Treasures of medieval music

The project "Un Fior Gentil" has a long and unusual history. On the trail of the enigma of the "Fior Gentil", the noble flower, we set out on a musical journey through the cultural centres of Italy and Provence in the late Middle Ages.

Ensemble EST! – New sounds of the late Middle Ages

Irmgard Maria Tutschek and Walter Waidosch and their ensemble EST! have set out to reproduce the sound and playing culture of the late Middle Ages at its finest. To this end they have traced the multifarious forms and colours found in the written and improvised music of the period and studied both the sources and their intellectual and historical context. This has enabled them as musicians of the late 20th century to bring medieval music back to life.

EST! recorded the medieval pieces in 2001 in such a way that they could be edited with the novel music editing software "Melodyne" developed by Peter Neubäcker.

Mysterious sounds - unusual instruments

Only now has this astonishing reworking of the 14th century melodies finally been completed.

"With some of the pieces, there was little need to change anything very much or alter the arrangements; these, therefore, have remained essentially as they were when they were recorded, and the possibilities of Melodyne were only used to make the sound as beautiful and transparent as possible. With others, some voices were doubled at the lower or upper octave to give greater breadth to the sonority. In the case of others still, the sound of the instruments was altered drastically, confronting the listener with the mysterious sound of instruments that never were."
(Peter Neubäcker)