Micrologus; Blind Praises

81-02 BLIND PRAISES

Today on Micrologus, I will be examining the important role which blind composers have played in the history of music in our culture. Many of these composers were renowned as keyboard players, and we will be listening to selections of their works for keyboard and for other instruments, for a time period spanning five centuries. The earliest composer whose works we will be listening to today on this program about music by blind composers is Francesco Landini, "Francesco Cieco" (blind Francesco), as he was known to his contemporaries. He was born about 1325 near Florence and lived most of his life there, dying in 1397. He was blind from childhood, apparently after suffering a case of smallpox. A really amazing thing about Landini is that a quarter of all the Italian repertory that we have preserved from the 14th century was written by Francesco Landini, so he was extremely prolific, in addition to being renowned as a performer. We are going to listen to a ballata—two-thirds of his compositions are ballatas--songs which have some relation to the dance (the Italian word for dance is ballare). We will listen, first, to the original three-part arrangement for two singers and vielle, and then a two-part purely instrumental version. The top part in the instrumental version is played by a portative organ and this, above all, seems to have been Francesco’s favorite instrument. In paintings of the time, it is that instrument which Francesco has seated on his lap. The ballata "Questa fanciull' amor" (That boy love), by Francesco Landini, performed by the Studio der Frühen Musik, directed by Thomas Binkley.

[MUSIC]

Well, as I said, Landini was a 14th-century composer. A representative of 15th-century blind composers is Conrad Paumann. Paumann was born blind in about the year 1410 in Nuremberg, where he spent a great deal of his life before moving to Munich. His tombstone is still in a church in Munich; it bears the inscription: "In the year 1473 on the evening of St. Paul's conversion, died and was here buried, the most ingenious master of all instruments in music, Conrad Paumann, Knight." So, he was well-known as a composer, as an instrumentalist on all kinds of instruments, and also as a teacher. He is the author of a treatise entitled Fundamentum Organisandi (Fundamentals of organ playing). He managed to do some travelling in his lifetime, and in Italy, he became known as Il cieco miracoloso (the miraculous blind one). We are going to listen to one of his most famous compositions, "Mit ganczem Willen." It is a keyboard piece and the performance here is on clavichord. I would ask you, when the music begins, not to turn up your amplifiers. You will notice immediately that it is very soft, but the clavichord is a very delicate and intimate instrument, and that intimate effect will be totally lost if it is amplified any further. I am sorry, but you will just have to listen a little more closely. A performance of Paumann's "Mit ganczem Willen" by Bernard Brauchli.

[MUSIC]

Our representative of the 16th century is Antonio de Cabezon, that great Spanish organ master. He was born about 1510 and was blind from early childhood. By the time he was sixteen, he was attached to the Spanish Royal family, first to the Empress Isabella, and later to her son Phillip, who became the famous Phillip II of Spain, of Spanish Armada fame. He traveled with Phillip around Europe to Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and when Phillip went to visit his bride by proxy, Queen Mary Tudor of England, Cabezon went with him there, also. He was involved with the early blossoming of the variation form; In Spain, such pieces were known as diferencias. We are going to listen to a piece of this type by Antonio Cabezon: variations on the tune of a very popular song, entitled, "El caballero de Almedo" (The Knight of Almedo). The performance is on harpsichord and the performer is Anne Gallet of the Ricercare Ensemble.

[MUSIC]

Moving on to the 17th century, our blind master is Jacob Van Eyck. Van Eyck was born about 1589 and died in 1657. For a good part of his life, he was associated with the city of Utrecht, as carilloneur. But besides being carilloneur, that is, player of the carillon bells, he was also a bell designer, designing bells after acoustical principles. In addition, he was known as a recorder player and a composer for the soprano recorder, since he published three collections of pieces, mainly variation pieces for soprano recorder. These collections were entitled: Der Fluyten Lusthof (the Flute's Pleasure Garden). We are going to listen to a selection from one of Van Eyck's most famous variation pieces, that on the English lute song "When Daphne from fair Phoebus did fly." The performance is by Van Eyck's countryman, Frans Brüggen.

[MUSIC]

The last composer on this show about the music of blind composers through the ages is perhaps the least known. Our 18th-century representative is John Stanley, born in 1712, died in 1786. Blinded in a domestic accident at the age of two, he had a great talent for music, and by the age of only twelve, he was the head organist at All Hallows' Church, near St. Paul's in London. In 1729 John Stanley became the youngest-ever Bachelor of Music at Oxford University, at the age of only 17. He continued to contribute greatly to musical life in England, writing works for theatre, church, and for chamber, as well. We are going to listen to a piece entitled "Voluntary in D." Originally it was written just for organ alone, but because the range and character of the upper part are so much obliged to trumpet music of the time, it is performed here on organ and, naturally, baroque trumpet, by William Neal and Don Smithers of the Clarion Consort.

[MUSIC]

Why, you might ask, were so many of these blind composers keyboard players, and, in particular, organists? Well, in the first place the organ is an instrument which is most often played by itself, so any difficulties of ensemble playing are thus avoided. The second reason is that a great deal of an organist's responsibility is improvising, and a blind musician is as well, if not better, equipped than a sighted musician for that kind of sustained introspection. That concludes today's program, a tribute to blind composers from the 14th to the 18th centuries.