Madri(é)gale
Musical figures and foreign languages
In the madrigals of Monteverdi's 7th book, Schein's Israelsbrünnlein, or Bach's motet Jesu Meine Freude, the illustration of affects by musical figures and basso continuo are omnipresent. This polyphony creates a powerful combination of sung words and emotions translated into notes and rhythms.
If a word resonates with us in a unique way when it doesn't need to be translated, how does a musical figure affect us? And what about when it's in a foreign language?
Treatises have codified musical figures, and the composers mentioned are experts in the field. This exploration will enable us to see how each of us organises our affects according to the grammar of our mother tongue. Whether we are expatriates, adoptees, binationals or simply lovers of languages, we will ask ourselves how we experience the music of words.
This programme doesn't just answer that question; it offers a plunge into music where words resonate in their own right. For the composers, words vibrate, guided by their maternal instinct and figurative rationality, creating a musical experience as profound as it is intuitive.
Madri(é)gale explores the idea of the unique resonance of words in their original language and how musical figures affect the listener, even when the language is foreign. The reflection on the influence and links between the mother tongue and musical codes is fascinating and rich in implications. It allows us to listen to, hear and understand the musical literature of the Seconda Prattica from a perspective of otherness.
