• a deep dive into beautiful manuscripts

• historical background and nature of the Feast of Fools

• a look at the Ludus Danielis

• lots of lovely singing

• plus refreshments and a buffet lunch!

Who wouldn’t like to have the chance to turn the tables on that stultifying and sanctimonious boss and
boss them around a bit, maybe even take the mickey out of them? Well, that’s exactly what the Feast of Fools (festum fatuorum or stultorum) promises! It exerts a special kind of fascination because of the attractive upside-downing it augurs. There’s a very enticing craziness about the whole endeavour, an anything-goes attitude which will always be popular. In fact, there’s a tantalising universality when we imagine po-faced medieval forebears throwing social hierarchies to the wind for one day of the year and engaging in wildly enjoyable, even rather inappropriate, behaviour.

If you’d like to dig underneath Victor Hugo’s romanticised vision (think Hunchback of Notre Dame crazy dancing and singing a la ‘Topsy Turvy’ Disney special) to take a look at what a real medieval Feast of Fools might have been like, this is your chance! We’ll look at a bit of the historical background to this special liturgy (and the several feast days that were associated with ‘foolish’ behaviour), getting to know four important French manuscripts with musical evidence for what it sounded like. Then we’ll listen to some modern interpretations, thinking about how the evidence has been used, manipulated and creatively represented. Finally, we’ll learn some of the pieces. We might even have a go at recreating the medieval practice of creating polyphony from a single line of music.