Daniele Ghisi has written a work for eight voices and electronics to be performed with Guillaume de Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame. The new work, titled Nostre, is comprised of four pieces based on the texts of profane rondeaux by Machaut. In performance the four parts of the new work alternate with sections of the Machaut Messe, contrasting the amorous with the sacred. The ever-present electronics act as a sort of additional “choir” that places all the elements in an “elsewhere.”

Nostre is co-produced by the Fondation Royaumont, the Grame Biennale musiques en scène, the Cité de la Voix and Musica Nova. Ghisi’s composition is part of a project called “Chant des Sphères”, which invites living composers to “converse” with another composer from centuries ago.

The ensemble Musica Nova, under the direction of Lucien Kandel, will give the premiere performances on March 21 at the Théâtre Villefranche-sur-Saône, on March 22 in Lyon (Musiques en scène), on March 23 in Geneva (Festival Archipel, Swiss premiere), and on March 28 at the Théâtre de Vienne in France.