For its first concert of 2017, the pioneering New York-based early music ensemble TENET presents Le noble rhetouryque, the second of three concerts this season exploring the music of French medieval composer Guillaume de Machaut and his contemporaries. Under the banner The Cycle of Invention: Guillaume de Machaut and the 14th century, the series is curated by guest music director Scott Metcalfe. Le noble rhetouryque, which features works written for one of Machaut’s most important muses and patrons, Bonne of Luxembourg, will be performed twice on the evening of Friday, January 13, 2017, at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Le noble rhetouryque, which translates as “the noble rhetorician” or “the noble maker of poetry and song,” was a moniker bestowed upon Machaut by his disciple Eustache Deschamps. Machaut was the 14th century’s indisputable master of both music and poetry. He is credited with inventing the genre of polyphonic song that would influence many generations to come. His poetry was a great inspiration to the younger generation, notably Geoffrey Chaucer. He also produced numerous comprehensive and elaborate manuscripts of his works, an unprecedented undertaking at the time.

Bohemian born Bonne of Luxembourg was the first wife of King John II of France and mother of Charles V, Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, and Joan, Queen of Navarre. She was a prominent patron of the arts who greatly admired Guillaume de Machaut. Le noble rhetouryque offers a selection of Machaut’s songs written for Bonne of Luxembourg, including selections from Remede de Fortune (“Remedy of Fortune”), a long narrative poem with lyric interludes. Also on the program is the motet Trop plus est bele que biauté (“She is so much more beautiful than Beauty itself”) which was most likely composed in memory of Bonne of Luxembourg.

Throughout The Cycle of Invention series, TENET is applying 14th century performance practices which lend distinct colors to the palette of medieval sound, including French period pronunciation and instruments that mirror what is known of those used at the time.

TENET’s next performances mark the ensemble’s return to Carnegie Hall. On February 7, 2017, as part of Carnegie’s festival La Serenissima: Music and Arts from The Venetian Republic, TENET will appear alongside the Venice Baroque Orchestra in Stern Auditorium performing Vivaldi’s colorful oratorio Juditha triumphans. On February 17, 2017, in Weill Recital Hall, three of TENET’s leading ladies – sopranos Jolle Greenleaf and Molly Quinn, and mezzo-soprano Virginia Warnken – will headline The Secret Lover, a celebration of music by, for, and about women that pays tribute to the 17th century Concerto delle donne, the ensemble of extraordinarily gifted professional female singers who were renowned for their performances in the courts of the late Italian Renaissance. The Secret Lover showcases TENET’s recent release of the same name on AVIE Records, “a programme that has all the intimacy and seductive charm of the drawing room” (Gramophone).

The third and final performance in The Cycle of Invention series, on May 5, 2017, will close TENET’s 2016-17 season. The Next Generation features two substantial collections of the ars subtilior (“more subtle art”), including music in the Codex Chantilly and the manuscript known as “ModA” (Modena, Biblioteca Estense, alpha-M.5.24).

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further information about TENET, please visit http://www.tenet.nyc

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The Cycle of Invention: Guillaume de Machaut and the 14th century – “Le noble rhetouryque”
Friday, January 13, 2017 – 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm Guillaume de Machaut (1300 – 1377) Quant en moy / Amour et biauté parfaite / Amara valde (motet)

Anonymous Fortune (instrumental)

Machaut Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer (balade)

Anonymous
Dame playsans (instrumental)
Hors sui je bien de tres toute ma joye (rondeau)
S’Espoir n’estoit que me done pooir (rondeau)
Je suys toujours a vo commandement (instrumental)

Machaut
Esperance qui m’asseure (balade)
Dame de qui toute ma joie vient (balade, Remede de Fortune) Trop plus est bele que biauté / Biauté parée de valour / Je ne sui mie certeins (motet)

Anonymous Mal vi loyauté d’estre amoureus (instrumental)

Machaut
Dame mon cuer en vous remaint (rondelet, Remede de Fortune)
Gais et jolis, liés, chantans et joieus (balade)

Anonymous Rose sans per (rondeau)

TENET
Scott Metcalfe strings and guest music director
Jolle Greenleaf artistic director and soprano
Jason McStoots and Owen McIntosh tenors
Andrew Padgett bass
Priscilla Herreid winds
Charles Weaver medieval lute

Tenri Cultural Institute
43A West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011