Medieval Music Besalú - International Course on Medieval Music PerformanceMedieval Music Besalú | International Course on Medieval Music Performance

Registration for 2018 is open

Places are limited for each section, so sign up early.

OUTREMER:
Clerics, Troubadours, Trouvères and the Crusades

In 2018, the Medieval Music Course of Besalú focuses on music connected to the crusades (11th-13th centuries). In its different music courses and workshops the participants will explore the context, composition, and performance of music composed to promote the sacred duty of the crusades, to capture the yearning for the Holy Land, to record the departure of lovers to Outremer, and to censure the whole enterprise. The courses and workshops can be taken individually or combined.

Manuscript to Performance
Materializing the Crusade Song

(July 10-14)
A multidisciplinary study of the crusade song repertoire: history, poetry, art, and religion applied to the reconstruction of performance.

Voices & Instruments
Chevalier, mult estes guariz

(July 15-20)
Hands-on performance of clerical and troubadour-trouvère crusader song repertoires. Study of historical vocal techniques, musical instruments, tuning (Pythagorean), and ensemble playing.

Workshop with Benjamin Bagby
Songs for and about Medieval Crusaders

(July 7-8)
Performance of Latin, French, Occitan, and High German crusader songs. Open to singers, and bowed and plucked string instrument players (max 12 students).

Musicorum Concio
Conductus and rondellus from the Ms. Pluteo 29

(July 21-22)
Ensemble class for advanced singers and instrumentalists. Work on the most demanding repertoires of the period. Experience and audition required (max 10 participants).

Musical Pilgrimage
Hike to the Romanesque Churches of Palera

(July 15)
A short hike to the 11^th-century churches of Santa Maria and the Monastery of Sant Sepulcre de Palera, and performance of crusader songs within the temples.

Winter Course at Montpellier (CIMM)
Recovering the oldest Occitan songs

(February 17-24, 2018)
Reconstruction of pre-troubadour songs and their performance directly from the original sources. Focused on the poetic, rhetorical, and musical style of the period.