Gregorian Chants

For three decades, the vocal group Schola Cantorum Riga has been professionally and artistically presenting the early music repertoire, basing its interpretations on the study of the oldest neume notations and dedicating a special role to Gregorian chant in its programmes. The ensemble's artistic director Guntars Prānis is an undisputed authority on early music, and the ensemble he founded is one of the pioneers of this musical genre in Latvia. Established in 1995, the vocal group has developed into a versatile ensemble with a broad and varied repertoire and extensive concert experience not only in Latvia but also far beyond its borders.
On 11 July at dusk, the Early Music Festival’s concert programme will echo in the vaults of St Peter's Church, where the beautifully harmonised voices of men will unite with bagpipes played by Ieva Nīmane and Edgars Kārklis. Prānis reflects on the programme, “In iconographic material, bagpipes are often seen accompanying medieval musicians. Who would dare to claim today that there was no interplay between the bagpipe and the human voice in Gregorian and other medieval sacred chant as well? They fit together perfectly! Meanwhile, the sacred chants certainly borrowed their lively rhythms from medieval dances, which were accompanied by a wide variety of archaic instruments, among which the bagpipe is one of the most distinctive. Our concert will therefore be akin to a poetic conversation between the sacred chants that once sounded within the monastery walls and the music that delighted people outside of them. As the two worlds meet, fuse and fertilise, a wonderful union with magnificent excellence is born! I believe that immersing oneself in the sounds of early music will reveal one a glimpse of a time when people did not have electricity or other things we take for granted today, yet had a deep, sensitive and refined understanding of music, which resulted in many wonderful, among them ingenious, compositions.”

 

Programme

Medieval music

Participants

Ieva Nīmane, bagpipes
Edgars Kārklis, bagpipes

Schola Cantorum Riga:
Guntars Prānis, voice
Jānis Kurševs, voice
Rūdolfs Bērtiņš, voice
Egils Jākobsons, voice
Ansis Klucis, voice
Kaspars Milaševičs, voice
Mārtiņš Moors, voice