ACADEMY 2009

INTERNATIONAL ORPHEUS ACADEMY FOR MUSIC & THEORY 2009

"Improvising Music in the 15th and 16th Century:
Contrapunto alla Mente - Chant sur le Livre - Madrigale Passaggiato"
Mo April 6 through Thu April 9, 2009

The year 2009 saw Orpheus Institute´s seventh edition of its ´International Orpheus Academy for Music and Theory´.

The Orpheus Academy 2009´s theme was "Improvising Music in the 15th and 16th Century: Contrapunto alla Mente - Chant sur le Livre - Madrigale Passaggiato". At the junction between musical performance, composition and theory-gathering lie historic improvisation techniques that seem to hover among these musical areas without difficulty. Striking a balance between elements of these competence areas for performers, theoreticians and historians nevertheless proves a formidable challenge, because of the importance of culturespecific characteristics related to notation, invention, creation, acoustics, reception, etc. True to our tradition, a carefully selected guest faculty took on this challenge and made an important contribution to the development of the artistic and theoretical discourse by presenting 15th- and 16th-century improvisation culture.

The following guest professors considered the theme:

• Edoardo Bellotti (Musikhochschule Trossingen, Germany)
  1. From "Canzona intavolata" to "Madrigale passaggiato": the Italian art of "Intabulation"
  in the XVIth century.
  2. Spiridionis "Nova Instructio": an original pedagogical approach to keyboard improvisation
  in the XVIIth century.
• Johannes Menke (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel Switzerland ; Musikhochschule Freiburg, Germany)
  1. Models for improvising the "contenance angloise" of the 15th century.
  2. Composing and improvising sound progressions around 1600.
• Peter Schubert (McGill University,Quebec Canada)
  1. "Practical Problems in Improvisation"
  2. "From Improvisation to Composition"
  What does our knowledge about improvisation tell us about composition? How was the distinction between improvisation and composition articulated in the Renaissance?
• Rob Wegman (Princeton University, New Jersey, U.S.A.)
  1. What is counterpoint?
  2. The Cantus planus Setting and the Art of Improvisation
  
  

Downloads for participants

• Academy 2009 schedule (update 17/03/09)
• Academy 2009 abstracts (general overview)
• Academy 2009 literature list