French Songs II: The Next Generation

Songs from the Leuven Chansonnier by Johannes Ockeghem, Antoine Busnoys, Robert Morton, Barbingant & Anonymous
“The course of true love never did run smooth”

Live pre-concert talk at 6:30 PM by Prof. Jane AldenIn November 2014 a small manuscript book of music was sold at auction in Brussels as part of a lot. A year later, the book was brought to the Alamire Foundation in Leuven, Belgium, where it was quickly recognized as a hitherto unknown, complete and intact songbook from the late fifteenth century—the most important discovery of fifteenth-century polyphonic music in nearly a century. The Leuven Chansonnier appears to have been copied in central France in the years around 1465-75. It contains fifty songs, all without ascription to a composer, among which are found works by the leading composers of the day—Ockeghem, Busnoys, and their contemporaries—and a dozen songs which were previously unknown. This program arranges songs from the Leuven Chansonnier into a cycle of courtly love, exploring the panoply of the emotions experienced by the lover: bedazzlement, loyal devotion, suspicion, betrayal, despair, nostalgia, and hope. Read more…