SOLO
Orpheus’ Lute - Improvisation and Wonder in Humanist Italy
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Towards the end of the 15th century the lute became the instrument of predilection of the European courts. Considered as the Orpheus’ lyre by the humanists, it enchanted the courtiers by its sounds and harmony.
The first music written for this instrument dates from this avant-gardist passage of the century and in 1507 the first printed book of instrumental music was published in Venice. Lute players, such as Marco Dall'Aquila, Giovan Maria Giudeo, Joan Ambrosio Dalza and especially the cantori al liuto, such as Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara were sought after by the most important courts, such as that of the Este in Ferrara, Gonzaga in Mantua and the Medicis in Florence. But the authors of the first works for lute were above all great improvisers, inventing ex-tempore polyphonic pieces (ricercari), different dances, such as piva, bassadanza and calata, and verses in ottava rima.
This period of high humanist and cultural flowering was marked by great discoveries and experimentation in several fields, including music. Figures like Leonardo da Vinci, searched for new sounds by inventing new instruments. The lute has also benefited from such experiences and its surprising variations will be presented here for the first time in this almost entirely improvised program.
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Ricercare
Ottava d’introduzione
Calata ala spagnola (after J. A. Dalza)
Calata ala spagnola ditto Terzetti (after J. A. Dalza)
Ricercare
Malor me bat (Johannes Ockeghem)
Bassadanza
Ricercare
Zephyro Spira (Bartolomeo Tromboncino)
Ricercare dietro
Ricercare
Padoana descordata (after Vincenzo Capirola)
Che Faralla (Michele Pesenti / Vincenzo Capirola)
Ricercare
Passamezzo e Saltarello ala Bolognesa (after Giovanni Maria da Crema)
Su, su, leva (Bartolomeo Tromboncino)
Piva (after J. A. Dalza)
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“The day closed with a most impressive recital by Bor Zuljan, […] One really had the sensation that one was hearing exactly what one would have heard from a lutenist-singer giving an evening’s entertainment to courtiers at an Italian court around the year 1500. Bor Zuljan moved effortlessly between recercars, songs and song intabulations, with a sense of complete familiarity with the material, exactly as the lutenists of the time would have had.”
Chris Goodwin, Lute News 125, May 2018
Dowland - A Fancy
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The first notes of the descending chromatic theme break the silence and it seems as if time has stopped. The listener is drawn into the world of John Dowland, the greatest lutenist of all, in a journey through multiple shades of melancholy and lucent hope. Never before had the lute sounded as expressive and colourful as in these masterful Fancies, as dynamic as in these sparkling dances: Renaissance lute music here reached its summit. In this programme Bor Zuljan explores these qualities, breathing new life into Dowland's masterpieces.
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A Fantasia (P71)
Preludium
A Fancy (P6)
A Dream
The Right Honourable, the Lady Clifton’s Spirit
Forlorn Hope Fancy (P2)
Pavana Johan Douland
Galliarde (anon, Aegidius Ms)
A Fancy (P73)
Lachrimae
Can she excuse
A Fancy (P5)
Fortune My Foe
Sir John Smith, His Almain
My Lady Hundson’s Puffe
Il liuto Cromatico
(Dowland in Italy)
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John Dowland / Philippe Rosseter
A Fantasia
John Dowland
Forlorn Hope Fancy
Joachim Van de Hove
Allemande
Saltarello (improvisation)
Nicolas Vallet
La Mendiante Fantasye
John Dowland
Pavan Johan Douland
Anon. (Aegidius lute book)
Galliard
Gregorio Huwet
A Fantasia
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Michelangelo Galilei
Toccata
Corrente
Volta
Pietro Paolo Melli
Il Ciarlino Capriccio Cromatico
Corrente detta l’Alfonsina
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger
Toccata 3a
Bellerofonte Castaldi
Cromatica Corrente
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger
Toccata 6ta
Pietro Paolo Melli
Corrente Cromatica detta la Bernardella
Volta Cromatica la Savia
Alessandro Piccinini
Ricercar Primo
Passacaglia
duo
Mr Dowland’s Dream
Works by
JOHN DOWLAND, ROBERT JOHNSON, PETER WARLOCK, WILLIAM WALTON, PINK FLOYD, THELONIOUS MONK, BOR ZULJAN
CLARA BRUNET, voice
BOR ZULJAN, orpharion & electric orpharion
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‘Tis dusk once again. Mr Dowland cannot sleep so he seeks refuge in his trusted Orpharion. But this is no ordinary night. As soon as he brushes the silver strings with his golden fingers, Orpheus and Arion, who dwell in his instrument's Darkness, awake swiftly and take him on a powerful oneiric journey.
Thus begins this visionary dream full of surprises and soundscapes ahead of its time. Music from 1600 slowly starts shifting into unexpected realms, before he finally falls into deep slumber.
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For the first time, Bor Zuljan and Clara Brunet come together to bring you along on an
exploratory journey through music, poetry, improvisation, and new instruments. This is not a mere collection of songs, but a story, a fictional voyage around the figure of Dowland, the visionary composer who disappeared exactly 400 years ago.
This project marks a bold step into uncharted territory for Bor Zuljan since it is performed entirely on the orpharion, while also introducing a one-of-a-kind electric orpharion prototype. Through both instruments, he experiments new realms of sonority, technical possibilities, and expressive potential. Clara Brunet’s storytelling and poetry bring a fresh, evocative dimension that ties the entire project together.
You’ll hear some of our beloved Renaissance composers, alongside 20th-century voices such as Peter Warlock, William Walton, Thelonious Monk and even Pink Floyd.
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Impro - Preludium
John Dowland (1563 - 1626) - Come Ye Heavy States of Night
John Dowland - A Dream
Robert Johnson (c.1583 - 1633) - Care Charminge Sleepe
Impro - A Fancy
John Dowland - Go Nightly Cares
John Dowland - Mr. Dowland’s Midnight + text by John Coprario - Tis Now Dead Night
Pauana Johan Douland
Midnight - improvisation
Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930) - Sleep
William Walton (1902 - 1983) - Bagatelle No.2
Respiration (improvisation)
Pink Floyd - Breathe
John Dowland - In Darkness Let Me Dwell
Text by Lord Byron (1788 - 1824) - Darkness + Impro
John Dowland - Come Heavy Sleep
Round midnight
Contaminations
with Marco Ambrosini - nyckelharpa.
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In this world full of contaminations of all kinds, two musicians meet: Contaminated by the love for their unusual instruments, the archlute and the nyckelharpa, and for music from here and elsewhere, from the past and today, they converse in search of a common language, a new idiom where every contamination is an asset to enrich the vocabulary and to broaden the field of possibilities. They converse in this improvised flow to contaminate the audience with their joy of playing together, with their joy of sharing a musical moment without limits, metaphysical and human.
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In nocte consilium - the night brings counsel. Poets have always found the night to be a time of appeasement; for astronomers it is a long-awaited moment to observe the stars and planets. Mystics, however, have spent entire nights searching for the enigmatic signs of a divine presence. This programme forms a journey from dusk to dawn and guides us through various nights as described by several composers of the 16th century: we travel from hope to absence, from the sweetness of love’s dream to the chills of eternal night; the clear light of the moon nonetheless guides lovers to their reunion and our journey ends in the light of the first rays of the sun. Janequin, Lassus, Palestrina, Guerrero and their Franco-Flemish, Italian and Spanish colleagues lead us as we explore these nights, sometimes dark and terrifying, sometimes radiant with starlight, tranquil, and filled with love.
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trio
Tales from the ancient Balkans
with Ratko & Radiša Teofilović - voice
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Baba is a contemporary narration on ancestral beauty and wisdom, an infinite dialogue between old and new, the east and the west. The archlute in the role of the narrator skilfully transforms itself into different traditional instruments of the Levantine region, its roots, and takes the listener into different musical landscapes, nostalgic and full of old symbols. There he encounters centuries old stories in the form of folk songs, personified by the unique voices of the Teofilovići twins.
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La Lyra
La villanella
The birth of southern Italian song
With Pino De Vittorio - voice
2-5 musicians
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Southern Italy has developed a particular cultural richness thanks to its geographical position at the very center of the Mediterranean, as well as its political history. Greek and Arab influences and later the Spanish domination between the Renaissance and Baroque periods, have left their mark on its culture and languages. Musical tradition also benefits from this melting pot: not only instruments such as the Calabrian lyre of Byzantine origin, the colascione—a cousin of the Turkish saz—and of course the guitars introduced by the Spaniards, but also new musical styles emerge in this colorful region. Among these, the Neapolitan villanella appeared in the first half of the 16th century in Spanish Naples: polyphonic music written in dialect and with a very popular rhythmic-melodic influence. In this colorful program, the voice and extraordinary presence of Pino De Vittorio blends with the strings of the La Lyra ensemble directed by Bor Zuljan, for this tribute to the birth of southern Italian song: between the classical and popular tradition of the Renaissance, from the first villanelles in dialect to those of the Cieco Pugliese Giacomo Gorzanis, interwoven with popular tarantellas and instrumental dances.
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Giacomo Gorzanis - Da che si parte il sol
Giacomo Gorzanis - Chiara più che ‘l char sol
Giacomo Gorzanis - Duca vi voglio dir
Giacomo Gorzanis - Basciami con ssa bocca
Anon. (Napoli 1537) - Madonna tu mi fai lo scorrucciato
Giovanni Maria da Crema - Passamezzo e Saltarello ala Bolognesa
Anon. (Napoli 1537) - Boccuccia de nu piérzico apreturo
G. De Vittorio - Stu pettu è fatto cimbali d'amuri
Vincenzo Capirola - La Villanella
Giacomo Gorzanis - Non è amor
Giacomo Gorzanis - Alma perche t’affliggi
Marco Dall’Aquila - La Traditora
Giacomo Gorzanis - Sta vecchia cannaruta
Giacomo Gorzanis - Passo e mezzo Antico Primo
Padoanna del detto
Saltarel del detto
Giacomo Gorzanis - Scarpello si vedrà
Anon. - Tarantella di Sannicandro
Anon. (Napoli 1537) - Che sia malditta l’acqua sta mattina
Giacomo Gorzanis - Sona Baloni
Giacomo Gorzanis - L’altro giorno mi disse