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ERI SOLIS RADIUS · Musical networks in medieval Europe
Songs from music manuscripts were in great demand in the middle ages, and they circulated in many different ways: orally, notated by trained scribes or given as a gift. The paths of repertorial exchange can be traced across the whole of Europe by the many concordances found in music manuscripts.
A change of repertory in a monastery or cathedral was often connected with a desire to take part in the musical innovation of the time, or to implement prescribed reforms. This new music in turn attracted the faithful and pilgrims in greater numbers. Many European monasteries and cultural centres, such as the cathedrals of Stantiago de Compostela in Spain and St. Andrews in Scotland, profited from the increasing flow of pilgrims.
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris had already developed an entirely novel polyphonic repertoire, which soon attracted many admirers from throughout Europe. The English scholar known as Anonymous IV, for example, vividly describes the enormous appeal the musical innovations of Magisters Leonin and Perotin had for many of his contemporaries.
In consequence, several similar manuscripts of large parts of this repertory have come down to us. One manuscript was removed far away to St. Andrews, and was probably in part also written there. Besides many concordant pieces in its 13th fascicle are a series of unique tropes (special textual and melodic amplifications) that did not find their way into the younger, continental manuscripts influenced by Notre Dame. Our programme contains three-part tropes from this group of unica.
Another widely disseminated layer of tradition consists of Kyrie tropes, whose particular texts survive with their original melody as well as in polyphonic settings. We also find these in St. Andrews, as well as in St. Martial de Limoges, Santiago de Compostela and Notre-Dame de Paris.
Another genre, the verse compositions that were newly developed in Aquitaine in the 11th and 12th centuries, turn up again in French and South German manuscripts. A famous example, “Veri solis radius”, has been chosen for the title of this concert.
The present programme demonstrates the manifold relationships between European cultural centres, especially the flood of music exchange - even over great distances - and the mutations that the music underwent in the process.

Burkard Wehner / Ellen Hünigen · Translation: Paul Shannon

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usserthal Abbey (German: Kloster Eußerthal) was a Cistercian abbey in Eusserthal near Annweiler am Trifels in the Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. All that now remains of it is the front portion of the abbey church, which is now used as a parish church. The abbey was founded in 1148 by a knight, Stephan of Mörlheim, and settled by twelve Cistercian monks from Villers-Bettnach Abbey in Lorraine (of the filiation of Morimond). The monks' first task was the clearing of the river valley, to make it cultivable. In 1186 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa put the monastery under Imperial protection. It subsequently received rich gifts, including many vineyards in the south of the Palatinate. A village quickly grew up round the monastery. The monks served at Trifels Castle as chaplains, and watched over the Imperial Regalia while they were kept in the castle during the 12th and 13th centuries. Eusserthal never founded any daughter houses, but it had a priory at Mörlheim. After that the importance of the abbey declined. In the 15th century it was looted several times. In 1525, during the German Peasants' War, it was looted and set on fire; it was rebuilt in 1552 under Abbot Martin II. In 1561 Elector Frederick III dissolved the abbey in consequence of the Reformation. In the 17th and 18th centuries several attempts were made to revive the monastery, but without success. The building of the church is thought to have been begun about 1220; it was dedicated in 1262. The plan and basic structure are Romanesque but the vaulting shows Early Gothic influence. In accordance with Cistercian custom the church has no towers, just a flèche, or miniature spire, over the crossing, and the interior is without colour. The construction is of local red sandstone. The structure is of a pillared basilica of three aisles and a transept on a Latin cross ground plan. The vaults in the nave and the choir are secured by open buttresses. The resemblance to the church of Otterberg Abbey, which was built earlier, is unmistakable, although the church at Otterberg is larger. The conventual buildings and the cloisters have disappeared, and of the church there now remain only the choir, the transept and the first bay of the nave. In the wall of the choir is a rose window with tracery, and over the arch of a door a well-preserved relief sculpture of a dragon in sandstone. In the 18th century the remains of the abbey church were re-worked as a parish church. At that time the upper window openings were closed and the ruins of the bulk of the nave were demolished, and replaced by a simple west front. The acoustics of the resulting building are ideal for the performance of church music, and the summer concerts held here are well-known. In 1961 substantial restorations took place, which have had the effect of emphasizing the Romanesque character of the structure.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · May 6th 2015