trefoil

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TREFOIL is a trio of singer/instrumentalists long active in early music, with experience in such ensembles as Concert Royal, Les Arts Florissants, New York's Ensemble for Early Music, Pomerium, Clarion Music Society, Piffaro, My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and other groups. The trio debuted in New York and Philadelphia in early 2000 with a program of 14th-century French ars subtilior song. The Philadelphia Inquirer tagged the performers as "a hearty trio of medieval music specialists" and their work as "an intricate, enigmatic vocal art."

Trefoil has appeared in concert and master classes at Temple University, Vassar College, Middlebury College, the Vermont Millennium Arts Festival, The Museum Series of Providence, and Boston College, in addition to a series of four holiday concerts at The Cloisters. In spring 2002 the trio brought its subtler art to the 37th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. Coming concerts include a program of Italian laude at the Amherst Early Music Festival (August 2002), performances in New York and Manchester, New Hampshire in January 2003; and, in February, a series of joint appearances with the Folger Consort in Washington, D.C.

Among the world's premiere countertenors, Drew Minter has appeared in leading roles with the opera companies of Brussels, Toulouse, Boston, Washington, Santa Fe, BAM, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, Nice, and Marseille, as well as Skylight Opera, Opera/Omaha, and the Berkshire Opera Festival; and at the Halle, Karlsruhe, Maryland, and Goettingen Handel festivals. He has sung with many of the world's leading early music ensembles, including Les Arts Florissants, the Handel and Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, and as a guest at such festivals as BAM's Next Wave, Boston Early Music, Edinburgh, and Spoleto. Mr. Minter is a founding member of the Newberry Consort and performs regularly with My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, ARTEK, and the Folger Consort. He has made more than 50 recordings on Harmonia Mundi, Decca/London, Newport Classics, Lyrichord, and Hungaroton. His articles and reviews appear regularly in Opera News. Widely acknowledged for his significant performances and recordings of the operas of Handel, he has sung leading roles in, and/or directed, more than two dozen of Handel's dramatic works. He teaches on the faculties of Vassar and Smith Colleges and is a frequent and lauded opera director.

Mark Rimple has appeared as a countertenor and lutenist with The Newberry Consort, Ex Umbris, Piffaro, Voice of Orpheus, The New York Collegium, New York's Ensemble for Early Music, Brandywine Baroque, and The Philadelphia Classical Symphony. He is also a composer: his works have been performed by Parnassus and Network for New Music, and often include countertenor, lute, and Renaissance instruments. Recently his Portrait of a Dying Empire for Soprano Saxophone and Harpsichord was given its New York premiere by Marshall Taylor and Joyce Lindorff in the International Stephan Wolpe Festival at Symphony Space. He is a specialist in the theory and notation of medieval through baroque music and has taught these subjects in workshops at the Amherst Early Music Festival and Winter Weekends, the Madison Early Music Festival, and the Early Music Program at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. He holds a DMA in composition from Temple University, and is an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition in the West Chester University School of Music: http://www.wcupa.edu/

Soprano Marcia Young has performed and recorded with numerous ensembles in the New York area, including New York's Ensemble for Early Music, BachWorks, Clarion Music Society, Musica Sacra, New York Concert Singers, Pomerium, and New York Virtuoso Singers. Also a medieval, renaissance, and baroque harpist, Ms. Young plays and sings with the renaissance ensembles Duo Marchand and My Lord Chamberlain's Consort (which completed its first tour of the Southwestern U.S. last spring). Recent solo credits include Israel in Egypt at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue with Concert Royal and Julianne Baird, Wachet Auf with BachWorks, Mozart's Solemn Vespers at St. Luke in the Fields with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the 11th-century French miracle play Sponsus with Ensemble for Early Music, with whom she toured the U.S. in 2000. Current recordings include The Chants of Sarum with Parthenia VII on the Eclipse label, A Musical Book of Hours (Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv) and Musica Vaticana (Glissando), both with Pomerium, and Responsoria, a two-disc set of the works of Richard Toensing recently released by N/S.

American Record Guide Review for Christo e nato in the Nov/Dec 2005 edition:

A very pleasing collection of medieval songs for celebrating the Nativity. Here we have mostly laude, Italian songs begun and encouraged in the latter half of the 13th century by the Franciscans. These were designed for para-liturgical ceremonies and for encouraging participation by laymen. Texts took their form from the secular ballata, which consisted of several stanzas and a refrain, with te stanzas sung by a soloist. The laude were led by professional musicians, both singers and instrumentalists. Drawings from the mid-14th century show that instruments like the organ, lute, and harp were commonly used to accompany devotional singing.

As with al medieval music, a big problem for performers is the lack of musical notation. Performers must decide for themselves on rhythmic values and on whether or not to improvise. In some cases here, the musicians have decided to improvise vocal parts after the manner of 14th century part singing. Polyphonic laude did exist, according to the records, but they are now lost.

To round out the program, the singers have included a small selection of late 14th and early 15th century polyphony by Johannes Ciconia, Matteo da Perugia, and some anonymous contemporaries. These works have been chosen partly to display te contrast between the quite sophisticated music of clerk and cathedral and the humbler, simpler laude of the less educated urban middle class. the program begins and ends with a Gloria in excelsis, the first by Ciconia, the other by Perugia.

In short, this new program is an excellent addition to the catalog. I enjoyed hearing the three members of Trefoil -- Drew Minter, Mark Rimple, and Marcia Young -- all veterans of the early music scene. Use of instruments is sparing. the only drawback to this release is, I'm afraid, becoming a trend: you have to go to the website to get the full texts for the songs. And you should: there are only six pages, and you miss a lot if you don't have the texts.

-- Crawford (no first name given)

TREFOIL
MARCIA YOUNG, SOPRANO AND HARP
MARK RIMPLE, COUNTERTENOR AND LUTE
DREW MINTER, COUNTERTENOR AND HARP

GABRIEL'S ANNOUNCEMENT: DA CIEL VENNE MESSO NOVELLO     (Mgl)
THE ANGELS SING: CANTANO GL'ANGIO LIETI/SANCTUS    (GB-Lon)
PRAISING THE VIRGIN: SOVRANA SI NE SEMBIANTI REGINA PRETIOSA    (Mgl)
THE BIRTH: PUER NATUS    (I-Moe)
A Dance around the Virgin: CO LA MADRE DEL BEATO (Instr.)    (Mgl)
CHRIST'S PURPOSE: CHRISTO E NATO    (Cort)
THE MAGI'S JOURNEY: STELLA NOVA (Instr.)    (Cort)
NOVA STELLA APPARITA    (Mgl)
HEAVEN AND EARTH REJOICES: GLORIA    Johannes Ciconia (1335-1411)

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: In late-medieval Italy, singing confraternities created an enormous body of laude: vernacular religious songs employing refrains in alternation with soloistic strophes. These were developed orally in the decades of the 13th century and transmitted down to us through two laudarios, the older being from Cortona in the late 13th century (Cort), and the latter from early-14th century Florence (Mgl). In Florence, the singers, or laudesi, of the Comapny of Santo Spirito sponsored ad hoc services with elements of drama and dance before an image of the Annunciation and two paintings of the Madonna. Some of the songs are quite virtuosic, implying very advanced singers, and others are simpler dance-like tunes, making them easier to learn by a larger company. In addition to free-rhythm chanting of some laude, Trefoil performs other laude in their own rhythmic arrangements for both voices and instruments; to these we have added several exuberant contemporary three-part polyphonic Christmas motets.

THE MELODIOUS HARP

TREFOIL
MARCIA YOUNG, SOPRANO AND HARP
MARK RIMPLE, COUNTERTENOR AND LUTE
DREW MINTER, COUNTERTENOR AND HARP

1. Sus un fontaine    Johannes Ciconia (ca. 1370-1412)
2. Helas, pitie    Trebor (Johan Robert?) (fl. 1390-1410)
3. De ce que foul pense    Anonymous
4. En ce gracieux temps   Jacob de Senleches (fl. 1378-1395)
5. Tres gentil cuer    Solage (fl. 1370-1390)
6. Pres du soloil    Matheus de Perusio (d.1418)
7. En l'amoureux vergier    Solage
8. Li dieus d'Amours    Johannes Cesaris (fl. 1385-1420)

9. En la saison    Hymbert de Salinis (fl. 1400)
10. Tout par compas    Baude Cordier (fl. 15th c.)
11. N'a pas longtemps    Anonymous
12. Aquila altera    Jacopo da Bologna (fl. 1340-1370)
13. La harpe de melodie    Senleches
14. Se Genevre    Johnnes Cunelier (fl. 1372-1387)
15. Se Galaas et le puissant Artus    Cunelier

“I dide my besynesse to make songes, as best I koude”
A selection of poetry and music from Chaucer’s age

MARCIA YOUNG, SOPRANO AND HARP
DREW MINTER, COUNTERTENOR AND HARP
MARK RIMPLE, COUNTERTENOR AND LUTE

A descort sont Désir et Esperance     Anonymous 14^th c. French
Joie Plaisance (from Remede de Fortune)    Guillaume de Machaut (1300 – 1377)
Phiton, phiton          Machaut
Pictagoras, Jubol et Orpheus Suzoy

“This wrecched worldes transmutacioun, as wele or wo…
Governed is by Fortune’s errour...”

De Fortune         Machaut
A qui Fortune     Mattheus de Perusia
Se je me plaing        Mattheus

“with harpes, lutes, and gyternes,
they daunce and pleyen at dees both day and nyght”

Sancta mater gracie/Dou way, Robin     Anonymous English, early 14^th c.
Ciaramella           Antonius Zachara da Teramo
Isabella, Estampie     Anonymous 14^th c. Italian

“On every bow the bryddes herde I singe/ With voys of aungel in here armonye;”

En un giardin     Anonymous 14^th c. French
Flos regalis     Anonymous early 14^th c. English
Un Pellegrin Uccel         Don Paolo da Firenze
N’a pas longtemps que trouvay Zephirus      Anonymous 14^th c. French
Sus une fontayne          Johannes Ciconia

Non più dogli ebbe Dido       Andrea da Firenze
Par le grant senz d’Ariadne        Philipot da Caserta
Se Dedalus     Anonymous late 14^th c. French

Chaucer's poetry is overflowing with influences from the French and Italian poetry of his day. While some literary critics have discussed his indebtedness to thireenth century French epic poetry, notably the Romance of the Rose, or that of his contemporaries Machaut and Deschamps, little has been written on the similarity of his wiriting to that of the ars subtilior and trecento composers writing at the end of the fourteenth century. This program explores the song repertoire of Italy, France, and England in the fourteenth century, juxtaposing poetic works with similar themes and images