Alamire foundation

The Alamire Foundation undertakes and coordinates musicological research into the musical past of the Low Countries, from the Middle Ages to the end of the Ancien Regime. The Foundation’s rationale lies in localizing, inventorizing, preserving and examining the musical heritage of the Low Countries. The results are subsequently made accessible to the widest possible public. With a particular focus on the birth and flowering of Franco-Flemish polyphony in the 15th and 16th centuries, the research covers a period in which the Low Countries played a leading role on the international musical scene. Close collaboration with historians, art historians, liturgists and linguists results in a broad historical socio-cultural, political and economic perspective on polyphonic music and its performance practice.

The Alamire Foundation is an international centre functioning as a unique forum. Through its association with numerous prestigious academic institutions, and through organizing and attending international seminars and conferences, a continuous dialogue is maintained with scholars throughout the world. The research results appear in the form of high-quality academic monographs and articles in authoritative specialist journals, as well as in modern critical editions and/or facsimile publications. The Journal of the Alamire Foundation and the Yearbook of the Alamire Foundation (now discontinued) contain the proceedings of the international conferences and colloquia organized by the Alamire Foundation, while the Monumenta Flandriae Musica series offers a unique selection of previously unpublished Flemish music from the Middle Ages to 1800 in modern critical editions. The organization of groundbreaking exhibitions and concerts featuring renowned musicians and ensembles, together with the publication of monographs, books and articles, both specialized and popularizing, endows this research with a lasting social relevance.