Programs: - FLEMINGS IN SPAIN: Flemings in Spain”, a new concert program by Quadrivium featuring tenor Jan Van Elsacker, sheds light on the musical connection between Flanders and Spain anno 1500. The program consists of three parts. The first and last part showcase compositions of two major Flemish composers: Johannes Ockeghem and Alexander Agricola. Both traveled to Spain as musicians from the French king. The cross-pollination between these northern composers and their Spanish counterparts resulted in Flemish chansons with Spanish texts and in the audible influence of Flemish polyphony on Spanish music. The important ‘Segovia manuscript’ provides the program with Flemish polyphonic chansons and virtuosic instrumental settings. The intermediate part of the program will relive the unique interaction between Flemish and Spanish art, by a newly composed setting of the famous “Coplas por la muerte de su padre from Jorge Manrique (c1440-1479) by Flemish composer Janpieter Biesemans (*1939). This composition was written especially for this program. - LA CAUSE EST AMER: Medieval Love Songs from Japan and the Low Countries "Se la face ay pale, la cause est amer" -- "If my face be pale, the cause is love." In the text of this chanson by Guillaume Dufay the word for 'love,' amer, plays on its second meaning of 'bitter,' expressing in one word two extremes of emotion. Dufay's chanson , with its reference to the gamut of emotions associated with love, gives its title to this program centered around a hauntingly beautiful contemporary compostion by Janpieter Biesemans, "Vijf Nippon Waka" ("Five Japanese Wakas"). The waka are short medieval Japanese poems from the Hyaku-nin-issiu, also known as the "Ogura Anthology." With a fixed number of lines and of syllables per line, they are comparable to the more modern haiku. The five poems chosen by Biesemans examine different states of love: the joy of newly discovered love; parting at dawn; absence of the beloved; doubting faithfulness; and rueful grief. At Quadrivium's request, these have been set to music for Quadriviums's instrumentarium of voice, lute, harp, psaltery and recorder. Although Biesemans has scored the suite for western medieval instruments, his compositions capture the delicate yet intense character of Japanese traditional music. Each of the Wakas is paired with a 15th-century Burgundian chanson chosen to mirror the particular emotion expressed in the Waka. Instrumental intabulations of the chansons further develop each theme. In this way, Quadrivium creates a unique blend of three disparate worlds, interweaving the chanson of medieval europe, the poetry of medieval Japan, and music of contemporary Flanders. Their common language is love. - DER TEUFEL HAT DAS SPIEL ERDACHT ( The devil created the game) "Der Teufel hat das Spiel erdacht" is a 60-minute programme which explores witty allusions to "play" between composer, performer and audience. Pieter Flštner's playing cards, likely produced in the 1540s and now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nźrnberg, contain handwritten music on the backs of the cards. The four musical voices are assigned to the four suits, so that Herz = discantus, Schellen = altus, Laub = tenor and Eichel = bassus. In all, we have twelve songs: one for each rank of playing card, from Daus up to Kšnig. The songs are typical Tenorlieder, but scholars find difficulty in identifying specific composers. Indeed, the songs may have been composed especially for the playing cards. Imagine a playing-card session in a German noble household turning into a musical party! A 16th-century German canon follow next, being an elaborate musical game. The piece is a double-canon intended originally for two lutes, but played here on lute and harp. Two different lines of music become four voices, but the second instrument enters precisely a fourth higher. It is a beautiful composition, but is remarkable none the less for its daring structure. A second set of German musical playing cards survives in the British Museum. Known as the Hans Rumpolt cards, these were printed, rather than drawn, and may have been part of a plan to make Flštner's idea more widely available to the bourgeoisie. Where the Flštner cards present anonymous pieces, the Rumpolt cards contain several well-known songs from the era. A suite of five settings of Japanese waka texts was written for Quadrivium by Belgian composer Janpieter Biesmans in 2002. The lyrics, from the "Hyakunin-isshu" or "100 poems by 100 poets", are also found on playing cards in the beautiful uta garuta packs. The pieces examine different states of love: the joy of newly discovered love; parting at dawn; absence of the beloved; doubting faithfulness; and rueful grief. Although Biesmans has scored the suite for western medieval instruments, his compositions capture the delicate yet intense character of Japanese traditional music. A mid-17th-century English ballad concludes the concert: "A New Game of Cards". This broadside ballad describes the plight of an "Irishman so hot", a "cheating Scot" and an "Englishman so round", who are playing a game with a new feature: "that the Knave of Clubs should be above the King". Other programs: - GUILLAUME AND GUILLAUME: chansons from Guillaume de Machaut and Guillaume Dufay Quadrivium brings to modern audiences the rich legacy of two great Guillaumes: Machaut, greatest composer and most illustrious poet of the 14th century, and Dufay, who led the musical world one hundred years later. Quadrivium presents both chansons and instrumental arrangements, and also some of the first pieces truly intended for instruments, music for the dance. - A MEDIEVAL NEW YEAR Quadrivium explores the old ways of ringing in the new year! In a program enriched with texts from the time and explanations from the musicians, we hear about medieval French table manners, an early Scottish superstition, English prasie for the Virgin Mary, and the irrepressible party spirit of Guillaume Dufay, who sees the New Year as a time to give presents, to drink with good friends, and to try anew at winning love... Dance music was of course also part of the festivities. Come join Quadrivium, and let the feast begin!