800 years of Bruges Beguinage—plenty of reasons to celebrate. And what a celebration it was, with all the current residents and the small sister community still living there—all women, that is—alongside the choir ensemble Psallentes, also entirely female. Today, in fact, a whole crowd of "neo-beguines" had gathered to reflect on their future: what does the term "beguine" really mean to us today? Representatives from still-existing beguine communities from several countries pondered the contemporary meaning of beguine life: women living in community, lovingly serving others, and doing so in complete freedom, with mutual respect but without monastic vows.
At the start of this festive year, on June 6th, there was even royal interest in this Beguinage, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, by the way. Queen Mathilde cut the ribbon to launch the festive year, and Psallentes got to sing for her for 3 minutes. At the closing weekend, the beguinage church was packed twice for concerts of 70 minutes each. Nearly all of the songs came from manuscripts by beguines preserved in the Bruges Beguinage archives—both psalms and occasional songs.
Conductor Hendrik Vanden Abeele: "Getting a call saying: "In two years it'll be 800 years of the Bruges Beguinage. Can you create something around that? We have a whole series of 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th-century sources here in the monastery library—the Beguine archive—come take a look." That's what I'd call the magic of artistic research and creation. For me, that's always been the most beautiful aspect of new projects. And you start flipping through those manuscripts and you recognize a lot of things because it's often universal repertoire. But suddenly something pops up that you've either never seen before or you look at with fresh eyes, and then, as if by magic, creativity starts to develop. And before I knew it, I had a 70-minute project on my hands."
Not just a cycle of 11 songs, but a complete concept with accompanying film full of sound and image, recorded in and around the Beguinage, all supported by a percussionist with a large hand drum. A wondrous combination. You saw a sister ringing the church bell, tourists streaming in, but you could also immerse yourself perfectly in the peace of that exceptional place through that landscape of sound and image, with the blooming yellow Easter lilies and the rustling, swaying trees in the courtyard. A sung story about life in the beguinage, from sunrise to sunset. It was a melodious, mostly Gregorian concert with touches of polyphony here and there, Latin texts that were easy to follow in Dutch thanks to the well-prepared program booklet. With a few original Old Dutch songs as well, including that beautiful love song by our own Hadewijch and a charming little tale about a beguine who lost her cat and found it again thanks to a novena.
Psallentes ("those who sing")—these women brought it all with dignity and refinement to heavenly sound. You could hear care and solidarity resounding through it, essential concepts in beguine life. It sounded like an evocation of a long procession where the front doesn't sing in unison with the back, creating a natural canon that produces a kind of polyphonic effect. The program was titled "Backup", which stands in golden letters above the entrance gate of the Beguinage. Hendrik Vanden Abeele: "It means protection, but it's more than just the theme of this evening—it forms the beating heart of this project. It invites us to slow down and reflect on what protection and intimacy can mean, then and now."”
Like a ritual of music and mysticism, Psallentes delivered this message perfectly.
