SEPTEMBER 2018 | 'Cifras Imaginarias': Música para tañer a dos vihuelas| Jacob Heringman & Ariel Abramovich | Arcana A428

SEPTEMBER 2018 | 'Cifras Imaginarias': Música para tañer a dos vihuelas| Jacob Heringman & Ariel Abramovich | Arcana A428

By RAY PICOT

This album is to my mind a shining example of ‘early music’ at its best: not a studied and academic exercise to recreate something long past, but an imaginative and living response which conveys an extraordinary degree of poetic inspiration in the two performers Jacob Heringman and Ariel Abramovich. I had the pleasure of hearing most of this music played live as part of our Guitarrísimo series last June in a packed Bolivar Hall, and with the duo’s precision, enthusiasm and deep awareness of period performance practice, they brought this music to life on stage, and have done so in this recording.

For those unfamiliar with the vihuela, it was a family of Spanish guitar-like instruments which was tuned identically to the Renaissance lute, of which it was a contemporary, but for reasons unknown, it eclipsed on the Iberian peninsula. The vihuela had six doubled gut strings which were plucked rather than strummed; it flourished in the 16th century, which is when the seven surviving published books of music for this instrument were published. Only a few original instruments have survived, which combined with iconographic representations in printed books and religious buildings, have provided the basis for modern re-constructions. The vihuela was used solo, for vocal accompaniment and in combination with others, though the surviving repertoire for the latter is limited to a few individual manuscripts and to a single publication. On this recording we have pieces played by two vihuelas tuned to ‘G’ and others with a single vihuela tuned to ‘G’ and the accompanying one to ‘D’; this is consistent with Renaissance performance practice, particularly in polyphonic choral arrangements when one instrument takes the melody with embellishments and the other provides harmonic support.

The publications tended to collect both solo and vocally accompanied pieces, either being original works or arrangements, the latter typically being arrangements of songs or vocal polyphony. The inclusion of arrangements may sound extraordinary to us now, but at that time, Renaissance vihuelists would have had few opportunities for formal training, so they tended to be self-taught. The publications therefore offered a range of pieces to learn the art of interpretation and composition, as well as for entertainment, with perhaps some bias to reflect the tastes of the vihuelist’s sponsor.

Jacob Heringman and Ariel Abramovich - two of Early Music's true rock stars - are well known for their individual contributions to the understanding of the Renaissance repertoire of the lute and vihuela; with only a handful of pieces having survived for two vihuelas, they have assembled a remarkable album of arrangements of existing solo instrumental pieces and vocal works. The spring-board for this was the collection Silva de sirenas (1547) by Enriquez de Valderrábano, which contains 17 pieces for vihuela duet. With full awareness of the customs and practices of Renaissance music-making, including the intabulations of other vihuelists, they have recreated an imaginary collection, the title of which also reflects the widespread use at the time of cifras (tablature) notation which utilised numbers and symbols rather than notes and staves.

The pieces collected on this album also reflect the type of music Valderrábano enjoyed playing, from arrangements of the rich polyphonic music of the great choral masters of his time, like Josquin des Prez, Gombert, Morales and Willaert, to instrumental variations (which were popular in Spain) and more improvised pieces and songs. The polychoral works have by necessity been pared down to suit the two instruments, with the individual lines distributed between the two players, which works very well despite the original’s complexity. The tempi are also very faithful to current early music scholarship, with close adherence to contemporary custom and practice in making these arrangements, which requires considerable skill and knowledge of tablature. So we come across the musical forms which were popular including the pavane, ricercar, tiento and fantasia, alongside arrangements of secular songs, French chanson and motets. The range of composers covered on this album also helps achieve variety of palette, with works by Cabezón, de Modena, Crequillon, Milano, Palero, Sermisy, de Uppsala, Vasquez and Verdelot. The two Milano fantasias are played on solo instruments for variety.

The instruments played by Jacob Heringman and Ariel Abramovich are beautiful recreations of originals and they sound magnificent in this recording, reflecting the duo’s close attention to colour and detail. At times it is hard to tell the two players apart, as they interweave their lines in perfect rapport, with careful attention to expressive detail, and the subtle variations in style reflecting the requirements of the individual pieces. Listening to other recordings of this repertoire it is evident that this balance is difficult to achieve, whilst maintaining the listener’s interest, which is where this duo succeeds admirably. Josquin is a very important starting point for the collection, and one is also aware of the important work done by Jacob Heringman on his intabulations, reflecting also the afterlife of choral works as instrumental settings which was prevalent during the Renaissance.

Listening to over 50 minutes of music for this quietly expressive instrumental music does tend to conjure an almost meditative atmosphere, which offers another dimension to enjoying this inspired music-making. Josquin's motet Dulces exuviae and Cabezon’s keyboard ground Pavana italiana were, for me, strong favourites.

To summarise, a fascinating and most illuminating recital disc by two master musicians in complete harmony with each other, with a superb recording which offers a very natural and immediate sound, accompanied by excellent detailed booklet notes.

WHAT NEXT?

If you enjoyed this delightful excursion into Spanish Renaissance music for the vihuela, the following should be of particular interest:

Valderrábano: Silva de sirenas. Armonioso Concerti. Harmonia Mundi HMI987059. This is the only recording to my knowledge which includes the pieces for two vihuelas which provided the inspiration for the reviewed album, and offers an attractive perspective with solo pieces and songs performed by the countertenor Carlos Mena
Valderrábano - y los vihuelistas castellanos. Alfred Fernández. Unacorda UCR0012000. An excellent solo instrumental album exploring the music of Valderrábano further along with some of his contemporaries
Estevan Daça: El Parnasso M.S LXXVI. El Cortesano. José Hernández Pastor & Ariel Abramovich. Arcana A316. Ariel, one half of the duo produces an idiomatic and very balanced selection of one of the least well-known of the seven published 16th-century collections mentioned above.
Alonso Mudarra: Spanish Songs and Vilhuela Solos. ASV CD GAU 162 / Luis Milán: El Maestro. Catherine King & Jacob Heringman. ASV CD GAU 183. Jacob, the other half of the duo accompanies, on vihuela with two albums featuring an interesting selection of songs and solo works from two of the seven published 16th Century Spanish books, in excellent readings. The Mudurra disc contains the complete music from this book for Renaissance ( four course) guitar.
Josquin des Prez: 16th-Century Lute Settings. Jacob Heringman. Discipline Global Mobile DGM0006. If you are fascinated by the intabulation of Josquin’s music, this highly idiomatic and acclaimed recording is a treat, featuring contemporary and later arrangements.
'Adiós mi amor': Duets for vihuelists. Delitiae Musicae, Jesús Sánchez & Manuel Minguillon Nieto. Brilliant Classics 94302. Mainly intabulations of an interesting variety of Spanish polychoral pieces made by Sánchez along with the composers’ contemporaries, in acclaimed vivacious readings.
'Dezidle al Cavallero': Works for Vihuela and Renaissance Guitar. Fernando Espí. Verso VRS2043. We interviewed Fernando earlier this year and this collection is self-recommending. He provides an excellent selection of music by the key Spanish composers for these instruments.


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News News Archive Concert Reviews CD Reviews Musicology Newsletter	SEPTEMBER 2018 \| 'Cifras Imaginarias': Música para tañer a dos vihuelas\| Jacob Heringman & Ariel Abramovich \| Arcana A428 SEPTEMBER 2018 \| 'Cifras Imaginarias': Música para tañer a dos vihuelas\| Jacob Heringman & Ariel Abramovich \| Arcana A428 By RAY PICOT This album is to my mind a shining example of ‘early music’ at its best: not a studied and academic exercise to recreate something long past, but an imaginative and living response which conveys an extraordinary degree of poetic inspiration in the two performers Jacob Heringman and Ariel Abramovich. I had the pleasure of hearing most of this music played live as part of our Guitarrísimo series last June in a packed Bolivar Hall, and with the duo’s precision, enthusiasm and deep awareness of period performance practice, they brought this music to life on stage, and have done so in this recording. For those unfamiliar with the vihuela, it was a family of Spanish guitar-like instruments which was tuned identically to the Renaissance lute, of which it was a contemporary, but for reasons unknown, it eclipsed on the Iberian peninsula. The vihuela had six doubled gut strings which were plucked rather than strummed; it flourished in the 16th century, which is when the seven surviving published books of music for this instrument were published. Only a few original instruments have survived, which combined with iconographic representations in printed books and religious buildings, have provided the basis for modern re-constructions. The vihuela was used solo, for vocal accompaniment and in combination with others, though the surviving repertoire for the latter is limited to a few individual manuscripts and to a single publication. On this recording we have pieces played by two vihuelas tuned to ‘G’ and others with a single vihuela tuned to ‘G’ and the accompanying one to ‘D’; this is consistent with Renaissance performance practice, particularly in polyphonic choral arrangements when one instrument takes the melody with embellishments and the other provides harmonic support. The publications tended to collect both solo and vocally accompanied pieces, either being original works or arrangements, the latter typically being arrangements of songs or vocal polyphony. The inclusion of arrangements may sound extraordinary to us now, but at that time, Renaissance vihuelists would have had few opportunities for formal training, so they tended to be self-taught. The publications therefore offered a range of pieces to learn the art of interpretation and composition, as well as for entertainment, with perhaps some bias to reflect the tastes of the vihuelist’s sponsor. Jacob Heringman and Ariel Abramovich - two of Early Music's true rock stars - are well known for their individual contributions to the understanding of the Renaissance repertoire of the lute and vihuela; with only a handful of pieces having survived for two vihuelas, they have assembled a remarkable album of arrangements of existing solo instrumental pieces and vocal works. The spring-board for this was the collection Silva de sirenas (1547) by Enriquez de Valderrábano, which contains 17 pieces for vihuela duet. With full awareness of the customs and practices of Renaissance music-making, including the intabulations of other vihuelists, they have recreated an imaginary collection, the title of which also reflects the widespread use at the time of cifras (tablature) notation which utilised numbers and symbols rather than notes and staves. The pieces collected on this album also reflect the type of music Valderrábano enjoyed playing, from arrangements of the rich polyphonic music of the great choral masters of his time, like Josquin des Prez, Gombert, Morales and Willaert, to instrumental variations (which were popular in Spain) and more improvised pieces and songs. The polychoral works have by necessity been pared down to suit the two instruments, with the individual lines distributed between the two players, which works very well despite the original’s complexity. The tempi are also very faithful to current early music scholarship, with close adherence to contemporary custom and practice in making these arrangements, which requires considerable skill and knowledge of tablature. So we come across the musical forms which were popular including the pavane, ricercar, tiento and fantasia, alongside arrangements of secular songs, French chanson and motets. The range of composers covered on this album also helps achieve variety of palette, with works by Cabezón, de Modena, Crequillon, Milano, Palero, Sermisy, de Uppsala, Vasquez and Verdelot. The two Milano fantasias are played on solo instruments for variety. The instruments played by Jacob Heringman and Ariel Abramovich are beautiful recreations of originals and they sound magnificent in this recording, reflecting the duo’s close attention to colour and detail. At times it is hard to tell the two players apart, as they interweave their lines in perfect rapport, with careful attention to expressive detail, and the subtle variations in style reflecting the requirements of the individual pieces. Listening to other recordings of this repertoire it is evident that this balance is difficult to achieve, whilst maintaining the listener’s interest, which is where this duo succeeds admirably. Josquin is a very important starting point for the collection, and one is also aware of the important work done by Jacob Heringman on his intabulations, reflecting also the afterlife of choral works as instrumental settings which was prevalent during the Renaissance. Listening to over 50 minutes of music for this quietly expressive instrumental music does tend to conjure an almost meditative atmosphere, which offers another dimension to enjoying this inspired music-making. Josquin's motet Dulces exuviae and Cabezon’s keyboard ground Pavana italiana were, for me, strong favourites. To summarise, a fascinating and most illuminating recital disc by two master musicians in complete harmony with each other, with a superb recording which offers a very natural and immediate sound, accompanied by excellent detailed booklet notes. WHAT NEXT? If you enjoyed this delightful excursion into Spanish Renaissance music for the vihuela, the following should be of particular interest: Valderrábano: Silva de sirenas. Armonioso Concerti. Harmonia Mundi HMI987059. This is the only recording to my knowledge which includes the pieces for two vihuelas which provided the inspiration for the reviewed album, and offers an attractive perspective with solo pieces and songs performed by the countertenor Carlos Mena Valderrábano - y los vihuelistas castellanos. Alfred Fernández. Unacorda UCR0012000. An excellent solo instrumental album exploring the music of Valderrábano further along with some of his contemporaries Estevan Daça: El Parnasso M.S LXXVI. El Cortesano. José Hernández Pastor & Ariel Abramovich. Arcana A316. Ariel, one half of the duo produces an idiomatic and very balanced selection of one of the least well-known of the seven published 16th-century collections mentioned above. *Alonso Mudarra: Spanish Songs and Vilhuela Solos. ASV CD GAU 162 / Luis Milán: El Maestro.* Catherine King & Jacob Heringman. ASV CD GAU 183. Jacob, the other half of the duo accompanies, on vihuela with two albums featuring an interesting selection of songs and solo works from two of the seven published 16th Century Spanish books, in excellent readings. The Mudurra disc contains the complete music from this book for Renaissance ( four course) guitar. Josquin des Prez: 16th-Century Lute Settings. Jacob Heringman. Discipline Global Mobile DGM0006. If you are fascinated by the intabulation of Josquin’s music, this highly idiomatic and acclaimed recording is a treat, featuring contemporary and later arrangements. 'Adiós mi amor': Duets for vihuelists. Delitiae Musicae, Jesús Sánchez & Manuel Minguillon Nieto. Brilliant Classics 94302. Mainly intabulations of an interesting variety of Spanish polychoral pieces made by Sánchez along with the composers’ contemporaries, in acclaimed vivacious readings. 'Dezidle al Cavallero': Works for Vihuela and Renaissance Guitar. Fernando Espí. Verso VRS2043. We interviewed Fernando earlier this year and this collection is self-recommending. He provides an excellent selection of music by the key Spanish composers for these instruments. Site design and content copyright © 1998-2023 The Iberian and Latin American Music Society**, all rights reserved. ILAMS is a registered charity, No. 1092749