Ancient Music Wows
by Faith Richards

Thirty College and Conservatory students gathered in Fairchild Chapel Tuesday night to learn about the intricacies of singing Renaissance music from members of the internationally-praised British vocal group the Clerks. By the end of the session, everyone in the room was singing a six-part Renaissance piece from its aged notation.
The master class, “Singing from Renaissance Scores,” was supposed to be an hour-long overview course about how to read Renaissance manuscripts, but turned out being even more rewarding than intended.
The director of the group, Edward Wickham, opened the class by pointing out the distinct differences between Renaissance musical notation and its modern-day counterpart. For example, while in a modern score the instrumental or vocal parts are stacked vertically on top of each other on the page, in a Renaissance manuscript they are written separately from each other. This format allows an entire choir to sing from one book since less space is used. Texts of the Renaissance were also more like works of art in their appearance: ornate illustrations filled the spaces between notations on their pages.
The Clerks went on to demonstrate that it is actually possible to sing from a Renaissance manuscript by performing the “Kyrie” from the Misa Faisant Regretz by Josquin des Prez. It was quite amazing to hear the seemingly unintelligible notation of the score realized in the beautiful voices of the group. Their performance received a great deal of praise from the listeners, not just for their ability to translate the written music into words and melody, but also for their superb singing abilities.
It was interesting to discover how the performers indicated to each other whether notes should be flat or sharp by holding a finger up or down, since accidentals were not included in Renaissance scores. The real test of understanding came when the class was asked to sing different musical lines, first in unison, and then as they were intended, with six different voice parts in a canon. This technique is produced by singing the original three parts and then singing a fourth higher.
Finally, everyone in the class gathered around six different music stands, each for a separate music part. The final result of the session was quite impressive: almost 40 people singing Renaissance music together after only an hour’s instruction. The Clerks certainly provided the people who attended the master class with a fun and informative session.
The group itself performs all over the world, bringing the music of the Renaissance to people everywhere. They perform in their native London about two or three times a year, but prefer to travel abroad. Rebecca Outram, Matthew Vine, Chris Watson, William Missin, Robert Mcdonald, and Edward Wickham have been together as the Clerks since 1992 and have performed many different works all over the world since that time. Besides performing in the master class here at Oberlin, they also gave a performance in Cleveland at the Cleveland Art Museum last Wednesday.