她可是圣希尔德嘉德的传声人？—铭记Sequentia继叙咏合唱团创始人Barbara Thornton！
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4 X5 k" [/ I- P" F0 e近年的复古风潮中向希尔德佳德致敬的唱片很多，而由Sequentia继叙咏合唱团演唱的希尔德佳德作品的唱片是最富盛名且不容忽视的。Sequentia继叙咏合唱团由本杰明·巴格比（Benjamin Bagby）和芭芭拉·桑顿（Barbara Thornton）于1977年创建于德国科隆，他们致力于重构中世纪欧洲充满活力的音乐传统，带给10-14世纪久已为人遗忘的音乐手稿新的生命。而他们最杰出的成就则在于“希尔德佳德音乐全集”这一伟大工程，现已出版（依录音出版时间排序1、《Canticles of Ecstasy狂喜之歌》 2、《血之声Voice of the Blood》 3、《哦，耶路撒冷O Jerusalem》 4、《同声咏唱Symphoniae (Spiritual Songs)》 5、《道德剧Ordo Virtutum》和6、《圣徒Saints》 。除希尔德佳德的作品外，Sequentia推出的其它中世纪音乐录音，艺术评价都在水准之上。
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) P" h/ P- r+ j! j s左下为Benjamin Bagby（古竖琴演奏家）、中为Barbara Thornton、右为合唱团中负责演奏古小提琴的Elizabeth Gaver。已出版的希尔德佳德音乐全集主要由科隆继叙咏合唱团演唱，团员大概有１０位女声左右，网上找不到她们的合影，但唱片说名书里有。
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希尔德佳德音乐强烈的个性对演绎提出了极高的要求，所幸我们这个日见世俗和平庸的时代仍然拥有“科隆继叙咏合唱团”（ Cologne Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music） 这样执着的中世纪音乐布道者以及芭芭拉·桑顿（Barbara Thornton）凝聚着生命激情的神圣咏唱，那有如水晶般纯净和的声音。 以芭芭拉·桑顿为首的科隆继叙咏合唱团创造出一种平静内敛的演绎风格。她们把对希尔德佳德简单而优美的音乐的诚挚热爱潜藏于对神圣之光的凝神注视和虔诚的敬畏之中，不加修饰的声音从心底缓缓流出，在平静和谦卑中呈现那生动鲜明的神秘异象，如熠熠生辉永不熄灭的烛焰，将听者带至鲜活的灵性体验之中，一旦沉浸其中，有如灵魂出窍般的狂喜就会如期而至，恍惚间如同置身天使行列之中聆听神灵的歌咏。. z( _' Y9 o6 P9 \" G) e- B
0 X: v: F- X3 z; Q; i/ r继叙咏合唱团洗净铅华的演绎复活了中世纪在异象中向希尔德佳德呈现的神圣之光，如此栩栩如生，无视着时空的巨大距离。然而，这纯粹的神性之声身后却是芭芭拉·桑顿生命的忘情投入，唱片中希尔德佳德作品说明书及每首歌词的解释及合唱团的演绎说明，都是由芭芭拉·桑顿亲自撰写。不幸和另人扼腕的是1998年在录制专辑《Edda -- Myths From Medieval Iceland 埃达——中世纪冰岛神》时，这位中世纪音乐的杰出研究者和演绎者离开了人世。她的灵魂终将安息于希尔德佳如天使般纯净的音乐之中，偕同这位“莱茵河的西比尔（女先知）”辉耀于中世纪安详宁静的夜空。而1998年也正好是希尔德佳德诞生900周年。为记念Barbara Thornton为重现早期音乐所做出的贡献，美国早期音乐协会特设立了Barbara Thornton Memorial Fund，芭芭拉·桑顿纪念资金主要用于资助和奖励有志于研究和复兴中世纪音乐的年轻音乐家。
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8 k2 X/ P, i: @" z, a9 v"Barbara herself was a fanatic in her art; and there are too few fanatics of her sort. She passionately devoted herself to the single repertory of medieval music, choosing not to perform other repertories for the sake of that one. And she let that repertory be so challengingly and productively hard, for herself and for the artists she directed and the students she taught . . . What I remember most vividly, and will miss most, is simply the sound of Barbara's voice as she sang. The sounds she made were not always pretty; they were, across her astonishingly wide emotional range, urgent, harsh, meditative, giddy, exultant, angelic . . . It was an intense, exhilarating aesthetic experience to hear Barbara sing."
3 [) g. S0 l* b) @$ ^4 l% ?-- Lawrence Rosenwald, Early Music America, Winter 1998-1999' u* R1 f9 ~7 ^ d$ r
* P8 C: Z1 g' L# I3 O8 i* ~"Ms. Thornton, whose soprano voice had a mezzolike hue and texture that gave it a distinctive character, was a specialist in the music of the 12th-century abbess Hildegard von Bingen, and it was largely because of Ms. Thornton's performances and recordings with Sequentia that Hildegard and her works have lately become the focus of scholarly and popular interest."- {- R2 K4 X* Z
-- New York Times,November 15, 1998
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"Thornton was concerned both to establish the individuality of the music she was performing and also to bring it to her audiences not as some museum piece but as a living experience, to be witnessed as a performance might have been almost a thousand years ago . . . Barbara Thornton's voice was an important element in Sequntia's sucess. Andrew Porter wrote in the New Yorker that she had 'one of the most beautiful sopranos -- strong and pure, and passionate -- that I have heard in a long time.' Other critics variously describer her as having 'a tone as focused and intense as a medieval reed instrument,' sounding 'like a divine messenger of absolute truth.'"1 `' L2 S' J3 {, o; Y# A
-- Martin Anderson, The Thursday Review, The Independent, November 19, 1998. V. B" O8 I6 X3 \$ I* A" }
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发表于 2004-12-31 00:14
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老熊猫音乐漫谈
发表于 2004-12-31 13:04
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