VOUS OU LA MORT ('YOU, OR DEATH')
Flower of Courtly Love Song, c1100-c1500

Summary

Four centuries spanned by the approximate time frames 1100 and 1500 witnessed an exceptional production of love songs in vernacular. This program presents some of the most beautiful and emotionally charged songs in this vast repertoire - from the cansos of the trobadors (as transmitted to us by their late thirteenth-century notators) to the last polyphonic settings of poetic formes fixes written in the late fifteenth century.

Repertoire

songs by Ventadorn, Machaut, Caserta, Ciconia, Binchois, Dufay, Busnoys and various anonymous composers; instrumental music

Personnel

4 musicians: 1 singer, 3 instrumentalists (flutes, lute, guiterne, vielles)

Most suitable venue

small to medium church or concert hall

Detailed program can be obtained at the time of program brochure printing

FEE ON APPLICATION

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IN THE UPPER-RIGHT CORNER: detail from the parade shield, Burgundy, fifteenth century (London, British Museum).