Luogo e data di registrazione		Begijnhofkerk of St. Truiden (Bekgium) - 24/26 April 1995
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Recording supervisor		Wolf Erichson
	Recording Engineer / Editing		Markus Heiland (Tritonus)
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Sony / Vivarte - SK 68 258 - (1 CD) - durata 65' 19" - (p) 1996 - DDD
	Cover Art		Entrée de Louis XII à Gȇnes, Jean Bourdichon (?), book painting
	Note		-

Pipelare - A little-known Composer of Great Versality The 15th -century Flemish composer Matthaeus Pipelare shared the fate of many a Renaissance master: as the centuries went by the exceptional quality of his œuvre was gradually forgotten and many of the facts about his life fell by the wayside. For example, we know that he was a contemporary of Josquin Desprez, that he was born in Flanders somewhere around 1455 and that his father was called Matheeusz Pippelaer, but what he did in his youth, what or where he studied and how his career began unfortunately remain a matter of guesswork. 1498 is the first date we have to go on. At this time Pipelare was a member of the cathedrad choir in Antwerp, which was then one of the centres of musical life in Flanders. In 1490 this choir consisted of no fewer than 69 singers, who were divided up into two groups, a “chorus dexter” and a “chorus sinister”. Jacques Barbireau was maître de chapelle until 1491, when his post was taken over by Jacob Obrecht, someone Pipelare must have been acquainted with. (Obrecht left Antwerp in 1497.) There are no known compositions by Pipelare which make explicit reference to the cathedral in Antwerp, but this could well be because the cathedral library was destroyed by religious fanatics in1566. Nor is it even known where Pipelare lived before he moved to Antwerp, though it is just possible that he had connections to Ghent, since his four-part Missa “Floruit egregius infans Livinus” is dedicated to Livinius, the patron saint of Ghent, who is honoured in the Church of St. Baafs. In the spring of 1498 Pipelare moved from Antwerp to 's-Hertogenbosch, the capital of northern Brabant some 50 miles away - and where, incidentally, the painter Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516) also lived. This move, however, is not particularly surprising since for years there had been close co-operation between Antwerp cathedral and the Marian Brotherhood (Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap) in 's-Hertogenbosch, a relationship which, amongst other things, had an influence on the music. On February 26,1493, for instance, the kapelmeester of Antwerp cathedral received money from the Guild of Our Good Lady to pay for inviting singers from 's-Hertogenbosch; in the 1460s and 1470s Nicolas de Clibano, the then sangmeester (choirmaster) at 's-Hertogenbosch, travelled many times to Antwerp to recruit singers; and the choir of the Marian Brotherhood ordered choirbooks from the famous Flemish music scribe Pierre Alamire, who at that time was still active in Antwerp. Founded in 1318 the Marian Brotherhood not only came to be the musical centre in Brabant but over the years attracted more and more professional singers and composers, some coming from as far away as Italy. Barbireau, Jacob Clemens non Papa and Pierre de la Rue, for example, were all members of this Brotherhood. On the death, in 1498, of the Brotherhoodis choirmaster, Clibano, the council commissioned Pouwels van Rode to find them a replacement and, while he was about it, a high male singing voice, too. The latter made his way to Antwerp - and succeeded in finding both: Crispin van Stappen was the high male voice and Pipelare the new choirmaster. These three men arrived back in 's-Hertogenbosch on March 14, 1498. Pipelare was paid a salary of 18 stiver a week - thus making him the best-paid musician in the chapel - and, in addition to his work as choirmaster, he also supplied the Brotherhood with new compositions. Some two years later, however, and despite all attempts on the part of the Marian Brotherhood to dissuade him - they even increased his salary “to retain him here” - on May 1, 1500 Pipelare quit, and his position was filled by Nicolas Craen. What Pipelare did after this has not been established. All we know is that he stayed in Flanders and may possibly have gone to the Habsburg Courts of Mechelen and Brussels - it is interesting, at least, that some of his compositions are to be found in manuscripts produced at these courts in the early part of the 16th century - but more about this later. As to the question of Pipelare's date of death, again we unfortunately have no clear answer, though there are two manuscripts which at least help us to narrow it down. The first is the choirbook no. 2 of Jena University Library, which was written between 1512 and 1525 under the direction of Pierre Alamire in the scriptorium of the Habsburg Court of Mechelen and Brussels and sent, presumably as a gift, to Friedrich III the Wise, Elector of Saxony and founder of Wittenberg University This document contains 10 masses, one of which is Pipelare's five-part Missa “Fors seulement”. Especially helpful for our purposes is the cross placed after the names of those composers who were no longer alive when their works were entered in this book. As a cross appears after Pipelare's name, one can probably assume that he had died before this choirbook was completed. The second manuscript to offer us a clue is in Brussels Royal Library: on the basis of MS. 215-216, we can get even closer to Pipelare's date of death. This document, too, derives from Alamire's scriptorium and dates in all probability from some time between 1512 and 1516. Besides Gregorian music, it contains two of Pipelare's masses and two motets, one of which is his Memorare Mater Christi (6). Next to his name are the words “PIE MEMORIE †” - from which we conclude that our elusive composer must have died before 1516. And Pipelare's posthumous fame? The German theorist Andreas Ornithoparchus mentions him in his treatise Musicae activae mícrologus of 1517 (which, after being reissued several times, was finally translated into English by John Dowland in 1609). Here we are told that he was a composer whose compositions “flow from the very fountaine of Art”. He is also referred to in Claudius Sebastian's Bellum musicale inter plani et mensuralis cantus reges (The musical war between the kings of plainsong and mensural song, Strasbourg 1563). Dividing musicians up into four schools - the theorists, the mathematicians, the practitioners and the poets - Sebastiani favoured the practitioners,“the leaders of the others, who know how to sing and compose and who are capable of judging compositions.” And among the composers he takes as his models are Antoine Brumel, Heinrich Isaac, Josquin, La Rue - and Pipelare. After 1563, however, our picture of Pipelare fades with every passing year: German composer and lexicographer Johann Gottfried Walther devotes just three lines to him in his Musicalisches Lexicon (1732), and Charles Burney, in his four-volume A General History of Music (1776-89), only recalls Pipelare's Missa “L'homme armé”. Nevertheless, Pipelare must undoubtedly have been held in high regard during his lifetime: there are, after all, more than 60 sources in which works of his appear - a fact that takes on even greater significance considering that his known oeuvre was not particularly large: just 8 chansons (French and Flemish), 7 motets, 1 Magnificat, 1 Salve Regina, 1 Credo and - the bulk of his output - 9 masses. It is notable, too, that a great many of the 48 manuscripts and 15 prints containing works of his were, at the same time, some of the most important sources of the day, and that no fewer than 13 of these manuscripts were produced in the scriptorium of the Habsburg Court. What is more, Pipelare's manuscripts appear together with those of Josquin, Agricola, Isaac, Brumel and La Rue, and a number of these manuscripts are regarded as representative of the style of composition then prevalent in Flanders. Finally, it should not be forgotten that these manuscripts had been commissioned as gifts for, amongst others, Pope Leo X and Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. Pipelare's works were copied or printed many times all over Europe: there are three choirbooks in the Sistine Chapel (Sistina 16, 34 and 41) that contain compositions by Pipelare, including his Missa “L'homme armé” (7-I 1); the first man to print polyphonic music from movable type, Ottaviano Petrucci in Italy (1466-I539), included compositions by Pipelare in his second volume (Canti B, 1502); and works by Pipelare were also copied in Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Some of Pipelare's compositions must have been very popular indeed: his chanson Fors seulement, for example, (3), occurs in no fewer than 15 sources, and, though with a Latin text, the music of Fors seulement (4) is found in an early 16th -century Spanish manuscript (the Segovia chansonnier) which was produced at the Court of Isabella, Queen of Castile. Even a composition of a less “popular” nature such as his Missa ,,Fors seulement” has nevertheless survived in 7 sources, whilst his Missa “L'homme armé” is found in 4 manuscripts, one of which being a Vatican source that was printed in Italy twice (Antico, 1516 and Giunta, 1522). The fact that Pipelare's works, though relatively few in number, were so widely disseminated is surely due to their high compositional quality. Whilst his musical technique and “grammar” is comparable to that of his contemporaries Josquin, Obrecht, Agricola and, above all, to that of La Rue - so much so that in the manuscripts he is sometimes confused with La Rue - his musical language, on the other hand, possesses an unmistakably individual character, it is multifaceted (sometimes even capricious) and, above all, a source of numerous surprises. VRAY DIEU D'AMOURS This composition is unique in several respects. First, Pipelare takes a wholly outdated literary form as the basis for the lyrics, namely the ballade, and even points up this anachronism by writing in purely homophonic style - quite unprecedented in a period when imitative counterpoint was the norm. Second, this work contains several harmonic surprises - one being the conspicuous use of the diminished seventh, and another consisting in having an A chord followed by an E flat chord in the last verse of each strophe, where the bass sings an explicitly pointed (forbidden) A-E flat interval. And third,whereas the first strophe is written for two parts (superius and bass), the second is written for three (with tenor) and the third, which leads into the “envoi”, for four (with contratenor). EEN VROUELIC WESEN This Flemish chanson was copied many times and, as a consequence, the lyrics departed ever further from the original. For example, in some sources there is talk of a “vrolic wesen”, i. e., a merry creature, yet, from the context, there is no doubt that the song is about a man's love for a woman. In this chanson Pipelare gives the inner voices a lively character - in contrast to the serenity of the upper voice, and in the repetition, the superius embellishes the melody. FORS SEULEMENT This extremely popular song - there are 32 different versions, including 2 by Pipelare himself - is the refrain of a rondeau. Pipelare's chanson must have been a hit in his day since it has come down from the 16th century in at least 15 manuscripts and prints. Here Pipelare is daring enough to compose the two outer voices in a style different from that of the two inner voices. Whilst the latter at first move in declamarory style, superius and bass are composed in a rhythmically rather nervous counterpoint (at times in parallel movements reminiscent of contrapuntal improvisation). Written in the Dorian mode, this chanson includes an upper voice that must span a range from D to B flat', and the cadences to the verses are made especially prominent by the rhythmically exciting music leading up to them. Just how commonplace this composition of Pipelare's was in the many court chapels is demonstrated by the fact that in the famous codex of Segovia Cathedral this chanson has also survived even with the different lyrics “Exortum est in tenebris” (4). This Biblical text (Psalm 111: 4) fits the music perfectly, in which captivating melodies are whipped up each time before reaching their climax at the cadences: a picture of light rising up out of the darkness. SALVE REGINA This work is a model of melismatic polyphony. The two words “O pia” in the last section are spread over 27 breves (bars); it is an alternatím version: only the even-numbered verses of the Marian antiphon are set for several voices; compact imitations alternate with two- and three-part passages, a method that was much loved by composers of Pipelare's generation (e. g., verse 6, Benedictum); and in the fivepart sections the cantus firmus is treated in canon. MEMORARE MATER CHRISTI This is one of Pipelare's most mature works. A masterly composition constructed around the symbolism in the text, it is a meditation in 40 octosyllabic verses on the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows. It is written for seven parts, though here Pipelare did not call the individual voices “superius”,“countertenor” etc., but “primus dolor”, “secundus dolor” etc. Furthermore, not only is it in the Phrygian mode of E, which, in music, was the very embodiment of grief, but Pipelare also echoes the sorrowful nature of the text by using a highly compact imitative style which, through his scrupulous avoidance of any superficial decoration, results in predominantly syllabic writing. The basis of this composition is a cantus firmus sung from beginning to end in long notes by the “tertius dolor”. And this was no arbitrary decision on Pipelare's part: the cantus firmus is the tenor part from the late-15th - century composer Johannes Urreda's villancico “Nunca fué pena mayor” (Never was there such great suffering). The symbiosis of the secular and the sacred text here reaches its culmination in a work that must be regarded as one of the greatest examples of polyphonic melancholy - a hallmark of those composers who opted to “stay home” in Flanders. MISSA ,,L`HOMME ARME“ Pipelare's Missa “L'homme armé” occupies a very special place among his total of nine masses. Even the choice of voices is unique: accorded a deep-sounding, sombre character, the four parts are high tenor, baritonans, bass and contrabass (basso profondo). Furthermore, the tenor and baritonans ranges are unusually wide for this period, whilst the basso profondo lends this composition a quite extraordinary hue. Such basso-profondo colours were not uncommon in Flemish polyphony, however; Pipelare's colleague La Rue, for example, also wrote music in which the basses had to sing a low B flat. For the composers, though, it was not at all easy to devise such parts. The Italian theorist Giovanni del Lago (c.l490-c.1545) pointed out that such parts in the lower reaches of the bass clef often did not sound very good and for understandable reasons: “...non fate chel contrabasso del vostro concento sia incommodo, cioè che non continuando in profundium...” (Do not make such a contrabass uncomfortable in your design, so he is not singing in the depths all the time). The cantus firmus in Pipelare's Mass is the wellknown song L'homme armé, which he uses both in modus tempo (long notes) as well as in tempus values (normal). He gives this cantus firmus at certain times to the tenor, but cannot refrain from quoting this song in other voices, too, as happens now and again in the canon. The Kyrie provides us with the first example of this: here the cantus firmus is heard in all the parts. Pipelare brings every sort of contrapuntal and rhythmic technique to bear in a quite masterful way - this Mass was certainly not meant for amateurs! Imitative style, in places coupled with melodic sequences, alternates with homophonic passages (Credo: “Et homo factus est”). In three-part sections, the fauxbourdon style (parallel-sixth chords) is occasionally incorporated (“Et in Spiritum Sanctum”); and syncopated two-part work is also brought off with great accomplishment, again in sometimes “unending” sequences (e. g., Sanctus, brevis 5- 18). In the second and third Agnus Dei the cantus-firmus technique culminates in canonic form, so that the Mass ends with five-part polyphony. It is little wonder, therefore, that this composition was taken into that high temple of sacred music - the repertoire of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Paul Van Nevel (Translation: © 1996 Christopher Reed)