Musica Rigensis

Ars Antiqua Riga (Latvia)
Artistic director Pēteris Vaickovskis

Musica Rigensis programme is interwoven and enframed by four Gregorian chants from the 15th century Riga Archbishop Cathedral Holy Cross Chapel manuscript Missale Rigense, the collection of liturgical chants of the whole cycle of the liturgical year intended for the clergymen of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s a manuscript from the Late Middle Ages, one of the two authentic sources of the history and liturgy of the church in Riga that has been preserved after the Reformation, and the only one that includes musical material (the other one being Riga diocese Breviarium secundum ritum etusum ecclesiae, printed in Amsterdam, 1513,  consisting only of texts). 

The period after 1582 marks the activities of Riga’s most famous 16th century composer and cantor of the Cathedral School Paulus Bucaenus. The composer comes from Lower Lusatia (Niederlausitz), Brandenburg, populated by the Slavic ethnic group – the Sorbians. Bucaenus’ geographic biography falls within the coastal lands of the Baltic Sea: Lausitz, Greifswald, Soldau (currently Działdowo), Breslau (Wrocław), Oels (Oleśnica), Thorn (Toruń), Stettin (Szczecin), and finally Riga where around 1583–1584 the complete manuscript of Bucaenus’ multi-part two-volume monumental composition Opus musicae ecclesiae rigensis was created. Unfortunately, the largest part of Opus musicae has perished, however, the list of the remaining selection of works bears witness of its large scale and the scope of the composer’s work. Bucaenus’ compositions span the whole cycle of the liturgical year, they are intended for use in the Riga Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, and it certifies to the facts that a well-developed practice of vocally polyphonous chanting was present in Riga – the pieces are composed for a choir of up to eight parts and were to be performed with accompaniment of musical instruments.