Templar Globe

For a certain kind of listener (i.e., me), the arrival of a new Indiana Jones movie is a chance to hear another retro score that evokes not only the traditions of Hollywood writing but also the work of full-color late Romantic composers such as Gustav Holst and Ottorino Respighi.

John Williams is one of the most successful Hollywood composers in cinematic history if his work is judged simply by sheer memorability. The huge marches that dominate the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies do exactly what good marches are supposed to do: Set up a triumphant (even when evil) tone, get a strong marching rhythm going, and most of all, implant a powerful tune in listeners’ heads.

This is not that easy to do. John Philip Sousa wrote more than 100 concert marches, but only about a couple dozen have the kind of great melodies that enable them to be heard frequently. In his work for the Lucas-Spielberg team, Williams has written at least two that many millions of people recognize instantly, and at the same time remember what they’re designed to evoke.

The same goes for Hedwig’s Theme, the central music of the Harry Potter films. Although two other composers have picked up scoring duties for the movies in the meantime, they still use Williams’ theme to remind viewers that they’re watching a Harry Potter adventure.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull has a modest score that is reminiscent of past work more than it is one that breaks new ground, which isn’t really a criticism — the film composer doesn’t have a lot of control over how much of the music he or she writes gets used in the final product. I liked a couple of Williams’ fresh inventions in Crystal Skull: a vigorous Russian dance that would make effective concert music, and — spoiler alert! — a blizzard of Janacek-style brasses that accompany the flying saucer as it ascends out of the Amazon basin.

But what I missed here was what I missed in the movie, though I enjoyed it a good deal and had a hard time resisting its manic energy. What was absent in the film was about 10 minutes of exposition and character development that would give the plot a hint of additional plausibility, even though it was totally implausible.

For instance, I wanted to enter just a bit more into the history of the conquistador-native conflict and the search for El Dorado, learn a little more about the Mayan world view, perhaps get some flashbacks from Professor Oxley and the Ray Winstone character, to make the picture rounder and richer. That way my suspended disbelief can coexist along the actual pages of history, and viewing the movie becomes more of an exercise of the imagination than a workout for my car-chase gland.

A case in point involves my favorite of the four Indiana Jones movies, The Last Crusade. This movie is able to draw on centuries of Christian tradition bred in the bone of Western civilization, but we learn a lot about Indiana and his father through the suggestions of the opening scene: the young Indiana has to speak ancient Greek to tell his father about his escape from the grave robbers.

And in another scene, Williams helps us all get into the figurative if not the literal depth of the events when Indiana is looking at the drawing of the knight suspended in air and he says something about the powerful pull of the quest for the Holy Grail. At this moment, we hear a distant low-brass chorale of semi-modal music — this is the Grail theme, and while it’s more 19th than 11th century, it’s beautiful and supremely effective.

That music returns when we encounter the 700-year-old knight guarding the Grail in the anterooms of the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, and for me it makes a most effective link, and adds a subtle richness to the film that makes its absurdities believable.

I would have liked to hear something like this in Crystal Skull: Ancient Mayan music, maybe; perhaps the music of 16th century Spain — something else to take us into the sonic world its deceased characters inhabited, something that would make the movie more of a journey into the legendary part of history that was there in The Last Crusade.

Music often acts as another character in a drama, and when it can draw on the traditions of the past to fill in the gaps of the script, it adds another layer of meaning and reference for the viewer. The music is more of an afterthought in Crystal Skull, but in Last Crusade, it’s essential. And that’s one of the crucial things that makes it a much better film, too.

by Greg Stepanich

Three 18th century musical scores discovered in a collection at Poland’s Jasna Gora monastery may be the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, experts say.

The musical scores identified as 18th century manuscript copies “correspond to the style” of the period and “their character allows us to suppose Mozart was their author,” musicologist Remigiusz Pospiech told Poland’s Polska daily.

The three scores are among 18 musical manuscripts attributed to the Austrian genius in the Jasna Gora monastery’s vast archive at Czestochowa, but do not figure in the Koechel catalogue of Mozart’s complete works.

A special commission has already started analysing the authenticity of 18 scores which are signed with the name of the Austrian composer, Polskie Radio says. The notes under examination were put on paper by 18th century copyists.

Polish specialists have already contacted experts in Vienna and Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace in Austria, focused on music in the period between 1756 and 1791, according to Pospiech.

“If we are indeed dealing with a work of Mozart, it is rather his later period in Vienna,” he says, adding that “more study is required to confirm this hypothesis.”

Archives at the Jasna Gora monastery hold some 3,000 manuscripts of musical scores, collected over the centuries for the needs of its orchestra.

The Monastery of Jasna Góra in Czestochowa, Poland, is the third largest Catholic pilgrimage site in the world. Home to the beloved miraculous icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the monastery is also the national shrine of Poland and the centre of Polish Catholicism.

Naxos Records has pioneered the new frontier of media by using an old format – the compact disc. The label founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann redefined the recording and marketing of classical music by providing the standard repertoire at a budget price. The label accomplishes this by using very fine but little known artists and orchestras avoiding the costly use of the named brands. This approach has the added advantage of enabling the label to also record the less-than-standard repertoire and thus offering a broader and more complete product.

In the past 20 years, the label has released an impressive repertoire on an equally impressive number of CDs. Naxos has further branched out into an internet subscription service, audio books, and educational products. While these offerings are notable, Naxos’ true genius is no better manifested than when blurring the lines between these products. The label’s release of the boxed set Time of the Templars is a case in point.

Ever since the publication and overwhelming reception of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code the reading public cannot get enough of all things Templar; Note the flood of Templar related fiction that followed The Da Vinci Code: Steve Berry’s The Templar Legacy, Raymond Khoury’s The Last Templar, and Jorge Molist’s The Ring: The Last Knight Templar’s Inheritance only to mention a few. Add those books dealing with the period of the 12th through the 14th Centuries and a detailed picture in words of medieval life emerges.

Naxos, with its extensive catalog of alte Musik or early music, is uniquely positioned to provide a soundtrack to this picture of words with Time of the Templars. This three-CD boxed set is divided into three areas of focus: “Music for a Knight,” highlighting both the secular and extra-ecclesiastic sacred music of the period, “Music of the Church,” concentrating on plainchant as practiced in monasteries, and “Music of the Mediterranean,” encompassing low country music and the music of Israel and Islam.

All of the music assembled here was previously released from several recordings by early music performers. What the Time of the Templars offers both music and listener is a fixed context in which to listen to this music. This writer listened to these selections while reading Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth (1989) and its recent published sequel, World Without End (2007). For Follett’s expansive survey of 13th and 14th Century England, Time of the Templars provided the perfect aural picture of the period, enhancing the stories.

“Music for a Knight” is a bit of a sampler of the music a Knight would have heard, whether he be at church, in the court, or on the road toward Palestine. Thus, the music is divided approximately equally between the sacred, the profane, and the entertaining. Presented here are several selections from the text “Carmina Burana” (made famous 800 years later by composer Carl Orff for his secular cantata of the same name). Hildegard von Bingen provides settings for several sacred texts, among them her beautiful “Kyrie Eleison” and “Alleluia, O Virga Mediatrix.”

Hildegard von Bingen’s music is not of the pedestrian church variety of the period. This is music of mystic ecstasy. If Heaven exists, Hildegard caught a glimpse before composing. Richard I “Coer de Lion” (Richard the Lionhearted) provides his “Ja nulls homs pris,” his only poem to survive with his music, written while he was imprisoned in Durnstein between 1192 and 1194. Polyphony is represented by the Notre Dame School composers Leonin and Perotin in the 4-part organum: “Notum fecit” and the 4-part conductus: “Vetus abit littera.”

“Music of the Church” is what even the novice historian would expect: Gregorian chant. This is a complete disc of a cappella monophony, elements of which can still be heard during the Responsorial Psalm of the Mass today. This is peaceful music well performed. No sounds can more quickly evoke the sights, scenes, smells, and sounds of the Middle Ages. “Music of the Mediterranean” exposes the listener to music from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions. It is interesting to note how music equalizes cultures with an art that is truly universal.

Selections:

Disc 1

Walther von der Vogelweide: Palastinalied; Coeur de Lion Richard I: Ja nuls homs pris; Blondel de Nesle: A l’entrant d’este que li tens s’agence; Alfonso X (El Sabio): Cantiga No. 60, “Entre Av’e Eva;” Anonymous: Chominciamento di gioia: Saltarello No. 1; Anponymous: Carmina Burana: Clauso Cronos; Alfonso X (El Sabio): Cantiga No. 213, “Quen serve Santa Maria;” Anonymous: Carmina Burana: Axe Phebus aureo, Katerine collaudemus; Hildegard of Bingen: O pastor animarum;
Anonymous: Kyrie eleison, In Dulci Jubilo; Perotin: Viderunt omnes: Notum fecit; Hildegard of Bingen: Kyrie eleison; Vetus abit littera; Hildegard of Bingen: Alleluia, O virga mediatrix; Anonymous: Lamento di Tristano: La Rotta, A la nana, Guardame las vacas.

Disc 2

Anonymous: Introitus: Adorate Deum, Introitus: Da pacem, Introitus: Dominus illuminatio mea Introitus: Laetetur cor; Gradualia: Dirigatur Gradualia: Dirigatur; Gradualia: Domine, Dominus noster; Gradualia: Iacta cogitatum tuum Gradualia: Iacta cogitatum tuum; Gradualia: Laetatus; Versus Alleluiatici: Versus Alleluiatici: Deus, iudex iustus; Versus Alleluiatici: Deus, iudex iustus; Versus Alleluiatici: Laudate Deum; Versus Alleluiatici: Laudate Deum; Offertoria: De profundis; Offertoria: Domine, convertere; Offertoria: Iubilate Deo universa terra; Offertoria: Iustitiae Domini; Communiones: Circuibo; Communiones: Dicit Dominus: Implete hydrias; Communiones: Dominus firmamentum meum; Communiones: Qui manducat; Communiones: Psalm 33, “Gustate et videte.”

Disc 3

Carmina Burana: Bache, bene venies; Carmina Burana: Tempus transit gelidum; Carmina Burana: Tempus est iocundum; Dinaresade; Sei willekommen Herre Christ; Kod Bethlehema; Koleda na Bozic; Dudul; Kyrie eleison (Christian-Arabic Tradition, Lebanon) De la crudel morte de Cristo (Laudario di Cortona Ms. 91, Biblioteca Comunale di Cortona); Yunus Emre; Sallalahu ala Muhammed; Pesrev; Ey Derviccsler; Keh Moshe (Traditional Jewish, 12th century); Adam de la Halle; Le jeu de Robin et de Marion (The Play of Robin and Marion) (excerpts).

Review by: C. Michael Bailey

It’s a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for real.

An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” raising the possibility that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a somber composition to accompany the scene depicted in the 15th-century wall painting.

“It sounds like a requiem,” Giovanni Maria Pala said. “It’s like a soundtrack that emphasizes the passion of Jesus.”

Painted from 1494 to 1498 in Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the “Last Supper” captures a key moment in the Gospel narration of Jesus’ last meal with the 12 Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion, vividly depicting the shock of Christ’s followers as they learn that one of them is about to betray him.

Pala, a 45-year-old musician who lives near the southern Italian city of Lecce, began studying Leonardo’s painting in 2003, after hearing on a news program that researchers believed the artist and inventor had hidden a musical composition in the work.

“Afterward, I didn’t hear anything more about it,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “As a musician, I wanted to dig deeper.”

In a book released Friday in Italy, Pala explains how he interpreted elements of the painting that have symbolic value in Christian theology as musical clues.

Pala first saw that by drawing the five lines of a musical staff across the painting, the loaves of bread on the table as well as the hands of Jesus and the Apostles could each represent a musical note.

This fit the relation in Christian symbolism between the bread, representing the body of Christ, with the hands, which are used to bless the food, he said. But the notes made no sense musically until Pala realized that the score had to be read from right to left, following Leonardo’s particular writing style.

In his book — “La Musica Celata” (”The Hidden Music”) — Pala also describes how he found what he says are other clues in the painting that reveal the slow rhythm of the composition and the duration of each note.

The result is a 40-second “hymn to God” that Pala said plays best on a pipe organ, the instrument most commonly used in Leonardo’s time for spiritual music.

Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo expert and the director of a museum dedicated to the artist in his hometown of Vinci, said that he had not seen Pala’s research but that the musician’s hypothesis “is plausible.”

Vezzosi said that previous research has indicated that the hands of the Apostles in the painting can be substituted with the notes of a Gregorian chant, though so far no one had tried to work in the bread loaves.

“There’s always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it’s certain that the spaces (in the painting) are divided harmonically,” he told The AP. “Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music.”

Vezzosi also noted that though Leonardo was more noted for his paintings, sculptures and visionary inventions, he was also learned in music. Da Vinci played the lyre, designed various instruments and his writings include some musical riddles, which must be read from right to left.

Reinterpretations of the “Last Supper” have popped up ever since “The Da Vinci Code” fascinated readers and movie-goers with suggestions that one of the apostles sitting on Jesus’ right is Mary Magdalene, that the two had a child and their bloodline continues.

Pala stressed that his discovery does not reveal any supposed dark secrets of the Catholic Church or of Leonardo, but instead shows the artist in a light far removed from the conspiratorial descriptions found in fiction.

“A new figure emerges: he wasn’t a heretic like some believe,” Pala said. “What emerges is a man who believes, a man who really believes in God.”

___

On the Net:

Pala’s site (in Italian): http://www.lamusicacelata.it

Official site for the “Last Supper”: http://www.cenacolovinciano.it

Associated Press

“There’s music in the sighing of a reed; There’s music in the gushing of a rill; There’s music in all things, if men had ears: Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.”, Lord Byron

Il est là, le trésor perdu. Marcel Pérès, infatigable défricheur des musiques du Moyen Age, nous fait entendre comment les Templiers chantaient. Sur les Lieux saints pour y assurer la sécurité des pèlerins, ces moines, guerriers par nécessité, étaient tenus aux offices : mais ils ont entendu les intonations de l’Orient chrétien, grecques, arméniennes, coptes, qui dans leur antienne mettent leur goutte exotique. En chantant ils se balançaient, à l’exemple peut-être de la pratique juive dans la prière. Ils portaient leur centre de gravité d’une jambe sur l’autre, jamais immobiles, leur rythme collectif était soutenu par le mouvement de leurs corps mêmes, en rien dicté par la barre de mesure. Ce tripudium (comme ils disaient) a-t-il à voir avec le trépied de la Pythie, l’incantation avec la divination ? Tout ce qui est Orient communie dans le chant des Templiers, trop belle entente que l’Histoire hélas n’a guère suivie. A savourer comme un nectar poivré.

in Le Point

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CD Details
Ensemble Organum
“Le Chant Des Templiers”
By Anon
CD £12.99.
Buy it on the Templar Globe Store