MetLiveArts presents
The Clarion Choir & Orchestra
Ockeghem Encore
Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 7 pm
Fuentidueña Chapel, The Met Cloisters
The Clarion Choir & Orchestra
Steven Fox, artistic director
Scott Metcalf and Jesse Rodin, project advisors
This program is made possible by Kathryn O. Greenberg.
About the Program
Schedule and Program
Performers and Crew
Texts and Translations
About the Artists
MetLiveArts Supporters and Staff
Prepare for soaring melodies, stunning sonorities, and lively rhythms; for independent vocal lines that weave among one another to create an elegant polyphonic web; and for a degree of technical sophistication possibly unmatched in the history of music. All these qualities are concentrated in the works of Johannes Okeghem (d. 1497), a composer whose roughly forty surviving pieces are akin to lovingly cut gemstones, each different from but no less perfect than the others. (Incidentally: notwithstanding the modern convention, in fifteenth-century sources the name Okeghem is usually spelled without the “c”.)
Okeghem spent most of his career at St. Martin, Tours, a church in northern France connected with the royal courts of Kings Charles VII and Louis XI. He rose in the ranks to become treasurer, a prominent position that earned him renown as well as a handsome paycheck. As a composer he favored the major genres of his day: the polyphonic mass, comprising the five movements of the Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus dei); the motet, in this period a Latin-texted sacred piece of usually four (but occasionally three or five) voices; and the forme-fixe chanson, that is, a French-texted song in one of a handful of traditional poetic and musical forms.
At the center of this evening’s concluding concert is the Missa Prolationum, a work that since the sixteenth century has led writers to characterize Okeghem’s music as being defined by complexity. In fact the mass doesn’t sound especially complex for its time. At the beginning we hear what one scholar has referred to as a “blob” of F sonorities, as the voices move repeatedly between the notes F, A, and C. The reason for the blob has to do with how Okeghem has notated the music. On one side of the choirbook opening we find what appears to be a single voice, only in place of a single “mensuration sign”—a symbol such as “O” or “C” that functions like a modern time signature—we find two such signs. The same situation obtains on the facing page: a single notated voice is preceded by two mensuration signs, one on top of the other. In each case, two singers must read the same music at different speeds, gradually pulling apart. And so the opening blob of F sonorities turns out to be the only way of managing the beginning of the section: notes 1 and 2, and notes 2 and 3, must be consonant with one another so that they will sound good when sung simultaneously.
The entire mass is constructed in this way, with two notated lines that generate four sounding voices through what musicologists call double mensuration canons. Indeed, the Missa Prolationum is a technical marvel—not only for the reasons mentioned so far, but also because in each successive mass section up to the Osanna the melodic interval between the canonic voices increases, such that whereas in the Kyrie the two voices begin on the same note, in the Christe they begin a second apart, in the Kyrie II a third apart, and so on. For all of this, the mass is in every other way perfectly conventional, from how Okeghem divides up the mass text into musical sections to his melodic and rhythmic language. Since the sixteenth century the piece’s notational complexity has led listeners to want to hear obscurity or even mysticism in Okeghem’s music. The reality is that although he experimented heavily with the limits of the fifteenth-century notational system, he also embraced the compositional lingua franca of his time. What really is exceptional is the quality of his music: during the period ca. 1450–80 Okeghem simply cannot be topped.
This judgment applies equally to the songs. The commonplace poetic forms to which virtually all of Okeghem’s chansons belong—rondeau, virelai, and ballade—afford extraordinary variety, from the silly S’elle m’amera to the high-minded D’ung aultre amer to the killingly sad Ma bouche rit. Indeed each song inhabits a world all its own, showcasing bespoke solutions to self-imposed musical challenges. This is true not only of the songs that most entranced Okeghem’s contemporaries (above all D’ung aultre amer, Fors seulement l’attente, and Ma bouche rit), but also of lesser-known beauties like Aultre Venus, Quant de vous seul, and Tant fuz gentement resjouy, each of which survives in only a single source. In every one of Okeghem’s twenty-two surviving songs we encounter a subtle mind capable of technical brilliance as well as emotional depth.
Josquin des Prez (1450–1521) understood this. We can tell from the powerful lament he composed for Okeghem (Nymphes des bois), in which the tenor quotes the Requiem chant while the other voices sing a French text by the poet Jean Molinet. Even the musical notation dons the mourning shroud: all the notes are black. The opening lines are a forceful marshaling of the troops. Nymphs, goddesses, expert singers—change your voices into piercing cries and lamentations. In the famous second section, the poet calls on Josquin and his fellow musicians at the French royal court to put on mourning clothes and weep openly for Okeghem, “your kindly father” (vostre bon pere). The tenor, silent during this passage, returns theatrically (and up the octave) in the concluding phrase to sing “Requiescat in pace.”
Jesse Rodin is an associate professor in Stanford University's Department of Music. He directs the Josquin Research Project and the Renaissance vocal ensemble Cut Circle.
Missa prolationum
Kyrie
Gloria
Credo (instrumental)
Sanctus and Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Alma Redemptoris Mater (performed between Credo and Sanctus)
Additional selections to be announced from the stage.
The Clarion Choir & Orchestra
Steven Fox, artistic director
Scott Metcalf and Jesse Rodin, project advisors
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Choir Soprano Alto Tenor Bass Brass Consort Editions by Scott Metcalf, |
Additional Staff
Andrew Morton, stage manager
Nicole Nilsson, assistant stage manager
| Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. |
Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. |
| Glória in excélsis Deo,
et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis.
Laudámus te. Benedícimus te. Adorámus te. Glorificámus te. Grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam. Dómine Deus, Rex cæléstis, Deus Pater omnípotens. Dómine Fili unigénite, Jesu Christe. Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris. Qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis. Qui tollis peccáta mundi, Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis. Quóniam tu solus Sanctus. Tu solus Dóminus. Tu solus Altíssimus, Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spíritu, in glória Dei Patris. Amen. |
Glory be to God on high,
and on earth peace, good will towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, God the Father Almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; Son of the Father, Thou that takest away the sins of the world, |
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Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipoténtem, factórem cæli et terræ, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium. Fílium Dei unigénitum. Et ex Patre natum ante ómnia sæcula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lúmine, Deum verum de Deo vero. Génitum, non factum, consubstantiálem Patri: Et incarnátus est de Spíritu Sancto ex Crucifíxus étiam pro nobis: Et in Spíritum Sanctum, |
I believe in one God,
and was crucified also for us And I believe in the Holy Ghost, |
| Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, surgere qui curat populo: tu quae genuisti, natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem, Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore, sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere. |
Loving mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, Yet remained a virgin after as before. You who received have pity on us poor sinners. |
| Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dóminus Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis. |
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts: Heaven and earth are full of thy Glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
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| Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: dona nobis pacem. |
O Lamb of God,
that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace. |
The Clarion Choir was formed in 2006 and made their Lincoln Center debut in 2011, performing Bach Chorales as part of the White Light Festival. Initially focused on Baroque and Classical repertoire, the Choir has over the last decade expanded into later literature, developing a particular speciality in the choral music of Rachmaninoff and his contemporaries. In 2014, the choir gave the New York premiere of a lost Russian masterwork from the 1920s, Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg. In October of 2016, Clarion premiered the work in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London. Their performances were featured on PBS, and their recording of the work, the Choir's debut recording, received nominations for a GRAMMY® and for the BBC Music Magazine's Choral Award. The Choir has since performed and recorded other works from this period, such as Kastalsky's Memory Eternal, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Classical charts, and Kastalsky's Requiem, which received 'Editor's Choice' in Gramophone. In 2023, the Choir performed and recorded Rachmaninoff's large-scale sacred choral works in celebration of the composer's 150th birthday - a project that was featured in The New York Times last spring. The Choir sang Rachmaninoff's Liturgy of St. John at New Year and the All-Night Vigil ('Vespers') at Carnegie Hall last May. Their recently-released recording of the Vespers was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance. In 2019 and 2023, the Choir joined The English Concert and Harry Bicket for their annual Handel tour, performing Handel’s Semele and Solomon, respectively, in venues such as the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, the Barbican Centre in London, Cal Performances in Berkeley, Théatre des Champs Elysées in Paris, LA Opera and Carnegie Hall. The Clarion Choir has also performed in recent years as part of the Live Arts series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; including presentations of large-scale Renaissance works by Victoria, Palestrina, Tavener, Josquin, and Guerrero in the Medieval Sculpture Hall and the Met Cloisters.
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The Clarion Orchestra was founded in 1957 by conductor and musicologist Newell Jenkins. Beginning on modern instruments, then switching to period instruments in the 1970s, Clarion became one of the first period ensembles with a concert series in the United States. Shortly after Jenkins’ tenure, the series had a nearly ten-year hiatus until its revival in 2006 by the Clarion Board of Directors and Steven Fox. Many of the ensemble members are acclaimed as solo and chamber musicians and serve on faculties of the Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music, Bard College, SUNY Purchase, and Yale School of Music; other members of the Orchestra are recent graduates of such programs. The Orchestra has played at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Frick Collection in repertoire that has ranged from the Renaissance to the early-Romantic period. In 2009, The Clarion Orchestra was featured in Jonathan Miller’s iconic production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at BAM. And in the spring of 2017, the Orchestra, in collaboration with Christodora, produced its first-ever staged opera production, Mozart’s Magic Flute. The performances received critical acclaim in The New York Times, Opera News, The New York Concert Review and London’s Opera magazine. In recent years, the Orchestra has been a recipient of three Art Works grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Steven Fox is Artistic Director of The Clarion Choir & Orchestra. He is Music Director of Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and an Assistant and Cover Conductor to Jaap van Zweden at the New York Philharmonic. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Québec, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Theatre of Early Music (Toronto), and Juilliard415. This summer he will be Chorus Master with National Symphony Orchestra and Cathedral Choral Society for their performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
In 2023, Steven embarked on a project to perform all of Rachmaninoff's choral works in celebration of the composer's 150th anniversary. The project, which was featured in The New York Times and BBC Music Magazine, will reach its conclusion on October 30th with a performance of Rachmaninoff's rarely-heard Vesna and Three Folk Songs. He has made four recordings with The Clarion Choir of music by Steinberg, Kastalsky and Rachmaninoff, a series which has received Gramophone's Editor's Choice, a nomination for the BBC Music Magazine Choral Award, and four GRAMMY® nominations. Steven was also the Chorus Master for the GRAMMY®-award-winning debut recording of Ethel Smyth's The Prison.
Steven was named an Associate (ARAM) of the Royal Academy of Music and has given master classes at The Royal Academy of Music, his alma mater Dartmouth College, The Juilliard School, and Yale University, where he served for two years as preparatory conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum.
Leadership support for MetLiveArts provided by:
The Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art
Jody and John Arnhold, Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, Betsy and Edward Cohen / Areté Foundation, the Director’s Fund, Kathryn O. Greenberg, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky, The Howard and Sarah D. Solomon Foundation, the estate of Katherine Walter Stein, Douglas Dockery Thomas, Barbara Tober
Additional major supporters:
Sarah Arison, The David Berg Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Fund, the Adbul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives Fund, the Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Fund, the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund, Peter Steinberg and Kathrine Gehring, Helen Lee Warren and David Warren, William H. Wright II
Firebird Fellows and Firebirds:
Jenny Gerard Brown and Barry L. Brown, Magda Dvir, Constance Emmerich, Kenneth Koen, Deborah Paul, Barbara A. Pelson, Rajika and Anupam Puri, Douglas and Jean Renfield-Miller, Meryl Rosofsky and Stuart H. Coleman, Bonnie J. Sacerdote, Melanie Shorin and Greg S. Feldman, Beatrice Stern, Douglas Dockery Thomas, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang
Produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Live Arts
Limor Tomer, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang General Manager of Live Arts
Art Priromprintr, Senior Administrator
Nunally Kersh, Senior Producer
Harrison Corthell, Production Manager
Madyson Barnfield, Production Associate
Emery Kerekes, Program Coordinator
Audrey Rosenblith, Associate for Administration
Ricardo V. Barton, Associate for Administration
Kerrigan Quenemoen, Production Associate
Sam West, Artist Management Associate
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is on the island known as Mannahatta—now called Manhattan—in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people.
