O programu

According to the distinguished French historian Jacques Le Goff there was no such thing as the Middle Ages: this period of nearly a millennium is a construction and a myth handed down from generation to generation in our society. The “medium tempus,” this period that lies “somewhere in between“. In the view of Renaissance humanists it was the period between the two fundamental epochs of humanity: classical antiquity and its return in the Renaissance. To them, the Middle Ages were something very dark, and unfortunately for several centuries no one was able to get rid of the beloved epithet “dark.” We, contemporary musical Medievalists, hope we are doing our part by rediscovering and reviving Medieval music, which has already become an integral part of the repertoire of major concert halls and achieved top rankings in classical music charts. All the more interesting for us is to juxtapose the “early music” of this “accursed” period with contemporary music – the most contemporary music we can imagine, i.e. improvised music which is created right at the given moment. However, this music itself instantly becomes history, just as Medieval music did; there are only seven centuries between the two.  

The concert program „Celestial harmonies“ is one of our contributions to the interpretation of music of famous medieval mystic and composer, the abbess Hildegard of Bingen. The Virgin Mary, the heavenly marriage, the brightest light and Divine wisdom… All this will be filled in by our singing accompanied by the medieval harp.

Charlemagne was one of the greatest figures of early medieval politics. His activities influenced many rulers, “our” Charles IV was not missing among them. The concert programme presents music that was composed for Charlemagne during his lifetime and music that was composed for his fame many years after his death. Singing with the accompaniment of medieval harps, we will connect the imperial Aachen of the late 8th century and imperial Prague of the second half of the 14th century.

A significant turning point in the history of European music occurs at the end of the 9th century. The first treatises dealing with the doctrine of the improvised creation of polyphonic music appear. Sacred music liberates itself from the dominance of the monoohonic chant – Gregorian chant – and thus begins a long period of fascination with consonances and its numerical expression. The concert programme presents the birth of polyphony as reflected in the major European sources of the late 10th century, the development of the early organ during the 11th century, culminating in the Parisian setting of Notre-Dame Cathedral in the hands of Magister Leonin and coming to its peak in the monumental pieces of his successor, Magister Perotin.

Being on a journey with the prominent Belgian photographer Lieve Blancquaert and documentary filmmaker is always an experience. Photograps from all around the world, our singing and Lieve with her stories will introduce women as we see them all around us – as guides of life.

Tiburtina Ensemble & Lieve Blancquaert

Despite the fact that Bohemian capital city Prague was always considered as the heart of Europe, the Czech lands played a rather receptive role in the field of music in the Middle Ages. The conservatism of this environment was reflected in the repertoire, which by that time had long since fallen out of fashion in Western Europe, but was still being composed and performed in Prague. Thanks to this, however, we have preserved absolute gems in domestic sources, which sound like an early Aquitanian polyphony (organum), with a touch of later polyphonic style. The most beautiful pieces of this late organum are found in the sources for Advent and Christmas period.

Although the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, highlights the equality of both the sexes created by God, the pejorative legacy of Eve’s original sin has dominated history and dogged womankind throughout its existence. We find that many of the newer books in the Bible delegate women to an inferior subordination to men in every area of human activity, with the obvious exception of motherhood. However, history has fought back – with words, deeds, and their consequences. Hildegard of Bingen was certainly one of the arguments that proved women to their place in society “on the high ground”. Her actions, mystical visions and music spoke for her. We sound Hildegard’s chants with an accompaniment of medieval harps and dulce melos. Ego sum homo is one of our most popular programs.

Tiburtina Ensemble & Margit Übellacker (dulce melos)

The Virgin Mary surrounded by the holy Virgins – the frequent representation of the Queen of Virgins and her companions St Catherine of Alexandria, St Barbara and St Margaret – bears clear witness to the great reverence and attention paid to these four figures in the Middle Ages. It was holiness – the proof of the uniqueness of the individual and the afterlife of a soul – that became a very important aspect and co-creator of Christian society in the medieval West. The saints restored divinity among men – in their relics, tombs, and temples, as well as in their miracles. We will guide you through their lives, as preserved in medieval musical sources. Marian motets with medieval harp accompaniment are not to be missed.

The Jistebnice Kancionál is one of the precious few widely known Bohemian sources from the Late Middle Ages. For the most part, it has been presented as a significant relic of the Hussite liturgical song, also containing the choral song Ktož sú Boží bojovníci (Ye Who Are Warriors of God). (The melody has attained worldwide fame due to its inclusion in, among other works, Bedřich Smetana’s symphonic poems Tábor and Blaník, parts of the cycle My Country.) This assertion cannot be disputed, yet is this song, the most frequently quoted within the context, the most representative of the source? For a long time, I believed so. Thanks to an intense study of the manuscript I realised that the heart of the Jistebnice Kancionál does not rest in the few Hussite movement revolutionary songs that have been most frequently mentioned in specialist literature, but in its revealing the frailty of the early 15th-century people, longing for reformation of the Church, as well as the perfect comprehension of Bible. Since one of the means for them was to understand the sung liturgical texts, the unknown author/authors decided to translate and adapt the lyrics of selected plainchant into Old Czech. Another path taken by the manuscript’s creators was to praise Christ’s benefaction in newly composed songs. Frailty and vulnerability thus became the driving force, and conviction and tenacity the tool for attaining the objective. I firmly believe that female voices in particular are capable of setting right misguided interpretation of the Jistebnice Kancionál, and will thus communicate at least a fragment of the repertoire, which is very heartfelt in terms of music and text alike, while concurrently forcible in terms of performance.

The project created in collaboration with the Berg Orchestra for St. Salvator Church in Prague combines several levels – musical, artistic and spiritual. Arvo Pärt’s Stabat Mater from 1985, Slavomir Hořínka’s Litany of Loreto and Magnificat from 2012 are connected with the liturgical space and enhanced by Magdalena Bartáková’s delicate shadowplay. Hořínka’s compositions are based on Gregorian chant. The interior of the church of St. Salvator played a unique inspiration in the composition of Hořínka’s pieces. As the composer himself says: “I was inspired by the rich spatial possibilities of the church – among other things, I am using the galleries of the side aisles and the dome, and the focal points of sound will travel throughout the space.” Thus, the movement of the musicians within the 12 areas defined by the author enriches the appearance of the unique musical and artistic structure. The aim was to organically link the result of the creative effort with Pärt’s Stabat Mater, which will be heard at the end, in a kind of imaginary arc.

Tiburtina Ensemble & Orchestr Berg / Peter Vrábel & Magdalena Bartáková

The absence of Machaut’s compositions in Czech sources is surprising as far as Machaut must have stayed in our territory as a secretary of  the king John of Luxembourg. His famous four-part Marian Mass, which we perform in a period allowable transposition for higher voices, must not be missing from our repertoire. The atmosphere of this masterpiece is enhanced by monophonic Marian chants – cantio – from Czech sources of the late Middle Ages.

Tiburtina Ensemble & Alex Potter / Terry Wey

Hildegard of Bingen composed 77 songs for different feasts of the liturgical year. The plot of the morality play Ordo virtutum is the struggle between virtues and devil for one repentant soul. The play is a kind of a culmination of Hildegard’s theological thougts. We perform the piece with a touch of dramatization and scene. The monophonic chant inspired us for an improvised instrumenatal accompaniment. 

Tiburtina Ensemble & Margit Übellacker (psaltery) & Kateřina Ghannudi (medieval harp) & Thomas Wimmer (fiddle)

Hans Memling painted the altar piece „God the Father with angels singing and playing instruments“ for the Spanish nunnery in Nájera in the 1480’s. Wim Becu, the artistic director of the Belgian group Oltremontano, invited us to join his project and build with him the music gataway to Memling’s painting. We got inspired not only musically but also visually. The choice of music that could surround Memling was quite clear – we focused on monophonic chant and polyphonic pieces from late 15th century sources from Bruges, Belgium. There were all the pictured instruments built specially for the project. 

Tiburtina Ensemble & Oltremontano Antwerpen

The 13th century in Bohemia became a period of many changes and twists as well as a period of historically important monarchs. The position of the Přemyslid dynasty was consolidated in Europe by expanding their territories. 

Alliances with other important royal families were an important tool for this. With the marriage of Wenceslas II and Guta of Habsburg, the Přemyslid position gained further importance. The short life of Queen Guta inspired this concert programme, which brings together secular and sacred music of the late 13th century Přemyslid court.

Tiburtina Ensemble & Thomas Wimmer (fiddle)

The long-forgotten world of female troubadours, known as “trobairitz”, reaches us from the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries like a faint ray in the form of fragmentary, distorted information and a torso of preserved legacy. The more the mystery is shrouded, the greater the desire becomes to revive it artistically, not based on historical reconstruction, but as a basis for a new work of full concert length, in which the intellectual world of the female troubadours is put into a contemporary context. That, in a nutshell, is the main idea of the project, prepared on commission from the Prague Spring Festival by its initiator Barbora Kabátková, a singer and artist director of the female vocal group Tiburtina Ensemble, the composer Michal Nejtek, and the librettist Jiří Adámek.

Tiburtina Ensemble & Michal Nejtek & Margit Übellacker (psaltery) & Catalina Vicens (organetto) & Marco Ambrosini (nyckelharpa) & Martin Novák (percussion)