Jean de Castro: Music from the Lowlands

Program: #08-43   Air Date: Oct 13, 2008

NOTE: We continue our association with our partners at the Tourist Office for Flanders, Belgium. For more general information on Flanders, you may contact the tourist office at:

www.visitflanders.us

The Paintings of Rogier van der Weyden will be the big exhibition in the the Fall of 2009, held at M, the new museum of Leuven. (September 20 through December 6, 2009). For information:

www.rogiervanderweyden.be/en/

All of the music on this program is from a recording co-sponsored by the University of Leuven.
> It features the Capilla Flamenca, More Maiorum, Piffaro, and the Trigon-Project ensembles directed by Bart Demuyt. (Passacaille CD 937). For information on the disc:

[email protected]

Jean de Castro (c.1540/5-c.1600): Born most probably in Liege, de Castro settled in Antwerp in the 1560s, where he began publishing his compositions. Driven out in 1576 during "The Fury of the Spanish Soldiery," he travelled through Germany and settled in Lyons, before returning to Antwerp in 1586. In 1588 he was named kapellmeister to Duke Johann Wilhelm in Dusseldorf, and after 1591 settled in Cologne.

Alexander Utendal (c.1540 - 07/05/1581), was probably born in Ghent, also serving the house of Hapsburg for most of his life. From 1553 to 1558 he was a choirboy of the chorus at the court of Mary of Hungary, and from 1564 to 1567 he was a singer at the court of Archduke Ferdinand II, initially in Prague, and from 1567 to 1572 in Innsbruck. In the Innsbruck court chapel Utendal instructed the choristers, and from 1572 he was appointed deputy Chapel Master succeeding Jakob Regnart (1540-1599), a position he held until his death Due to his position, Alexander Utendal wrote mainly church music (published in several collections in Nuremberg, many dedicated to his master/patron Archduke Ferdinand).

Orlandus Lassus (Roland de Lassus, Orlando di Lasso--born 1530/32, Mons, Spanish Hainaut—died June 14, 1594, Munich) Flemish composer. He began as a choirboy (with such a beautiful voice that he is said to have been kidnapped to sing elsewhere), and his first known position was in service to the Gonzaga family in Italy (1544). After 1556 he was based in Munich as kapellmeister to the duke of Bavaria, but he pursued an international career, traveling in Italy, Germany, Flanders, and France. He wrote more than 1,200 works, in every contemporary style and genre, sacred (including some 60 masses and 500 motets) and secular (including hundreds of madrigals and chansons), his attention to the correspondence of music and words being especially remarkable.

--Anon. (chant): Lumen ad reveletionem gentium ("A light to light the Gentiles")

--JEAN de CASTRO/Anon.: Ave maris stella ("Hail, star of the sea")

--UTENDAL: Mors tua, mors Christi ("Your death and the death of Christ")

--JEAN de CASTRO: Caro mea vere est cibus ("For my flesh is meat indeed")

--JEAN de CASTRO: Vita de la mia vita ("Life of my life")

--LASSUS: La Cortesia (instr.)

--JEAN de CASTRO: Si le ciel ("If heaven is your home and your father")

--JEAN de CASTRO: Qui dulci semper ("You who always sing the sweet melody")

--LASSUS: Dessus le marche d'Arras (On the market-place of Arras")

--JEAN de CASTRO: Anchor che col partire ("Although on leaving I feel as if I am dying")

--JEAN de CASTRO: La Parque avait desja ("Fate had already resolved to sever the threads of Hymen, Amor, and Joy")

--JEAN de CASTRO: Stirpis Joannes Fiescorum gloria ("Giovanni, glory of the Fiesco clan")

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Composer Info

Jean de Castro (c.1540/5-c.1600), Alexander Utendal (c.1540 - 07/05/1581), Orlandus Lassus (1530/32-1594),

CD Info

Passacaille CD 937