Nostre Dame - Ensemble Sanstierce

Nostre Dame
Monophonic Repertoire of the Notre-Dame School

Ensemble Sanstierce
Maria Jonas –  Gesang
Bassem Hawar – Djoze (irakische Fidel)
Dominik Schneider – Quinterne & mittelalterliche Flöte

Three musicians met in 2014 in the Cologne Center for Early Music (ZAMUS) and decided to found an ensemble: SANSTIERCE (بلا بعداً ثلاثياً) – Maria Jonas, voice (Cologne), Dominik Schneider, flute and quinterna (Essen), and Bassem Hawar, djoze (Baghdad, meanwhile resident in Cologne). All three are renowned specialists in modal music. The two German musicians attempt to bring to life again the for the most part orally transmitted music of the Middle Ages, a music that was hardly ever written down, and the Iraqi’s desire is to prevent the Arabian music – with its center in Baghdad and roots in the Middle Ages – which up to now had been passed on from generation to generation, from ear to ear, from dying out. While even just a few years ago, western musicians traveled to Arabian countries in order to be close to the original, today one meets in Cologne, or Berlin, or Paris, or London. But no longer in Baghdad, in Iraq, Iran, in Syria …

On its first CD, the ensemble presents contemporary modal music based on French medieval songs of the thirteenth century and Arabian classical music. The two instrumentalists, Bassem Hawar and Dominik Schneider, accompany the vocalist in the traditional manner – with modal improvisations. And their own instrumental compositions are fashioned on the CD in exactly the same way.