OBRECHT: Chansons-Songs-Motets

Jacob Obrecht (1457/58-1505)

Chansons/Songs/Motets

Capilla Flamenca
Piffaro

The Secular Music of Jacob Obrecht

Jacob Obrecht was one of the primary composers responsible for significant changes in musical style during the late fifteenth century. He was especially important to the development of larger forms, as the first composer to systematically demonstrate unified formal structure and long-range cadential planning over the course of extended works. Obrecht's approach to unity and development went beyond the simple employment of a cantus firmus or unifying gesture. He consequently personifies today's mass-as-symphony ideal most decisively. Obrecht's innovations also touched the realm of sonority, where he reaffirmed the prominence of reduced scoring passages, and pioneered a lighter sound-world in which changes in the number of active voices served to continue a broader musical argument without being ends in themselves.

Obrecht left more than thirty secular songs, although some are only weakly attributed, or likely arrangements. The courtly song genre seems to have held little appeal for him, as the songs overwhelmingly survive without text, and most with light-hearted or folksy titles. Many, and perhaps most, seem to be explicitly instrumental and are of modest length.

Despite his administrative failings, Obrecht's secular pieces point to a composer concerned first with jubilation and popular celebration. Indeed, this image comes through clearly in the rhythmically animated style of his masses as well. Obrecht can be perceived as a happy - even carefree - man in his music, and it is this sense of living for the moment which must color any view of his lapses of responsibility, rather than stereotypical thoughts of the intransigent artist. In fact, Obrecht is said to have written a mass cycle in a single night. His masses are certainly his most impressive creations today, and it is his ability to animate short phrases into lengthier sections and ultimately into large-scale forms which is nearly unmatched. Obrecht's rigorous use of cantus firmus layout may be his most immediately observable trait, but it is his music's seamless progression from small- to large-scale elements & arguments, with seeming indifference to what appear on paper to be oppressive formal constraints, which is its most compelling quality. His music is obviously made for direct appreciation, formality aside.

The remarkable vocal and instrumental ensemble Capilla Flamenca vividly bring to life the unique timbre and evocative soundscapes of the 15th-century. They present a program of compositions in which their years of experience and thorough musicological research combine to create a highly individual sound and style.

Piffaro recreates the elegant sounds of the official, professional wind bands of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods as well as the rustic entertainments of the peasantry. Audiences from Seattle to Spoleto, Italy, have marveled at the virtuosity of the ensemble, its precision and impeccable intonation, but most of all its vitality and enthusiasm.

Recording comes with complete libretto and extensive booklet in multiple languages.