Golden Label Book Nomination - Paul Van Nevel is one of the musical stars that places Flanders on the world map in a top position. He is one of the pioneers who revived Flemish polyphony. Polyphony is as flowing as the lines of the landscape where it was born and reborn.
A large part of that landscape lies in France after Louis XIV annexed it and the Low Countries lost important territories, cities and ports. It is that 'French Flanders' with its border regions that Paul Van Nevel describes in his book 'The Landscape of the Polyphonists – The World of the Franco-Flemish 1400-1600' as if it were his child. You see the polyphony, you smell it. It reminds me of an experience I had in Austria, specifically in the birthplace of Joseph Haydn. I visited Haydn's birthhouse, the nearby castle and despite countless windmills spoiling the landscape, I inhaled Die Jahreszeiten and many other works by Haydn, more than that, only now could I understand him much better. When I now hear a work by Haydn, I see that landscape, his birthhouse, the palaces all the way to Fertöd in Hungary, just across the Austrian border.
Is it through that experience that overcame me like a gentle sigh that whispered something to me, that I understand Paul Van Nevel so well? That I see the polyphony in the countless beautiful photographs taken by Luk Van Eeckhout? His gaze through the lens and what he captures is Flemish, oh yes, Franco-Flemish polyphony. Look at the landscape, go to those much less disturbed regions than Flanders to the north of French Flanders, let yourself be overwhelmed and yes, then go to one of those little churches that the French did not destroy in their insane wars and you hear the most beautiful polyphony, it doesn't even have to be actually performed at such a moment. You are actually already one with the music without hearing that music.
The words of Prof. Dr. Bart Demuyt that appear on the inside flap of the book's cover are perfect and summarize the book very precisely. "Paul Van Nevel's book is an ode to beauty, a written love story full of passion and melancholy, a search for the character of the landscape and for the layeredness of the polyphony of his beloved polyphonists."
Van Nevel of course does more than describe nature and landscape with the occasional town and village with a little church. The reader receives a brief history lesson. The development of musical styles in sustained polyphony and much more than their living world is outlined, concluding the first chapter. The second part is truly an ode, even the worship of the landscapes. I won't tell you more about it, you must, yes must, read it yourself. The third and shortest part is a list of known composers and the book concludes with a gazetteer in Dutch and French of the villages and cities that feature in the book. You will be amazed at how many Flemish place names there were, which still exist and which were converted to French in a garbled way.
This polyphonic book has stolen my heart, not as a novel, but as a particularly gripping, beautiful, moving informative work that takes you into the very bed of the polyphonists. Perhaps the Golden Label Book Nomination this time is somewhat subjective, somewhat romantically charged, somewhat nostalgic or whatever, but that personally doesn't matter to me, the author and the photographer absolutely deserve it. And oh yes, do listen while reading the CD with polyphony performed by the Huelgas Ensemble under the direction of Paul Van Nevel.
- WHAT: Book The Landscape of the Polyphonists
- AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: Paul Van Nevel and Luk Van Eeckhout, foreword Bart Demuyt
- PUBLISHER: Lannoo, ISBN 978 94 014 5399 8
