“Absolutely Polyphony” Online Music Lecture: Registration Now Open

“Absolutely Polyphony” Online Music Lecture

A Cappella in the “Perfect Style”: Polyphonic Music Then and Now

Speaker: 陳漢金 (musicologist)

This lecture is in fact a unique pre-concert guide to “Absolutely Polyphony,” in which Jia Fen Wong conducts Taipei Chamber Singers. The entire concert is sung a cappella—that is, unaccompanied—and every work on the program is polyphonic. A cappella is hugely popular in today’s popular music, but its true origin is undoubtedly the classical music of the Renaissance.

Polyphony had already taken shape in the Middle Ages; it was only in the Renaissance that it gradually moved away from its original form, as composers of the Burgundian and Franco-Flemish schools brought it into a balanced, well-proportioned, refined, and rich idiom known as the “perfect style” (Ars Perfecta). Josquin Desprez (c. 1450–1521), a contemporary of the great painter Raphael (1483–1520), represents a summit of the perfect style. How did Josquin’s “perfect” music spread so widely and exert such broad and lasting influence that a “post-Josquin” “international style” took shape across Europe? How did the composers of many nations inspired by Josquin balance tradition with innovation? And how has Renaissance polyphony been revived since the twentieth century, becoming a model for certain contemporary composers?

Event Information

Date and time: Sat 2 October 2021, 14:00

Platform: ZOOM

Registration: https://forms.gle/eBgFToKJMdhubwdB9

※Free of charge; places are limited. Arts lovers of every kind are warmly welcome.

About the Speaker

Musicologist 陳漢金 holds master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology from the University of Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne). He taught Western music history, music and fine art, and other musicology courses in the Department of Music at National Taiwan Normal University; since retiring, he has continued to teach there as an adjunct lecturer. He served on the jury of the Taishin Arts Award in 2002–2004 and 2013–2014, and chaired the final jury for the performing arts category of the 2004 Taishin Arts Award. His writings on music and music criticism appear widely in Taiwanese media, and he regularly organizes music lecture series. His principal publications include “Musical Maverick: 馬水龍” (音樂獨行俠－馬水龍), “Discovering Beethoven” (發現貝多芬), “Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust” (白遼士－浮士德的天譴), and “Impressionist Music, You Say? Debussy’s Chamber and Orchestral Music” (您說是「印象派音樂」？—德布西的室內樂與管絃樂).

[Click here to download the lecture EDM] (https://www.tcschoir.org.tw/program/2021_PolyphonyTalk.jpg)

Presented by: Taipei Chamber Singers