Ensemble Gaudete - Direction : Hélène Derieux : Chant & Enris Qinami : Chant et sharki & Michel Boedec : Orgue et improvisations

LE CANTIQUE DES CANTIQUES: Mystical Love Songs from East and West

A biblical poem about the love between the beloved and the lover, the Song of Songs inspired an extraordinary blossoming of songs and spiritual interpretations in the Middle Ages. In the Christian world, the words of the beloved become, in turn, those of the Virgin, the Church, the soul in search of God, or virgins united with Christ.

On Sunday, September 13, Ensemble Gaudete will perform some of these musical metamorphoses in the extraordinary acoustics of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre: Gregorian antiphons, the Alleluia from the Vigil of the Assumption, a polyphonic sequence from the Gradual of Fontevraud, and a responsory for Saint Ursula composed by Hildegard von Bingen. These Western medieval chants will be echoed by Sufi-inspired poetry interpreted by Enris Qinami, accompanied by the sharki, while Michel Boedec's organ improvisations will open a space for resonance and dialogue between these different traditions. From one repertoire to another, the same language runs through the concert: that of desire, the garden, flowers, honey, and amorous encounter — when the words of human love seek to express the inexpressible.