Classical Music Today
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

The Origins of Polyphony

4/29/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
(from a press release)

At 8:00 p.m., Sunday, May 5, 2019, Alexander Blachly and members of Pomerium will present a lecture-recital at the Church of the Transfiguration (“The Little Church Around the Corner”) at 1 East 29th Street, New York, NY. 

As a complement to Pomerium’s concert “Number Mania: Hidden Structures in Medieval Music” on March 14, 2019, in the Midtown Concerts series, the May 5 lecture-recital will explain in detail what is happening beneath the surface of pieces performed on that occasion.

The philosophical conception of a numerically ordered universe inherited from Pythagoras and his followers—Plato, Ptolemy, Boethius, and many others in the late Middle Ages—had a profound effect on the composition of polyphonic music from the earliest measured polyphony we know of: music from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in the decades around 1200 AD. The first such pieces in the thirteenth century were short, but by the fourteenth century Philipppe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut were writing longer and more complex works structured on numerical frameworks, culminating in the great isorhythmic motets of the early fifteenth century by Johannes Ciconia, John Dunstaple, and Guillaume Du Fay. After each piece is discussed, it will be performed by Pomerium singers Kristina Boerger, Amber Evans, Chloe Holgate, Dominique Surh, Nathaniel Adams, Christopher Preston Thompson, and Michael Steinberger.
​
Admission is free.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm a classical radio announcer, blogger, and musician.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo used under Creative Commons from katsrcool (Kool Cats Photography) 1,000,000 + View