This week’s theme is…Them’s fightin’ words! Since time immemorial humans have found reasons to fight one another. The images of combat and war fill our stories, our art, and yes, our music. This week we listen to music colored by the din of combat.
Them’s fightin’ words!, Day 4 – The Battle by Clement Janequin
When you are unfamiliar with a large category of human experience, all of its contents tend to feel the same, with few distinguishing features. But once you get to know it a little bit you begin to hear the differences between different specimens within that umbrella, and after a little bit more you are surprising people that you can tell the difference between different things that essentially feel homogenous to them. There is a funny gag in an episode of the Simpsons based on this principle.
http://www.simpsonsworld.com/video/312297539960/episode/448386115705
As Groundskeeper Willie, Springfield Elementary’s grizzled and beleaguered Scottish janitor, settles down in his shack for a nap he scans the radio for some music to lull him. Indecisively he switches back and forth between two different stations, both playing bagpipe music, the first of which features a solo pipe at a moderate tempo in an intimate setting, and the second of which features a choir of bagpipes at a much more aggressive tempo, accompanied by crisp snare drums, probably at an outdoor parade. Even though we can note the differences between Groundskeeper Willie’s stations rather easily, the joke is clear: Groundskeeper Willie is a bagpipe connoisseur, and not just any bagpipes will do. He must select precisely the proper bagpipe music to fit his mood at any given time. This seems absurd, and it probably is given how little variety there seems to be in the style and practice of bagpipe music (I may very well be betraying my snobbish ignorance here – absolutely no offense intended to all of you devoted bagpipe connoisseurs out there!). But we can all understand the point: if you are outside looking in, everything sounds the same, but once you get to know a genre or style, you begin to hear practically infinite variety and possibility within its boundaries.
This is true of every style of music from rap to reggae, from punk to Palestrina – before you begin your exploration it all sounds the same, but get to know it a bit and you quickly begin to hear the nuances. Get to know it more and you become an expert. This is definitely true of classical music – three centuries of European art music sounds homogeneous to so many listeners who have not gotten to know it. But listen a bit and you will soon hear the differences between baroque, classical, romantic. Listen more and you will hear the difference between Haydn and Mozart. Listen even more and you will be able to tell Mozart’s youthful early works from his mature late ones. And so on.
One collection of styles and practices that remains opaque and homogeneous to even seasoned listeners of classical music is what is commonly summed up as “Music Before 1600”. When most connoisseurs of classical music listen for pleasure they typically choose from music written between about 1685 and 1900. We can sum all of that music up as “common practice”, and it is all written in a harmonic language that feels familiar to most of us. But if you go back before that you will enter territory that feels a little less familiar. “Music Before 1600” starts with Gregorian Chant, compiled right around the turn of the second millennium, and proceeds over the course of a little more 600 years before reaching the music of Palestrina, right on the cusp of common practice.
A while ago, everything written between those two chronological markers seemed exotic, homogeneous, overwhelming, and just kind of unappealing to me with its grey vocal polyphony and otherworldly harmonic palette. I expressed this to a mentor of mine and she replied with something to the effect of “I understand what you mean, but I’ve found that the more you explore it the more interesting it becomes, and pretty soon you can’t get enough of it.” I knew this opinion must be backed by considerable study and reflection, but I didn’t quite buy it at the time. Sure enough, though, once I began to study it, out of necessity in order to pass certain classes and placement exams, I found that it was true. You can get hooked on the music of Western culture’s misty past. To so many listeners, even including seasoned musicians, the music written in Europe before 1600 seems nebulous and overwhelming, but it is waiting to be discovered. It was written by real people to be performed by real people for audiences full of real people, and anything of which that is all true will have something to offer to listeners for all of time.
When I began learning about music before 1600 its vocabulary seemed to swim with strange terms that meant nothing to me. Sequence. Trope. Conductus. Gradual. Codex. Madrigal. Motet. Chanson. Minnelied. Trouvere. Mysterious words that seemed to speak of a long-lost world. Of course they’re not as exotic as they seem, and can all be learned with a little study, many of them having accessible analogues in our present day. Some words I sort of thought I knew, but didn’t quite, and gained considerable clarity about. This group includes madrigal and motet. I had heard those words before starting formal study of these periods, but didn’t quite know what they meant. Let’s start with motet. It’s pretty simple: a motet is a piece of polyphonic vocal music on a sacred text, usually Latin, that’s designed for use in Christian worship, but not the liturgy itself. So, let’s say you wanted to present a musical setting of one of the psalms during a Mass. It’s not part of the Mass, but it belongs there, so you could write a motet for that. Now, say a composer writes something similar but on a secular text. That’s a madrigal. And madrigals tend to be in Latin or Italian (or English – “fa la la la la la la la la…”). If you write a similar piece in German, it’s a lied, and if you write a similar piece in French, it’s a chanson. That’s a pretty quick and dirty way to sum it up. Of course, the real story is more complicated than that, with more twists and turns, but that gives you the broad strokes.
And there’s a fair amount of stylistic evolution within each of those broad headings, all of which were written continually by different composers of different generations over the course of multiple centuries. Early chansons tended to be written in the medieval fixed forms for a few voices (see this post). The later Burgundian chansons dispensed with the fixed forms and became luxurious in their dense, rich, through-composed polyphony. And later, just before Palestrina, French composers like Claudin de Sermisy and Clement Janequin developed the chanson even further, often simplifying the texture and incorporating programmatic elements into a popular version of the genre that came to be known as the Parisian chanson. The most famous example is a very vivid and lively one by Janequin called The Battle, a musical depiction of the Battle of Marignano, which was a French victory over the Swiss during a lengthy and convoluted series of conflicts spread across the sixteenth century called The Italian Wars (only serious history buffs need read any further). In this madrigal Janequin, a very clever composer, almost singlehandedly popularized a manner of music making that would later come to be known as Stile concitato, “The agitated style” soon becoming a mainstay of the baroque musical palette, featuring onomatopoeic effects evoking the sounds of battle including galloping horses, clashing arms, and the general agitated chaos of battle. Janequin’s chanson is a breathless and captivating cross section of the bloody battle. Try to follow along with the approximate translation if you can; I get the sense some of these words aren’t really in circulation anymore…
| French | English |
| Part I
Escoutez, tous gentilz Galloys, La victoire du noble roy Françoys. Et orrez, si bien escoutez, Des coups ruez de tous costez. Phiffres soufflez, frappez tambours. Tournez, virez, faictes vos tours. Avanturiers, bon compagnons Ensemble croisez vos bastons. Bendez soudain, gentilz Gascons. Nobles, sautez dens les arçons. La lance au poing, hardiz et promptz Comme lyons Haquebutiers, faictes voz sons ! Armes bouclez, frisques mignons. Donnez dedans ! Frappez dedans ! Alarme, alarme ! Soyez hardiz, en joye mis. Chascun s’asaisonne. La fleur de lys, Fleur de hault pris, Y est en personne. Suivez Françoys, Le roy Françoys. Suivez la couronne. Sonnez, trompetttes et clarons, Pour resjouyr les compagnons, Les cons, les cons, les compagnons. Fan fan, fre re le le lan fan feyne. Fa ri ra ri ra. A l’estandart tost avant. Boutez selle, gens d’armes à cheval. Fre re le le lan fan feyne Bruyez, tonnez bombardes et canons. Tonnez, gros courtaux et faulcons, Pour secourir les compaignons, Les cons, les cons, les compagnons. Von, von, pa ti pa toc, von, von. Ta ri ra ri ra ri ra reyne Pon pon pon pon La la la … poin poin … la ri le ron France courage, courage. Donnez des horions. Chipe, chope, torche, lorgne. pa ti pa toc, tricque trac, zin zin Tue! à mort: serre. Courage, prenez, frapez, tuez. Gentilz gallans, soyez vaillans. Frapez dessus, ruez dessus Fers émoluz, chiques dessus. Alarme, alarme! Courage prenez, après suyvez, frapez, ruez. Ils sont confuz, ils sont perduz. Ils monstrent les talons. Escampe toute frelore la tintelore. Ilz son deffaictz. Victoire au noble roy Françoys. Escampe toute frelore bigot. |
Part I
Listen, all you gallant noblemen, To the victory of the noble King Francois. And you shall hear, if you listen well, Clouts hurled from every side. Fifes, blow; strike, drummers; Turn, spin, make your turns. Soldiers, good comrades, together cross your batons [ready your guns?] Band together quickly, noble Gascons. Noblemen, jump in your saddles, The lance in your fist, daring and swift Like lions! Harquebusiers [heavy-portable-gun-ners], make your sounds. Buckle your arms, elegant minions. Strike them, hit them Alarm! alarm! Be daring, be joyful Let everyone spruce up. (make yourself nice) The fleur de lis, Flower of high prize, Is here in person [King François] Follow François, The King, François. Follow the crown. Let trumpets & clarions resound to delight our comrades, Our com-, our com-, our comrades. Fan fan, fre re le le lan fan. Fa ri ra ri ra. Quickly rally to the colors/flag Into the saddle, men at arms Fre re le le lan fan [etc.] Roar & thunder, bombards and cannons. Thunder, burly courtauds (non-battle horses) and falcons, To help our comrades, Our com-, our com-, our comrades. Von von, pa ti pa toc [clippety-clop] Ta ri ra [etc.] Pon, pon [etc.] la la la … poin poin … la ri le ron France, have courage. Deal your blows Squeeze them, catch them, wipe them out, stare them down. Pa ti pa toc [etc.] Kill them, put them death, Courage, take, strike, kill them. Be valiant, you noble, brave men. Strike them down, hurl yourselves at them. Freshly cast blades, stab them. Alarm, alarm! Take courage, pursue, strike, hurl. They’re muddled, they’re lost. They’re showing their heels. Let all the weaklings flee the field, armor tinkling. They are defeated. Victory to the noble King Francois! Let all the feeble troublemakers flee the field. |
So the next time you hear some music with which you are not familiar, and you consider it to be a representative of a style which seems homogeneous and alien to you, remember, understanding comes with repeated exposure. Today I can often place music composed between 1000 and 1600 with fair accuracy in time and culture, but I couldn’t always. The world is rich and nuanced, and worthy of being understood, because once you do, artifacts like Janequin’s thrilling reenactment of a medieval battle produced entirely with vocal sounds come into focus. If you’re not looking closely, you could miss it, and so much more…
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