Belgian tenor Tore Denys went browsing in the fabulous library of his city Vienna. There he discovered a most remarkable unique copy: the Austrian National Library holds the only extant notebook used in Petrus Alamires workshop, serving as the basis for an illuminated manuscript. It was put together by more than twenty copyists, among them Alamire himself, and contains 29 Masses, an Agnus Dei and a motet. No less than 14 Masses are single copies, not recurring in any other known manuscript. One of those Masses, composed by Hieronimus Winters (or Vinders) is strikingly entitled Missa per Alamÿr. The connection with Alamire remains a mystery (was the Mass dedicated to him?) but at any rate it is a masterpiece that merits particular attention.

27 August, 2015 22:15 -- amuz

Specialists from Cappella Pratensis will run a course on polyphonic singing during The Alamire Complex summer school. We will perform directly from facsimiles of the Alamire manuscripts. Participants will gain first-hand experience of performance from mensural notation, drawing on the full range of Petrus Alamires oeuvre, including works by Josquin des Prez, Johannes Ockeghem and Pierre de la Rue. The masterclass will be supplemented by workshops facilitated by experts in this repertoire and notation, including Professor Peter Urquhart (University of New Hampshire), a scholar and renowned performer of original source material, and Valerie Horst (director emerita of Amherst Early Music Festival), a specialist in mensural notation. This presentation is an opportunity to hear the results of this intensive week.

28 August, 2015 13:00 -- amuz

From drones to musical drama, clusters to pure harmony and back again. Whether you are a singer or an instrumentalist: clear your throat, take a deep breath and hold on tight! This is a music camp, inspired by the manuscripts by Petrus Alamire, where you will sing, play and dance lines of music that run parallel, move apart or draw back together, cross over and crash into each other. Fascination guaranteed!

Children aged between six and sixteen can enjoy a week of singing and music-making with teachers who are artists themselves. There will be opportunities to discover other art forms too, with excursions to dance, movement and visual art events. The participants will show off the results of their intensive Musica music camp at this final presentation during Laus Polyphoniae.

28 August, 2015 15:00 -- musica-school

From drones to musical drama, clusters to pure harmony and back again. Whether you are a singer or an instrumentalist: clear your throat, take a deep breath and hold on tight! This is a music camp, inspired by the manuscripts by Petrus Alamire, where you will sing, play and dance lines of music that run parallel, move apart or draw back together, cross over and crash into each other. Fascination guaranteed!

Children aged between six and sixteen can enjoy a week of singing and music-making with teachers who are artists themselves. There will be opportunities to discover other art forms too, with excursions to dance, movement and visual art events. The participants will show off the results of their intensive Musica music camp at this final presentation during Laus Polyphoniae.

28 August, 2015 16:30 -- costa

Predictably Paul van Nevel deviates from trodden paths with a view to exploring the unknown. He surprises us with a programme of exclusively anonymous masterpieces from choir books in libraries from Brussels, the Vatican, Munich, London and s-Hertogenbosch. The unpublished works he transcribed himself. Around the 8-part Missa miserere mihi domine he built a programme of such religious and profane compositions as Cueurs desolez, O salutaris hostia … The singers of Huelgas Ensemble are augmented with the Paris chil- drens choir Aposiopée. Wonder and revelations are guaranteed in this programme which goes to prove that what is unknown can also become cherished.

28 August, 2015 20:00 -- st-pauluskerk

For the second concert by the British top-notch ensemble you can look forward to an exquisite religious theme. Four antiphonies for Mary became popular from the 13th century on. One of them, the Salve Regina, was sung at the end of the compline between the holy days of Trinity Sunday and Christus Rex. The genre flourished especially in the Late Middle Ages during devotional services at the fraternities of Our Lady in s-Hertogenbosch and Antwerp, of which composer Jacob Obrecht was a member. In Antwerp such services were added lustre to by four singers and twelve choir boys. Composers wrote wonderful music on this text about the mercy of Mary. With their pure sound the singers of Stile Antico are the perfect performers of this sublime repertoire. In addition to Obrechts 6-part Salve Regina they will also perform works by Jean Richafort, Josquin des Prez, Matthaeus Pipelare and an anonymous Salve Myn hert altyt heeft verlangen (my heart is always pining).

28 August, 2015 22:15 -- st-pauluskerk