Born in 1291 and died in 1361, Philippe de Vitry is an author of musical and poetic compositions who is little known to the general public. He was a magister, a man of the written word in the service of the French court, a prelate and bishop of Meaux, and embodied all the medieval figures of the learned man.
The man to whom Petrarch addressed himself as "a poet without equal in France" also remains associated with the Ars nova musical movement, of which he is one of the major theorists, poets and composers.
Le Roman de Fauvel, circa 1316-1320 © Bibliothèque nationale de France
For the past three years, the Foundation has been committed to the rediscovery of medieval music, in particular through its support for the Royaumont Foundation's professional training and research programme "Chanter les motets de Philippe de Vitry" (Singing Philippe de Vitry's motets). With this latest project coming to an end in 2023, it's an opportunity to bring together specialists in various disciplines (singing, poetry, composition, mathematics, Latin, declamation, history, etc.) to explore the art and science of Philippe de Vitry in all their subtlety.
Organised jointly by the Haute École de Musique (David Chappuis) and the University of Geneva (Cédric Giraud), this international colloquium aims to situate the composer in his century and measure the influence he exerted within it, by exploring the element of singularity and representativeness that every life offers. It took place in Geneva from Wednesday 29 November to Friday 1 December 2023 at the Haute École de Musique de Genève. It is the theoretical counterpart to a second symposium, focusing more on vocal and instrumental practice, organised by the Royaumont Foundation in March 2024.
L’Université de Genève
The 3-day conference features 14 international researchers, as well as contributions from David Chappuis and Cédric Giraud.
Topics include Philippe de Vitry's links with the Université de Paris (Jacques Verger, Institut de France); his relationship with the royal service (Olivier Canteaut, Ecole Nationale des Chartes); the satire of the Roman de Fauvel (Jean-Claude Mühlethaler, University of Lausanne); philosophy (Christo Grellard, EPHE/PSL), literature (Yasmina Foehr-Janssens, University of Geneva) and sciences (Sabine Rommevaux-Tani, CNRS, Bordeaux) of his time; the Latin of his motets (Pascale Bourgain, Institut de France, AIBL) and the influence of the Parisian dialect (Olivier Bettens, CMPV Project).
Thursday 30 November 2023 concludes with the Douce playsence concert by the medieval music ensemble Arborescence at the Auditoire Calvin, conducted by David Chappuis.
More information here : hesge.ch
