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CONCERT SUGGESTION
“NOCTURNUS SANCTI NICHOLAI“
L’Officio Drammatico in Medieval England (Gregorian singers – La Reverdie)
L'officium "Nocturnus Sancti Nicholai" belongs to the kind of works that have a strong agiografica connotation which express, through song and the medieval rite of liturgical representation, the fervour of a faith that is at the same time naïve and heated, so full of fantastic ideas, mysterious and sacred jolts (paranormal, one might say, from a sceptic point of view) is the envy of more adventurous and fantastic stories that try to capture the attention of the young and very young through the media of television and cinema (think of certain animated cartoons, unfortunately often full of gratuitous violence…). Saint Nicolas, of whom here we celebrate the legend, the miracles and the apotheosis, obtained from various medieval sources, mentioned below, is the prototype of the modern figure of… Father Christmas, a moreover gentle figure, who remains despite everything. Having abandoned for once the comfortable path of musical baroque, the end of year concert relies on music that comes, like a source of water, from centuries past.
The sources on which the reconstruction of "Nocturnus Sancti Nicolai" are based are as follows: Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm. 2 g / Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS and Museum 7 / London, British Museum, MS Royal 5F / Der Heiligen Leben Und Leiden, Anders Genannt Das Passionael / Jacobi a Voragine Legenda Aurea seu Historia Lombardica and Pauli Diaconi Vita Sancti Nicolai |
