The term "concert", in the sense in which the word has come to be used today, did not correspond to anything known in the Middle Ages. At the time, it would never have occurred to anyone to perform a series of motets for a paying audience. Even when sung in the most respectful way, this six-century-old music still gives rise to a contemporary creation today. The one presented by Arborescence is the fruit of several years' work on the motets of Philippe de Vitry. All that remains of this bishop of Meaux (1291-1361) today is a great name and a rather limited collection of musical and poetic compositions (of disputed attribution). Philippe de Vitry was an academic and a close associate of the French court, and epitomised all the medieval figures of the scholar. The man to whom Petrarch addressed himself as "a poet without equal in France" remains associated with the musical movement known as "Ars nova", of which he is a major theorist, poet and composer. David Chappuis has been working on these motets for over six years under the aegis of the Haute école de musique de Genève. He has prepared a new edition and trained young singers at Royaumont in their interpretation. Their a capella singing brings out as fully as possible the interplay of consonances and dissonances that are the lifeblood of polyphony. The multiple facets of the ensemble are highlighted in turn, from solo to tutti, through various combinations of voices, from the most suave to the most grating. The eight motets are linked by musical interludes composed by David Chappuis to verses by the Master of Meaux. The final piece of the concert, Lugentium siccentur oculi, dedicated to Pope Clement VI, is grandiose in its exceptional scope and the complexity of its architecture. A wonderful celebration of the culmination of a great musicological adventure, coinciding with the release of Arborescence's first CD on the Swiss label Claves Records, recorded in the refectory of the monks of Royaumont!

PROGRAMME
Oeuvres de Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361) et interludes de David Chappuis :
Prelude : Adesto sancta Trinitas – Decens carmen edere
Adesto sancta Trinitas (motet à trois voix)
Quoniam secta latronum (motet à trois voix)
Interlude : Orbis orbatus oculis
Vos pastores adulteri (motet à trois voix)
Providence la senee (virelai, anonyme)
Rex quem metrorum (motet à quatre voix)
Interlude : Mon chant en plaint
In arboris empiro prospere (motet à trois voix)
Bona condit cetera (motet à trois voix)
Interlude : Douce playsence
Garison selon nature (motet à trois voix)
Ecce sacerdos (répons, plain-chant)
Lugentium siccentur oculi (motet à quatre voix)

Chant :
Marthe Davost
Maud Haering
Eugénie de Mey
Lionel Desmeules
Benjamin Ingrao
Mauricio Montufar

Direction :
David Chappuis
Olivier Bettens