PROGRAM NOTES:
The title refers to the town of Ferrara, Italy, a home and haven to the arts during
the reign of Duke Borso d’Este, for whom Francesco del Cossa (c. 1435-c.1476),
painted a series of frescoes for his Palazzo Schifanoia, circa 1469-1470.
Specifically, inspiration for this work is drawn from the panel for April (del Cosso
created an astonishing cycle of twelve calendrical frescoes, the Cycle of the
Months, only partially preserved today), featuring the mythical Three
Graces--whose names comprise the movement titles--amid an array of lovers in
varying stages of entangled indulgence.
For his part, the Duke cultivated instrumental music to a degree hardly surpassed
elsewhere in early Renaissance Italy, and this, too, is reflected in the April fresco,
where the atmosphere of sweet connubial bliss is enhanced by symbols of
harmony and aural concord: lutes and recorders in the hands of misty-eyed
maidens. (The message here is intentionally transparent, with the rounded
resonator of the lute implying anticipated pregnancy, and the recorder a
well-known--in Italy in 1470, at any rate--phallic symbol.)
This work, in response, blends fragments of music from Ferrara, or what might
reasonably be assumed to be music of this time and place, into a contemporary
texture of modern rhythms and harmonies. Josquin and Ockeghem are
prominently featured, with the third movement consisting almost entirely of
references to the Omnium bonorum plena of Loyset Compere, an amazing work
which served then and now as a prayer for all the composers of this era. Listen to
the whispers of the performers, as the Echoes of Ferrara resonate across the 21st
century.
Geoffrey Gordon
7 February, 2006
Score