secrets of a Fool
a Musical portrait of a jester
When we think about the Middle Ages, the image of a jester springs to mind: this emblematic character is one of the clichés associated with the medieval world. In this program, we reflect on the public and private voices of these artists: how does it feel to be on such thin ice, navigating between the role of entertainer and the risks one takes when criticizing others? How does the jester know when to push boundaries or with whom he can take off his mask? What happens when a jester is alone?
With origins in the sacred world, the jester became a political and social figure in the fourteenth century. In opposition to royal wisdom, his word is ironic, critical and, despite this, accepted. We can find similar characteristics in musical works, and the repertoire selected presents pieces that stand out through moralistic and critical texts paired with humorous rhetoric.
In this program, we aim to trace a portrait of an imaginary jester through a selection of deep and refined madrigals filled with metaphors, but also with simpler songs in which quick wittiness overpowers any other aspect.
9 musicians
MACHAUT Rolling over IN HIS GRAVE
The Messe de Nostre Dame, an emblematic work of the medieval repertoire and a jewel of polyphony, serves as a canvas to present one of the ensemble's mottos: to use historically informed interpretation as a tool for our expression, and not to regard it as a restraint. Each voice in the mass is interpreted by several singers, who approach the phrasing in different, deliberate ways. It is a symbol of the multiplicity of possible readings offered by this repertoire, and beyond that, a message about the importance of accepting different ways of thinking and doing things.
Iconoclastic visual artist Olivier de Sagazan joins Sollazzo for this show, bringing the singers into his innovative and distinctive world. Working with clay on stage, the artists are transfigured and take the audience into a world where the very concept of beauty itself is challenged.
Between 10 and 13 artists on stage
Firenze 1350
A Medieval Florentine Garden
It is said that on a warm morning of the year 1389, in a Florentine garden known as “Il Paradiso,” the famous organ virtuoso Franceso degli Organi accepted the challenge of silencing the birds, by no other means than the beauty of his playing. This blind composer and multi- instrumentalist was known in the city not only for his musical prowess, but also for his rhetorical abilities and philosophical views. A perfect example of an early humanist, Francesco, together with fellow composers such as Lorenzo da Firenze, Andrea Stefani, and Giovanni da Firenze, was to bring the music of their time to its apogee.
CANTANO GLI ANGELI
Caritas et Amor in Medieval Sacred Music
Around 1320, two French treatises revolutionized the music world: Ars Novae Musicae by Jean de Muris, and the collection Ars Nova, attributed to Philippe de Vitry. From these writings sprung a new chapter of Western music: rich and ornate melodies, dense polyphony, and novel rhythmic patterns are woven together to form a new expressive tapestry, particularly in the field of sacred music. A program that brings us to the fringes of an old mystical world - in which the lines between the divine and the human become blurry - challenging what we might think about religious medieval music.
8 musicians
Les Mouvances
The birth of a subtle art
The author of Tractatus figurarum, a treatise from the end of the 14th century instructing in the ways of notating music, stated: “Because it would be very incongruous for that which can be performed not to be able to be written, I took care to organize this little treatise (...).” He then proceeded to present new ways of notating music, more complex and more precise than what had been practiced until then. These writings would become one of the fundamental stones of the Ars Subtilior.
Through our rigorous work on these arrangements, Sollazzo recreates a fascinating chapter of music history: the time when musicians were taking freedoms that were not yet written, and by doing so initiated what would become one of the most extravagant musical styles.
EVERYTHING UNDER THE SKY
Like the vault of heaven under which we rest every night, the expressive power of music connects people through the centuries. Like a monumental fresco that would come to life, this show leads us through the medieval musical repertoire not only as a reflection on a lost culture, but especially as a consideration of what that culture has in common with ours. When an emotion described by a poet six centuries ago resonates in us as if it were a message from one of our contemporaries, are we perhaps touching upon the essence of humanity?
Created with support from the CCR d’Ambronay, premiered in 2022 in Antwerp.
19 artists
LE CORPS S’EN VA, LE COEUR DEMEURE…
Songs from the Leuven Chansonnier
In 2015, at an auction, a collector was in an adventurous mood and decided to take a risk: he bought a lot, including a little statue, a box, and a small old book. Curious about the old scores written in the latter, he contacted the Alamire Foundation in Leuven. The researchers there could not believe their eyes: he had fortuitously found a fifteenth-century songbook, an object the likes of which, until then, could quite literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. Sollazzo collaborates with the Alamire Foundation to perform and record the complete manuscript, in co-production with the recording labels Passacaille and Ambronay. This concert presents their favorite pieces among the 50 works collected in this mysterious chansonnier.
7 musicians
LA FLAMBOYANCE
Ceremonial Music around 1425
Like a monumental fresco come to life, our program "La Flamboyance" is performed by a large group of musicians who imagine the sounds that would have been heard on the most solemn occasions around the year 1425. Cultural life was flourishing and international exchanges were already frequent: links between France and Flanders were such that the musical repertoire of this period is known as Franco-Flemish; exchanges with Italy abounded, as most composers spent time there during their careers. This melting pot of ideas and influences led to the development of a particularly captivating chapter in musical history: the musical repertoire was refined, virtuosic, and brilliant, and it reflected the characteristics of the "flamboyant gothic" style that was in vogue at the time, characterized by exuberance and an aesthetic in which ornamentation took precedence over form.
Numerous musical works demonstrate a desire to impress the listener. These compositions had a profound impact on society and were an essential element of important official occasions. Contemporary accounts and detailed payment registers document the musical ensembles working at the courts at this time. We can thus observe on the one hand the birth of the concept of the solo instrumentalist, some of whom developed long careers and acquired international renown; on the other hand, we see traces of large ensembles on extraordinary occasions, for example, in 1454 in Lille when no less than twenty-four musicians played at a political meeting.
It is with a similar cast that Sollazzo explores these extravagant and brilliant repertoires, which combine magnificence and depth, which tend towards virtuosity, and yet in which no note is too many. These compositions come to us through exactly six centuries, and to hear it resonate today, as a 21st-century listener, seems miraculous.
20 musicians