insula felix
Music from the Reichenau Island Monastery
"Insula felix - augia felix": Happy island, happy floodplain - this is how Walahfried Strabo sings of his beloved island monastery longingly from afar in the 9th century.
And Reichenau, together with St. Gall, was truly a haven of science and art, a cradle of European culture in the Lake Constance region. Here as there, chorale, poetry and book illumination flourished.
From the large group of anonymous poet-musicians of the Reichenau, two personalities stand out in particular: Abbot Bern of Reichenau (ca. 978-1048), from whom an Ulrichs-Offizium has been handed down.
On the other hand, Hermannus Contractus (1013-1054), who for a long time was known only as a historian and music theorist. His compositions on saints of the southern German region can also be heard in the programs "Hermannus Contractus" and "Insula et Eremus".
The program brings together masterpieces of musical-poetic activity on the Reichenau in the Middle Ages, including tropes to the Introit of the Feast of St. Stephen and sequences on the island saints Ianuarius and Marcus.
Program:
Sequences, Tropes and Gregorian Chant from the Reichenau Island Monastery
Old High German Georgslied
6 singers + instruments ad libitum (harp, fiddle, symphonia, organetto)
Medium to large church rooms
Performances
- Hour of church music Stiftskirche Stuttgart (2009)
- Augia Concerts Reichenau Island (2006)