Ou beau chastel
Ticket prices
€ 22 - check our reductions
Ou beau chastel is one of twelve unica from the Leuven Chansonnier manuscript: so far, no other source of these songs has been found. The performance of these recently discovered pieces therefore requires a lot of research and knowledge about the practice of performing music in the late Middle Ages, in which there is room for interpretation.
In this programme, two poles with contrasting instrumental timbres have been selected: alta cappella (two shawms and a trombone) and bassa cappella (two lutes and a vihuela de arco). These two small ensembles can play independently and accompany the singers or play together, either to confirm and reinforce each other’s musical discourse, or go against it. This fourth and final chapter of the marathon series is the conclusion of an exceptional project in which science and valorisation have been brought together under the wing of the Alamire Foundation from Leuven since 2017.
Music by the flower of Franco-Flemish polyphonists.
Rare songbook continues to inspire
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Voices of Passion
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 Andrew Hallock, Lior Leibovici and Jonatan Alvarado (vocals) alta cappella Adrien Reboisson, Patrick Denecker and Rémi Lécorché bassa cappella Christoph Sommer, Jan van Outryve and Anna Danilevskaia
