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Noone Mines the Riches of Spanish Golden Age Music

Music Dept. chairman earns plaudits for both research and recordings

By Sean Smith | Chronicle Editor

Being honored for contributions to national culture, and by the king of the country no less, is a pretty big deal — especially if you're not even from the country in question.

Such was the case in 2007, when King Juan Carlos I of Spain presented native Australian Assoc. Prof. Michael Noone (Music) with the Royal Toledo Foundation's medal for services to Spanish culture. The award recognized Noone's numerous publications, teaching, performances and recordings of Spanish Golden Age music, and in particular his work in 2004-5 while a fellow at Boston College's Jesuit Institute.

It was, to say the least, a heady experience for someone who first traveled to Spain in 1981 as a "kid from Sydney" with a desire to study early music — and with no Spanish language skills. The medal presentation was an affirmation of Noone's passion for the interrelationship of music scholarship and performance, and the challenge of modern interpretation of centuries-old music.

But Noone (who now knows plenty of Spanish) is hardly resting on his laurels. He is directing a major project to catalogue and digitize medieval and Renaissance music manuscripts of the Spanish Primatial Cathedral in Toledo. The cathedral's collection of indigenously produced Gregorian chant — thought to be lost — is one of the largest derived from any ecclesiastical institution in Western Christendom.

Last fall, Noone, who is the Music Department chairman, directed two concerts marking the release of the first two in a series of 10 projected CDs encompassing the work of Tomas Luis de Victoria, regarded as one of the foremost Renaissance era church music composers. The CDs were selected by the Spanish publication Scherzo as among the most  exceptional recordings of the year.

The music of Victoria holds a particular relevance for Noone — and, he adds, for Boston College: "His works represent one of the great untold stories of how the Jesuits supported music. Victoria was the first in a long line of great composers whose association with the Society of Jesus was decisive for the history of Western music. 

"I think a project like this is a perfect fit for a university interested in the Catholic intellectual tradition, and the intersection of faith and culture."

Noone has made frequent visits to Spain under a variety of sponsors over the years, spending most of his time in Toledo, and in particular the Primatial Cathedral. "Toledo is a fascinating mix of cultures," he says. "You can see the constant movement between Christian, Jewish and Moorish influences. The cathedral, meanwhile, has been the source of music manuscripts that offer unique insights into Spanish cultural and religious history."

During his fellowship at the Jesuit Institute, Noone published a study and edition of a badly damaged 16th-century parchment choir book held in the Spanish primatial cathedral of Toledo. The manuscript contained many previously unknown Latin liturgical works by some of the greatest Spanish Renaissance composers.

He followed the edition with an award-winning and critically acclaimed CD presenting first performances of works by Cristobal Morales.
Noone vividly recounts hours upon hours spent looking at manuscripts or combing through various parts of the cathedral to look for missing illuminations or documents — some had been taken by tourists, others were "recycled" as covers for other manuscripts.

"When you look at these manuscripts — which are huge, some of them weighing 60 lbs., and on high-quality durable parchment — and the iconography on the pages, you can see they weren't just there to transmit music: They were part of the liturgy itself.

"That represented a strong statement of Catholicism in a country with numerous religious and cultural influences."

Noone is an equally productive arranger and conductor. One of his most successful ongoing projects is Ensemble Plus Ultra, which is performing and recording the works by Tomas Luis de Victoria. Their CDs have won critical acclaim: WGBH named one among the Top Ten Classical CDs of 2007 and another was awarded the Prelude Classical Award for 2008.

"I find that being actively involved in presenting the music I research and write about provides a sense of completeness for me. I think it also represents that comprehensive approach to the arts so characteristic of the Jesuits, where you appreciate the historic or intellectual value — but you also appreciate the beauty of it as well."

Sean Smith can be reached sean.smith.1@bc.edu.