Manuel Cardoso - Portuguese Polyphony [CD]

PORTUGUESE POLYPHONY Portugal was historically by no means isolated from the mainstream of European culture, although the earlier periods of Portuguese polyphony may be relatively little known. There were, nevertheless, monastic and ecclesiastical connections with other parts of Europe, and, of course, with Rome, while the proximity of Spain, most evident in the golden age of Portuguese polyphony, ensured that Portugal was part of the wider European tradition of polyphony, with an important fifteenth century centre in the Royal Chapel, reflected also in the music of cathedrals and choir-schools, notably, in the sixteenth century, at Evora. Among the earlier of Portuguese composers to win a wider reputation, particularly in Spain, was Pedro de Escobar (c. 1465-1535), convincingly identified by Robert Stevenson with Pedro do Porto or Pedro del Puerto, employed at the Spanish Royal Chapel of Queen Isabella land later in Seville. His motet Clamabat autem mulier (But there cried out a woman) won considerable popularity, to be used by Gil Vicente in his play Auto da Cananea in 1534, arranged for solo vihuela by the Spanish composer Mudarra, and transported to the New World, notably to Guaternala, where two unattributed manuscripts of the work are found. Bartolomeo Trosylho (c. 1500 - c. 1567), his name variously spelt as Trosilho or Truxillo, was a singer in the Royal Chapel of Dom João III, becoming master of the chapel in 1548. Although the heading of the manuscript containing Circumdederunt me (My enemies have surrounded me) is pro defunctis trosylho (for the dead, Trosylho), the text is in fact the Introit for Septuagesima Sunday. Trosylho's richly polyphonic setting isfor four voices. Manuel da Fonseca (fl. 1540) is recorded as having been mestre da capela at the Cathedral of Braga in 1544. Between 1542 and 1543 he seems to have been mestre da capela to the king's son Dom Duarte and is chiefly known for his Liber Introitus, a copy of which, dated 1615, still survives in Braga. Beata viscera Mariae (Blessed be the womb of Mary) is not now an Introit in the Roman rite, though the first lines are used as the Communion verse for Mass on Feasts of the Blessed Virgin. It might be supposed that it was originally an Introit for a votive mass to Our Lady, perhaps in the Braga rite, which has now been discontinued following various 1iturgical reforms. It is based on the relevant plainchant in the bass, with the other three voices weaving a texture around its steady and even progress. It was not until the beginning of the seventeenth century that the work of Portuguese polyphonic composers began to be known more widely. The most famous three, Duarte Lobo (c. 1565-1646), Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650), and Filipe de Maga1haes (c. 1571-1652) were all pupils of Manuel Mendes (c. 1547-1605) at Evora, an important cathedral and university city in eastern Portugal. All three also became very successful musicians after moving to the capital, Lisbon. The youngest