The past as message in a bottle - disrupting the flow of current trends
ANNOUNCEMENT CUSANUS SUMMER SCHOOL : 18 till 20 August 2025 in Antwerpen (Belgium)
Nicholas of Cusa, the Arts and Polyphony : Working Through a Productive Non-Relation
"I saw myself as arriving in the back of an author and giving him a child that would be his own offspring, yet monstrous. It was really important for it to be his own child, because the author had to actually say all I had him saying. But the child was bound to be monstrous too, because it resulted from all sorts of shifting, slipping, breakages, and hidden emissions that I really enjoyed.” (Gilles Deleuze)
ABOUT
Cusanus is one of the most exciting and eccentric thinkers of the late Middle Ages bridging Neoplatonism and German Idealism. We explore the specificity of Cusanus' dialectical theology (which is his philosophy) that makes him radically modern, in order to explore this dimension in polyphony and other arts as well. Cusanus never theorized polyphony or the arts in a direct way. There seems not to exist any aesthetic theory or thinking about polyphony and the arts from that time. Nevertheless, polyphony and arts are dramatic structures of thinking. Polyphony as a practice is performed based on a totally quantified diagrammatic writing. However, they were considered “mechanical" arts and lacking a stable form on which to constitute thinking.
The unthought dramaturgy of aesthetic dialectics revealed in polyphony and visual arts resonates surprisingly with Cusa’s own thought.
Polyphony and the arts are the symptom of Nicholas of Cusa. We will explore the short-circuit between Cusanus and the arts and problematize historicist approaches as well.
WHAT
The seminar-sessions (one in the morning and two in the afternoon) will be lead by Björn Schmelzer, joined by Luís Neiva (Nova University Lisbon / Spirit is a Bone) and by Cusanus expert Inigo Bocken (Universities of Nijmegen and Leuven)
Bocken and Schmelzer are currently working on a book on the topic. Their research will provide the framework for the three days.
On 19 August the sessions will be interspersed with polyphonic performances as examples and study materials by four singers of Graindelavoix (Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, Marius Peterson, Arnout Malfliet) engaged in the Cusanus project.
FOR WHOM?
We welcome all students, researchers, scholars, artists and all interested folks in the domains of the arts, music, philosophy, art history, theology, anthropology and musicology a.o. to join us and think together!
The sessions will be in English.
PRACTICAL
The Cusanus Summer School takes place at Jos Smolderenstraat 76, 2000 Antwerpen (Nieuw-Zuid) on 18, 19 and 20 August 2025, from 11h till 18h.
Joining the Cusanus Summer School for three days : 50 euro (separate day: 20 euro)
Inscription: katrijn@graindelavoix.be
Information: info@graindelavoix.be
The Cusanus Summer School is a collaboration between Graindelavoix (Antwerpen) and Spirit is a Bone (Lisbon) and part of the Antwerp Summer Festival “Not Only Are We Not Infinite, We are Not Even Finite."
Nice review and 10/10 for our latest EX NIHILO cd by Frank Hougee in Dutch music magazine Luister.
Read original attached or here in a wild translation:
10/10
Ex nihilo: out of nothing. A single voice emerges mysteriously from the void and is soon joined polyphonically by more vocalists. Thus begins the six-part Christmas motet Praeter rerum seriem (Beyond the Normal Order of Things) by Josquin des Prez that sings of the unusual birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary. In the exceptionally informative CD booklet, which comes complete with vocal texts, conductor Björn Schmelzer explains the origins of polyphony at length in an (unfortunately difficult to understand) essay. Simply put, the penchant of late medieval and Renaissance composers for developing (vocal) polyphony is perhaps as paradoxical and incomprehensible as the Incarnation itself. Polyphony does not contribute to text comprehension and intelligibility, but rather explores and accentuates the inner emptiness, dogmatics and mysteries of many religious texts. Two genres that emerged from this are the hymn on the mystery of the Incarnation and the lament on absence, lack and yearning (emptiness), with texts such as O admirabile commercium, O virgo virginum, Alma redemptoris mater, Salve Regina and Vox in Rama. Vocal ensemble Graindelavoix presents a truly stunning performance of four- to seven-voice settings to these texts by Josquin, Jacob Obrecht, Johannes Ockeghem, Giaches de Wert and Bernardino de Ribera, while also paying homage to the Renaissance masters of the Low Countries. The part-song is beautifully articulated, pure and perfectly balanced. The recording quality is equally ear-pleasing. Whether this vocal polyphony would have sounded like this five hundred years ago is as great a mystery as its true genesis, but a more beautiful performance than this is hardly imaginable.
FRANK HOUGEE
Epitaphs of Afterwardness, our exciting collaboration with Jan Michiels has been selected for the Venice Biennale 2025!
As Bozar next week is sold out, it’s the excuse to join us in Venice in October!
The program is only partly revealed, more to come!
photos (c) Cyrille Voirol
