A Rudel cantata

The Rudel legend has a knack of inspiring minor works, often by long-forgotten artists. Here’s another one: Rudel. A Dramatic Cantata, composed for the 1891 Chester Music Festival by Joseph Cox Bridge (libretto by Frederic Edward Weatherley).

Dr Joseph Cox Bridge (1853-1929), described in one reference work as ‘a celebrated organist and a composer of some merit’, was part of an English musical family (his older brother was Frederick ‘Westminster’ Bridge). He was organist at Exeter College, Oxford, then at Chester Cathedral from 1877, and became Professor of Music at the University of Durham. Besides the Rudel cantata he also composed oratorios, a string quartet in G minor, anthems, songs, part-songs and piano music.

A review in The Times (27 July 1891) offered a synopsis that suggests this rendition strays somewhat from the standard story:

Rudel, a troubadour of Provence, is beloved of a Norman damsel, Felise, whose praises he sings, and whose portrait he shows at a baronial festival in England, whereupon an English knight, Sir Guy, claims the lady as his wife, and challenges Rudel to combat. Rudel slays his opponent, and, feeling that his blood will form an insuperable barrier to his wedding Felise, takes upon him the vow of a Crusader, and joins a party of knights on their road to the Holy Land. Passing through Normandy on his way to the East, however, he meets his lady love, and learns from her that Sir Guy was not her husband, but only a rejected wooer who determined to wreak his revenge by separating her from Rudel. The hero, bound by his vow, continues on his journey to the Crusades, Felise promising to pray for his welfare and safe and speedy return.

The introduction uses ‘three old English melodies, the very ancient “Summer is icumen in”, the dance tune “Cheshire rounds”, and the Elizabethan “Carman’s whistle”.’ The reviewer goes on to say that 'its principal defect' is 'a lack of tenderness in what may be styled the sentimental portions'. That'll be a 19th-century English composer for you, then.

The score has yet to appear in full online, but at least one copy of it is available for purchase.

The princess gets her day

Wordsmith.org recently (16 March 2012) featured 'princesse lointaine' in its popular 'Word a day' series. Clearly the word 'word' is meant in its loosest sense. Jaufre and you-know-who are pictured along with it.

Word a Day, 16 March 2012: princesse lointaine

Mind how you go

I don't know how things were going for the police force in 1889, but The Illustrated Police News was just getting properly started as a proto-tabloid, after their sensationalist coverage of the Jack the Ripper murders the previous year. But on 21 December 1889, its readers were - for some reason - treated to a homily on chivalry*. Exhibit A was the legend of 'the most noble Lord Geoffrey de Rudel, Prince of Blaye'.

The paper's account of the legend has an infelicity or two: Rudel's sickness is blamed on an 'infectious disease' breaking out on board the ship; and the writer insists 'This is no troubadour's tale; it is a simple excerpt from history'. I think you'd have to call this 'unreliable testimony'.

The article then contrasts this paragon of chivalry with the 17th-century story of Thomas Inkle, a shipwrecked English trader who was rescued by a Barbadian maiden named Yarico but subsequently sold her into slavery in order to recoup his losses (The story became the basis for Inkle and Yarico, a comic opera that was a smash hit in the late 18th century). The story is probably as apocryphal as that of Rudel, but there we are.

Image right: 'By heavens! A woman', illustration from the libretto of Inkle and Yarico.

* A note at the end suggests that the text may first have appeared in the Daily Telegraph.

Princess Daisy?

Alphonse Mucha wasn't the only visual artist to go to work on the Rudel legend. The French-Russian designer and artist Romain de Tirtoff (1892–1990), better known as Erté, produced a number of limited-edition prints towards the end of his life, one of them entitled La Princesse Lointaine (right).

There seems to be no information as to whether he had the Rostand play in mind or something more generic, either for this or for an earlier print with the same title (printed in 1970).

However, an art auction site lists a couple of costume designs by Erté for a production of La Princesse Lointaine, dating from 1929 (below right: 'Costume design for Second Mariner'). This suggests that there was a revival of it that year, though it seems a bit unlikely.

The 1984 print is a throwback to Erté's Art Deco heyday, to the extent that his princess rather resembles a 1920s flapper. Incidentally, the wikipedia entry for 'Princesse lointaine' -- the 'stock figure from literature' -- makes reference to Daisy Buchanan, Jay Gatsby's inamorata, as a 20th-century example. So maybe Erté's 'Princesse' approximates how Gatsby imagined Daisy.

An ad for The Pilgrim of Lurve

In amongst a few nuggets uncovered in a trawl of online newspaper archives: several advertisements for John Graham's epic poem, Geoffrey Rudel; or, the Pilgrim of Love (see my previous entry). This one appeared in The Morning Post, Tuesday, May 10, 1836. Another ad in the same paper a month of so later features the endorsement: 'He has exhibited a mastery over the Spenserian stanza'. Which is nice.

Dugué's Rudel opus: Chapter 1

Having done a bit of digging on Ferdinand Dugué, the illustre inconnu of 19th-century French literature, I took it upon myself to translate a bit of his two-volume novel, Geoffroy Rudel (see my previous post). It's heavy on the florid sighing and, as one might expect from a dramatist, stuffed with monologues. But not without interest.

'Chapter 1: Le premier mai' in parallel French / English text is available as a PDF.

Don't mention it.

Concerning Tripoli (no, the other one...)

There are two cities called Tripoli; the Rudel legend is concerned with the less famous of the two. This Tripoli is now the largest city in northern Lebanon. I recently came across a website with plenty of information on its history and images of its architecture, including some examples from the Crusades era.

The site also has a section on Jaufré Rudel and the treatment of the legend by the Lebanese/French writer Amin Maalouf in his libretto for the opera L'Amour de Loin (mentioned in an earlier post). Included is the complete text of the libretto.

The photograph (from Wikimedia Commons, taken by 'Heretiq') shows a view of the Citadel from the Nahr Abu Ali river.