Venice again.
It is a town where the streets are made of water and the
residents go after their business by boat.
Is it more than weird?
Probably yes, even today.
However, it
was neck and neck with dragons and cephalopods in the lying competitions in the
pubs in the havens. And as we know cephalopods produced diamond in flower bulbs.
Indeed, it is as big abnormality as, for example, the
mirror.
Mirror image which is not real either optically or anyway science and mysticism
reach consensus as an exception. Just an appearance, a perfect and nice lie. A
Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side; 100 percent alibi, Agatha Christie was right.
A reflected image and if we expect the original we are utterly mistaken.
Gordian amalgamation of the right and left, women’s main
beauty aid, the symbol of flirtatiousness. No accident that Venetians were fond
of mirrors so much that cast glass covered with tin-mercury amalgam was first
used in Venice. It resembled mirror much more than the polished metal sheets
used earlier; their waviness and distortion remind of the water of lagoons.
And that it flows like water but much more slowly. Madness
yet true. Let us measure a broken window splinter with a slide calliper - one
from top and one at the bottom. Surprise guaranteed. Telling lies is not real itself
either, angles change in time, the image changes too.
The first genuine big mirrors were cast during the Sun King
(Louis XIV of France); Venice kept buying tons of glass of unimaginable size,
then they started to produce them on their own.
The annealing of the mirrors was not resolved.
Why?
I think
because annealing as a word did not exist … it is something in the glass
industry. The result was that a Venetian mirror is unstable and vulnerable, it
was expensive not only because of the frame. A failed hanging is enough to go
snap. Or a sub-miniature earthquake indicated only by gauges.
Or a stronger
sound of a given frequency.
Well, we are coming to the point - music.
Like a
special singing voice like that of Sara Mingardo.
She was born in Venice so the
circle is complete.
The record contains cantatas and arias, the period is the
early 17th century when many things changed in music; Venice is a real leading
actor with its opera houses. The orchestra and cembalo are conducted by Rinaldo
Alessandrini, we can pin our faith on him. He was right and so were we.
Let us see the first track right away.
The others are
delightful too but this one is so good that the record became almost nose
heavy; it is worth buying the album just for this track.
Lament or lamentation is a beautiful genre originating in
Renaissance; the word suggests complaint or whining but it is much more than
that, we will see that their beauty radiating regardless of this is intense
without any underlying theory.
Tarquinio Merula, organ player in Cremona, left a delightful
piece of the Venetian School to us in a collection from 1638, it is the famous
Hor ch’e tempo di dormire which is a 'canzonetta spiritual.'
The genre promises
nearly airy entertainment, although this spirituale attribute slightly
overshadows our cloudlessness. At first hearing it is like a lullaby, a
beautiful song with a simple obligato which is an ostinato-bass of 2 (yes, two)
sounds. It is pretty long, almost 10 minutes, probably it is hard for the child
to fall asleep … is it as much as that? Well, no, it is much more complicated
than that, we are accustomed to it in the simple melodies of the Renaissance,
it is worth to look behind it. The lyrics provides some help, the rest is made
felt.
Virgin Mary is rocking baby Jesus while breastfeeding him.
The relentless monotony of the rocking creates some trance; listening to it
attentively we are covered with some fine veil. The number in the stanzas is
the ominous but pre-consummation 11, then the harmonious image of the resting
child alternates with the visionary future, crucifixion and bitterness.
Nearing the end, in the 9th phase the woman practically goes
mad. Increasing, huge, heart-breaking crying and whining, it breaks any mirror
or glass into splinters. Then the single change of accord, beautiful harmony
floods in, and she is singing, tamed, about that the only thing she can do at
the moment is rocking and loving him. It is a very nice and long arc, such
comprise is a rarity; it also means that we need some patience to reach the
end, however, it is worth to join the bountiful timeliness of the Renaissance.
Obviously, to faithfully perform it has suddenly become a
complicated project - it is and it is not a lullaby, it is and it is not an
apparition, it is and it is not monotonous, we are and we are not happy, we
have gone mad in the meantime but only for the time being.
Sara Mingardo’s voice compares to nothing, huge medium
range, at a high volume she can question our systems and even the possibility
of artificial restitution of sound. Hers is one of the most special voice I
have ever heard.
The other tracks are coming one after the other. Monteverdi
and Carissimi, Salvatore and Legrenzi, aces of the newly released monody, and,
of course, if it is Venice then the alt-maniac Vivaldi cannot be left out and
even a Handel aria is contained in the record.
Each track reserves some nicety. Change tone on the go? It
is not simple, I heard it from few divas; it is heard in many places here.
Change from whisper to shout while wishing the woman’s maddening to culminate
in at least a dozen places. Her grasp of dynamics is so big that Naivé invited
hi-fi studio experts for this record; practically, a separate recording system
was construed.
And a curtain in front of each glass surface…A recording
dedicated to a given voice - what a pleasure.
And all this with straight singing, there is no vibrato
common later which, like an old mask, covers the true expression.
What is it like live?
I had the opportunity to experience it
once. You certainly remember the
lowerable concrete monster of 20 tons covered in wood in the major hall of the Palace of Arts. [Budapest]
Arias went one after the other and at the raises when she
forgot herself she made the monstrous swing vibrate so much that it traversed…
Sitting there I
was afraid, seriously. And I thought that if I survive this night I go after
her to every concert, I will be absorbed in her voice, I will serve her, sleep
on her doorstep…
This voice can flip mirrors; if it has such effect on glass
it must have the same on crystal too. I am thinking of those what like freezing
up music and our hearts.
And it happens to us like to Han Solo in Star Wars that we
lie like a piece of coal; our life functions are alright but the music does not
get inside.
Or in a milder case like Gerda’s brother in Snow Queen.
We walk about, we can even chat or even argue about music
but with a heart of ice, with ice music, ice notes, ice stars, ice blue and ice
existence.
This voice melts us out, breaks the cover off and shakes us
extensively, then deep inside something warm dissipates.
Colour blue will be nice again.
Highly, highly recommended.
* * *
Translated by Kenesei Andrea
_________________________
Thank you for the images.
Especially for the first one.
Created by Erik Johansson. His website: http://www.erikjohanssonphoto.com/
