Quite a few early music releases in the years since 2000 have set themselves the task of exploring music that has rarely been recorded until now. All of these are welcome, but not all of them make a bid to rewrite the history books. Ludwig Senfl: Im Maien is one that does. Senfl (1486-1542), a student of Heinrich Isaac and a composer in the Viennese orbit of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I early in his career, is known largely through a few compositions that found their way into the anthologies that come with music history texts. This disc makes an argument for Senfl as a creatively worthy successor not only to Isaac but to the great Josquin Desprez, and at several points it makes a convincing case.
Part of the argument rests on the premise that Senfl, like Orlande de Lassus later in the sixteenth century, composed expertly in genres ranging from formal church polyphony to semi-popular German-language song, some of it pretty raunchy. Check out the title song, "In May," with its "I enjoy you all over" lines and "Bang, girl, bang!" refrain. But that's not really the standout piece here; sexual double meanings were part and parcel of secular song in this era. A couple of more unusual pieces really will catch the attention even of listeners only casually acquainted with Renaissance music. Track 2, Ich stuend an einem Morgen (I was standing one morning), is a slow, passionate polyphonic reworking of an earlier popular piece in which the protagonist-singer overhears a torrid conversation between two lovers who are being forced to part. The distancing device of having the dialogue reported by a third person matches the complexity introduced to the music by a learned polyphonic setting, and the result is very moving -- a song worthy to stand beside Josquin's finest chansons. The other noteworthy number is a lengthy autobiographical piece, Lust hab' ich ghabt zuer Musica (I have enjoyed music), depicting Senfl's own gathering enthusiasm for music and his tuition at the feet of Isaac. Sung in its entirety it would last about 20 minutes; only the first seven of twelve stanzas are included here.
The English viol group
Fretwork performs these pieces, joined for many of them by a single vocal soloist, tenor
Charles Daniels. If there are any complaints about this release, they would fall in the area of matching forces to repertory.
Daniels is an affecting soloist with a fine feel for Senfl's rather involved style. So far, so good. Other works are performed instrumentally -- not a problem in itself. The pieces are intelligently selected; several groups of related pieces (including three based on the "Ich stuend an einem Morgen" tune) show the composer creating different sorts of treatments of the same basic material. But large motets don't work so well played on instruments. Annotator David Fallows, in his excellent booklet introduction to Senfl's music, makes much of Senfl's Ave maria...virgo serena, an expansion of and to some degree a commentary on Josquin's famous and preternaturally pellucid motet. When you're listening to 11 minutes of viol polyphony, however, it's a lot harder to follow what Senfl is doing than it would have been if the piece were performed vocally. The instrumental pieces are pleasant enough to hear, but they don't quite serve the disc's goal of introducing Senfl's music as a whole.
Still and all, this is a beautifully done recording, and one containing several pieces that are easily worth the price of the whole thing.