10-8-16 Music In Maryland. Peabody Consort Music of Three Faiths
This week Music in Maryland is presenting a very special concert with the Peabody Consort that was originally entitled Words and Music of Three Faiths. For reasons I will explain, I did not include the readings in the broadcast but I am including them here for anyone interested in hearing them. While the music in this concert was recorded very well, the readings were off mic and difficult to understand. I am also including the complete program of the evenings concert as well as the listings for the fill music used afterwards. The complete texts of the readings are at the end of the rather lengthy post!
Thanks so much to Sarah and Mark who were wonderful guests.
Reading: Excerpt from Miracle 20: The Inebriated Monk.
Gonzalo de Berceo (ca. 1197–before 1264)
Read by Heather Miller Rubens.
Reading: Gentle Now, Doves of the Thornberry and Moringa Thicket.
Muhyi al-din Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240)
Read by Homayra Ziad
Reading: The Soul
Moshe ibn Ezra (c.1060-c.1138)
Read by Benjamin Sax.
Here is the complete program.
Words & Music of Three Faiths
The Peabody Consort
Julie Bosworth, soprano; Mark Cudek, director, percussion
Jeffrey Grabelle, bass viola da gamba; Brian Kay, oud; Sarah Lynn, soprano
Sara MacKimmie, soprano; Niccolo Seligmann, vielle; Aik Shin Tan, flute & recorders
Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies
Heather Miller Rubens, Benjamin Sax, Homayra Ziad, readers
Bolton Street Synagogue, 4:00pm, March 6, 2016
La Rotta anon., 14th c.
Cristo e nato Laudario di Cortona, 13th c.
Reading: Excerpt from Miracle 20: The Inebriated Monk
Gonzalo de Berceo (ca. 1197–before 1264)
Cantigas de Santa Maria: The Court of Alfonso X “el Sabio” (1221–1284)
Tanto son da Groriosa (No. 48)
Des oge mais quer’ eu trobar (No. 1)
Santa Maria, Strela do dia (No. 100)
Como poden per sas culpas (No. 166)
Todo-los Santos que son no Ceo (No. 15)
Reading: Gentle Now, Doves of the Thornberry and Moringa Thicket
Muhyi al-din Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240)
Kaaurdilicaz Longa Anon.
Mwasha
Oud improvisation
Nassam alayna el-hawas
Reading: The Soul
Moshe ibn Ezra (c.1060-c.1138)
Sephardic Romances Anon.
Ah, el novio
Partos trocados
Los Bibilicos
Tu madre cuando te parió
Dos amantes
Cuando el Rey Nimrod
A Note on the Program
Today’s concert brings together music and texts from an extraordinary era in Medieval Spain. For seven centuries Muslim, Christian and Jewish intellectuals commingled in al-Andalus, the name given to the western-most Islamic territories. From the moment Muslim adventurers crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 until their defeat in Granada in 1492, this cultural terrain, according to scholar Maria Rosa Menocal, was where “Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived side by side and, despite their intractable differences and enduring hostilities, nourished a complex culture of tolerance.”
The figure of Alfonso X, known as El Sabio (“The Wise”), who reigned from 1252 to 1284, serves as an example of al-Andalus’ unique multiculturalism. Employing Jewish and Muslim scholars in his Escuela de Traductores (School of Translators) in Toledo, Alfonso oversaw the production of scientific, legal, philosophical, religious and literary texts written in Castilian, the vernacular common language of Jews, Muslims and Christians. He also wrote the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a large collection of vernacular monophonic songs. These hymns to the Virgin Mary were likely accompanied by instruments of Arabic origins, including the oud, a form of lute; the rabab (or rebec) a bowed string instrument; and naqqara (a kettledrum).
From Gonzalo de Berceo’s humorous story of “The Inebriated Monk,” to the sensual longing of Muhammad ibn al-Arabi’s “Gentle now,” and Moshe ibn Ezra’s melancholy “The Soul,” the poets heard today were all participants in the cultural exchange of al-Andalus, fluent in its multiple languages and literary traditions, as well as its intertwined faiths.
Sarah Adams Hoover, DMA
Cristo e nato
Christ is born and become man in order to save the people who were lost since their first parents were fallen.
Christ is born to ransom us sinners who were departed and separated from his servants; because we failed you and did not serve you, but had become deserters, drawn by him who still transgresses.
Christ is born…
In Bethlehem the blessed Lord was born of the pure virgin: he was announced and prophesied in the scriptures: the mediator and redeemer, upright and true, the king of peace who pleases everyone of true understanding. Christ is born…
The fresh lily, white and red, is born in this world to persuade us to avoid capture by the deep abyss. He deigned to come and suffer for us a painful death, which is joyous now, but weighed heavily upon us before. Christ is born…
Tanto son la groriosa
The deeds of our glorious Lady are so very merciful,
That she takes from those who have plenty and gives to those in need.
And from this the Holy Virgin wrought in Catalonia a great miracle, who with Jesus Christ, ordained that we should pay honor to him and not tread the path of the proud. The deeds of our glorious Lady…
Montserrat is the name of the place where a spring lies delicious, plentiful, and clear
it rises on a mountain which belonged to a knight; and on the opposite side, there was a monastery where the monks lived. The deeds of our glorious Lady…
Once the knight saw that he had lost his spring by a miracle, to please our glorious Lady, who had taken it away from him, he gave the monastery the land where the spring had laid whose water he had sold; and so they lived happily ever after. The deeds of our glorious Lady…
Santa Maria, strela do dia
Spoken: This is a song of praise:
Refrain: Mary, magnified be, with Daystar beside thee;
show the way where bide we, true to God and thou our guide be.
For thou art light that lost souls driven near perdition, e’er with sin ill striven, know that they with guilt sore riven stand; but through thee are forgive and from their pride free where they ne’er idly let passion denied be bout did all sense defied see. Mary, magnified be…
Thou canst reveal to us wayfaring paths to tread in grace full sharing to peerless Light, the truth declaring, that thou alone art graced in bearing; for God would abide thee and all provide He but ne’er thee denied see nor for thee grace e’er belied be. Mary, magnified be…
Well for us thy wisdom guiding till in Paradise abiding where God all joy and mirth providing waits ever those in him confiding;
then would my joy descried be shouldst thou but deign provide me that rest on high beside thee my soul where doth abide he. Mary, magnified be…
Todo los santos (synopsis)
When the Emperor Julian was battling the Persians, he had to pass through Caesarea. St Basil came out to pay him homage. He greeted the emperor and offered him a loaf of barley bread. Julian spurned the gift and vowed to destroy Basil’s monastery and all of Caesarea. He told Basil he would make him eat hay, but Basil warned him that God would avenge him for the insult.
Mwashsha
When she begins to dance, My love, The Beautiful one draws me near, My love
She commands me with a look, My love, The beautiful one draws me near,
My love, my promise, my hope, Will she be merciful?
Who could understand my torment, except the creator of love? My love
Nassam Alayna El-Hawa
Feel the wind upon us / From the Spirit of the valley
Oh wind, for love’s sake / Take me home
Oh Love, Oh Love / That is flying in the breeze
There is a flower with energy and beauty / Wind, take me to them
I’m scared / My heart estranged from home
My family wouldn’t recognize me / Take me, take me, take me home
Feel the wind upon us / From the Spirit of the valley
Oh wind, for love’s sake / Take me home
What has happened to us? / Oh my love, what’s happened to us?
We used to be together and now we’re apart / What’s happened?
The sun is still shining / Upon home’s door
And the love of home is calling / Take me, take me, Take me home
Ah, el novio no quere dinero
Oh, the groom wants no money, He wants only his bride of good fortune.
I have come to see that they should be happy and prosper and have all the best.
The groom wants no ducats, He only wants his bride of good luck.
I have come to see…
The groom wants no bracelets, He wants only his bride to have a happy face.
I have come to see…
Los Bibilicos
The nightingales sing with sighs of love; My soul and my fate are in your power.
The rose blooms in the month of May; My soul and my fate suffer from love’s pain.
Come more quickly, dove, more quickly come with me; more quickly come, beloved, run and save me
Dos amantes
I have two lovers, Mother, which shall I choose? One is a tailor; the other is someone special. The tailor, my Mother, is the one I am deceiving. But the special one, my Mother, I love with all my heart.
(the young man:) Throw water at your doorstep; I’ll go by and fall, so that your family may come out, and I may come to know them. Come jewel, come my beauty, you shall see where I live. Between two high mountains; a place unworthy of me.
Cuando el Rey Nimrod
When King Nimrod went out into the fields, he looked at the heavens and at all the stars. He saw a holy light above the Jewish quarter, a sign that Abraham the father was about to be born.
Abraham our father, beloved father, blessed father, light of Israel.
Let us greet the Godfather and also the moel. Because of his virtue may the Messiah come to redeem Israel. Surely we will praise the true redeemer of Israel. Abraham our father…
Special thanks: David Brown, Sarah Hoover, Edie Stern, Mary Beth Walker, Marc Wernick, Larry Wissow
Click below to read the complete texts of the readings
Here is the fill music used for tonight’s program.
Play Report
PLAY DATE: Sat, 10/08/2016
7:13 PM 5797
Ludwig van Beethoven String Trio in G Op 9 No. 1 Aspen Stri 1
ORCH Aspen String Trio
22:47 C 1 2-5
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7:35 PM 4429
Felix Mendelssohn Violin Sonata in f Op 4 2 pianists 1039329
SOLO Madeline Adkins, violin
SOLO Luis Magalhaes, piano
23:05 C 1 4-6
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To receive announcements of future Peabody Early Music events send a note to
Mark Cudek at mcudek@jhu.edu
