More musicologically oriented, they
are aimed at illustrating specific periods in the history of Western
music, and furthering a better access to the work of some famous musicians.They
group together pieces around famous manuscripts, specific forms, reknown
places. La Maurache reaches a unity of style deprived of monotony, and
embraces these different types of music by diversifying them, thus taking
into account the fact that the current liking for "integral" recordings
meets a contemporary intellectual demand, but does not really reflect historical
accuracy.
-Adam de la Halle (1240-1288),
Guillaume de Machault (1300-1377). From Ars Antiqua to Ars Nova, from the
monody of the trouveres to polyphony, through the works of two musicians
and poets who had parallel lives and who exemplified medieval music with
dignity.
13th- 14th Centuries (main themes)
:
-Italian Laudi Spirituali from
the time of Saint Francis of Assisi./ -The trouveres and the School of
Notre-Dame in Paris.
-The Llibre Vermell of Montserrat,
songs of pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain./ -The
Carmina Burana, songs of the goliards (scholars who travelled a lot) and
vagrants./ -The Cantigas de Santa Maria of King Alfonso El Sabio, in Spain.
-Famous manuscripts : Arsenal,
Cangé, Bamberg, Las Huelgas, Montpellier.../ -Songs to the Virgin
of the Trouvere Gauthier de Coincy./ -The art of minstrels in the 13th
century : carols, estampies, virelais, rondeaux...
-Ars Nova in Italy and France (Landini,
Machaut).
14th-15th Centuries :
-The Ars Subtilior : from Machault
to Dufay.
-The French Chanson of the
15th century, from the time of François Villon.
-The "chanson" is the
main expression of musical art during the late Middle-Ages ; it gave many
French -Flemish composers at the Court of Burgundy the opportunity of give
of their best : Binchois, Dufay, Ockeghem, Van Guizeghem, Morton, Fontaine...
-The secular works of Josquin des
Prés (1440-1521) . There are over eighty songs and instrumental
pieces, revealing a little-known facet of this great composer, who links
the Middles-Ages and the Renaissance; little jewels displaying the most
varied poetic musical forms and language.
-Music in Italy and Spain from
the time of Christopher Columbus. This programme was designed for the five
hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of the New World (1492-1992).
Renaissance (16th Cent.) :
-Villancicos, romances taken from
the most famous cancioneros (Palacio Real, Colombina, Upsalla...). Pieces
for vihuela da mano, lutes, viols...by J. Urreda, F. de la Torre, Penalosa,
J.del Encina, Escobar.../ -Music from the time of Henry VIII and Elisabeth
the First, W. Byrd, J. Dowland, J. Bull... Lutes, viols, voices...Works
of the "gentlemen-musicians" of the Court.
-The Huguenot Psalter (Hymns of
the Reformed Protestant Church in France). L. Bourgeois, C. Goudimel, Pascal
de L'Estocart, C. Le Jeune.../ -Polyphonic french songs (Janequin, Roland
de Lassus...) and Danceries (Gervaise, Attaingnant, Susato, Praëtorius...)