Concert Programmes   Oswald von Wolkenstein Songs by Oswald von Wolkenstein, 1377-1445 Oswald von Wolkenstein is considered one of the most important German-speaking poets of the Middle Ages, alongside Walther von der Vogelweide. A knight from the South Tyrol, he travelled throughout Europe and North Africa in the early 15th century, and his songs provide a wealth of information on the everyday life of his time. He tells of his adventures and experiences both in his private and personal life and in the social and political sphere. He tells the story of his childhood, the hard winters in his own castle, and the trouble he has with wife, children and health; he gives very detailed accounts of his journeys and entertains us with drinking songs and love songs.   nach oben   Wenn ich die schöne Zeit sich nahen sehe (When I see the pretty time draw near) Instrumental music, springtime and love songs of the 14th century by Francesco Landini, Maestro Piero, Jacob de Senleches etc. Spring was as eagerly awaited in the Middle Ages as it is today. People waited for the days that followed the long, hard winter, the time when the flowers bloomed again and the time when love once more filled one's thoughts. In a rich variety of musical forms such as the ballata, caccia and bird-call virelai, the springtime - the pretty ring-time - is described by the poets and composers of the Middle Ages.   nach oben   Die Schöne saß weinend am Fuße des Turms (The fair maid sat weeping at the foot of the tower) Franco-Burgundian chansons of the late Middle Ages by Gilles Binchois, Guillaume Dufay, Jehan Robert etc. At the start of the 15th century, folk songs were gaining in popularity as material for polyphonic compositions. The music of the common people was quoted in courtly chansons and even in sacred works. It tells the tale of everyday life and its events, but even more, it tells of love. The unattainable bliss of courtly love and all its sorrows are not found in these songs, which portray real love in all its complexity. The songs are about love both unrequited and fulfilled; the cuckolded husband is mocked, the mistress of the house quarrels with her maid over the manservant, girls are warned against marrying and a beauty is heard lamenting her beloved held captive in the tower.   nach oben   Amours me fait desirer Virelais, rondeaus and ballades by Guillaume de Machaut When the music theorist Philippe de Vitry (1291~1360) published his treatise Amours me fait desirer, he ushered in a ground-breaking new era in music. He invented a new system with which it was possible to record rhythmically correct notation and to compose punctus contra punctum, note against note. This laid the foundation of a highly complex science developed by composers such as Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474) till well into the 15th century. The most important representative of this "new art" is Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377). No other poet and musician of the French Amours me fait desirer has left so many works and manuscripts to posterity as Machaut, who in about 1323 was made private secretary to Johann of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, and accompanied him on many campaigns all over Europe. Settling in Rheims as a canon of the Cathedral in 1340, Machaut did not withdraw from secular life but maintained contact with the French nobility. Machaut is both the greatest innovator in the art of the 14th-century polyphonic secular chanson and at the same time upheld the tradition of the trouvères in his monophonic virelais, songs for dancing which he himself called chansons balladées.   nach oben           Oswald von Wolkenstein     Wenn ich die schöne     Zeit sich nahen sehe     Die Schöne saß weinend     am Fuße des Turms     Amours me fait desirer