About us
we met in the spring of 2004 in the state academy of music in Trossingen, a small town which lies in the Black Forest in the south of Germany. Four musicians from four different nationalities: Germany, France, Transylvania and Israel. We soon found that we share a common language and a common fascination with the polyphonic music of the late Middle Ages. Music that manages to express the deepest human feelings in a delicate, poetic manner, in a way that, in our belief, has not been surpassed. Through playing together we have learnt to know each other, to develop our own language and our own approach to this wonderful music which, in all of its complexity, leaves much freedom to the performer.

The use of instruments reconstructed based on medieval iconography allows us to approach the original soundscape. We attach great importance to the understanding of the musical language of the period, now having become foreign of today's classical musicians. Thus, a bit in the manner of a performer facing a contemporary work with a new language, it is a matter of decoding little by little the written page, to try to understand the essence of a piece, and to discover its meaning with our personal modern frames of mind

Santenay
The ensemble draws its name from the castle of Santenay, in Burgundy, seigniorial residence from the XIth to the XVIth century, belonging in the XIVth century to Philippe le Hardi, son of the king of France Jean le Bon and first duke of Greater Burgundy. Thus this castle constitutes for us in a way a symbol of the apogee of the culture at the Burgundian court. Today the lands of the castle of Santenay are also known for their excellent wine production


Poetry becoming Music
Before as in the present, the songs treat fundamental themes inherent in human nature. Love, happy or unhappy, the simple pleasures of life, such as the return of spring, society, but also the powerlessness of Man in the face of his destiny, his despondency sometimes, and all his emotions, touch us in the present as before. Choosing pieces which speak to us, we strive to give them a living interpretation, which projects the expressive power of the music, entirely symbiotic with the poetry of the text.About us
we met in the spring of 2004 in the state academy of music in Trossingen, a small town which lies in the Black Forest in the south of Germany. Four musicians from four different nationalities: Germany, France, Transylvania and Israel. We soon found that we share a common language and a common fascination with the polyphonic music of the late Middle Ages. Music that manages to express the deepest human feelings in a delicate, poetic manner, in a way that, in our belief, has not been surpassed. Through playing together we have learnt to know each other, to develop our own language and our own approach to this wonderful music which, in all of its complexity, leaves much freedom to the performer.

The use of instruments reconstructed based on medieval iconography allows us to approach the original soundscape. We attach great importance to the understanding of the musical language of the period, now having become foreign of today's classical musicians. Thus, a bit in the manner of a performer facing a contemporary work with a new language, it is a matter of decoding little by little the written page, to try to understand the essence of a piece, and to discover its meaning with our personal modern frames of mind

Santenay
The ensemble draws its name from the castle of Santenay, in Burgundy, seigniorial residence from the XIth to the XVIth century, belonging in the XIVth century to Philippe le Hardi, son of the king of France Jean le Bon and first duke of Greater Burgundy. Thus this castle constitutes for us in a way a symbol of the apogee of the culture at the Burgundian court. Today the lands of the castle of Santenay are also known for their excellent wine production


Poetry becoming Music
Before as in the present, the songs treat fundamental themes inherent in human nature. Love, happy or unhappy, the simple pleasures of life, such as the return of spring, society, but also the powerlessness of Man in the face of his destiny, his despondency sometimes, and all his emotions, touch us in the present as before. Choosing pieces which speak to us, we strive to give them a living interpretation, which projects the expressive power of the music, entirely symbiotic with the poetry of the text.