Concerts
I) O tu illustrata – church concert 70 mins
- Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
- Medieval Bridgettine Chants
(More detailed information on this concert in the end of this page)
II) The Travelling Troubadour 30-45 mins (suits especially schools)
- Medieval music from all around the Europe
- Troubadour and trouvere songs: Chansons de femme, Piæ Cantiones, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Laudario di Cortona/Firenze & Martin Codax
Anneliina Koskinen & Uli Kontu-Korhonen, song and medieval instruments: dulcimer, gothic harp, organetto, recorders, double recorder, psaltery, symphonia, rebec, bowed psaltery.
Lecture 45 / 60 mins
The lecture has two options:
A) Music in the medieval society (60 mins)
- 1000 years dark times, or was is dark at all?
- Western liturgical traditions (Byzantine, Gregorian, Ambrosian)
- The development of polyfonic music (Notre Dame, Ars Nova)
- Spiritual and secular music (heroic poems, troubadours and trouveres, trecento, Francesco Landini)
B) A thorough presentation of the medieval instruments (45 minutes).
- The origins of the European medieval instruments lie in ancient times and many of them have come from the Middle East. The sounds and the tuning system open up a whole special world of its own. They have also served as a pre models for some modern instruments as we know them today.
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More detailed information on the church concert O tu illustrata
Two remarkable nuns: Saint Hildegard of Bingen and Saint Bridget of Sweden, the former born 1098 and the latter 1303, over two hundred years apart. Both of them left a great legacy in the Church and both of them loved music. However the differences in their musical preferences are huge.
Abbess Hildegard wrote music with a range unusually wide, although in old fashioned style. She used all extremes of a human voice to interpret the vivid musical visions given to her. Unlike many of her colleagues she however gave a value to instruments as well. She mentions the trombone, organ, flute, string instruments, psaltery, harp and the frame drum, all of them given a very noble character attached to the spiritual life.
Saint Bridget on the other hand accepted only human voice. And preferably only the middle range of it. Her idea of proper music was much more archaic than Hildegard´s but also her wish was to hear chanting prayer in the convent throughout the day.
The program for a church concert O tu Illustrata presents music from the convents of Saint Hildegard of Bingen and Bridget of Sweden. The instruments selected follow Hildegard´s ideas, like the flute representing the Holy Spirit, the organ representing the multiple voices of a congregation to mention a few. The Bridgettine songs are performed unaccompanied as she wanted them to be.
The instruments featured: Organetto, gothic harp, symphonia, rebec, dulcimer, double recorder, recorders flutes and bells.