O Padua, sidus praeclarum by Johannes Ciconia
Back in the day, music and poetry were as much a part of municipal pride and identity as statues or courthouses or parks or skyscrapers. Those in charge of a city often engaged musicians and poets and other artists to create works to grace and enhance municipal life. Sometimes such works even specifically celebrated the attractions, the people, the culture and the natural beauties of a given city, either by commission or simply out of an inclination to praise one's own home.
Such is 'O Padua, sidus praeclarum', Johannes Ciconia's paean of praise to the northern Italian city of Padua. Ciconia was born in the Flemish city of Liège, but he seems to have spent most of his career in Italy, working at the papal court in Rome, and then at the duomo in Padua, in the Veneto region, 25 miles from Venice. Though his life crossed 1400, the traditional dividing line between the musical Medieval and Renaissance eras, his works partake far more of the 14th-century ars nova and ars subtilior techniques than of the later style.
To get an idea of the Ciconian sound world, listen to the wonderful love song 'O rosa bella'; and to the grand isorhythmic, polytextual motet 'Doctorum principem-Melodia suavissima-Vir mitis'.
'O Padua' is a setting of a wonderful poem (poet unknown, quite possibly the composer himself) which begins by calling the city a 'brilliant star' and goes on to praise its people, its jurisprudence, its arts, its landscapes, its buildings and pretty much everything else--a city of wonders! And it ends with a sort of musico-poetic signature in which Ciconia avers that he is merely echoing the praises accorded by the entire world to the graceful city of Padua.
Here's a link to a really nice recording of the piece with a slide-show of some of Padua's buildings and public spaces. At about the 2-minute mark, you'll see the enormous Basilica of Sant' Antonio, where the Bach Choir and the SSU Chamber Singers performed this very motet (along with plenty of other Italian early music) in June of 1999.
A score and a text-translation sheet are attached.
The main reason I was excited to go to Padua (called Padova in these modern times), aside from singing, was to see the Cappella degli Scrovegni. It did not disappoint! In this small chapel, unimposing from the outside, Giotto di Bondone completed around 1305 his incredible double-cycle of frescoes depicting the lives of Mary and of Jesus, not to mention an enormous Last Judgment, a stunning archway Annunciation, and the most amazing star-spangled ceiling you will ever see. You can explore this amazing work of art via the link above. Click the images to view enlargements in fine resolution.
I think we should bring back the municipal motet! 'O Rohnert Park', anyone?
Back in the day, music and poetry were as much a part of municipal pride and identity as statues or courthouses or parks or skyscrapers. Those in charge of a city often engaged musicians and poets and other artists to create works to grace and enhance municipal life. Sometimes such works even specifically celebrated the attractions, the people, the culture and the natural beauties of a given city, either by commission or simply out of an inclination to praise one's own home.
Such is 'O Padua, sidus praeclarum', Johannes Ciconia's paean of praise to the northern Italian city of Padua. Ciconia was born in the Flemish city of Liège, but he seems to have spent most of his career in Italy, working at the papal court in Rome, and then at the duomo in Padua, in the Veneto region, 25 miles from Venice. Though his life crossed 1400, the traditional dividing line between the musical Medieval and Renaissance eras, his works partake far more of the 14th-century ars nova and ars subtilior techniques than of the later style.
To get an idea of the Ciconian sound world, listen to the wonderful love song 'O rosa bella'; and to the grand isorhythmic, polytextual motet 'Doctorum principem-Melodia suavissima-Vir mitis'.
'O Padua' is a setting of a wonderful poem (poet unknown, quite possibly the composer himself) which begins by calling the city a 'brilliant star' and goes on to praise its people, its jurisprudence, its arts, its landscapes, its buildings and pretty much everything else--a city of wonders! And it ends with a sort of musico-poetic signature in which Ciconia avers that he is merely echoing the praises accorded by the entire world to the graceful city of Padua.
Here's a link to a really nice recording of the piece with a slide-show of some of Padua's buildings and public spaces. At about the 2-minute mark, you'll see the enormous Basilica of Sant' Antonio, where the Bach Choir and the SSU Chamber Singers performed this very motet (along with plenty of other Italian early music) in June of 1999.
A score and a text-translation sheet are attached.
The main reason I was excited to go to Padua (called Padova in these modern times), aside from singing, was to see the Cappella degli Scrovegni. It did not disappoint! In this small chapel, unimposing from the outside, Giotto di Bondone completed around 1305 his incredible double-cycle of frescoes depicting the lives of Mary and of Jesus, not to mention an enormous Last Judgment, a stunning archway Annunciation, and the most amazing star-spangled ceiling you will ever see. You can explore this amazing work of art via the link above. Click the images to view enlargements in fine resolution.
I think we should bring back the municipal motet! 'O Rohnert Park', anyone?