Music of Cyprus, 1413-1422 (Ensemble Project Ars Nova)

"THE ISLAND OF ST. HYLARION"

Probably the entire book had been finished by the time of the death of Queen Charlotte, in 1422. Thus the Turin manuscript gives us a snapshot, so to speak, of the repertory of a distant but cosmopolitan outpost of French culture at the end of the middle ages. There is an exemplary modern edition of all the music by Richard H. Hoppin, but a few works published early on by Willy Apel and Johannes Wolf gave scholars the impression that this music shared the fiercely complicated style of the late "Ars Nova" in France.

Yet the overly complex works are rather the exception in the Cyprus codex; its music is already moving towards the rhythmic and tonal clarification that is the hallmark of early fifteenth century music.

And it contains a few surprising sounds for the listener such as the immense amount of imperfect consonances (i.c., full triads), a trait usually associated with English music.

Most of the motets of the Cyprus codex, despite their forward looking four voice textures, are austere and conservative works that would not seem out of place in Philippe de Vitry's world. They do offer, however, a number ofsurprises: tenors that are not derived from chant, and occasional harsh dissonances that are held tenaciously for several beats. But they are contrapuntally and harmonically rather airy works, and their composers seem to have delighted in letting the voices, particularly the top parts, go through their paces and glide past each other in an endless number of combinations, as in the motet, "O sacra virgo virginum/Tu nati nata suscipe".

The secular songs are in many ways the most modern work of the Cyprus court, and one will find in them the same melodic grace that one encounters in the early works of Du Fay or the music of some very late trecento composers such as Andrea dei Servi or Antonio Zacharia. The one old fashioned trait of these songs is their delight in enormously long chains of syncopations as in the ballade, "Moult fort", where the voices would appear to be rhythmically off face with each other for long stretches. This is something that Cypriot composers most likely learned from French music of the late Ars Nova, but they use it with less of the complex ornamentation and detail that one finds in indigenous French music.

The Cypriot songs sound more obviously lyrical and one is far more aware of the long lines of the work. In these respects they seem to look more to the style of the Du Fay generation. Even in songs that use a fair amount of ornamention such as the virelai, "Je prens d'amour", it is closer to the melodicalli riven patterns of the Italian trecento composers or the early Du Fay songs than to the complexities of late Ars Novar music. In their balance between long lines, a rich texture, and a lyrical approach, the Cypriot songs seem to summarize best the very nature of this repertory.

Next page: Medieval French texts (Ballade and Rondeau) and the English translation.