V INTERNATIONAL COURSE ON MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE MUSIC
Throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, besides the plainchant, we find the consolidation of the monophonic profane repertoire and the flourish of the polyphonic repertoire. Referring to the musical form of the motet, Johannes de Grocheio thought that it was not written for the vulgar, who do not understand its finer points and obtain no pleasure to hear it, but this was meant for educated people and those seeking the refinement in the art, just as the rondeaux, sung in the popular celebrations. An ubiquitous distinction in medieval literature that had found three hundred years ago one of its most famous revelations, made by the theorist Guido d’Arezzo in his Regulae Rhytmicae: Musicorum et cantorum magna est et distantia, isti dicunt, illi sciunt quae componit musica. Nam qui facit quod non sapit diffinitur bestia unde versus: Bestia non cantor qui non canit arte sed usu. Non vox cantorem facit artis documentum. Irrational is who sings not from knowledge but from usage. It is not the singing voice that makes the art (such as knowledge), but is the documented reasoning.
The adventure of mensuration, the theory and the composition techniques in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, minnesingers, minstrels and troubadours, the laude spirituali and the cantigas, the School of Notre Dame or Adam de la Halle and works ofMontpellier, Llibre Vermell, Bamberg, Calixtino or Las Huelgas codex, instrumental works from Chansonier du Roi or dances and Italian stampedes, will form the repertoire to be studied in EMM2016, with the epicenter of the figure of Raymundus Lullus, his musical journey through the medieval Mediterranean and the Ars Antiqua in the Crown of Aragon.
The combination of the historical music elements with the oral tradition is the essence of EMM, music to understand or to enjoy from its knowledge and reasoning. In the 5th edition, in addition to the festival concerts and interpretation classes, the audience can enjoy a multitude of parallel activities (guided tours, exhibitions, conferences, Dadá Med_Ren JamSessions, workshops…). It will be a pleasure to share it with all of you.
