Event Durham

The Mirror of Speculation

Johannes Ciconia: Le ray au soleyl

Jacob Senleches: La harpe de melodie

Rodericus: Angelorum psalat

Music from the Old Hall Manuscript

Marcel le Gan, ed. Mark Dyer: Scribe

Guillaume de Machaut: Tant doucement; Fin cuers doulz; Riches d’amour

James Weeks: Four virelais

Vocal ensemble EXAUDI returns to MUSICON with a dazzling programme exploring some of the most beautiful – and strange – vocal music of the medieval period.

They begin with pieces from the Codex Chantilly (c.1400), showcasing a style known as the Ars subtilior, or ‘subtler art’, when composers would bury dizzyingly complex rhythmic forms in their otherwise lyrical music, sometimes even drawing the music on shapes such as hearts, harps and concentric circles, leaving visual puzzles for the musicians to decipher.

The music of the Old Hall manuscript, copied in England around 1420, is similarly intricate, yet with a wonderful clarity and surface exhilaration, delighting in the interplay of virtuosic voices. Guillaume de Machaut, the foremost French composer and poet of the Middle Ages, is represented by three works, and the concert ends with James Weeks’ playful entwining of several of his solo virelais.

The concert will also feature music specially composed for EXAUDI by A-level students at St Leonard’s Catholic School, in partnership with Durham Music Service.