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’Flos inter spinas – Blossom among thorns’The programme presents the legends of the lives of the holy
virgins,
as preserved in the Benedictine and Cisterian manuscripts, representing
the late medieval choral repertoire of Bohemia.
It is composed from chosen parts of the offices to the saints Katherine
of Alexandria, Barbora and Margret.
Plainchant pieces in this concert programme are complemented by
polyphonic motets from the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries taken from the La Clayette and
Bamberg codex with the accompaniment of gothic harp. ‘My Lord, why have you left me?’The concert programme is a kind of gregorian meditation about
the last
days of Jesus Christ’s life. It derives from the choral repertoire of
the mass proper chants from the Palm Sunday and Holy Week liturgy. It
contains both simple antiphons, and complicated melismatic forms such
as gradual and tractus, also the solo lamentations of Jeremiah the
Prophet and the responsories of the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and
Holy Saturday matins. A reading from the literary heritage of church
fathers can also be added to the plainchant programme. ‘Regina caeli laetare!’The roots of Marian piety comes from the 4th century AD. But
the concept of the Virgin Mary in Christianity is changing and regarded
in different views.
In the Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary became not only a symbol of faith,
but also of justice
and knightly culture. Medieval art is closely related to her conception
in society, that is why
we find a very comprehensive collection of works of Marian themes, both
for liturgical service, and for traditional
and court cult. Over the centuries there were established many Marian
feasts for liturgical year.
For example, from the 7th century we celebrate the Birth of Our Lady,
the Assumption, the Visitation, the Annunciation, the Purification of
Our Lady (or Candlemas) and the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
Mary and other feasts.
The programme offers a selection of repertoire of the Holy Virgin
feasts, thus becoming a
mention of the strong Marian tradition, which impressed people's lives
for centuries. ‘Reverence to the Saints of the Bohemian Middle Ages’The concert programme introduces two of the most honoured
saints of the Bohemian Middle Ages – St. Wenceslas and
St. Ludmila. It is composed from plainchant and organal pieces
taken from the divine offices of these two saints. These pieces were
extracted from manuscripts found at the St George’s convent at Prague
Castle at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This
programme is complemented by polytextual motets from Bohemian sources
of the same period. ‘Magnus Perotinus’Programme under construction. This programme is based on large pieces of Magister Perotinus. In cooperation with medieval brass instruments. |
‘Ad monumentum venimus..!’Three Marys at the empty tomb of the Christ - that is the main
image of medieval liturgical play
Visitatio Sepulchri - Visitation of the Christ's sepulchre.
This play was one of the most important elements of the divine office
liturgy for
the feast of the Resurrection at the women benedictine convent of St
George at the Prague Castle. Benedictine nuns had hand down this play
in
manuscripts from the 12th century. Especially in the period of the
Abbess Kunhuta had the play great importance in the convent liturgy.
With this concert
programme we would like to remind not only the top of the liturgical
year but also the women who
accompanied the Christ in his last days. ‘Ego sum homo – musical visions of Hildegard of Bingen’Hildegard of Bingen is one of the most expressive women of the
Middle
Ages. Her influence in various spheres of human activities was
enormous, and likewise in the sphere of music. For this concert
programme we have chosen Hildegard’s plainchant compositions from the
Riesencodex manuscript, which contains about 77 of her compositions.
These are in fact very difficult, melismatic and masterly compositions,
which we perform mainly with solo voices accompanied by the gothic
harp. Because of the predominantly Marian theme of the pieces, we also
include polyphonic Marian pieces from European manuscripts of the
12th–14th centuries. ‘In illa die – Advent music of the Middle Ages’The concert programme is made of proper chant pieces from Advent Sundays taken from Bohemian thirteenth century sources and thirteenth and fourteenth century polyphonic compositions from Bohemian and European manuscripts. The integral part of this program is the organ’s improvisation on the musical themes of the performed pieces. |
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