In 1392, King Charles VI of France (1368–1422) was declared insane. In the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, at a time when the conflict between France and England was enjoying an unexpected lull, the king’s repeated absences left the field open to princes hungry for power and wealth. Thus began three dark decades for the kingdom of France: torn apart by the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians, scarred by the bloody defeat at Agincourt in 1415, and finally humiliated by its hereditary enemy, who would force the transfer of the French crown to the English king…

This is the epic tale that Into the Winds brings to the stage, drawing on the rare musical sources that survive from the turbulent opening years of the century, when composers who left a profound mark on their time were at work. Bridging the extreme refinement of the late 14th-century ars subtilior and the simpler, purer aesthetic of the 15th-century Burgundian chanson, they ushered in a new musical era whose most emblematic figures would be Gilles Binchois and Guillaume Dufay.

Interweaving period compositions played on copies of historical instruments with the words of contemporary chroniclers, Music for a Mad King offers a unique musical journey into a troubled and little-known era, whose issues and challenges remain strikingly relevant today.