Requiem d’Anne de Bretagne

Program: #23-08   Air Date: Feb 20, 2023

NOTE: All of the music on this program comes from recording Requiem d’Anne de Bretagne featuring the Doulce Mémoire directed by Denis Raisin Dadre. It is in the Alpha Classics label and is CD Alpha 613.

On the death of Anne of Brittany, her husband King Louis XII honoured her with exceptional funeral ceremonies lasting forty days, which sealed forever her image as Queen of France and Duchess of Brittany. As he prepared this programme centring on the Missa pro defunctis of Antoine de Févin, and read the exceptionally vivid narrative by the herald of Anne of Brittany (whom her subjects nicknamed simply ‘Bretaigne’!), Denis Raisin Dadre realised that beyond all this official mourning staged by the royal authority, there was also a silent sorrow, that of the Bretons who had lost their duchess and were also in the process of losing their duchy’s independence. He wanted to make the voices of the people heard behind the voices of the king’s singers, and so he asked Yann-Fañch Kemener to contribute some traditional Breton gwerzioù. These solo songs act as a counterpoint to the complex polyphony which expresses all the pomp of royalty. His voice allows us to hear the Breton people, so attached to their Duchess Anne who had bequeathed them her heart and who are still extraordinarily attached to her today.

From Classic a la Carte:

The title and composer of the major work on this album, the Requiem d’Anne de Bretagne by Antoine de Févin, is a claim, not an established fact. There were two Requiem Masses sung during the vigil over Anne of Brittany’s body at the castle of Blois, along with a Lady Mass and a Mass of the Holy Spirit. The composers of these works are not known, and few works of this kind still survive from the period, bearing links to the court of France. Just two, in fact: one by Févin, and another by Johannes Prioris. The Févin was chosen by Denis Raisin-Dadre to record because of its five-voice spread, with two bass lines, as opposed to the four voices Prioris deploys. “This gives an extraordinary effect of depth,” we are told, and that is true. It is equally true that Févin was a favorite composer of his employer late in his relatively short life, Louis XII. The story goes that Louis wrote back from Italy requesting both a portrait by Jean Perréal and a chanson by Févin to prove to the local noblewomen that France had artistry they couldn’t equal. Raisin-Dadre states this is sufficient evidence to show Févin’s Requiem Mass was given “at some stage” during Anne’s funeral ceremonies.

But Févin died in 1512, and Anne in 1514, so the composer wasn’t available to urge the performance of this particular Mass of his at the time of Anne’s funeral. Then, too, there would have been many other Masses, including Requiems, in the repertoire of the well-paid and extensive Chapelle du Roi. The circumstantial evidence doesn’t constitute proof, but that hardly makes Févin’s work worth ignoring.

On the contrary. This cantus firmus Mass is a very fine example of Flemish polyphony under the Use of Paris rather than the Roman rite—so psalm verses for the gradual, and no Dies irae. Heinrich Glarean, the Swiss musical theorist and a generation younger than Févin, wrote of the composer that he was “felix Jodoci aemulator,” or a felicitous imitator of Josquin, at a time when stylistic imitation of the right models was considered a principle musical virtue. In modern terms that means flowing, clearly outlined themes, and a mix of lightly imitative, beautifully crafted phrases with open vertical harmonies. The result has a textural transparency that never falters, not even in their most elaborate passages that are usually reserved for the final pages in each movement. Contrasts of treatment between and within movements is another point in this work’s favor, as is the intensely vocal nature of his singing lines, espousing a lyricism that would not be out of place several centuries later.

The work is preceded, lightly interrupted, and briefly followed by numerous other pieces selected to create atmosphere. Leading off with Moulu’s Fiere attropos mauldicte (sometimes referred to as Anxiatus est in me spiritus meus, after the antiphon sung in the tenor) is a masterstroke. While I don’t find Févin’s Requiem expressive of its text after the manner of Josquin, Moulu’s motet—conclusively written for Anne’s death—definitely is, with its descending phrase in imitation, and its vigorously launched protests against Atropos. Festa’s motet of lament for Anne, Quis dabit oculis nostris, contains a moment of breathtaking drama at the repeated words “Maerore consumeris?” taken simply, softly, and homophonically, after relatively active and sonorous counterpoint. Apposite after another fashion is an orchestral version of a deploration by Pierre de la Rue that quotes Josquin’s Cœur Désolez against Dies illa, dies irae. (An orchestral version of Josquin’s original is heard on another track.)

In theory, the idea of adding three cuts featuring Breton traditional folksinger Yann-Fañch Kemener makes some sense. As Raisin-Dadre notes, Anne’s native Brittany sees her today as an image of resistance against French rule—and that was true enough, if only to assert the independence of her duchy’s aristocracy. But there’s no evidence of traditional folk songs praising her, and the three unaccompanied pieces that Kemener sings are a Stabat Mater, a sad song of a girl refusing a marriage she didn’t arrange, and a comic one about a girl refusing her father’s offer of a town suitor when she wants a country lad. It’s important not to forget that merchants and laborers away from church and court had a music of their own, but Kemener’s attractive voice and music do nothing to further the idea of an outburst of sorrow among contemporary common folk for Anne of Brittany.

I’ve no reservations regarding Raisin-Dadre’s direction, or Doulce Mémoire. The performers are a very different lineup from that I reviewed in their performance of Attaignant’s Danceries, but the foundation is the same: impeccable research, faultless technique, with great attention paid to intonation, enunciation, balance, rhythms, and dynamics. Raisin-Dadre’s direction and scholarship are expert. The sound is a bit too resonant for my tastes in the non-sacred pieces, but otherwise appropriate, and recorded close enough to not lose the shape of the words and music behind the reverberation.

Full texts enclosed, with English translations. Strongly recommended, whether you agree with Raisin-Dadre that Févin’s Mass was sung for Anne, or not. —Barry Brenesal

Composer Info

Antoine de Févin

CD Info

CD Alpha 613