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Project

The House of Polyphony: International Centre of Excellence for the Valorisation of Low Countries Musical Heritage

The importance and value of the musical heritage of the Low Countries is recognised worldwide. The musical heritage from the Renaissance period in particular, when the Low Countries held sway over Europe as a musical leader for more than two hundred years, is comparable to the achievements of painters such as Van Eyck and Rubens. However, the musical contemporaries of these painters remain far too little known by the general public. Musical heritage thus offers outstanding opportunities for socio-economic valorisation. The House of Polyphony, in Leuven's Park Abbey, aims to become a centre of excellence and world-leading international platform for the valorisation of this musical heritage. The House is a physical space, allowing us to bring people together in situ. The centre offers scholars and performers a laboratory for study, experimentation, and collaboration. It also provides a concert-space for small-scale performances and houses an expanding collection of historical music instruments. At the same time, the House is conceived not only in physical terms, but also as a 'brand', and thus a basis for virtual dissemination: as a centre of excellence as an overarching structure in which the beating heart is musical heritage. This concept is unique: no comparable structure exists elsewhere for bringing musicology, musical practice, and a wider audience together.
Date:1 Jan 2016 →  Today
Keywords:polyphony, plainchant, practice based research
Disciplines:Musicology and ethnomusicology, Music performance