From Franco-Flemish Polyphony to the Spanish organ tradition Correa de Arauxo’s surviving music is all contained in a single volume entitled Libro de tientos y discursos de música practica, y theorica de organo intitulado Facultad organica (Alcalá, 1626). This publication is exceptional in many aspects: the number and… Read more »

A royal wedding at the danish court Ruled by King Christian IV from 1596 to 1648, Denmark is the most powerful nation in northern Europe and on the Baltic sea at the beginning of the 17th century. As a great… Read more »

Lent and penance in Rome ca.1600 The « Chiesanuova » was built in Rome in the second half of the 16th century, on the older Santa Maria in Valicella, as the base for the Congregation of the Oratorio, founded by Filippo Neri…. Read more »

Instrumental music in Hamburg ca.1660 Matthias Weckmann has a central role in the 17th century music history in Europe. He studied with Schütz, was a close friend of Froberger and founded the Collegium Musicum in Hamburg together with Christoph Bernhard,… Read more »

Christmas in a desolate land Heinrich Schütz published his second opus of Symphoniae Sacrae in 1647, just a year before the peace treatises of Westphalia finally put an end to the thirty years war (1618-1648). Recent demographic studies claim that… Read more »

This program is built around two of the most influential writers in Italian medieval literature: Dante Aligheri and Francesco Petrarca. Their texts were extremely famous among composers of the 16th  and 17th century composers looking for a very deep and… Read more »

Sacred love in Christian and Sufi tradition Considered as one of the most touching set of texts of the Old Testament, the Song of Songs has been interpreted in many different ways by theologists throughout the centuries. The poems speak… Read more »

The famous Giovanni Legrenzi, appointed Maestro di capella in Saint-Marc in Venice in 1685, complains about the lack of instrumental support in the forces of the Basilica and insists to hire two cornett players. Girolamo Cortini, cornett player, plays together… Read more »

Johann Hermann Schein and the heritage of the Leipziger Stadtpfeiffer When Johann Hermann Schein takes up the position of Kantor in Saint-Thomas in Leipzig in 1616, he has to tackle a delicate problem: on the one hand he has to… Read more »

Music as a remedy From the 13th century onwards Venice quickly became a fascinating melting pot, opened towards the occidental world as well as towards the Mediterranean cultures and those of the Orient. This strategic situation will bring La Serenissima… Read more »

ENG Heinrich Schütz and his most illustrious followers Heinrich Schütz was remarked at an early age by Moritz von Hessen-Kassel as an extremely gifted singer and very promising musician. The Landgrave decided to personally take over his education and paid… Read more »