Ma bouche rit et ma pensee pleure
Ticket prices
€ 22 - check our reductions
The Leuven Chansonnier gives us an insight into the works that circulated and were popular in the late 15th century. Ma bouche rit by Franco-Flemish polyphonist Johannes Ockeghem was passed down not only in the Leuven Chansonnier, but also in numerous other manuscripts and is undoubtedly given a place on the list of the greatest hits of the time. At the start of this marathon project, in which all songs from the songbook will be performed during four concerts, the late-fifteenth-century world of polyphony reveals its secrets and the Sollazzo Ensemble brings us closer to the interesting world of the late Middle Ages.
Like most of the other works in this concert, Ma bouche rit is constructed as a forme fixe: stylised poetic templates that follow poetry in terms of structure based on fixed patterns of repetition. Performing these repetitive French forms creates numerous challenges, as well as opportunities, in presenting this music to a contemporary audience.
Rare songbook continues to inspire
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The Leuven Chansonnier: 50 gems in 4 concerts
Leuven and polyphony have long been closely connected. Together with the Alamire Foundation, we put this tradition and the contemporary knowledge and performance practice in the spotlight during the Voices of Passion festival. The 2024 edition will focus entirely on the Leuven Chansonnier, the Flemish masterpiece from the late fifteenth century which contains a treasure trove of polyphonic music.
When an old, unknown book was presented to the Alamire Foundation in 2015 for examination, the manuscript exceeded all expectations. With the help of various disciplines, such as musicology, heraldry, art history, textile history and linguistics, researchers have gained an insight into the manuscript’s provenance and history in recent years. It turned out to be a late fifteenth-century songbook containing a treasure trove of polyphonic music: forty-nine French chansons, preceded by Walter Frye’s religious motet Ave regina caelorum.
The extraordinary find caused a stir in the arts and heritage world; with the chansonnier recognised as a Flemish masterpiece in 2018. The songs embody the pinnacle of fifteenth-century Franco-Flemish polyphony to French medieval lyrics, an exceptional discovery.
The small songbook was named Leuven Chansonnier, after the city where the Alamire Foundation resides and the chansonnier is kept. After a world premiere in New York and conferences, lectures and performances in Tokyo, Ambronay, Rome, Berlin, York and Antwerp, the Sollazzo Ensemble led by vielle player Anna Danilevskaia and the Sollazzo Ensemble will bring all fifty compositions from the songbook in various line-ups to conclude this major research and recording project.
The musicians of the young vocal-instrumental Sollazzo - the ensemble currently mesmerizing the international music world - will be in residence at the House of Polyphony with the Alamire Foundation during the Voices of Passion festival and will perform all fifty chansons in an exceptional concert marathon.
Four unique concerts that allow you to discover a fifteenth-century musical gem note-by-note. A once-in-a-lifetime experience!
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artistic direction Anna Danilevskaia with Carine Tinney (soprano), Sophia Faltas (alt), Jonatan Alvarado (tenor), Christoph Sommer (lute), Johanna Bartz (flute), Filipa Meneses (vihuela de arco) and Anna Danilevskaia (vihuela de arco and fiddle)
