CONTRAPUNTE - Huelgas

In the Renaissance, musicians were profoundly trained at the courts and churches where they worked. An important aspect of their study was counterpoint, the art of combining several melody lines and bringing them into perfect harmony. Often this ingenious principle was practised by enhancing an existing song with notes of longer duration (a ‘cantus firmus’) with melodious second voices. Experienced musicians could even enhance a cantus firmus ‘alla prima vista’. This improvised counterpoint (or ‘contrapunto alla mente’) is at the basis of countless compositions on paper. The Huelgas Ensemble and BL!NDMAN [sax] explore 15th and 16th century music in which secular and religious ‘standards’ prop up a creative polyphony of whimsical twists and hallucinatory repetitions.