunately, the paper of the manuscript is in such poor condition that the pages with Mazzuoli music are essentially unreadable.  Curiously, though, his son Piero Mazzuoli, who also created music is also included in this manuscript. And over a dozen of his musical pieces survived. Basically, this is one of the rare cases when a great composer is best remembered for the absence, rather than the presence of his musical compositions.

In the ocean of classical music there will always be famous composers, whose bio got lost due to the sands of time.  There were wildly popular not only as composers but also as famous musicians as well. I found their names from the research that I conducted at my web analytics company with several other coworkers. The ones that I will tell you about played their important role in the transition from medieval to Renaissance music. My story about them will continue in the future blog entries.

One of them was a great Frenchman Richard Loqueville  who played the harp as a virtuoso and taught it to the son of the Duke of Bar in 1410.  We know only about the eight years of his creativity and then his traces in the history vanished.  During this short period this famous composer also taught singing to the choirboys of the duke’s court and later taught music at Cambrai Cathedral. History brought to us less than a dozen pieces of his music.

Another famous composer who helped the transition to Renaissance music was Nicholas of Radom who was connected to the Polish court.  He created somewhere in the early 15th century at the court of the Polish king Jagiello and left us pieces of memorable polyphonic music full of religious contemplation.

History brought to us the name of a famous for his times composer Pycard, whose full name is unknown. We don’t even know whether he came  from England or France. What we know is that his music is complex and unusual in its virtuosity.  Survived pieces tell us that he was one of the most technically advanced and creative composers of the 14th century. His name and music survived only because specialists found them in the invaluable Old Hall Manuscript- the largest, most complete, and most significant source of English sacred music of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

It will probably be very hard to answer who Antonello da Caserta was, as we know nothing about this great man, except that he was a famous medieval Italian composer in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.  Some musicologists advanced a theory that da Caserta was from Naples and created there. But eventually, this conclusion provided to be wrong, becuase most of composer’s surviving works are in northern Italian manuscripts. Anyways, there is nothing that I could find either from the archives of my local web analytics company.

There are some hints that Antonello was a monk. Yet, even this scarce information provides us with nothing, because we don’t know which monastic orders of that time he belonged to.  Other hints place Antonello in Pavia in 1402, it looks like at some certain point of his life he worked for the Italian noble dynasty Visconti in Milan, which they ruled from  1277 to 1447.  So far we don’t even know the exact name of Antonello, as different sources also name him Anthonello or Antonellus Marot.

It seems that da Caserta was heavily influenced by French musical models which was quite unusual for those times. He even set texts both in French and Italian.

Antonello was famous for his ballades that tell us about courtly love. His surviving works show that Antonello was very famous among other composers of the generation after Guillaume de Mauchet. While his Italian songs are simpler, his creations in French are more complex ballads that use the proportional rhythms that became popular in much later periods.

Famous composer Donato da Cascia undoubtedly was an integral part of the Early Italian Renaissance period, that we know as Trecento. He created his music in the second part of the fourteenth century. As in many other cases related to that period, we know nothing about this famous composer, his life, his date of birth or death. I did not find anything in the annals of my local web analytics company either. So, I can only suppose that he was from Florence or a place called Cascia, near Florence, as his last name says.

The only picture that specialists discovered, shows him in the typical robes of the Benedictine order, so we may assume that he was a monk or a priest. But here lies the mystery: out all his surviving music, there is not even a bit of religious music. It is all completely secular. All the sources of his music with just one exception were found in Tuscany.

Jacopo da Bologna most likely had some influence on Donato da Cascia’s works. We know about most of Donato’s music, thanks to Squarcialupi Codex - the illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence, Italy in the early 15th century. Even though, his music was written in the typical style of mid 14th century, it has exceptional virtuosity. All surviving madrigals created by Donato da Cascia represent the peak of virtuoso singing.

The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy started somewhere in the14th century. In Italian this historical period is called the Trecento from the phrase “mille trecento” which is translated as 1300. The list of famous names related to that period, that I found through search engines and in my local web analytics company, is practically endless. And, in addition to this list, we can add famous composers and musicians, artists and writers who published their works anonymously.

The Trecento, as you may well know it, was the period of heightened activity in art, literature and music. This is when Dante wrote his Divine Comedy, painter Giotto di Bondone used for the first time perspective in art. The list of Renaissance giants is huge and include famous creators as Boccaccio, Petrarch, Adnrea da Firenze and others.

Music had also changed drastically during Trecento. Partially, because a lot of troubadours was fleeing from the Southern France, mostly Provence, to Italy. Troubadours had a huge impact on Italian music of Renaissance period. Famous composers and musicians that used to write only religious music started writing secular songs. Francesco Landini, Paolo Tenorista, Maestro Piero and others created not only polyphonic music for all powerful Catholic Church but also love lyrics for everyday people.

From what we know, instrumental music was also widespread during Trecento. Unfortunately, not much of it survived, just few notated examples. The rest of the sources come to us from the area around Florence. We also know that some of the poetry of Dante was set to music, but none of it survived either.

Although Walther von der Vogelweide was one of the most famous composers, poets and singers in medieval Germany, there are practically no contemporary records about him. By doing a lot of guesswork, specialists came to the conclusion that he was of noble birth but did not belong to the aristocracy or even higher nobility. His place of birth is unknown, but there are dozens of books with all kinds of theories about it. Some secondary evidence also points that he occasionally used a nickname, which was quite usual for the poets of the times during which he lived.. Generally, everybody agrees, that he period of life was overall from about 1170 to 1230.

We know that Walther mastered his craft at the court of Vienna because of his beautiful lyrics dedicated to the death of his patron, duke Frederick, who was a patron of poetry and art. Since his sponsor’s death Walther’s happy period of life had ended. He started wandering from court to court, singing for bed and bread. Even though famous composer was hoping that some new patron would notice and give him a shelter, he was not exactly suited for that type of life, mostly due to his poetry. It contained very emotional and scathing criticism of men and manners of the times, which made uncomfortable rich nobility. Thanks to his lyrics, he lost a position at the court of duke Bernhard of Carinthia and later was kicked out of the court of Dietrich I of Meissen, where as he mentions, he did not get neither money nor praise.

Yet, Walther’s poems give us the picture not only of a great artistic genius, but of a strenuous, passionate, very human and very lovable character. His talents and strong views became required by German society, when empire and papacy started their struggle in 1197. Walther took side with German independence and unity which gave him a place of significance in history. Till the end of his days, Walther remained a faithful Catholic, which is confirmed by religious poems. Nevertheless, he was fervently opposing the extreme claims of the Roman popes, whom he attacked with bitterness, expressing his deep patriotic feelings.

Walther never switched sides and a highly intelligent new emperor Frederick II held in high esteem poet’s genius and zeal. Thus, Walther received desired recognition and even a small fief in Franconia, that gave him a home and fixed position. Yet, he was complaining that this fief had little value. There is some evidence, that Frederick made Walther the tutor of his son, but this evidence based on one of his lyrics is disputed by modern researchers.

Walther von der Vogelweide did not stay immediately at his new fief long, he traveled for a while and only then settled at his new place. From there he was urging German princes to take part in the Sixth Crusade in 1228 but, did not participate in it himself, or at least did not go further than Tirol. In a beautiful poem he paints the change that had come over the scenes of his childhood and made his life seem a thing dreamed. When he was dying in 1230, he put in his will the request to feed the birds at his tomb every day.

Nobody in our modern times was able to figure out which medieval English monarch was hiding behind the nickname Roy Henry. There is certain amount of certainty among specialists that it was one of the kings with the name Henry, probably either Henry V who ruled from 1413 to 1422 or his father Henry IV, who was a king of England from 1399 to 1413.

Two compositions that reached our modern times came from the best source for English music of the late Medieval era. It is called Old Hall Manuscript. Today Old Hall Manuscript is considered the largest, most complete and most significant source of English sacred music of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

The reason why, we are not certain which Henry wrote the music is that both kings were alive at the time. Henry IV, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was fading slowly at the time when the music was composed. He did not have the reputation of an accomplished musician as his son which still does not allow us to exclude him completely. Besides, his music could have been compiled later.

But if the music was compiled later, that means that it could be Henry V who ruled from 1413 to 1422. Naturally, the scribe would call him Roy even if he was not exactly a king when the music was composed. Most of musicologists think, this Henry V is the most possible composer of this music anyways. Even great William Shakespeare alluded to this.

Recent research shows that compositions were written for the death of Duke Clarence, who was a brother of Henry V. Whoever Roy is, hj seems to be a famous composer because the music itself is skillfully written. It is extremely lucky that the compositions and Old Hall Manuscript survived at all, because most of catholic sacred music manuscripts were destroyed when Henry VIII disbanded monastic communities and confiscated their property from 1536 to 1541.

Not all famous troubadours were of aristocratic origin. Some of them had came from lower class families like great composer and poet Giraut de Bornelh. He was born around 1138 in Limousin and started writing music and poems at quite an early age. Soon his fame spread around and his fans gave him for his skills a very prestigious name - Master of the Troubadours.

And Giraut was a Master, indeed. He invented the new, light style of troubadour’s music, won a lot of poetical debates. We got a rare chance to observer his contribution because around ninety poems and four of his melodies survived to our modern times.

When another great troubadour Raimbaut of Orange unexpectedly died, Giraut created one of his best pieces - a lament on the Raimbaut’s death. This song became famous, especially during Third Crusade. Giraut accompanied Richard the Lionheart and his own patron Aimar V of Limoges and even stayed in the Holy Land for a while. Specialists say, that it is quite possible that Giraut made a piligrimage there even before the beginning of the Third Crusade. He lived a long life and died in 1215.

Once upon a time, or to be more precise, in the eleventh century there was a woman full of wisdom and numerous talents. Seeking the answers, Popes of Rome, kings and statesmen and even some Catholic saints  visited her for just a piece of advice.  Many abbots and abbesses asked her for prayers and opinions on various matters.  Her name was Hildegard of Bingen.

She traveled widely and was the only woman in Middle Ages who had her preaching tours.  Hildegard is the first composer with existing biography and she wrote an opera which did not survive to our days.  It is easier to say what she did not do. I believe, she showed her genius in everything. In addition to creating music, Hildegard was visionary, artist, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, activist.

Hildegard was the tenth child from the family of free nobles in Germany. She was born in 1098 and did not have a robust health.  Since her childhood till the end of her days, Hildegard was experiencing visions.  She could predict many things or simply describe something that would only happen in future. Many centuries later we can only guess whether Hildegard was a true psychic or had telepathic abilities.  But in the medieval times, her parents, due to her unusual abilities offered her to a church under the care and tutelage of a highly popular nun Jutta.

These were happy times for Hildegard, because a couple of centuries later, she would definitely be burnt in a fire accused to be a witch like Jeanne d’Arc.   After passing of Jutta who had many followers, Hildegard was elected to be a leader of her sister community or as they called it then - “magistra”.

Hildegard thought that her visions were some kind of instructions from God. She confided in Jutta, telling her about the visions, but she was still in doubt whether she should record them. But when suddenly she became gravely ill, she overcame her fear and was more open about her visions that continued to get throughout her life.  In the end accounts of them were compiled in three books and the work was still in progress when she passed away in 1179.

In addition,  to creating music, poetry and writing, Hildegard wrote many medical, botanical and geological works. She was the first woman in Europe to write about feminine sexuality and the first to describe scientifically origin of  female orgasm. There is no use to go through accounts of her books and treatises, because one blog entry would not be enough for that. She founded several monasteries and was respected throughout all medieval Germany. She remained at the level of beautification and her name was was taken up in the Roman martyrology at the end of the sixteenth century.  There were four attempts to canonize her as saint, but the process was never completed. Yet, she is considered a saint in the whole nation of Germany. Her feast day is September 17.

It is practically impossible to write one short blog entry about life and death of famous troubadour Raymond Lull. This actually requires a big book. First of all, this guy was a real genius living in the barbaric medieval times. Second, he reminds me more of a hero from some sci-fi movie. And, it is strange to me, that there is no movie about him, while there are so many dumb films out there. I don’t even know where to start, but I will give it a try.

Let’s start that he was not just any troubadour hanging around the royal courts and singing about love from afar or other chansons. He was the first in many things. For example, he was a pioneer of computation theory - his works had a great influence on German polymath Leibniz. He, probably wrote a first European romantic novel and the first major work of Catalan language literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show him to have anticipated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He was also a great philosopher and poet - and he made quite an impression on later philosophers, including Schopenhauer. And he was a tireless traveler, making sea voyages even at the very old age until the end of his life.

Raymond Lull was born into a wealthy in Palma on the island of Majorca,  somewhere around 1232.  Majorca is one of the Balearic islands, which are a part of Spain. Raymond received great education, he spoke fluently Latin, Catalan, Occitan and Arabic and was chosen as a special tutor for James II of Aragon. He was a dedicated troubadour: he led a troubadour’s life even after he married in 1357 and had two kids! Career wise, he was doing fine - he became no less than a senechal of king James II of Majorca.

But somewhere in the middle of his life he started to have visions. This pushed him to a religious conversion, close to what happened centuries later with Leo Tolstoy. In 1265 he had a religious epiphany, became a member of Franciscan monastic order, and for almost a decade became almost a hermit. During these years, he wrote works on botany, alchemy, theology, and a first European romantic novel. He never entered any monastery and did not become a priest. He just remained a secular Franciscan for the rest of his life.

What happened next? Then he invented numerous machines for all purposes.  One of his inventions - a proto-computer could generate a large number of combinations of ideas.  His invention was an early attempt to use logical means to produce knowledge. Lull’s ideas were further developed in sixteenth century by Giordano Bruno and by and by Gottfried Leibniz in the seventeenth century. A priori, Raymond Lull is considered to be a founding father is a founding father of computer science, because his system of logic was the beginning of information science.

Spanish inquisitors were scared of his works and inventions. Great inquisitor of Aragon thought of Raymond Lull  as his personal enemy and sent numerous complaints to Rome. As a result, Pope Gregory XI banned some of Raymond Lull’s writings. Yet, the impact of Raymond Lull system of logic went through the centuries unbruised. It was so ahead of times that even famous Jonathan Swift created a character in Gulliver’s Travels who generates knowledge by combining words at random. Swift does not mention Lull by name, but that passage can only be a parody of his method.

Well over his fifties, Raymond Lull made endless travels in Europe and North Africa. He got an idea to unite Judaism, Christianity and Islam into one faith, which was a pure heresy at these times.  During his travels, In 1297 Lull met great philosopher Duns Scotus, after which he was given the nickname Doctor Illuminatus. Lull was prototype of a modern pacifist and never advocated violence or brutal wars. Close to the end of his life Raymond Lull achieved the impossible - all major European universities accepted his idea about linguistic education and set up the chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean.  Almost simultaneously Sorbonne, Salamanca, Bologna, Oxford and Papal Court introduced linguistic studies going along with Lull’s ideas.

Overall, given a chance, Raymond Lull would probably live to be a hundred years old.  He had unusual strength and health and traveled non-stop till he was 82 years old. In 1314 he traveled to North Africa for the last time and was stoned by an angry crowd in the present day northern Ageria. He still managed to survive and even get back to his island of Majorca, where he died in 1315.