The celebrated female quartet Anonymous 4 did not hesitate to choose the Montpellier Codex as their central musical source. With a sharp eye and ear for quality, a selection was made of French motets inspired by courtly love poetry. The French double motet is the genre that happens to be the best represented one in the Codex; the tenor or the melodic foundation in those motets is often borrowed from Gregorian plainchant, but sometimes also derives from a more popular repertoire or from dance music. Often those songs remind us of the art of the French trouvères, and sometimes trouvère songs were even integrated into the treble voices of those motets! Thematically there is a wide range of emotions, but the common denominator remains: love. From the ecstatic adoration of the Virgin Mary and the sensual love lament to the enraptured drinking song, Anonymous 4 evokes from the source the complexity and the multifarious facets of courtly love around 1300.

Performers
Marsha Genensky, Ruth Cunningham, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek & Susan Hellauer, voice

Jean de Berry, Jean de Valois, or also: Jean, duc de Berry, was the duke of Berry and Auvergne as well as being the third son of Jean II of France. Today the duke’s name evokes artistic rather than political connotations: witness the splendid Book of Hours Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry by the Limbourg brothers. That duke Jean had a soft spot for the arts was for that matter not always appreciated. His expenses were often so extravagant that they drained his budget dramatically. Eventually he became heavily indebted. He died in 1416, virtually bankrupt. However, the duke of Berry would settle for nothing less than perfection, and in the field of music this standard was represented by composers such as Solage and Guillaume de Machaut. Their works are for Tetraktys the basis to present the profane polpyphony of the Chantilly Codex: centuries-old chansons in ‘formes fixes’ that make you marvel because of their rich sonority and their rhythmical inventiveness.

Performers
Zsuzsi Tòth, soprano | Kirsty Whatley, harp | Baptiste Romain, fiddle | Kees Boeke, recorders, fiddle & artistic direction

Programme
Werk van Guillaume de Machaut, Magister Franciscus e.a.

The voluminous manuscript Bologna Q15 counts 323 works, among them 128 unique copies. Thus it contains the most extensive collection of polyphony from the first half of the 15th century: in addition to masses, motets, hymns and some secular works there are also many state motets for official ceremonies. They show how closely the musical profession in Padua and Venice was connected to its respective political and ecclesiastical authorities. During this concert you will hear some state motets commissioned on the occasion of the appointment of the doges of the lagoon city. To the strains of Johannes de Lymburgia, Antonio Zacara da Teramo, Guillaume Du Fay and Johannes Ciconia, among others, the Huelgas Ensemble leads you into the fabulous musical treasure trove of Bologna Q15. Brace yourself for the second passage of our festival residents!

Performers
Stefan Berghamme, Griet De Geyter, Silke Jacobsen, Sabine Lutzenberger, George Pooley, Michaëla Riener, Harry Ries, An Van Laethem, Matthew Vine, Witte Weber & Tim Scott Whiteley, musicians | Paul Van Nevel, artistic direction

Programme
Werk van Johannes Ciconia, Guillaume Du Fay, Antonio Zacara da Teramo e.a

Centuries-old manuscripts are our only point of contact with times long gone, when Flemish composers such as Guillaume Du Fay and Jacob Obrecht dominated the West European music scene. What do manuscripts tell us about the music from those days? In this course you can familiarize yourself with some top works from our own region, such as the Hildegard Codex in Dendermonde and the oldest extant Hadewych manuscript in Flanders. This intriguing voyage ends with the Antwerp printer Susato, pioneer of music printing. Your guides are musicologists Pieter Mannaerts and Ignace Bossuyt.

Included: syllabus, programme brochure, coffee, access to the noon concerts on 25, 26 and 27 August and access to the evening concert on 27 August.
Optional concert: nocturnal concert by the Huelgas Ensemble on 26 August at 10:15 pm.
Price: €16 on top of enrolment fee.
Enrolment in advance requested: +32 (0)16 31 06 70 | www.davidsfonds.be.

In collaboration with Universiteit Vrije Tijd Davidsfonds

Centuries-old manuscripts are our only point of contact with times long gone, when Flemish composers such as Guillaume Du Fay and Jacob Obrecht dominated the West European music scene. What do manuscripts tell us about the music from those days? In this course you can familiarize yourself with some top works from our own region, such as the Hildegard Codex in Dendermonde and the oldest extant Hadewych manuscript in Flanders. This intriguing voyage ends with the Antwerp printer Susato, pioneer of music printing. Your guides are musicologists Pieter Mannaerts and Ignace Bossuyt.

Included: syllabus, programme brochure, coffee, access to the noon concerts on 25, 26 and 27 August and access to the evening concert on 27 August.
Optional concert: nocturnal concert by the Huelgas Ensemble on 26 August at 10:15 pm.
Price: €16 on top of enrolment fee.
Enrolment in advance requested: +32 (0)16 31 06 70 | www.davidsfonds.be.

In collaboration with Universiteit Vrije Tijd Davidsfonds

During MANU SCRIPTUM music from the period 1050-1550 will resound: five centuries of music from all corners of Western Europe, sung and played in medieval living rooms, at bustling market places, at opulent renaissance courts or in impressive gothic cathedrals. The splendid manuscripts – prominent witnesses of early West European music history – are even today samples of unsurpassed craftsmanship: now by their colourful illuminations, then again by their volume and rich contents. Musicologist Sofie Taes (AMUZ, Alamire Foundation, Leuven University) got steeped in the sources and will reveal for you their rich past, their special history, their idiosyncrasies and secrets, generously using musical and visual aids. You will also get the inside scoop why exactly AMUZ decided to choose these sources, thus inviting you to cast an artistic glance behind the wings of Laus Polyphoniae!

i.c.w. Alamire Foundation

Performers
Sofie Taes, speaker