Canto Aperto - Proposed strands

CANTO APERTO 
Plainchant Festival 
Sint-Truiden (B) 21-23.IX.2012

1. A Network of Cities

The Mosan region and the Rhineland participated actively in the development of urban cultures in the Low Countries and the German Empire. Cities in present-day Germany such as Cologne and Aachen, in present-day Belgium, such as Liège, Tongeren, Sint-Truiden, and Maaseik, in the present-day Netherlands, such as Maastricht, were known for their abbeys, monasteries, and chapter churches, and for their allegeance to political forces, as well as their own urban cultures. Their musical cultures as well as the many musical and cultural connections and interrelations between these cities, however, have remained largely unexplored by performers.

2. Two rivers (Transport and Transmission)

The Rhine and the Meuse were important ways for the transportation of goods and were crucial for local and regional trade and economy. Similarly, they were indispensible for the arts: the transport of stones and sculpture, of heavy manuscripts, and musicians. Furthermore, the rivers may be seen as an allegory for the transmission of chant repertory from different regions into the Meuse and Rhinelands, or within the region. 

3. Keepers of the Carolingian Heritage

The heartland of the Carolingians is the region of Meuse and Rhine: residences of the Pippinid and Carolingian generations of the late eighth and early ninth century are found in the region, mainly in the diocese of Liège and Cologne. The 'Gregorian' chant repertory of the Carolingian era, born from the confrontation of Roman and Frankish (Gallican) traditions, continued to be cultivated, cherished, and expanded in the area.

4. The Promised Land for Orders and Communities

The Mosan and Rhine areas were home to a multitude of orders and communities. Some of them, such as Cistercians and Carthusians, cultivated their own, 'reformed' repertory of chant. Others, including the Benedictine abbeys of Liège, had pronounced interests in music theory. The beguine milieu and the mulieres religiosae witnessed the emergence of the devotion to the Sacrament, and of the earliest, Liégeois office for Corpus Christi (1246). Whereas large portions of the vieux fonds plainchant repertory remain anonymous, many composers' names from the 12th and 13th century are known.

5. A Land of Saints

Many saints originated from the Mosan and Rhenan lands, and their cults were provided with music. Various types of saints can be distinguished: Merovingian and 'pre-Carolingian' saints (Gertrude of Nivelles, her sister Begga of Andenne), bishops, abbots and virgins figuring in the foundation legends of the cities in the region (Trudo, Lambert, Hubert, Maternus, Servatius, Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins), emperors (Charlemagne), and mulieres religiosae of the 12th and 13th centuries (Marie d’Oignies).