La Cause est Amer
Medieval Love Poems from Japan and the Low Countries
suite of five medieval Japanese love poems form the core of this unique program. Set to music for Quadrivium by Belgian composer Janpieter Biesemans, the pieces examine different states of love: the joy of newly discovered love; parting at dawn; absence of the beloved; doubting faithfulness; and rueful grief. Although Biesemans has scored the suite for western medieval instruments, his compositions capture the delicate yet intense character of Japanese traditional music. In this program Quadrivium pairs these compositions with Late-Medieval Netherlandish art songs which echo similar sentiments. Click on image to order CD. Click on player right to listen to tracks.
Flemings in Spain
lemings in Spain,"a new concert program by Quadrivium featuring tenor Jan Van Elsacker, sheds light on the musical connection between Flanders and Spain anno 1500.
Major Flemish composers, Johannes Ockeghem and Alexander Agricola, both traveled to Spain as musicians fro
m the French king.
The cross-pollination between these northern composers and their Spanish counterparts resulted in Flemish chansons with Spanish texts and in the audible influence of Flemish polyphony on Spanish music.
The important ‘Segovia manuscript’ provides the program with Flemish polyphonic chansons and virtuosic instrumental settings.
The unique interaction between Flemish and Spanish music receives a contemporary incarnation, by a newly composed setting of the famous “Coplas por la muerte de su padre from Jorge Manrique (c1440-1479) by Flemish composer Janpieter Biesemans (*1939). This composition was written especially for this program.
Landini - Ciconia - Manneke
he new Italian program for the season 2011-2012 will be a triptych with music of Landini, Ciconia and the Dutch composer Daan Manneke, presented with Quadrivium’s original quartet of voice, lute, harp/psaltery, and recorder/organetto.
Departure point is the 14th century in Italy, known as the Trecento: the 
blind musician and poet Francesco Landini was active in Florence, where he was famed as a virtuoso on the organetto and the harp -- two instruments which are also central for Quadrivium.
One generation later, the Liege-born composer Johannes Ciconia would become known for his unique
combination of the qualities of the Italian Trecento and the French Ars Nova. His music was immensely appreciated in both countries – as we can infer from his employment by the pope in Avignon as well as the pope in Rome!
Quadrivium loves the challenge of holding a contemporary mirror up to their central repertoire of medieval music. For this program they have found a partner in the renowned Dutch composer Daan Manneke, who will compose a special work for Quadrivium. From the perspective of his own sound-world, Manneke looks back on Landini and Ciconia, to make (as Ciconia did 600 years before him) a synthesis of the musical styles of his forebears.
Der Teufel hat das Spiel erdacht
(the devil created the game)
hree sets of musical playing cards were the inspiration for this delightful program. Both the so called "Flötner" and "Rumpoldt" decks of cards have pieces of Renaissa
nce polyphony printed on their backs. The third set of cards comes from a Japanese card game based on the poems called "waka" – each beautifully illustrated card shows one half of a poem out of a set of one hundred. The players must try to be the first to put the two halves together. Five of these poems have been set to hauntingly beautiful music for Quadrivium by the Flemish composer, Janpieter Biesemans.
Guillaume et Guillaume
Chansons from Guillaume de Machaut and Guillaume Dufay
uadrivium brings to modern audiences the rich legacy of two great Guillaumes: Machaut, greatest composer and most illustrious poet of the 14th century, and Dufay, who led the musical world one hundred years later. Quadrivium presents both chansons and instrumental arrangements, and also some of the first pieces truly intended for instruments, music for the dance. This program comes with a Powerpoint slide show.
