Aventure: Juliana's Feest

Juliana's Feast – A medieval music festival created by women

Juliana’s Feast tells the story of Juliana de Cornillon (ca. 1192-1258), who invented the Corpus Christi Feast (Corpus Christi Day), a summer feast, one of the largest city festivals with lots of music in the late Middle Ages.

One evening, the young Juliana saw that there was a bite out of the full moon. A vision told her that the incomplete full moon referred to the liturgical year that lacked a feast. Juliana realized that there was no feast to celebrate the holy sacrament together with the people. It became her life’s goal to initiate this sacrament feast. With the help of her friend Eva van Luik (ca.1210- after 1264), the Corpus Christi feast was officially introduced in 1264.

Juliana left behind a complete set of songs for the Office of Corpus Christi Day, but Thomas Aquinas made an Office for this new feast as well, and his Office is used today. However, Juliana's songs have been preserved in a manuscript that is now in the KB, the National Library in The Hague.

Juliana's Feast presents Juliana's monophonic songs from the thirteenth century, surrounded by fifteenth-century Corpus Christi polyphony and instrumental arrangements.

Music: from Juliana's Officie (Manuscript The Hague 70 E 4); polyphony by Johannes Brassart (1400-55), Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474), Hermann Edlerawer (active ca. 1439-44) and instrumental arrangements.

Aventure

Christopher Kale, Joana Guiné, Irene Sorozábal – voice

Marco Magalhães, Fumitaka Saito, Ita Hijmans – recorders

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More info: www.aventure-ensemble.nl