Pilgrimage Song: Gabriel Tetzel
Todd Tarantino
About this work:
In 1465 Leo of Rozmital set off with a great entourage on a journey through Europe to "visit all Christian kingdoms, also all principlaities in Germany and foreign countries, ecclesiastical and lay, and above all to visit the Holy Sepulchre and the beloved Saint James." Rozmital's main goal however, seems to have been to gain support for his recently excommunicated brother-in-law, the King of Bohemia. Among his retinue were two chroniclers: a Czech polyglot known only as Schasek, and a wealthy landowner from Nuremburg, Gabriel Tetzel. Throughout their journey the group was plagued by numerous troubles, the least of which were bandits and disease, until finally arriving at, and at first being denied entry to, the cathedral at Compostela in Northwestern Spain. Little is known of Tetzel othar than his position and what appears to have been a benign temperment; no doubt it was pushed to extremes by the rough conditions. Upon their return to Bohemia, Rozmital awarded Tetzel two horses and a sum of money.
In the spring of 1996, I was able to retrace a portion of their route, one thousand miles on foot across France and Spain. In retrospect, I could see that while landscapes and cultures changed slowly from the mountains of the Auvergne to the Basque country and weeks later the flat plains of the meseta, overall the change was profound. On the journey, I conceived of an imaginary songbook, the Cancionero Anónimo, from which any number of works could be discovered.
This piece imagines an aging Tetzel, moving between memory and reality. Along the way his landscape changes, his mind opens to more possibilities and his rhythm slows with the coming of night. Musically this is accomplished by six note harmonic-tonal clouds that shift one note at a time to become, at the end of the piece, a completely different set, all of which are derivations of the initial six note set; a musical pilgrimage of a sort. The rhythm of the piece follows essentially the same procedure. Initially I planned a much larger piece, complete with dramatic moments and such, but found it lacking and so reduced it to its present state. Tetzel's song is not meant to be dramatic, nor to indulge in a post-modern quasi-medieviality, but simply to reflect on the internal motions of a man.
Year composed: 2000
Duration: 00:06:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Voice with Chamber/Jazz Ensemble, 6-9 Players
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Clarinet, 1 Piano, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Tenor
Instrumentation notes: oboe can be replaced with soprano saxophone. Vocal part can be sung by high baritone.