Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy
 
Musical direction: Jean-Luc Impe
 

A musical approach to masonry in the 18th century
...songs for rites and fraternal assemblies
...a magic lantern
...a musicological work by Jean-Luc Impe

By the ensemble "Les menus plaisirs du Roy", under the direction of Jean-Luc Impe. With the tenor Stefan Van Dijck.

This show, or rather the idea of this show, was born of chance and shared passions revealed during the various meetings between the musicians of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roy and the entire administrative, heritage and scientific management of the Museum of Freemasonry in Brussels. Chance first of all, because we, Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy , had, by chance, the opportunity to acquire a batch of old Masonic plaques dedicated to the magic lantern, ancestor of the slide projector, or even distant ancestor of cinema if we consider the extraordinary animation of some of the plaques found. It should be noted, for a proper understanding of the scope of this acquisition, that the use of the magic lantern as an educational instrument, particularly for the ritual and symbolic education of Masons, was widespread in Europe and in the United States since the Age of Enlightenment. Passion then, because our musical ensemble has always been committed to giving new life to vaudevilles, to these old, popular tunes, which in the course of their existence come to carry on their own melody texts of a completely different, even opposing nature. Thus, if a tune, a melody, appears at a given moment in the 18th century, carrying a religious text for example, it can very well be grafted, some time later, with a new text, this one erotic and then serve as a support for Masonic edification. All Masonic songbooks function in this way, by mainly reusing pre-existing musical material. The interest, in such a process, consists in confronting the original text which underlies the tune taken up with the new linguistic content... and thus comparing the hypotexts and paratexts which obviously colour in a very particular way the reception and understanding of the new Masonic texts which have taken over the musical body of these pre-existing tunes. It is this work, this gigantic project of computer encoding of 18th century Masonic songbooks and their comparison with the reference texts of the time that we are carrying out in concert with the Museum and the Cedom.

The show itself has a dual purpose: to show and to hear. To hear these magnificent 18th century tunes or to listen to the music of lesser-known masonic composers. To see these marvelous glass paintings that are the magic lantern plates that illuminate the particular iconosphere of an Age of Enlightenment, intimate at more than one moment. To hear and see, to play with the senses, to better understand a reality so often fantasized by those who are only inhabited by the idea of a secret plot... to see and hear to better highlight a society that speaks of our current values, that gives meaning to the words fraternity, liberty and equality.