Vicissitudes of the music business are slowly causing a change in our listening habits.
One of the consequences of the current development is a growing number of independent CD publications, each one representing a more modest sale. This situation enforces new bonds to grow between the publisher (often the very same musicians on the CD) and the listeners. Have you ever thought about participating in a CD production?
Read on while you listen to the Swedish folkkoral Du livsens bröd (1)

Mp3, digitalization, download’s, Web 2.0 ……
The development within CD production and distribution continues with an exorbitant speed. Only within the recent year the picture has changed dramatically and new channels to distribute music are launched almost every day. At the same time the music business seems to be in a chronic crisis, some are using such loaded terms as paradigm shift and nobody really knows where the wind blows, that is, how future music productions are going to be produced and distributed to the listeners.

Trade in crisis?
It really shouldn’t be of any concern to the consumers of music whether the music business is experimenting a crisis - and it may seem fairly irrelevant to the listeners how the music business are planning to solve any of their sales- or distribution problems. But it can turn out to be more relevant than first thought. First of all because the problems of the music industry have a direct impact on the quantity and, more important, the quality of the musical productions being offered.
Right now everything suggest that music production, be it classical or popular music, will continue the path of decentralization that it already has been taken for nearly a decade. That means on the positive side that music production is definitely liberated. Anyone who is in possession of a good stereo microphone and 3.000 € for the printing costs will technically be able to produce themselves.
The big media corporations, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group are not any longer in a position to decide whether a music production is going to be published or not.

Free music on the Internet
The negative side of the story is that a large group of “free and independent” productions seems to get lost in the crowd and never reach the listeners, often due to a missing or poorly established distribution.
At the same time the Internet has caused our listening habits to change and most of us a try consciously to avoid paying for the music. Why should we?, music’s free of charge on the Internet! Quiet a few public voices have even argued that music should be considered a human right and therefore freely available and free of charge for everybody.

Fewer and less significant productions
The conditions for music production are definitely not optimal. For the professional publishing companies the current situation actually means a smaller yield. As a result the companies are holding back on the expenses which necessarily has a direct impact on productions of a less commercial or experimental character.
For the independent producers an “overlooked” CD publication often causes the next production to be postponed or not even released at all. All in all, in the long run the listener will have to choose between fewer and less significant productions.

A solution to the problem
A way to ensure oneself as a listener a manifold offer and a high musical level, is to become engaged in the production of that specific music you’d like to listen to, and at the same time assume some sort of economical responsibility. That is, to become a co-producer! At first that may sound a bit overwhelming, but it shouldn’t necessarily be so.

The model
Let us first assume that an album can be produced with a number of fixed minimum expenses. These expenses include:
- Musicians salary
- Recording studio expenses
- Expenses for layout and printing of the CD
- A fixed onetime fee for the record company covering production management, accounting and distribution.
In order to finance the production a fixed number of “shares” are publicly offered to private persons as well as companies. Together these shares cover all net expenses, that is the expenses deducted any guaranteed income like economical support from foundations and other institutions, or any anticipated sale.
The surplus generated from the CD sale is shared between the share holders, that is between the co-producers.
The price of the each share is fixed in advance and each share grants the holder the right to a free copy of the CD production, free updated information during the recording process, and an invitation to the CD release reception/concert.
The purchase of several shares also implies several other advantages, such as free advertising on the webpages of the ensemble and the record company. CDs can also freely be resold.
At the end of the accounting year a balance for this particular production is presented to the co-producers. In years when the production leads to surpluses, the co-producers can individually choose to receive their corresponding share of the surplus or let their share enter a common donation to a previously elected recipient (e.g. Thee Grameen Foundation).

Becoming concrete - a share for 14€
The album Crosswork (working title) by Via Artis Konsort is being recorded between February 2010 and May 2010 (scheduled release June 2010), with the following regular expenses:
See the individual budgets for specified entries

The production costs are being financed by the following incomes:

The Publishing company PARLA son guarantees in advance the purchase of all shares not sold publicly, up to 789 shares. The production is thus being financed 100%, and the co-producers cannot be held financially responsible in case of a failed CD sale.

What is a share worth??
All co-producers get their name published (with a link) on a sponsor list at the Via Artis Konsort web page. (The co-producer may of course also remain anonymous)
All co-producers receive 1 CD for each share purchased. These CDs can freely be resold by the co-producer.
Co-producers with 10+ shares can place an advertisement or a logo on the webpages of Via Artis Konsort (the ensemble), laNiche Music (the concert manager) and PARLA son (the publishing label), free of charge.
The name of the co-producers will also appear on sponsor lists at various music portals, among others Facebook and InstantEncore.
Co-producers with 25+ shares will, apart from being represented on various web pages, also be listed as sponsors in the Via Artis Konsort printed concert program, distributed at more than 30 concerts in Denmark and abroad during 2010.

Surplus
The overall surplus from the sale of the remaining CDs is shared at the end of each accounting year between the co-producers with 1/789 part of the surplus per share. The size of the surplus depends on the number of printed CDs:

Every year (until the CD is sold out) the co-producers can chose, on an individually basis, to receive the surplus, or let their part of the surplus be included in a common donation to the Grameen Foundation, which manage the Nobel Prize-rewarded effort of offering cheap micro-loans to especially women in the developing countries.

What now if …?
In fact only three scenarios are possible:

• The CD is not produced due to unforeseen occurrences, forte major, etc.
  The amounts paid by the co-producers are returned.
• The CD is produced and released but does not sell as expected.
  Each co-producer will have the pleasant experience of following a CD production closely and will also receive a nice and well-produced CD per share. Co-producers holding several shares do still get the added value, advertising, etc.
• The CD sells between 1,200 and 3,200 copies as expected.
  Each co-producer will have the pleasant experience of following a CD production closely and receives a well-produced CD per share. Co-producers holding several shares will also have the added value, advertising, etc.
  Additionally, a surplus is generated that can be paid out to the co-producer, or donated as a contribution to a worthy project in the developing countries.

Who’s controlling that everything goes on properly?
PARLA son is a Danish registered company with a licensed accountant affiliated. The CD project has its own balance within the yearly account lead for PARLA son.

When should I purchase a share?
Registration for the purchases has already started. Please sign up on the page “Supporters” at the Via Artis Konsort website or at the PARLA son webpage. Until the final purchase takes place the registration is non-binding.
We’ll send you an e-mail and ask you to pay your shares beginning of May 2010, when the first expenses should be covered. You will be able to pay using a normal credit card or via a Paypal account.
By then the majority of the material has already been recorded and all registered co-producers have received video material from the recordings.





(1) Du livsens bröd is one of the new fascinating songs to be found (in a new recording) on Via Artis Konsort next CD (release June 2010)

Now for BB’ parts and now things are getting complicated. In the Anglés transcription the BB’ parts are identical, consequently both having an extra bar at the beginning. The “redundant” bar lies at the V chord level and the melody line begins at a C sharp, exactly as in the last bar of A and A’. Let us now assume that the first bar in Anglés’ transcription of B and B’ originally was meant to replace the last bar of A’ and act as a transition to B. Let us further assume that the same bar was intended also to replace the last bar in B and likewise act as a transition from B to B’. That will give us a B and a B’ part in the improvisation that closely resemble the B and the B’ from the presentation section.

So far we have an improvisation section that follows the presentation section as well in structure as in chord progression (2). It’s now easy to sense the basso ostinato governing the whole AA’ BB’ course of events. But there’s still something that doesn’t fit in C and C’.
C and C’ aren’t identical and last all together 9 bars in the Anglés transcription. As before, if we assume that the first bar of C in Anglés’ transcription originally was meant to replace the last bar of B’ and thus act as a transition to C, we have solved the problem with the uneven number of bars. But we aren’t done yet. In Anglés’ transcription the entire folía chord progression in the CC’ - parts seems to have been dislocated a pulse beat to the left!

Let us therefore assume that the transition from B’ to C ought to have the same dynamic character as the correspondent transition from A’ to B. That is in fact achievable by moving the entire CC’ parts a pulse beat to the right! Thus, the folía progression is, so to speak, set on place. Now the structure of C and C’ in the improvisation section corresponds closely to the same course in the presentation section.
Voíla!, we now have a dance piece with improvisations you’d actually be able to dance to.

Now, that we’re in it …
The pavanne structure with the repetition of its component parts strongly appeals to a shift in dynamics and timbre between the repetitions. In the recording from the Cathedral of Salamanca I’ve recorded the pavana as a duet between the two renaissance positives of the cathedral. Since I felt that each positive ought to have its own improvisation, I have composed an extra improvisation section. The first improvisation on the recording consequently has not been composed by Antonio – whoever he was - but is a new addition, written in Antonio’s style.

Yes, I’m aware of it. The eternal question concerning historical correctness arises again. In response to that I can only say that the current dissection and subsequent repair of Pavana con su glosa isn’t an attempt to come up with a musicological treatise. With the due respect for the work of Higinio Anglés I hasten to emphasize that I’ve not yet seen the original manuscript and therefor I cannot know WHEN in history things went wrong, or IF they have gone wrong at all. That will be another day.
This is exclusively my bid on an interpretation of the famous renaissance piece, from a purely musical point of view.

 
(1) The Folia chord the progression may vary slightly. Note that this particular progression is a musical palindrome
(2) In the improvisation section the progression V-i-VII-III-VII-i-V- (i) has been replaced by V-i-VII-III-VII-iv-V- (i)
Sources: La música en la corte de Carlos V, con la transcripción del “Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, harpa y vihuela” de Luys Venegas de Henestrosa (Alcalá de Henares, 1557) by Higinio Anglés

You might have heard musicians talk about “early world music” referring to groups like Constantinople or instrumentalist like Ross Daly. But is there an exact definition of this particular musical trend and why should you, as an early music enthusiast or a world music lover, be interested?
Please listen to a beautiful Swedish ‘folkkoral’, Du livsens bród, while we try to come up with an answer

Early music is commonly defined as European classical music from the Middle Ages up to the Classical period.
Definition from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music

The term World music includes traditional music of any culture that are created and played by indigenous musicians or that are closely informed or guided by indigenous music of the regions of their origin.
World music includes: Other non-Western music, including non-Western popular music and non-Western classical music.
World music does not include: Western Art music (i.e. European classical music)
Definition from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_music

Incompatibility or……?
To judge from the above mentioned definitions we’re apparently dealing with two genres with very little, if anything, in common. But is it really so? These two genre definitions are probably made by music professionals trying to incircle their respective domains. To pin down a musical genre is a common and even useful task, but we often tend to forget that a genre definition is highly depending on the context, i.e. the time and place in which it’s defined. Classical music was not always ‘classical’.
Instead of focusing on the intersection of the two genres, what if we took a look at the union. Would that make sense? It would indeed. Combinations of western art music and non-western music, as well as combinations of western art music and popular folk music from all over the world, have been practiced throughout history, at least from the 8th century up till the present, and maybe even before. Just to mention a few examples:

• Persian art music, 10th to 12th century
• Cantigas de Santa Maria (songs from the court of the Spanish
  king Alfonso X, 13th century
• Muwashahat from Al-andaluz, 8th century to 15th
  century
• Turkish classical music, 18th century
• Swedish folkkoral, 16th century to 20th century
• Latin-American baroque music, 18th century
• Cuban dance music, 19th century

… rather a perfect match
Western and non-western music seem to combine perfectly, as do classical and popular music, and that is even more true if we focus on the period that defines Early music, i.e. from medieval times up to the classical period.
Are we talking about music for museums? No, A great part of the music from the mentioned period was never written down, primarily because the composer and interpreter was one and the same person. The music was rather created applying a large set of modal and rhythmic formulas. The skill of the musician/composer lied in the ability to combine and personalize the modal expressions, i.e. to build upon a modal tradition. Any music, even contemporary, which still applies modal traditions and techniques could reasonably be classified as “early”.

Let therefore the term Early world music cover the entire register of musical expression involved in this early modal tradition, that combine western and non-western art music with popular music from anywhere in the world.
Music from the musical plane extended by the axes of time and cultural propagation, so to speak

El mundo es un pañuelo – “the world is a handkerchief”, as the Spaniards wisely put it. All we need to do is to enjoy it!

The dull sound from the belfry scarcely reaches the interior of the Cathedral. The strokes sound rather unreal.
I notice that this time just one stroke was heard, consequently there’s just half an hour left before the guardian will return and let me out into the noisy real world of Salamanca.
What am I doing here, alone in the old romance cathedral? Or almost alone. The earthly remains of several great Spanish musicians lie buried here underneath the stone floor where I’m sitting; Francisco Salinas, Juan del Encina and several others I do not know the names of.

Recording in the cathedral
Yes, what am I doing here? It’s a good question, one I have asked myself several times in the past week. The simple answer is that I’m doing a recording of early Spanish organ music on the two renaissance positives that stand, side by side, here in the historic cathedral of Salamanca.

The organ from La Capilla Dorada
My story begins with an article published some years ago in ISO Journal, a time paper from The International Society of Organ builders. This interesting article was dealing with a restoration of a 16th century positive, a small organ, that formerly belonged to the The Golden Chapel, La Capilla Dorada, in the new cathedral in Salamanca, Central Spain.
As a musician with a particular interest in Spanish renaissance music, my first thought was almost predictable: This was an instrument I certainly should try to play! Fairly few preserved renaissance organs exist in the world and it’s tempting for any musician occupied with 16th century’s pulse, phrasing and three-finger-technique to test the theories on such an instrument, that in matters of timbre, tuning and mechanics, differs markedly from the organs we normally have access to.

A real impossibility
I consequently addressed the cathedral’s management encouraged by the foreigners naive sense of reality, drew on some acquaintances who owed me a favor and finally got - what my Spanish organ colleagues denote as a real impossibility - an agreement with El Cabildo, the cathedral’s top authority, allowing me to do some recordings during 4 evenings, alone in the fabulous acoustics of the historic cathedral, alone with Francisco Salinas and Juan del Encina.

Juan del Encina and duo playing
Now that you’ve got the license, what will you be recording on such two organs? What have they been used for at the time when they were built?
It’s indeed an open question.
The main part of the pieces I have chosen to record during these late evening hours in the cathedral are organum works that not necessarily composed for organs, but because of their 4-voice character likely may have been performed by choirs and/or organ.
“Juan del Encina played on an organ!”, I can hear someone say. “Isn’t that too hypothetical?” I am fairly convinced that several of Encinas canciones have been the played on the positive in The Golden Chapel.

Due to the two positives’ symmetrical placing on either side of the altar, I have also chosen to record a few pieces as duets using both instruments, well aware that I probably will get both musicologists and early music fundamentalists on my back.
One of the duets is the famous Pavana con su glosa, normally attributed to Antonio de Cabezón. By the way, quiet a few well-chosen word could be said about this supposed ownership and the piece itself and I will do that some other time. For now I will simply point out that the music almost suggests duo playing, but listen for yourself.

Another duet is a popular song, No me digays Madre, compiled in the latter half of the 16th century by the organist Francisco Salinas in his heavily theoretical work which he, on top of everything, wrote in Latin: De Musica libri septem.
Also in this case I quickly run into trouble of a music historical sort: Francisco Salinas deals in the sixth book with prosody in text and music and gives some examples of popular music to illustrate his theories. One of these examples is precisely the song No me digays Madre, but Salinas only offers us what seems to be the chorus! Luckily there’s an anonymous tune notated on the previous page that likely may have been the melody for the verse part. That, of course, we cannot know for sure, but I have chosen to use it as such, despite of the uncertainty of its relationship with Salinas melody line. Maybe not completely correct from a musicologists point of view, but absolutely in accordance with the musical traditions of the period.

Back to reality
The storks on the cathedral’s roof are clattering, the pigeons cooing and dull strokes of the bell have now reached 10.
It has become time to let Francisco Salinas and Juan del Encinas in peace and to pack up the recording equipment for today.

 

The recordings from the Cathedral in Salamanca were released on October 4th 2009 on the CD “El Arte de Tañer” (the art of playing), together with a number of recordings made on the renaissance organ at Sønderborg Castle, Denmark..
Read more at the Discography page: El Arte de Tañer - parla09001
 

This is one of the well-known legends from the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela.
Less known is the song Por dereito ten a Virgen from the collection Cantigas de Santa Maria, but the lyrics tell by and large the same story.
Please listen to Por dereito ten a Virgen, in an instrumental version, while you read the fascinating legend:

Santo Domingo de la Calzada - where the roasted hen crows …..

Tradition tells that among the many pilgrims who stopped in Santo Domingo de la Calzada was a married couple from Münster in Germany and their eighteen year old son Hugonell.
At the inn where the German family stayed for the night, a young Spanish girl named Beatriz was working, tired of serving and pleasing the many older pilgrims who daily arrived at the inn. She felt instantly in love with the young German, but alas!, he was fairly indifferent to her advances.
Offended by the lack of attention, the girl decided to take her revenge and hided a silver cup, belonging to the innkeeper, inside the young German’s cloth sack.
The following morning, when the German family unsuspectingly continued their march towards Santiago, she denounced the arranged theft to the authorities.
The laws of the time, the Jurisdiction of Alfonso X  El Sabio, punished the crime of theft with death and, once caught and judged, the young German was hanged without mercy in the gallows outside the town wall. Burdened with grief his parents had to continue the journey to the grave of the Holy James alone.
Several months later, while returning from Santiago de Compostela, the German couple went past the place of execution - when suddenly they heard their son talking to them from the gallows above: I am not dead, Santo Domingo de la Calzada has saved my life by supporting my feet.’
The parents immediately hurried to the house of the city’s Corrigidor with the news of the miracle. The Corrigidor was sitting at the dinner-table with a well-cooked cock and hen on a dish in front of him. He was just about to begin the feasting on this appetizing meal, when the German couple bursted into the dining room and breathlessly reported what had happened.
Incredulous, – and irritated about the interruption - the Corrigidor answered that their son was about as alive as the cock and hen he had on the table in front of him. But …. just as he said these words, cock and hen both leaped from the plate and began to crow!
Since then – and this is true – the traveller will find a cage in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, with a live hen and a cock, always white, in memory of the great miracle of Santo Domingo.
 

‘Por dereito ten a Virgen’ is on the album ‘Via Stellae’. You can order the CD at the page Discography.
‘Por dereito ten a Virgen’ is also available as download at iTunes.
 

The popular music at the service of the Church

It wasn’t only in the Protestant part of Europe that the Church made use of popular music to support reforms and to advocate for religious doctrines. In beginning of the 17th century the Franciscan order in Spain worked determinedly on convincing the Holy See to raise the doctrine of “The Immaculate Conception”, La Inmaculada Concepción, to the level of Catholic dogma. Those efforts included both theological discussions, political lobbyism and social and popular mobilization, and in that latter context a simple religious song by the Sevilian composer and priest Bernardo del Toro (1570-1643) composed at Christmas time 1614 came to play a mayor role.
It is told that the composer gave a small party in relation with the traditional Christmas nativity scene and that the visitors, including the friend and poet Miguel Cid, arrived at the party with ’songs and verses’. In this festive gathering the song dedicated to the “Immaculate Virgin” arose:

Everyone in chorus

On January 23rd, in the year 1615, the song Todo el mundo was published as printed sheets and distributed all over the town of Seville. Already on 2nd February the same year the song was sung by the choir of the Cathedral and during the following months the melody and lyrics were taught to children as well as to adults, in schools and churches everywhere in Seville. On July 29th a large crowd marched through the streets of Seville, demanding the Holy See to recognize the teachings of “The Immaculate Conception” as a papal dogma. This public manifestation is perpetuated in a painting by the Spanish painter Juan de las Roelas (Valladolid, Museo Nacional de Escultura). In the painting one can observe that the children in the gathering crowd carry the printed sheets of the song in their hands.
In Seville the Todo el mundo - fever culminated around Christmas time 1616. By that time the song was sung in all the churches of the town. On December 8th a grand religious feast was held in the Cathedral with several dance and music performances. At the end of the celebration all the participants fell on their knees, facing the image of the Holy Virgin, and sang as in one united voice the famous chorus that everybody in Seville now knew by heart: “Todo el mundo a general”. (2)

Variations on Todo el mundo

In 1625 the Spanish baroque-composer Francisco Correa de Arauxo published a treatise on organ playing, in which one of the last pieces, Tres glosas sobre el canto llano de la Inmaculada, is a set of variations on the famous tune by Bernardo del Toro and Miguel Cid. The piece is remarkable in many ways. First Arauxo presents the original song in the shape of a chorus followed by a verse, with the principal voice placed in the tenor. Then the chorus is presented again, this time with the principal voice held by the soprano. Subsequently the variations rise in speed and level of difficulty. The variations run twice over the verse part while the third and last time, the quickest, over the chorus.

Spanish baroque pulse

Rhythmically viewed the song is composed on a basis of constant and regular alternations between duple and triple metre, that is between 6/8 and 3/4. This rhythmical principle of constant metre change had already been practiced for a long time in European popular music (Ex. the German psalm ‘Min største hjertens glæde’ recorded by Via Artis Konsort), but in Spain this particular rhythmical mould was used at the beginning of the 17th century with an often more pronounced and even dance like character, as it can be heard in the popular Spanish genre la jácara.

Todo el mundo, revisited

Arauxo’s melody is very similar to the original composed by Bernardo del Toro (3), thus we decided that we would not offend against any of the composers’ posthumous reputation by re-arranging the piece as a song using the original text, while at the same time keeping Arauxo’s variations.
Arauxo’s variations run over the exact length of both choruses and verses, but in the 2nd variation a line is missing. In the original song (as in the 1st variation) the last line of the verse is repeated where the lyrics read “sin pecado original’, but in the 2nd variation this repetition is absent. Unfortunately it’s impossible to know whether the missing line is due to a mistake in the publishing process, or whether Arauxo consciously omitted the repetition of the last line, but for the sake of wholeness we decided to add the missing line - with the lack of respect for original compositions that practitioners of early music must show from time to time, just as the musicians of the baroque era themselves so fully demonstrated. The variations on the second last line in this 2nd variation consequently do not originate from Arauxo’s hand.
You can listen to the result of the reconstruction here:

• First the chorus is sung, and right after that, the verse called copla.
• Then the chorus is played by the bass viol, followed by the 1st variation on the verse, played by the portative organ.
• Then follows the 2nd variation on the verse, played by the bas viol, and finally the song ends with the 3rd variation on the chorus, played by the portative organ with added vocal on the last part.

Listen to the piece and note how Arauxo’s variations elegantly play with the constant change between duple and triple metre.

We welcome comments on this article
Poul Udbye Pock-Steen

(1) Spanish organist and composer, possibly of Portuguese descent. Organist at the Church of S. Salvador in Seville from 1599 until 1636, then at Jaén Cathedral until 1640, finally at Segovia Cathedral until his death. His Libro de tientos y discursos de música practica, y theorica de organo, intitulado Facultad organica (Alcald, 1626) contains 62 tientos and seven other pieces, all for organ, introduced by a theoretical treatise and arranged in order of increasing difficulty, in a colorful baroque style, with bold dissonances and wayward figurations.
(2) In Spain The Feast of the Immaculate Conception still is celebrated on the 8th of December
(3) Bernardo del Toro’s song is a so-called canto llano, i.e. a song in a modal church tonality, Arauxo adds to the song an early baroque harmonization. The rhythmical alternation between two- and tripartite metre originates from the original tune by Bernardo del Toro.

Sources:
Alfonso de Vicente: Música, propaganda y reforma religiosa en los siglos XVI y XVII: cánticos para la “gente del vulgo” (1520-1620), Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Amaniel (Madrid), Studia Aurea 1 (2007)
Also following internet sources:
http://www.hoasm.org/IVL/Correa.html
http://www.galeon.com/juliodominguez/2001/cmc.htm