La Porte De Félicité, Constantinople 1453

Doulce Mémoire, Denis Raisin Dadre, Ensemble Kudsi Erguner

This disc tells a story, that of the relations between musicians of the Ottoman court and European musicians who had settled across the way, on the Galata hill, at the time of the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The programme opens on the Christian side with the motet of lamentation composed by Guillaume Dufay precisely in 1453, Lamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, dazzling testimony to the repercussions of this fall throughout the Occident. On the Ottoman side, the court musicians respond with an original repertoire, a synthesis of all the influences present at the Sublime Porte. After the time of war and conquest comes the time of exchanges: on the spot, relations between Christian and Muslim communities are not bad, business continues. In Galata, in the Latin quarter, Italian players of the pifari (Renaissance oboe) take up the repertoire of the Janissaries, written for the zurna (Ottoman oboe); flautists listen, take inspiration and carry on a dialogue with the preludes (taksim) played on the ney; lutenists respond to ūd players.

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