Neumatic-notation

The core of the exhibition is a selection of ten manuscripts which were made in Flanders and are also preserved here, and that display a remarkable variety in age, presentation, size and illumination. Many manuscripts were used intensively throughout the centuries and thus also attest to the musical and community life in the institutions at which they were written.

The oldest manuscript reveals that originally, the music was performed by heart: it is very small and the notes are written in ‘neumatic’ notation, which has no musical bars. The size of the sources increased over the centuries and eventually developed into the choir-book, from which a whole group of performers could sing. The largest books, such as those from Bruges, Tongerlo and Vorst, which date from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, are often beautifully illuminated.

A number of the sources were used by celebrities of their age: one of the manuscripts was sent to Villers Abbey by Hildegard of Bingen, other manuscripts were used by the famous Flemish mystic Beatrice of Nazareth, the influential liturgist Radulph de Rivo of Tongeren and Johann Heinrich von Frankenberg, the last bishop of Mechelen before the French Revolution.

Sound Installation

This exhibition will focus on both the manuscripts and the music they contain. Using the 'Dioramatized #2' sound installation, visitors can actually listen to what they are looking at and hear the differences in style, form and method of performance. Four antiphonals dating from the 11th, 13th, 15th and 18th centuries respectively, will be displayed at the exhibition and performed by top international ensembles. This exhibition is being organised in co-operation with Alamire Foundation and Illuminare.

DIORAMATIZED #02 from Rudi Knoops on Vimeo.