La Bella Minuta: Florid Songs for Cornetto around 1600, Passacaille 979, March 2011.

Bruce Dickey, cornetto
Liuwe Tamminga, organ
Claudia Pasetto, viola da gamba
Leonardo Bortolotto, viola da gamba
Alberto Rasi, viola da gamba
Maria Christine Cleary, harp
Recorded in the Church of Santa Barbara, Mantova with the Antegnati organ (1565)
A=466 (temperatures caused the effective pitch to be A=462)
Quarter-comma mean-tone temperament

The title of this recording “La Bella Minuta,” refers to advice given by the famous cornettist, Girolamo Dalla Casa in 1584. Concerning the playing of the cornetto, he wrote “…let everyone strive to make a nice sound, lovely articulations, and beautiful divisions [la bella minuta], and to imitate the human voice as much as possible.” This is fine advice to be sure. Given the choice to select “La Bella Minuta” from it, one might expect this recording to be a showcase of the technical virtuosity of Bruce Dickey, indeed, perhaps to a series of rapid-fire passage. Nothing could be further from the truth; in fact, Bruce Dickey pays heed to the entirety of dalla Casa’s admonishment. His sound is nice and his articulations lovely. In fact the articulations are certainly clear yet always subtle. The divisions (minute) are first, beautiful and second, amazing. This is crucial. Clearly Dickey has virtuosity to display and does so. Yet, it is the music which prevails. His fabulous technique serves to enhance and not dominate the music. The final result is the imitation of the human voice in all ways. He clearly sings beautifully, phrases with grace, and the passages are always performed in the vocal style.

There are numerous composers represented: Ippolito (Tartaglino), Ascanio Mayone, Gioseffo Guami, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Maria Trabaci, Antonio Brunelli, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Cipriano de Rore, and Bartolomeo Barbarino. They offer a great variety of styles. Dickey is joined on some by pieces by organ and others by a consort of viols and harp. The combination of these pieces with the variety of accompanimental sounds results in a recording which one can enjoy and appreciate with multiple listenings. It is both pleasurable and instructive. One hears and learns something new with each repeated hearing.
Examples in the variety of pieces could be shown in the differences between the Quanti mercenarij of Palestrina and Guami’s La Brillantina. The former is a serene, calm (almost timeless) work of austere beauty. To be sure, there are passage, but one remembers the seemingly endless long phrases which Dickey plays with great care. His endurance certainly should be applauded along with his artistry on this work! Compare that with Guami’s La Brillantina. It is certainly brilliant in all ways, most assuredly in several extended rapid-fire passages which Dickey plays effortlessly yet thrillingly.

He uses two cornetti for this recording: a three-piece straight cornetto made by Henri Gohin of Paris, which he used on works by Ippolito, Josquin, Brunelli, Luzzaschi, and Barbarino, and a curved cornetto made by Matthew Jennejohn of Montreal, Quebec for the remainder of the works.
In conclusion, this is a superb recording. It satisfies on so many levels. It instructs, inspires, and finally is simply a beautiful offering.
 

-- James Miller
 

Coates Brass Band, Quickstep: Brass Band Music of the American Civil War. Featuring the Music of Thomas Coates. MSR Classics MS 1422.  Recorded. August 11-13, 2011.

Coates Brass Band: Douglas Hedwig, Music Director and Conductor. Eb Cornets: Jeff Stockham (Hall & Quinby, Boston, 1866), Brian Kanner (Hall & Quinby, Boston, 1865), Michael Jones (W.Seefeldt, Philadelphia, c. 1870), Bb Cornets: Robert High (Hall & Quinby, Boston, 1861), Patrick O’Connell (Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory “Band Size”, c. 1870), Eb Alto Horns: Lenore Turner (Quinby Bros., Boston, 1872), Dickson Rothwell (Martin, Pollman & Co. New York, c. 1870), William Green (unsigned, c. 1870), Bb Tenor Horns: Steven Lundahl, (Hall & Quinby, Boston, c. 1868), Kyle Russell, (CA Zoebisch & Sons, New York, 1867), Bb Baritone Horn and Bb Bass: Barry Bocanner, (Kummer & Schetelich, Baltimore, c. 1860), Michael O’Connor, (EG Wright, Boston, c. 1865), Eb Bass Tuba: Roy Coates (CA Zoebisch & Sons, New York, 1867), Snare Drum: Daniel Gonzalez, (Edward Brown, Albany, NY, c. 1865), Bass Drum & Cymbals: Robert Sacks, (Blodgett & Brandford, Buffalo, NY c. 1858-63.) All original mouthpieces, c. 1855-1870.

One of the many positive aspects of the early music movement has been the exploration, performance, and recording of little-known repertoire that represents a part of the cultural heritage of a particular nation, or more often than not, small regions of a particular country. Recordings made during the past couple of decades have resulted in the presentation of little known music of regions of France, Germany, Italy, England, the Scandinavian countries as well as other countries. This is often music that has never made it into the standard music textbooks and we are all the richer for those endeavors. This recent CD is a fine effort by an American ensemble to expose a little-known part of the American musical heritage. Ten out of the nineteen marches, waltzes, hymns, 2-steps, and, of course, quicksteps are by the composer Thomas Coates (1803/10 – 1895).

In his informative CD notes, Michael O’Connor presents what little information is known of Coates, who in the pre and post American Civil War periods was an important and accomplished musician. His many accomplishments have been faded by time. O’Connor explains that he was likely born in Easton, Pennsylvania, ran away from home at the age of 10 to join a circus band and ultimately drew the attention of the famous musician Allen Dodsworth. Coates’s musical skills were called upon when, at the start of the Civil War, he joined the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Coates continued to compose and direct brass bands in Easton until his death in 1895. Shortly after the city erected a monument to him, proclaiming him “The Father of Band Music in America.”

Michael O’Connor compiled and edited the music on this recording from numerous Civil War period band archives, including one Confederate band library (which speaks to the popularity of Coates’s music). Also represented on this finely played CD are works of the period by William Tanzer, George Goodwin, Henry Bishop, A. Kurrick, Philip Phile, B.F. Porter, and Ignaz Pleyel. The Coates Brass Band, under the able direction of Douglas Hedwig, played with enthusiasm and delicate ensemble work. Of particular note was the wonderful Eb cornet playing of Jeff Stockham. The ensemble managed to tame these notoriously difficult 19th century instruments. We are indebted to the members of the Coates Brass Band for this fine historically informed recording of a little-known slice of the American musical heritage.

-- Jeffrey Nussbaum
 

Volny Hostiou, Le Serpent Imaginaire, Hybrid Music (H1827), Recorded 23-29 July, 2011.

With Fançois Ménissier, organ; Eva Godard, cornetti; Thomas van Essen, baryton

With this solo recording, Volny Hostiou joins the ranks a small band of word-class serpentists active today. He is not only a great virtuoso on his instrument, but a noted scholar as well. While little specific solo repertoire exists, Hostiou has created an interesting program based on our knowledge of the traditional role of the serpent and serpentists ability to be great improvisers. So this CD program consists of an “imaginary solo repertoire” for bass and tenor serpents from the Renaissance to the mid-seventeenth Century. As Hostiou explains in his excellent CD notes, “the serpents plays, in turn, the role of singer, voices of keyboard pieces.”

Volny Hostiou plays on a copy of an original anonymous serpent housed in the Musée de la Musique in Paris (E.2204) made by Wetterberger. He is joined by the spectacular organist, François Ménissier playing on a Renaissance style instrument, cornettist Eva Godard (playing instruments by John McCann and Serge Delmas) and Thomas van Essen on baryton. There are 23 cuts on this recording and most are arrangements. Of course, most impressive is Hostiou’s brilliant virtuosic playing on the florid division lines on works such as the recercadas by Diego Ortiz (1510-1570), pieces by Francisco Correade Arauxo (1583-1654), trio Fantasies by Eustache Du Caurroy (1549-1609), a lovely Frescobaldi ricercar, and Giovanni Bassano’s Ancor che col partire. Of particular note was Hostiou’s virtuosity on Sonata sopra la Monica by Ph. Friedrich Boeddecker (1607-1683). He plays these works with the fluidity and grace more commonly associated with the cornetto. Eva Godard has a number of moments to shine and shine she does, displaying a beautiful dark tone and florid, light articulations on works by Francisco Correa de Arauxo and Eustache Du Caurroy.

Virtuosity in the flashy fast note aspect of the term is not all that is on display on this recording. True to an important aspect of the serpent and cornett tradition is that of supporting the vocal line doubling or playing a cantus firmus. Both Godard and Hostiou  play these supportive lines with great sensitivity on works by Louis Couperin (1626-1661), Jehan Titelouze (1563-1633) and Carrea de Arauxo. At times the serpent creates a haunting tonal color that, while blending beautifully with the ensemble, sounds like an additional organ stop. The performers are true virtuosos and sensitive musicians. This is a must have CD for anyone interested in Renaissance music or listeners who want to hear the serpent at its finest.

-- Jeffrey Nussbaum

River Raisin Ragtime Revue. Raggin’ at Greenfield Village. www.ragtimeband.org Recorded June 4-5, 2011.

William Pemberton, tuba and director; William King, clarinet; Catherine McMichael, piano; Rod McDonald, banjo; Clark Irwin and Kiri Tollaksen, cornet; Saura Wyman Pemberton, flute; Barbara Sturgis-Everett and Priscilla Johnson, violin; George Thompson, trombone; Alison Badger, cello; Andre Dowell, percussion; Susan Schreiber, viola.

The River Raisin Ragtime Revue under the direction of tuba player William Pemberton, has produced a wonderful recording of 21 arrangements that span the period from pre-jazz music right through to compositions of some of the truly great in jazz. It is fascinating to hear the early works that just hint at jazz but are still firmly entrenched in late nineteenth-century dance music. Works that fit this category include “Mississippi Rag: Two-Step” (1897) by W.H. Krell, “Virginia Diggins” (1915) by Tom Turpin, “Walkin’ the Dog: Fox Trot” (1916) by Brooks and Shrigley, and “Selections from Clorindy” (1899) by Will Marion Cook. Rags from the end of the nineteenth century and first decade of the twentieth century have their own solidly identifiable quality which also have one foot in the dance and march world but hint at the new music that is soon to come.

An early work that more than just hints at the jazz style is “Castle House Rag” (1914) by James Reese Europe. Gunther Schuller wrote a spectacular arrangement of this work and the rhythmic vitality of the piece is very much in the spirit of jazz. It is interesting to note how early some of the works of the great stride piano players were composed. Stride piano, of course, is distinguished from rag-time in a number of ways, most importantly in that stride was typically improvised or, at least not notated like ragtime was. Lucky Roberts’s “Pork and Beans” (1913) and James P. Johnson’s classic “Carolina Shout” (1918) are examples of two early pieces that are clearly jazz but written at a time when the new jazz style was still not yet fully developed. We tend to regard stride piano as a style of the 1920s and 1930s, and it clearly was, but history is never as clear cut as the history books might indicate. The first two decades of the twentieth century were a period of intense change as well as one active with a wide range of musical styles. “Carolina Shout” (1918), Jelly Roll Morton’s “Original Jelly Roll Blues” (1915), Scott Joplin’s “Gladiolus Rag,” and “Virginia Diggins” (1915) by Wilbur Sweatman are four compositions all written within a few years of each other that represent wildly divergent styles.

The arrangements of those four tunes are wonderfully performed by the River Raisin Ragtime Revue, as are all the cuts on this fascinating recording. Of special note is Clark Irwin’s cornet playing, particularly on the Kit Johnson arrangement of Fats Waller’s “Black and Blue” (1929) and a wonderful arrangement by Chuck Israel of the “Potato Head Blues” (1927). This CD beautifully demonstrates the different styles of popular music during a short period of time at the beginning of the last century. While the styles are diverse, they all share a common thread of being part of the jazz tradition or one of the roots that would soon develop into that art form.

-- Jeffrey Nussbaum