Since 2003 Enrico appears also with Ensemble Lucidarium, a group devoted to early music (check out www.lucidarium.com )
Here you'll find info pertaining to "la istoria de purim", concert and CD published in France by k617, and a review to a 2007 concert for the San Francisco Jewish Music Festival
You can download the following song: it's not intended as a demo of the program, but as a Passover treat. It is "had gadya", the traditional Pesach Seder song, taken from a live performance at the Wien Konzerthaus in January 2006. Picture yourself hundreds of Austrian music lovers expecting a learned performance of Renaissance music and finding themselves cheering a joker singing a folksong in Ferrarese dialect...
(3.3 megabyte)
La Istoria de Purim
(published by K617)
Musique et poésie des Juifs en Italie
à la Renaissance
Music and poetry of the Jews
of Renaissance Italy
Gloria Moretti : chant (GM)
Viva Biancaluna Biffi : chant (VBB), viola d’arco (VBB1), chant et viola d’arco (VBB2)
Enrico Fink : chant, récitation (EF)
Avery Gosfield : flûte à bec (AG), flûte et tambour (AG1)
Marco Ferrari : flûte à bec (MBF), flûte double (MBF1), flûte à bourdon (MBF2), douçaine (MBF 3), chalemie (MBF4)
Francis Biggi : viola da mano (FB), viola da penna (FB1), cetra (FB2), colascione (FB3)
Massimiliano Dragoni : dulcimelo (MX), tamburello (MX1), tambour carré (MX2), tamburo a battenti (MX3)
Elisabetta Benfenati : guitare renaissance (BB1), chitarra battente (BB2)
Federico Marincola : luth basse (FM), chitarra battente (FM1)
ensemble lucidarium - This international group specializing in medieval and Renaissance music was formed more than ten years ago. Besides a busy concert calendar, the ensemble collaborates regularly with important educational and scienti.c institutions, such as the Centre de Musique Ancienne de Genève, the CERIMM of Royaumont and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon. Much of LUCIDARIUM’s research is dedicated to repertoires considered ‘minor’, which were, in reality, powerful vehicles for spreading and evolving new musical concepts during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This music, meant for daily use and wide distribution, mirrors the taste and mentality of the era, at the same time raising a series of questions about the relationship between written music and oral transmission, and about the continuous exchange of forms and themes between the different levels of medieval and Renaissance society. Each program is the fruit of a long period of research and preparation in various .elds, resulting in a different sonority for each program: a lively combination of voices and instruments with the freedom in execution which comes from a solid knowledge of musical style and historical background. This combination of meticulous preparation and creativity, which has opened up new perspectives in historical performance practice, has brought the ensemble both popular and critical acclaim ever since it was founded. LUCIDARIUM’S CDs have received numerous international awards. The ensemble has toured extensively throughout Europe and North America.
1 Prière pour enlever le Séfer Thorà de la Arche (En Kamokha / Shema Israel) 3'21
Trad., Gorizia, (rite Ashkenazy / italien)
Tiré de : Musical Traditions of the Italian Jews , collection de Leo Levi, éditée par Francesco Spagnolo
EF
2 Les Caterines / La Cara Cossa (La Folia) 6'43
Musique : anon., D-Mbs. Ms. 1503 (Italie, 16ème siecle)
Texte : “Les Caterines” Joan Escrivà (Catalan, ca. 1500)
VBB2, GM, MX1+2, FB, BB1+2, FM, AG, MBF3
3 Dos lid fun der sreyfe in Venedig (Chanson sur l’Incendie de Venise) 5'33
Texte : Elia Bachur Levita GB-Oxb Ms. Can.Or 12
Musique : Tzur Mishelo, D-Mu, Cod. Ms. 757 (4o), transcription de Dr. Israel Adler
EF, FB2, MX, AG, MBF, VBB, GM
4 Anello 5'27
Domenico da Piacenza (fin 14ème à ca. 1470) F-PN fonds it. 972
Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro (ca. 1420 à après 1484), I-Foligno, Duomo MS B.V. 14
MX, MBF2, FB2, AG1
NEWlivretK617174.indd 2 1/06/05 22:13:38
5 Toutes les créatures du ciel et de la terre (Kol Berue) 5'47
Trad., Padova, (rite italien) Tiré de : Musical Traditions of the Italian Jews , collection de Leo Levi,
éditée par Francesco Spagnolo
EF, FB2, VBB1, MX2, MBF, AG
6 Bofo-Bukh 8'27
Texte : Elia Bachur Levita (1469-1549) (Zurich Central Library), transcription de Dr. Claudia Rosenzweig
Musique: traditionnelle, Venise, Transcription de Giuseppe Baretti, 1768
EF, VBB1
Buovo d’Antona
Texte : anonyme (ed., Caligola de’ Bazalieri, Bologna : 1497) - Musique : Tradition toscane
GM, FB2
7 Moresca (sull’ Aria d’ottava) 3'08
Giovanni Lorenzo Baldano (1576-1660)
(Libro per scriver l’intavolatura per sonare sopra le sordelline: Savona, 1600)
FB, FM1, BB1, MX, VBB1, AG1, MBF4
8 Tu dormi, io veglio e vo perdendo i passi 3'22
Texte : Serafino Aquilano (1466-1500) - Musique : anon., (Frottole libro Sexto: Petrucci, Venezia: 1506)
VBB, BB1, FM
9 Ishena at ani geor venodad 1'21
Texte : Joseph Sarphati (mort en 1527) (GB, Oxford, Bodleian Library Mich 353)
Musique : “Tu dormi, io veglio” de Bartolomeo Tromboncino, (Tenore e contrabassi intabulati…
Francisci Bossinensis, Venezia: Petrucci 1509)
GM, VB1
10 Tu dormi, io veglio a la tempesta e vento 1'26
Texte : anonyme
Musique : Bartolomeo Tromboncino, (Tenore e contrabassi intabulati…
Francisci Bossinensis Venezia : Petrucci 1509)
GM, VBB, FB, FM, BB1
11 Pass’e mezo a la bolognesa 4'35
MX3, FB, FM, BB1
Saltarello a la bolognesa
AG, MBF1, MX1, FB, FM, BB2
Giovanni Maria da Crema (fl. 1540-1550) (Intabolatura de lauto…libro primo
Venezia: Antonio Gardane, 1546)
NEWlivretK617174.indd 3 1/06/05 22:13:39
12 Chants pour la fete de Pourim 14'42
La Cansonetta da Purim
Texte : Ms. GB Lo BM, Ms. 10,463, Gaster 678, transcription de Dr. Maria Luisa Mayer-Modena
Musique : tradition de l’Appennin émilien
EF, MX3, GM, AG1, MBF4, MX1, FB, VB1
La Istoria de Purim io ve racconto
Texte : Mordekay Dato (Italien, 1525 – ca. 1590) (Biblioteca Civica di Verona Ms. 14 (83.1))
Transription de Dr. Giulio Busi - Musique: traditionnelle, Venise, Transcription de Giuseppe Baretti, 1768
VBB2
Meguilla d’Esther
Trad., Florence, (rite sépharade italien)
EF
13 Ma Nishtana / Avadim Hainou 1'36
Trad., Florence, (sépharade italien)
EF
14 Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi (Il Ballo di Mantova) 3'31
Anonyme (ca. 1600) (I-Fc Codex Barbera G.F.83)
GM, VB, FB, FM, BB, AG, MBF3, MX2
15 Khad Gadya / Un Caprett 3'01
Trad., Ferrara, (communauté italienne)
EF
16 Khad Gadya, Khad Gadya 3'07
Trad., Florence
GM, VBB, FB, MX2, AG, MF3, EF
A recent review to a concert (San Francisco Jewish Fest: Berkeley, California, March 15th, 2007)
The Jewish Roots of Renaissance Italy
By Chloe Veltman
appeared on SAN FRANCISCO CLASSIC VOICE
The ideal of different cultures blending together into a unified whole is one that this country holds dear. The metaphor of the melting pot means a lot to Jews in particular. The term was coined by Anglo-Jewish author Israel Zangwill in 1908, when he described America as “the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming!” Meanwhile, the poem engraved on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty, which celebrates America’s once open-armed policy toward immigrants, was written by the Jewish poet and activist Emma Lazarus.
Given American Jews’ longstanding empathy with multiculturalism, it’s not surprising that the audience at Berkeley’s Jewish Music Festival greeted Ensemble Lucidarium’s performance at First Congregational Church on Thursday evening with cheers and stamping feet. Its program of Jewish music from Renaissance Italy was nothing if not an embodiment, in musical form, of the melting pot idea.
The Milan-based Ensemble Lucidarium consists of seven Renaissance music experts who sing and play a range of period instruments, from the colascione (a type of long-necked lute) and viola da mano (an ancestor of the acoustic guitar) to the hammer dulcimer and pipe and tabor (a fife and drum combination). The concert, titled “L’Istoria de Purim,” featured several 16th-century Italian songs celebrating the festival of Purim. But the program was more an exploration of the eclectic cultural influences that fed into Italian Jewish life during the period than it was a presentation of music relating specifically to Purim.
And what a mix it was. Boasting myriad musical styles from liturgical melodies used in synagogues to courtly dances, Lucidarium’s careening cocktail of stories and songs, sung in Italian, Hebrew, Catalan, and proto-Yiddish, echoed the state of 16th-century Jewish-Italian life. Italy was already home to the oldest Jewish community in Europe, whose roots dated back to Roman times, when persecuted Jews from other European countries, including Portugal, Spain, and Germany, arrived on the scene. The new transplants not only soaked up the local customs, they also transmitted their own, extremely varied Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and other traditions.
Morris Dance and Chivalric Romance
Lucidarium reflected this historical backdrop through a program that was as playful in spirit as the festival of Purim. The madrigal-like ambience of Giovanni Lorenzo Baldano’s Moresca (sull’ Aria d’ottava) (Morris dance, on an aria in octave rhyme), translated into Hebrew from a 16th-century Italian poem, was sung in a skipping, rhythmic manner by vocalists Enrico Fink, Gloria Moretti, and Viva Biancaluna Biffi. That contrasted warmly with the buffoonery of Fink’s interpretation of Bofo-Bukh (Bovo Book) an epic poem told in old Yiddish to traditional Venetian melodies.
The juxtaposing of the ottava rima-infused Moresca and Bofo-Bukh (whose roots can be traced back to Buovo d'Antona, a popular Italian chivalric romance in ottava rima, which in turn came from an Anglo-Norman original, Bevis of Hampton) was a particularly inspired piece of programming. Ottava rima and the Anglo-Italian connection link the two pieces across meter and culture. Also, the Moresca, originally a fanciful reenactment of a battle, connects, obliquely, with the Purim story and also has a mock-epic genesis that contrasts with Bovo.
Fink’s role in Lucidarium’s concert was particularly powerful. With his bold tenor (comically usurped by a pungent falsetto for one section of Bofo-Bukh) and expressive physicality, he ricocheted between the roles of a zealous religious leader, as he somberly opened the concert with a Hebrew Shabbat prayer, and a Commedia dell’arte clown.
Ancient and Modern
One of the most delightful aspects of the concert (besides the largely Jewish audience’s raucous jeering and foot-stamping response, in accordance with tradition, to the mention of the Purim story’s arch-villain, Haman) was connecting Lucidarium’s investigation of cultural assimilation in 16th-century Italy with other musical traditions. Strains of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana emerged out of the ensemble’s fiery, feisty rendition of Dos Lid fun der Sreyfe in Venedig (Song of the Fire in Venice) — a half-spoken, half-played narrative in old Yiddish brought to life by Fink and musicians playing viola da mano, recorders, dulcian (a bassoonlike bass shawm), and percussion. Similarly, the blend of Moretti’s salty mezzo-soprano voice with Biffi’s sweet soprano in the anonymous song Fuggi, Fuggi, Fuggi (Il Ballo de Mantova) (Fly, fly, fly — the dance of Mantua) brought the connection between that melody and the Israeli national anthem (Hatikvah) sharply into focus.
The madcap quality of the concert wasn’t well served by the venue. It’s unfortunate, given the importance of syncopation, ornamentation, and percussion in Lucidarium’s repertoire, that First Congregational Church possesses such sound-swallowing acoustics. The high-energy parts of the program suffered the most. Instead of hearing the birdlike brilliance of the three-holed pipe and the whip-crack beating of the tabor, we frequently got a muffled stew of sound, like a formless mass of food churning around inside a cavernous stomach. It was a melting pot, all right, but not quite the kind that Lucidarium had in mind.
Many people prefer to think of cultural assimilation in the U.S. as more a salad bowl than a melting pot. Rather than fusing together into an indistinct whole, the ingredients in a salad create unity while retaining their individual shape and identity. I’m not sure which of the two images, if either, best sums up Jewish life in Renaissance Italy. But I do wish the sonic ingredients in “L’Istoria de Purim” had been tossed rather than puréed.
(Chloe Veltman is the chief theater critic for S.F. Weekly, and has contributed articles about theater, music, and other art forms to such publications as The Guardian, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Believer. She also plays oboe and sings contralto with a number of Bay Area-based music ensembles, including Redwood Winds and San Francisco Renaissance Voices.)
©2007 Chloe Veltman, all rights reserved