TEMPUS FRACTUM:
Interweaving Melodic Fragments
NEW
PROGRAM
Guided by fragile 13th-14th-century musical fragments, this program resuscitates melodies that survive only in scraps – smudged or incomplete, and often abandoned before they were fully realized. Rather than presenting them as isolated curiosities, we let them bloom, singing each fragment as it exists in the manuscript while weaving improvised threads – echoes of chant, Notre Dame polyphony, and colors drawn from other eras and our own imagination – around and between the lines, as if channeling the imagination of medieval nuns suddenly transported into the present. What emerges is a dreamlike world where voices slip between centuries, unfinished pieces find endings, and lost pages see new eyes. With improvisation at its core, no two performances can ever be the same, making each concert a singular encounter that is part historical reflection, part live composition, and part act of re-animation. This is music rarely performed, often overlooked, yet full of mystery, meaning, and expressive power. Fragments of the past are reimagined, revealing beauty in unexpected ways.
Une étincelle dans le noir
a spark in the dark
Une étincelle dans le noir is the second program by Contre le Temps dedicated to the music of the Notre Dame School of the 12th and 13th centuries. This music holds a special place in the ensemble’s heart due to its evident musical beauty, originality, evocative and poignant texts, and its mystical and holistic nature. With this program, we aim to evoke both the most mysterious aspects of medieval music—its prophetic, mystical, and occult qualities—and its immense power of devotion, praise, and warmth.
We recreate the sense of wonder one feels when gazing at a starry night, the sensation of vastness, magic, and beauty that this eternal spectacle provides. Its eternity, like that of this music, surrounds, comforts, and accompanies us. Through this program, we take the audience on a journey through the stars and the lands of Tarsus, following in the footsteps of the Magi. We will see the morning star shine in the distance, hear the footsteps of the kings, see gold glisten, smell incense and myrrh, and pause, dazzled by divine power, ready to face a new era. These ancient texts carry a message of hope and trust in the future, which feels especially necessary in our troubled times. Through the medium of voices and music, we transmit these emotions, bringing to life the musicians and poets of the 12th century.
The music you will hear is the same that resounded in Paris at the time of the Notre Dame School during the celebration of Epiphany. We alternate between plainchant and polyphonic pieces for two, three, and four voices, most of which are drawn from the Epiphany ceremony. These polyphonic pieces belong to the organum genre, a type of composition that developed at the time from improvisational practices. The selected pieces offer a varied and surprising range of sounds, exploring the full spectrum of rhythmic and harmonic possibilities. The program concludes with an absolute masterpiece of medieval music: the four-voice Viderunt omnes. Composed for Christmas, this piece continues to astonish with its power and compositional genius.
NEW
PROGRAM
Intra Muros:
Polyphony Within the Walls of St. Teresa’s “Interior Castle”
This program explores the musical life within the Royal Santa Ana Monastery in Ávila, Spain, offering a 16th-century glimpse into the solitude of the women who sang there. The convent’s collection shows engagement with chant, sophisticated polyphony, liturgical music, villancicos, and improvisation.
At the heart of the program is Francisco Guerrero’s Missa L’homme armé, written early in his training and preserved in Libro de polifonía no. 8 at Santa Ana. The Cantus II partbook is missing, but Dr. David Mesquita has meticulously reconstructed the voice using historical composition techniques, allowing us to perform the mass in full.
To guide us through these convent walls, we follow the life of Saint Teresa de Ávila, a central figure in late-Renaissance mysticism. The program is structured around the four degrees of prayer she describes in her autobiography, Libro de la Vida (1588): meditation, prayer, quiet introversion, and ecstatic union. Between the mass movements, we present chants for Teresa’s feast day (October 15), adorned with contrapuntal improvisations, contrapunto alla mente, a historical practice reminiscent of the teaching methods used by cathedral choirmasters. This approach challenges us to be genuinely extemporaneous, reflecting the skill and spontaneity required in historical practice.
Texts from Teresa’s writings are interspersed throughout the concert, which concludes with the antiphon Media vita in morte sumus, offering a final reflection on Teresa’s life and devotion.
NEW
PROGRAM
Mundus Vergens:
Collapse of the World
Our most-requested program, Mundus Vergens: Collapse of the World reimagines the sonic universe of Notre Dame Cathedral. From the luminous sweetness and monumental dissonances of four-voice conducti, and the sweeping melismas and striking intensity of unison Gregorian chant, to our own explorations in ornamentation, improvisation, and new composition, we experiment with tempo, timbre, and expressive color to offer living interpretations of this music, which evolve with each performance. The program culminates in the radiant yet haunting Deus Misertus hominis, accompanied by movements reminiscent of clerical dances documented in the 13th century, symbolizing the movements of the world and the spheres. Anchored by Job’s lament “Where then can I find the strength to lean on?”, this program traverses despair, collapse, resilience, and the rediscovery of beauty in a world on the brink.
Ubi sunt mulieres?
This program is a musical celebration of women in Western mediaeval sources from modern-day France, Spain, and England. In the Middle Ages, the cult of the Virgin Mary gained immense popularity in the 12th and 13th centuries, and works dedicated to her emphasise sweetness, love, and sensitivity. The language used to describe Mary also influenced the development of secular love poetry, where the tenderness of Marian devotion was superimposed onto the beloved woman. In this program, we explore the sacred and secular praises of women, bringing these two realms into dialogue and showing the deep connections between religious reverence and courtly love.
Spanning the 11th to the 15th centuries, the program illustrates the evolution of musical styles, from simple monophonic chant to intricate polyphony. Some sacred works, such as Salve decus from the Cambrai Cathedral Choirbook and Alleluia V. Ave Maria from the Winchester Troper, exemplify the devotion to the Virgin Mary, whose purity and grace were central themes in mediaeval Christian worship.
A particularly significant figure is Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), one of the few known female composers of the Middle Ages. Hildegard was not only a composer but also a mystic, writer, and abbess, whose visionary works continue to resonate today. Her compositions, such as O tu illustrata, celebrate the divine feminine and stand out for their virtuosic beauty. Hildegard’s role as a female composer in a male-dominated monastic world makes her a powerful symbol of women’s creative contributions to mediaeval culture. Her music, alongside our own collaboration as a female ensemble, honours women’s voices—both literal and figurative—throughout history.
The Marian devotion that permeates the sacred music of this program also spills into secular songs, such as Guillaume Dufay’s Je me complains. Here, similar language of admiration and adoration is applied to the beloved woman, showing how courtly love poetry borrowed from religious imagery, elevating the earthly beloved to a near-divine status. Our choice of secular songs, drawn from sources like the Cyprus Manuscript and the Oxford Codex, demonstrates the complex interplay between sacred and secular themes, blurring the lines between spiritual reverence and worldly love.
Le Baiser de la Rose
This program draws inspiration from two pivotal medieval texts: Guillaume de Lorris's "Le Roman de la Rose'' and the lai "Qui n'aroit autre deport" from Guillaume de Machaut's "Remède de Fortune." Using "Le Roman de la Rose'' as our narrative framework, we journey with the dreamer who falls asleep with the arrival of spring and enters a vivid dream. In this dream, he discovers a magnificent garden in full bloom and encounters a rose that captivates his heart. Struck by Cupid’s arrow, he embarks on a quest for this rose. Guided and challenged by various allegorical figures – like Reason, Jealousy, and Danger – the Lover's pursuit reflects the trials and joys of courtly love.
"Le Roman de la Rose" had a profound impact on medieval courtly culture, influencing poetry, visual arts, and music for centuries. This is why, to highlight this enduring legacy, we have paired the story with a lai by Guillaume de Machaut, whose refined poetic narrative explores the complexities of love. Written a century after Guillaume de Lorris's work, Machaut's lai mirrors the earlier themes in a delicate, skillful, and poignant style.
Our program alternates between monodic stanzas from Machaut’s lai and polyphonic songs from the late 14th and early 15th centuries. These polyphonic pieces, characterized by the ars subtilior style, feature intricate and syncopated rhythms, sinuous and sensual melodies, and striking harmonies, creating a rich and shimmering musical texture. Through this blend of music and poetry, we revive the allegorical and symbolic world of medieval love, allowing the heartbeat of lovers from the past to resonate with audiences today.
Klosterklang:
A peaceful Hour with XVth century nuns
This program offers an insight into the world of the Carmelite convent in Mainz in the second half of the 15th century. At that time, this convent was flourishing and we still have a large compilation of manuscripts that were written there. We recreate the atmosphere of a service as it might have been sung at that time, and have chosen to sing the vespers of the nativity of the Virgin Mary which take place on September 8th. This is an opportunity to understand how this service was conducted in the 15th century. These prayers were sung every day, entirely in Latin and according to the tradition of Gregorian plainchant. This concert is a moment of meditation and introspection, and reproduces the serene atmosphere of a convent caught between bloody wars. In today's troubled world, this music can be a refuge and an inspiration to slow down the passing of time and find a calm that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.
