Voices of Passion 2025

1425, a polyphonic beginning
The sounding world of the early fifteenth century

In 2025, KU Leuven will celebrate its 600th anniversary. As part of the festivities, Voices of Passion is looking back at the sound world of the early fifteenth century. At that time, polyphony was no longer in its infancy and had developed throughout the Middle Ages into a complex, almost mathematically sophisticated texture of voices.

At the beginning of the 15th century, composers faced a new era in which innovative compositional techniques, surprising sound constructions and a sense of euphony would gradually come to the fore.

The ingenuity of the Franco-Flemish polyphonists was admired throughout Europe. When their polyphonic music came into contact with French, Italian and English composition, for example during international tours, a mutual cross-fertilisation took place. With well-known names such as Guillaume Du Fay and Gilles Binchois, but also completely unknown composers such as Johannes de Lymburgia, Voices of Passion is a musical evocation of the first decades of the 15th century.

Leuven and polyphony have long been intertwined. Together with the Alamire Foundation, we highlight this tradition and current knowledge and performance practice during the Voices of Passion festival.

The Alamire Foundation, Leuven's centre of excellence, conducts and stimulates international scientific research on Gregorian chant and polyphony of the Low Countries. The Voices of Passion festival is the ideal stage to share the results of this research with the widest possible audience. The performance of a musical source, sometimes centuries old, creates a unique interaction between audience, musician and researcher.