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03-04-2024:

Unity in Diversity #2

The second edition of the European lute song project Unity in Diversity starts at the end of April. Lutenist Jurgen De bruyn and mandolin virtuoso Alon Sariel will be joined by singers Lore Binon and Elly Aerden, by Vittoria Pagani on the Indian Sarod and by the ney and lavta player Christos Barbas. The creation takes place during LUNALIA, Festival of Flanders Mechelen, and is part of the Mechelen city festival Construct Europe, which coincides with the Belgian presidency of the EU Council. The premiere will be followed by concerts in Hasselt and Dilbeek.

To tune in, you can listen to the podcast made by Evita Nossent, in which the musicians talk about their experiences during the first residency at Laus Polyphoniae Antwerp. They testify about their personal music practice and how they set themselves up for new encounters.

In the words of Alon: “...what we present on stage is the wishful thinking of what could be in Europe in the future, if the European dream actually works”.

Podcast

03-04-2024:

The Mass Man at O. Festival

On 17 May, The Mass Man, a collaboration between Zefiro Torna and Muziektheater Transparant, will be a guest at the O. Festival in Rotterdam.

Director Wouter Van Looy, video artist Wim Catrysse and writer Peter Verhelst base the performance on Elias Canetti's book 'Mass and Power'. The Nobel laureate describes his experiences of mass movements in the early 20th century and mixes them with impressive sociological and anthropological insights. The book not only reads like a reflection on the past, it is also a guide for today.

Soloist singer/performers, instrumentalists on lute, cornetto, trumpet and drums, a sound installation artist and electronic soundscapes give new form and expression to a wide range of subgenres of medieval crusader song. They deliver a nuanced picture of a complex time and turning point in history, marked by changing identities and worldviews.

Trailer

04-02-2024:

22-03-2023:

L’ALQUIMISTA in Barcelona

Next week we will begin the rehearsals for music theater performance L'ALQUIMISTA in Barcelona, at the Teatro Nacional de Catalunya. Michael De Cock created and directs a theatre adaptation of the book The Abyss by Belgian writer Marguerite Yourcenar. Lutenist Jurgen De bruyn joins the stage and, together with composer Alain Franco, provides the soundtrack for the story, which is set in 16th-century Europe with a focus on the last years of the Bruges doctor and alchemist Zeno and on universal themes of humanity and freedom in turbulent times.

The premiere will take place on the 11th of May 2023. The tickets are on sale vie TNC.

15-06-2021:

Release documentary PAST >| ORALE


As an introduction to the performance PAST >I ORALE Zefiro Torna asked film maker Mathias Ruelle to create a short documentary. Through the eyes of five characters, this film highlights a few elementary parts from which the performance originated. The music of PAST >I ORALE - a wonderful mix of Beethoven, sound art and alternative pop - resonates as a soundtrack.

> Watch the documentary here (from June 15th until July 13th)

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De Fragilitate

— Piae Cantiones School songs and hymns from medieval Finland (2006)

Zefiro Torna - Antwerps Kathedraalkoor

In 1582, Jaakko Finno, headmaster of the Turku cathedral school, and Petri, a Finnish student at the university of Rostock, publish a unique collection of Latin songs for the Schola Aboensi (Latin for Turku).

This book, Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum, contains music of an wide chronological and geographical scope. Stylistically the content is clearly older than the publishing date might suggest. Some compositions can be traced back to the year 1000 AD. However, the main body of the compositions belongs to the 15th-century Germanic-Bohemian tradition of cantiones. Moreover, there are links with French, Spanish and Italian sources and Flemish masters such as Jacob Obrecht, which can probably be explained by the continuing presence of Finnish students in Catholic universities all over Europe.
The hymns, most of which are Christmas songs, are grouped according to the liturgical year: Christmas, Easter and Whitsun. The remaining songs deal with the transitoriness of earthly life, the condition humaine, the life of school children, biblical subjects and the awakening of nature in spring.

Few musical collections from the 16th century have become so strongly embedded in the contemporary musical life as the Piae Cantiones in Finland. Since the rise of national romanticism in the early 20th century, they occupy a central place in the Finnish choral and church repertoire. The Finnish religious folk music also contains variations on the hymns, and composers have made arrangements of the songs, e.g. the ‘Carminalia’ by Sibelius.

Zefiro Torna performs the Piae Cantiones with 15th-century instruments, one voice and a boys choir. The academic and folkloric music traditions are brought together by the use of the Finnish cymbalo or kantele.


  1. DE NATIVITATE - Angelus emittitur
  2. Salve flos et decor
  3. Verbum caro factum is
  4. Congaudeat turba fidelium (instr.)
  5. Parvulus nobis nascitur
  6. Personent hodie
  7. Nobis est natus hodie
  8. Paranymphus adiens 2vv
  9. DE PASSIONE - Iucundare iugiter 3vv
  10. Aetas carmen melodiae 2vv
  11. Aetas carmen melodiae 4vv
  12. DE FRAGILITATE ET MISERIIS - Kurja, paha syntinen
  13. Mars praecurrit in planetis
  14. Cum sit omnis caro foenum
  15. DE VITA SCHOLASTICA - Scholares convenite
  16. Zachaeus arboris
  17. O Scholares discite
  18. Sum in aliena provincia
  19. DE TEMPORE VERNALI - Ad perennis vitae fontem
  20. In vernali tempore
  21. Tempus adest floridum
  22. Kaikki maailma riemuitkohon

Els Van Laethem soprano
Jowan Merckx flute, bagpipes
Liam Fennelly fiddle
Frank Van Eycken percussion
Timo Väänänen kantele
Jurgen De bruyn lute, artistic direction

Children choir - Antwerps Kathedraalkoor directed by Sebastiaan Van Steenberge

  • Johan Favoreel musical supervision
  • Michaël Nijs sound engeneer
  • Liesbet Vereertbrugghen producer Klara
  • Koen Uvin executive producer Klara
  • Shulamith Brouwer producer Etcetera
  • romanontwerp.nl artwork
  • Lieven Dirckx photography

Recorded on 1 - 3 June 2007 at the Academiezaal, Sint-Truiden (Belgium)

Released by Et'cetera