Musica, Cur Siles? by Stefan Steinemann | Iris Lichtinger

Various composers

Stefan Steinemann | Iris Lichtinger | Michael Eberth

Musica, Cur Siles?

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Perfect Noise
UPC: 0719279934113
Catnr: PN 2402
Release date: 15 March 2024
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1 CD ✓ in stock	€ 19.95	Buy

Label
Perfect Noise

UPC
0719279934113

Catalogue number
PN 2402

Release date
15 March 2024

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Musica, cur siles? Of music and silence“
Musica, cur siles?” (Music, why are you silent?) This question is heard in the first part of the motet Quid dabit oculis and at first the situation seems paradoxical, as the words are sung and played. However, the realisation of what has been sung follows immediately, as the question is immediately followed by a pause in all four voices – the first general pause since the beginning of the piece. What is the reason for this silence? The motet, which waswritten by the Italian composer Costanzo Festa (around 1485/1490–1545), is a composi-tion of mourning for Anne de Bretagne, who died as Queen of France in January 1514. The mourning is expressed in its text by the mentioning of the mourning robe as well as the weeping and lamentation, but the emotional low point is the cessation of the music emp-hasised by the question. In addition to the silencing of the voices, this certainly also alludes to the music that functioned as an important means of representation in the Middle Age and the early modern period: the sound of trumpets and timpani, which loudly proclaimed the presence of the ruler. Conversely, the silence of the funeral procession symbolises the absence of the ruler, which can also be perceived acoustically.

Musica, cur siles? Von Musik und Stille"
Musica, cur siles?" (Musik, warum schweigst du?) Diese Frage erklingt im ersten Teil der Motette Quid dabit oculis und zunächst scheint die Situation paradox, da die Worte gesungen und gespielt werden. Die Erkenntnis des Gesungenen folgt jedoch sofort, denn auf die Frage folgt eine Pause in allen vier Stimmen - die erste Generalpause seit Beginn des Stücks. Was ist der Grund für diese Stille? Die Motette des italienischen Komponisten Costanzo Festa (um 1485/1490-1545) ist eine Trauerkomposition für Anne de Bretagne, die im Januar 1514 als Königin von Frankreich starb. Die Trauer kommt im Text durch die Erwähnung des Trauergewandes sowie durch Weinen und Klagen zum Ausdruck, doch der emotionale Tiefpunkt ist das durch die Frage hervorgerufene Verstummen der Musik. Neben dem Verstummen der Stimmen ist dies sicherlich auch eine Anspielung auf die Musik, die im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit als bedeutendes Repräsentationsmittel fungierte: der Klang von Trompeten und Pauken, der lautstark die Anwesenheit des Herrschers verkündete. Umgekehrt symbolisiert die Stille des Leichenzugs die Abwesenheit des Herrschers, die auch akustisch wahrnehmbar ist.

Artist(s)

Iris Lichtinger (recorder)

Artistic excellence, instrumental and vocal diversity, captivating expression. Iris Lichtinger is an outstanding flutist, singer, vocal artist, and pianist. She represents the model of a universal artist who recognizes music as a perfect language, and has the ability to make all that is essential perceptible and understandable for anyone and everyone - this is her artistic credo. As a highly expressive performer not only does she concertise internationally, but also brings her artistic expertise to numerous projects as a dedicated curator and artistic director.
Following her professional training at conservatories in Amsterdam, Milan, Munich, and Trossingen, as well as in numerous masterclasses, she embarks upon an unusual career path which carries her through widely differing musical epochs, tonal and atonal climates, and their compositional territories.
As a multi-talented artist with a richly facetted diversity she leaps with ease across the boundaries between different genres - Early Music and New Music, classical music and popular music, composed music and improvised music. Her programming concepts reflect this by making surprising connections between apparently different musical elements, and so expanding the framework of familiar program formats. In all areas of this she works together with highly qualified representatives of the different fields.
Her career is characterised by collaboration with prominent soloists and ensembles from around the world: Shunske Sato, Pavel Serbin, Julian Podger, Franz Halász, Joel Frederiksen, Antonio Politano, Robert Mealy, Baptiste Romain, Christoph Hammer, Georg Kallweit, Evangelina Mascardi, Nicholas Isherwood, Stefan Blum, Antonis Anissegos, Wolfgang Lackerschmid as a soloist with Juilliard 415 New York, FontanaMix Bologna, European Music Project Berlin, Fantasmi Texas, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Augsburger Philharmoniker, Barockorchester La Banda, and many more.
Iris Lichtinger is artistically affiliated with prestigious composers. She has been involved in world premieres of works by Francesco La Licata, Sandeep Baghvati, Nicola Evangelisti, Péter Köszeghy, Johannes X. Schachtner, Enjott Schneider, Moritz Eggert, Gordon Kampe, and Volker Nickel, among others. Further works are in a developmental stage. She has been a guest artist at international festivals such as: aDevantgarde Festival München, ICI Paris, Internationale Eckelshausener Musiktage, Brechtfestival Augsburg, Festival Neue Musik im Ulmer Stadthaus, Deutsches Mozartfest Augsburg, Festival für Improvisierte Musik Augsburg FFIMA, MICO Bologna.
As artistic director of the MEHR MUSIK! Ensemble, a partner project of MEHR MUSIK! Augsburg and the Leopold-Mozart-Zentrum of Universität Augsburg, Iris Lichtinger has brought together ambitious up-and-coming young musicians and professionals in the fields of New Music, jazz, and classical music since 2009. With this ensemble she has realised numerous concert formats of modern music, for example the 2017 performance of Steve Reich’s cult work „music for 18 musicians“, as well as multiple multimedia cinematic improvisation projects in cooperation with the Cologne-based ensemble shortfilmlivemusic.
As a singer, with her ensemble PROGETTO '600, she has developed innovative fusion programs based on music of the early Baroque period, in which the historical is combined with jazz, pop, and postmodern soundscapes. Their own arrangements, which make bold and playful use of the tonal possibilities of an unusual combination, create an undreamt-of synthesis. The ensemble made its debut at the Münchner Philharmonie am Gasteig in 2014.
As a flutist, in a duo formation with the lutenist and Echoklassik award-winner Axel Wolf, she has for many years been devoted to the repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque. As a pianist she passionately celebrates Argentinian Tango, and has appeared on international platforms with its authentic masters. With her ensemble MÁS QUE TANGO, she has created crossover programs which place Tango in a new context - for example the concert readings with the announcer Katja Schild, well-known from the Bayerische Rundfunk and the television broadcaster arte. Iris Lichtinger was a lecturer for chamber music projects in early and new music as part of the Interdisciplinary Forum for Artistic Interpretation at the Leopold Mozart Center of the University of Augsburg from 2009 to 2021. From October 2022, she is an adjunct lecturer for New Music Ensemble at the Department of Music Education and Musicology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt. With FAMA, the Forum Early Music Augsburg, she curates the FUGGER CONCERTS as well as the Festival for Early Music Augsburg. In addition, Iris Lichtinger has been 1st chair of the Augsburg Society for New Music jetzt:musik! since 2018. For the Bavarian METAX MODERN MUSIKFESTIVAL, she is curating two concert formats for the first time for the 2023 season.

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Stefan Steinemann (contralto)

Michael Eberth (harpsichord)

Tabea Schwartz (viola da gamba)

Vincent Kibildis (harp)

Composer(s)

Ludwig Senfl

Guillaume Dufay

Ever since his death, Dufay has been considered as one of the greatest composers of the 15th century. In his life as a composer and singer Dufay, like many others, traveled throughout Europe, yet he stayed most of his years in Cambrai, France. At an early age, Dufay already showed remarkable talent and on his fourteenth he received the necessary support, and expensive presents, from the local cathedral. He would never pursue an academic education, but he knew how to obtain good positions within the Church. Dufay composed in all the important genres of his age, from grandiose motets and intimate chansons to sacred, liturgical music. Dufay's style is surprisingly consistent and there is little development within his body of works....

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Heinrich Isaac

Many know Heinrich Isaac from his twee famous settings of Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen. Isaac is, however, author of an enormous body of works, with which he quickly grew to fame. Isaac was born in Flanders and received good education, despite the fact that he didn't pursue a career in the Church (which was unusual for a man of his stature). He was married, but probably has remained childless his whole life. Isaac's musical career developed remarkably well, with two of the most important employers of his age: after a position among the legendary House of Medici, he was appointed to be the main composer of the court of king Maximilian I. Heinrich Isaac's influence is especially apparent in his...

Many know Heinrich Isaac from his twee famous settings of Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen. Isaac is, however, author of an enormous body of works, with which he quickly grew to fame. Isaac was born in Flanders and received good education, despite the fact that he didn't pursue a career in the Church (which was unusual for a man of his stature). He was married, but probably has remained childless his whole life. Isaac's musical career developed remarkably well, with two of the most important employers of his age: after a position among the legendary House of Medici, he was appointed to be the main composer of the court of king Maximilian I.
Heinrich Isaac's influence is especially apparent in his masses. He wrote no less than 36 masses, many of which were based on traditional Gregorian chants. Besides that, in his monumental Choralis Constantinu he sought to compose masses for every sunday of the year, but unfortunately this project was never finished. Isaac also composed many motets and songs, which shows his versatility and his extraordinary productivity.

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Gilles Binchois

Ockeghem and Dufay may have been the best known composers of their time, it seems they both admired Binchois (which was a pseudonym, his real name was 'Gilles de Bins') to a great extent. Both composers wrote impressive lamentation for Binchois - Ockeghem his Mort tu as navré and Dufay his En triumphant de cruel dueil. The notion that Binchois is not as famous today is probably due to both his modesty and the fact that a large part of his works didn't survive after all these years. At the end of the 1420s, Binchois started working for the Burgundian chape, which was a musical bastion with a large focus on tradition. He wrote music as they would have liked it: sober, stylised chansons and sacred music. His...

Ockeghem and Dufay may have been the best known composers of their time, it seems they both admired Binchois (which was a pseudonym, his real name was 'Gilles de Bins') to a great extent. Both composers wrote impressive lamentation for Binchois - Ockeghem his Mort tu as navré and Dufay his En triumphant de cruel dueil. The notion that Binchois is not as famous today is probably due to both his modesty and the fact that a large part of his works didn't survive after all these years. At the end of the 1420s, Binchois started working for the Burgundian chape, which was a musical bastion with a large focus on tradition. He wrote music as they would have liked it: sober, stylised chansons and sacred music. His chansons must have been admired by his colleagues, since many of his melodies were used in other compositions.

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