Luogo e data di registrazione		Chiesa di San Polo, Arezzo (Italia): - 24-26 aprile 1975 | Anonymous (1-4) - 21-23, 25 aprile 1975 | Corteccia (5-21)
	Original Editions		- Archiv Produktion | 2533 310 | 1 LP | (p) 1976 | ANA | Anonymous (1-4) - Archiv Produktion | 2533 301 | 1 LP | (p) 1975 | ANA | Corteccia (5-21)
	Edizione "Codex"		Archiv Produktion "Codex" | 453 163-2 | durata 54' 14" | LC 0113 | 1 CD | (p) 1996 | ADD | stereo
	Executive Producer		Dr. Andreas Holschneider
	Recording Producer and Tonmeister		Heinz Wildhagen
	Recording Engineer		Wolf-Dieter Karwatky
	Cover		Giotto di Bondone "Die Beweinung Christi", fresco (c.1305); Padua, Cappella degli Scrovegni
	Art Direction		Fred Münzmaier
	Note		Original-Image-Bit-Processing - Added presence and brilliance, greater spatial definition

ORIGINAL EDITIONS 1 LP - 2533 301 - (p) 1975 1 LP - 2533 310 - (p) 1976

Treasures from Archiv Produktion’s Catalogue A rare and valuable collection of documents is the pride of any library or archive. CODEX, Archiv Produktion’s new series, presents rare documents in sound from 50 years of pioneering recording. These recordings have been digitally remastered using original-image bit-processing technology and can now be appreciated in all the richness of their original sound-image. They range from the serene counterpoint of a Machaut, the intensely spiritual polyphony of a Victoria, to the imposing state-music of a Handel. For the artists on Archiv Produktion recordings, a constant aim has been to rediscover the musical pulse of past times and to recreate the spirit of past ages. In this sense each performance here - whether by Pro Musica Antiqua of Brussels in the 1950s, the Regensburg Domchor in the 1960s, or Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock in the 1970s - made a vital contribution to the revival of Early Music in our time. CODEX highlights recordings that were unique in their day, many of them first recordings ever of this rare and remarkable repertoire, now appearing for the first time on CD. A special aspect of the history of performance in our century can now be revisited, as great moments from Archiv Produktion’s recording history are restored and experienced afresh. Dr. Peter Czornyi Director, Archiv Produktion CORTECCIA: ST JOHN PASSION Francesco Corteccia was born in Florence on 27 July 1502, and died there on 7 June 1571. After serving as a chorister at the Church of Saint John the Baptist (the present Baptistery in Florence) he became a priest in 1526. A pupil of Bartolomeo degl’Organi for keyboard instruments and Bernardo Pisano for composition, he was organist at the Church of San Lorenzo (1531) and later, chapel master (from 1540 until his death) at Florence Cathedral and the Oratory of St. John, and also at the Medici court under the patronage of Duke Cosimo I. A reputable composer of madrigals, intermedi, mascherate, motets, lamentations, responses, passions, hymns, etc., he must be considered as the most valid link between the end of the golden era of the Florentine carnival songs and the beginning of the Bardi Camerata. According to precise statements by the composer, the Passion of Christ according to St. John was completed in 1527 - maybe in the last two months of that year so critical for the city of Florence, afflicted by political agitation and a violent plague epidemic. To those who know Corteccia’s personality well, it is not surprising that his very first ambitious work should have been music for a setting of the celebrated Gospel of St. John. For throughout his life, the Florentine master was always to show a special love, a genuine predilection for the sacred texts connected with the liturgical ceremonies of Holy Week, achieving the finest results when the sense of drama becomes sharper and deeper in the words. And so the two Passions (the St.John and the St. Matthew), the earliest examples of the polyphonic Passion literature of the Italian Renaissance were soon joined by the massive Lamentations of Jeremiah (translated into the “Florentine tongue”, and therefore lost after the Council of Trent), the Responsoria, Psalm 50 (in three versions), the Canticle of Zechariah (also in three versions) and all the minor works which complete the Holy Office for the three days of Easter. Corteccia wrote for male chorus, divided into four parts, the “Turbarum voces”, in other words, all the statements that the evangelist attributed to the crowd hostile to Jesus (the so-called “Multiloquentes”). Besides these sections, the composer set in four-part polyphony the “Exordium” and the vast final part of the Passion (“Evangelium”) - which is generally omitted and narrates the deposition of Christ from the Cross and his burial. The polyphonic pages which Francesco Corteccia has left us for the Passion therefore correspond to the typical formal style of early polyphonic treatment of the text of the historiae recorded by the four evangelists. The solo parts, however, remain tied to emphatic Gregorian declamation (“accentus”). These are, the Chronista, whose task is narration in the third person of the events and who links the entrances of the various characters, Christus and the Soliloquentes of the “Synagoque” (the latter including all the accusers of Jesus). But in Florence before the Counter-Reformation - especially between 1515 and 1545 (evidently in the wake of the successful experiences of the medieval Passion Play) - performances took place also outside the liturgical service and therefore away from churches. And this came about from the time when, through “the elevation of the soul” (“elevatione dell’anima”), the surviving associations of authors of laudi (among them the one known as Compagnia di S. Maria delle Laude with which Corteccia had direct and profitable connections) during the Easter period favoured the plain “narratione divota delle Passioni” (devout narration of the Passion), with the Holy Scripture “faithfully translated into Florentine” (so that the people might understand exactly and immediately), reserving Latin exclusively for the “passages given over to music”. In this respect, the most interesting point is to know the origin of the usage - “the interruption of the narration at suitable places, in order to allow the musicians to sing” various texts - not inherent to that of the Passion. Generally these were laudi sung in the vernacular or, more frequent, responsories for the Easter triduum - “inspired by the great torment of our Lord God on the Cross”, as “devout meditations". In this field, certainly favourable to the natural inclinations of the young maestro, Corteccia showed himself to be a true and convinced champion of the clearly-defined drama, capable of creating for the “devout common people” a sincere, in some cases, violent impression - for people who were in no way learned and for whom the associations of lauda authors catered. Corteccia uses a simple, linear style, featuring effective and skilful chordal patterns of masculine sobriety and vigorous expressive power, not yielding to the urge, at the time very much in fashion and of great importance, to display bravura counterpoint at every opportunity. Following the isorhythmic polyphonic songs of the people in the late 15th and early 16th century, Corteccia is revealed here as a “harmonist” of rare sensitivity, carefully selecting consonances and dissonances both in order to ensure comprehension of the words of the text, and set them in the most apt atmosphere to the particular dramatic moment. Thus, in complete contrast to the solemn religiosity of the “Exordium” are the vehement entries of the “Turbarum voces” - rapid but complete dramatic miniatures which, according to clearly-defined psychological impulses, from time to time assume different characteristics, even in their common, simple writing. The impetuous force of the “Turbae” is interrupted by the sweet pietàs ofthe seven Meditations (six responsories and an antiphon for Holy Week) - which include genuine masterpieces of the genre, “Tristis est anima mea”, “Caligaverunt oculi mei”, and in particular, the wonderful “Tenebrae factae sunt”, dying away in the long final page of the “Evangeliurn”, where the static quality in the isorhythmic flow of the voices with its anguished, rhythmic movement, punctuated by frequent silences makes it admirably apt as the final choral prayer of a redeemed multitude who, after demanding the death sentence for the Innocent, now intend to accompany Jesus to the tomb in a sad, desolate procession of penitence. Mario Fabbri (1975) (Translation: Gwyn Morris) MARIAN ANTIPHONS The second component of the Catholic liturgy is the Office or Hours celebrated at set daily times (Officium). Among its constituent musical elements, the antiphons and responsories, the Marian texts abound in references to the mysteries they celebrate. Yet from the 12th century onwards, four Marian antiphons have received especial distinction; divorced from their psalm connections they have functioned cyclically within the church year as self-containing closing chants for the separate Hours. Alma redemptoris mater. Celebrated from Advent to Candlemas (2 February). The text is ascribed to the monk and poet Heriman the Lame from Reichenau (Hermannus Contractus, died 1054). The melody with its extensive initial melisma bears all the characteristics of a 12th-century composition. Ave regina caelorum. Celebrated from Candlemas to Wednesday in Holy Week. The rhyming text and its musical setting (probably of French origin) suggest a miniature sequence: (1) Double versicle: Ave...  / Ave... (2) Double versicle: Salve...  / Gaude... Conclusion: Vale... Regina caeli. Celebrated from Easter Sunday to Friday after Pentecost. The melismata, uncharacteristic of an antiphon, betray the new spirit which had penetrated even liturgical melodic forms at the end of the 11th century. Salve regina (mater) misericordiae. Celebrated during the remainder of the church year. Here the restless, jaggedly oscillating melody betrays the new style which characterises secular and sacred music-making during the prolific decades of the 12th century. Bruno Stäblein (1976) (Translation.Jennifer Parker)