Ockeghem and the last flames of love in the Middle Ages.
The exceptional presence of Johannes Ockeghem in the royal accounts for 1453 as one of the “cantors and chaplains” of the King’s Chapel testifies to Charles VII’s keen interest in music, as well as his interest in the new generation of Franco-Flemish composers. Ockeghem, who was one of the most renowned masters of composition in the fifteenth century, thus appears to have been an essential figure in the links forged between France and the new style developed by musicians from the Court of Burgundy. He was in contact with Binchois during his student years near Mons, and also nurtured links with Dufay and Busnoys between 1450 and 1460.
Better known for his liturgical music, Ockeghem also left some twenty songs (virelais and rondeaux) of extreme refinement and creativity, which, when combined with the other tutelary figures mentioned above, will serve to highlight the freshness and grace of Burgundian vocal art more generally. The aim of this concert is to revive the secular musical imagination in which the music-loving Charles VII was undoubtedly immersed, at a time when Flanders and the French-speaking world ruled the art of Western sound.
PROGRAM
| Par amour j’ai ma dame choisi. | |
| Anonyme * | Redeuntes In Idem Pièce sans titre no 230 [Wollhin laß vögelin sorgen] |
| Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460) | Je loe amours |
| Si elle m’aimera je ne sais… mais c’est un jeu de passe-passe. | |
| Jean de Ockeghem (c. 1420-1497) | S’elle m’amera – Petite camusete |
| Anonyme * | Praeambulum super sol |
| Anonyme ** | Quant la doulce jouvencelle |
| À vous, belle, je viens humblement me présenter comme votre amoureux. | |
| Anonyme * Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474) Anonyme * | Parleregart etc. Ad huc semel [no 31] Par le regard de vos beaux yeux Parleregart [no 30] |
| C’est la plus belle que l’on puisse voir et je ne peux résister à l’aimer fidèlement. | |
| Jean de Ockeghem | Ma maistresse [instrumental] |
| Guillaume Dufay | Se la face ay pale |
| Je fus tant fêté par Amour de me soumettre à votre noble cœur. | |
| Ockeghem | Tant fuz gentement |
| Anonyme * | Praembulum super D |
| Musique a manifesté son chagrin et porté le noir. | |
| Jean de Ockeghem | Mort tu as navré |
| Si aimer était le projet qu’elle me destina… | |
| Gilles Binchois | Amours et souvenir |
| Anonyme * | Redeuntes in sol |
| Jean de Ockeghem | L’autre d’antan |
| Ainsi je meurs vivant et je trépasse en vie. | |
| Jean de Ockeghem | Ma bouche rit |
| Anonyme * | Sequitur redeuntes In mi |
| Jean de Ockeghem | Malheur me bat [instrumental] |
| Souvenir oublieux | |
| Gilles Binchois | Tristre plaisir |
| Anonyme * | Jeloymors. M. C. C. b. In Cytaris vel etiam In Organis 3m notarum [Je loe amours] |