It might sound as if I forgot that this year is Carlo Gesualdo (1560-1613) anniversary. Not at all, since his music was among the first Renaissance works I began to listen. This will be the first of a series featuring music by Gesualdo, starting from the sacred repertoire to the six books of madrigals.
How to describe Gesualdo’s music? Well, Gesualdo is… Gesualdo. A unique composer with a particular unorthodox way of writing music, almost insane (some say). (mais…)
The Christian West and It’s Singers: The First 1000 Years
A renowned scholar and musician presents a new and innovative exploration of the beginnings of Western musical art. Beginning in the time of the New Testament, when Christians began to develop an art of ritual singing with an African and Asian background, Christopher Page traces the history of music in Europe through the development of Gregorian chant – a music that has profoundly influenced the way Westerners hear – to the invention of the musical staff, regarded as the fundamental technology of Western music. (mais…)
Suggested by a friend (who didn’t know the amazing work she was singing…), here is one of the most interesting motets by Tomás Luis de Victoria I have ever listen to. What amazed me most in this work was its – I may called it – micro polychoral structure. The motet is set for six voices (SAATTB) but, in this texture another polychoral texture emerges, with 3 or even 4 paired voices, that gives a whole new dimension to this work. It is a good example of the mastery of six-voice settings by late mannerist composers. The motet was published in the 1572 book of motets and in the the following books. (mais…)
At Leiria Cathedral after the concert with Coro Odyssea, the second of two concerts with Gabriel Fauré’s Messe de Requiem (being the first one at Igreja de São Luís dos Franceses, Lisbon).It was my first performance of this work. A wonderful experience.
Pedro de Araújo was one of the best Portuguese composers for organ in the seventeenth century. This Batalha do 6º Tom is a fine example of his mastery in exploring almost all of the organ sonorous possibilities.
Gabrieli can be so powerfull… in this reconstruction (I think by Hugh Keyte) of this motet that has the texts for the third and fourth responsories at Matins for Christmas Day there is so much word painting i.e. on the “o magnum mysterium” section. Wonderful music.
The last couple of days were spent at Évora, working with some friends from the recently created Ensemble Eborensis. This can be a truly interesting project: hard-working friends with a thirst to know more about polyphony and how it works.
It was also interesting to come back to where I studied a couple of years before with a new project. One that was orientated by me and is working on “new” repertoire. Works by composers that named the department and one of the resident ensembles. (mais…)