{"id":15733,"date":"2026-06-08T22:28:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.losencuentrosdepamplona.com\/?post_type=mec-events&p=15733"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:29:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:29:18","slug":"ex-nihilo-polyphony-beyond-the-order-of-things","status":"publish","type":"mec-events","link":"https:\/\/www.losencuentrosdepamplona.com\/en\/events\/ex-nihilo-polyphony-beyond-the-order-of-things\/","title":{"rendered":"EX NIHILO Polyphony beyond the Order of Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without exaggerating, one could call polyphony a kind of science fiction avant-la-lettre that was able to capture impossible-to-grasp theological and mystical concepts in embodied sound representations. Incarnation in polyphony means that the unimaginable suddenly becomes anchored in our senses and becomes comprehensible. What seems abstract and conceptual in the religious texts of the motets in this programme is given physical substance by the composers. The polyphonic language, which peaked in the 16th century, was a rhetoric of the impossible, a climatology \u2018beyond the natural order of things\u2019, as the opening line reads of Josquin’s fabulous motet Praeter rerum seriem that stands midway between polyphonic monster and machine. The philosopher Nicole Oresme saw the speculative capacity of polyphony as early as the 14th century: for him, it was a field of experimentation secundum imaginationem, that is, it had the potential to make the incomprehensible amenable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Polyphonists’ favourite texts often dealt with counter-natural creation (such as the Incarnation) and other paradoxical processes of becoming for which no explanations could be found. Avant-garde polyphony went hand in hand with making suggestible what is beyond any imagination. The last two works (on the same text: Vox in Rama, Rachel mourning her dead children) serve as epilogue and counterpoint: as unimaginable as the theological creatio ex nihilo, metaphor for artistic creativity, modernity begins by making unimaginable destruction and catastrophe imaginable (as in De Wert’s chromatics) and art can no longer be detached from the dialectic of creation and destruction.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Graindelavoix –\u00a0 Bj\u00f6rn Schmelzer<\/span>
\n<\/span>with Teodora Tommasi, Florencia Menconi, Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, Andr\u00e9s Miravete, Marius Peterson, Tom\u00e0s Max\u00e9, Arnout Malfliet<\/span><\/p>\n

*Programa<\/b><\/p>\n

Praeter rerum seriem\u00a0 Josquin Desprez\u00a0\u00a0 a6 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Sanctus, Missa Praeter rerum seriem Georges De la H\u00e8le\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a6\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Agnus Dei, Missa Praeter rerum seriem Georges De la H\u00e8le\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a7\/8\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>O admirabile commercium Josquin Desprez\u00a0\u00a0a4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Quando natus es Josquin Desprez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a4\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Ecce Maria genuit Josquin Desprez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>O virgo virginum\u00a0 anonymous (follower of Josquin)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Salve Regina\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jacob Obrecht\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Vox in Rama\u00a0 Bernardino de Ribera\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Vox in Rama\u00a0\u00a0Giaches de Wert\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a5\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without exaggerating, one could call polyphony a kind of science fiction avant-la-lettre that was able to capture impossible-to-grasp theological and mystical concepts in embodied sound representations. Incarnation in polyphony means that the unimaginable suddenly becomes anchored in our senses and becomes comprehensible. What seems abstract and conceptual in the religious texts of the motets in… Read More »EX NIHILO Polyphony beyond the Order of Things<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"mec_category":[],"mec_sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-15733","mec-events","type-mec-events","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEX NIHILO Polyphony beyond the Order of Things - Encuentros de Pamplona \/ Iru\u00f1eko Topaketak<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.losencuentrosdepamplona.com\/en\/events\/ex-nihilo-polyphony-beyond-the-order-of-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EX NIHILO Polyphony beyond the Order of Things - Encuentros de Pamplona \/ Iru\u00f1eko Topaketak\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Without exaggerating, one could call polyphony a kind of science fiction avant-la-lettre that was able to capture impossible-to-grasp theological and mystical concepts in embodied sound representations. 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