Seasons > 2003-04 Season > Concerts >

Meslanges harmoniques

Friday January 30, 2004, 8:00 pm

Instrumental dances, fantasias, and chansons by Lejeune, Guédron, Du Caurroy, and Praetorius

Since the Middle Ages, the goals of polyphony and of counterpoint had been to represent celestial harmony and to provide access for humans to this realm. Despite these lofty goals, serious and popular music were never far apart in the 16th century. Even in works for the Church, composers used themes from the pop songs of the day, including songs whose words were quite racy. In instrumental music, serious forms rubbed shoulders with free variations and with dances whose rhythms betrayed their peasant origins. Counterpoint was used to give all this music, both serious and popular, a remarkably opulent texture.