Subtitled “Secular love songs and sacred English song and chant to the Virgin Mary, from the 13th century to the 21st,” Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, voice, and Elizabeth Weinfield, vielle and viol, presented a very interesting program on a recent Saturday afternoon. Paired with early music including plainsong chant and medieval songs, the afternoon also included modern settings (1991 and 2016) of medieval texts.
Ms. Horner-Kwiatek sang with a somewhat hooting tone, and minimal vibrato, which is par for the course with early-music practitioners. Her diction was very clean in middle English, French, and German. The plainsong chant was clear, and the gradual use of chant morphng into sacred and secular song was very nicely illustrated. Ms. Weinfield’s playing was also first rate. The vielle is a stringed instrument similar in tone to a violin, but played almost like a cello, held between her knees (nothing on the bottom, to set on the ground like a cello, though). The viol is similar, though it has frets on the finger board and was described as a forerunner to the guitar.
The centerpiece of the afternoon was the setting of three 14th-century secular
love poems (compiled in the 15th century, as the Findern Manuscript).
Andrew Lovett, who spoke at the concert, set Fortune’s Will (2016) – I. Ah, Mercy, Fortune; II. Continuance (solo voice). The first had humming to start, and then moved into a setting of the text. Throughout, the humming and the texts alternated back and forth. Each of the three verses ended with a repeated refrain. The second song had the text somewhat dissected, with vocal tics thrown in.
Later in the program we heard Continuance in a composition for voice and viol, by Joel Phillip Friedman (also 2016, and he also spoke about his setting). This one was moodier than Mr. Lovett’s version, mostly tuneful and less spiky, but with some pitch bending at times. It then had a dramatic section before ending calmly, for both voice and viol.
There were additional pieces before concluding with Findern Songs (2016) –
I. Continuance; II. Where Y have chosen; III. Ah, Mercy, Fortune – Daniel Thomas Davis. Mr. Davis did not speak, though Ms. Horner-Kwiatek read a message he had sent to her cell phone. Continuance was a much more modern setting with slight dissonances from the very beginning and a stronger viol presence. Where Y have chosen had a Celtic, folk song, sing-song-y setting of the individual syllables of the words. At times, the viol had some long sustained lines and at other times it matched the syllabic, rhythmic vocal setting. Ah, Mercy, Fortune was an energetic setting of the three verses. The first verse ended with a pretty rendition of the refrain. The second verse was very similar, and the refrain was like revisiting a new friend. While the third verse was fairly much more of the same, the refrain veered off and was treated in a new way, to end the piece.
The blend of old and new made for a varied program, although it wasn’t to everyone’s liking, as there were a few leave takers between some of the sets. Still, I enjoyed it, as a once in a while type of concert. I’m used to hearing this type of music, especially the early music portions, in a church setting, so the chants and the earliest settings were a little on the dry side—no built-in reverb the way you’d hear it in an old stone church. A very minor quibble.
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