Artway Records and Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra present the book-record AD Tenebras
Music composed for Holy Week by Capella Sanctae Crucis, directed by Tiago Simas Freire
Artway (a major player in cultural and artistic management and a strong driver of Portuguese classical music in Europe) and the University of Coimbra Press inaugurate a collection of Book-records which, materialized in elegant and careful volumes, aims to offer a truly unique experience of Portuguese musical heritage, namely that currently preserved at the University of Coimbra.
The first volume, Ad Tenebras, takes us to the music composed for Holy Week, particularly for the nights (Matins) of Thursday, Friday and Holy Saturday. Lamentations and Responsories, most likely written in and for the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, between plainchant and polyphony, are offered here by Capella Sanctae Crucis, under the direction of Tiago Simas Freire.
The presentation will take place on February 27th, at 6 pm, at the General Library of the University of Coimbra.
The Record is a format that has long been sought after by the research project Mundos e Fundos at the University of Coimbra (Center for Classical and Humanistic Studies), as a product that allows for, side by side, written narrative, iconographic illustration and sound concretization, the result philological and artistic investigations into musical manuscripts and prints. It fully corresponds to the practice of an Open Science where the various stages of knowledge construction, scientific and artistic, are aggregated into a single object, shared with the whole of society, from the academic community to the general public.
CAPELLA SANCTÆ CRUCIS is a musical study and practice laboratory focused on 16th and 17th-century Portuguese polyphony, created by Tiago Simas Freire in 2012. Part of the vast multidisciplinary project Worlds and Funds of the Center for Classical and Humanistic Studies at the University of Coimbra (CECH- UC), establishes bridges between research and musical practice, in the search for a sound result that revives the value of Portuguese musical heritage that remains little known.
It owes its name to the musical chapel of the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, the center of extraordinary artistic activity particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, from where the musical sources that constitute the main objects of study come from.
Working mainly from unpublished manuscripts kept in the General Library of the University of Coimbra, programs are designed that come close to the richness of the original context of the works. Faithful to a philological approach, formed historically and culturally beyond what is expressed in the sources, the interpretation questions and explores sound texture and balance, speech and phrasing, instrumentation and ornamentation. Today’s Man is thus transported, through aesthetic experience, to the opening of the imaginary, past, present and future.
He performs in concert at several international festivals and his projects are hosted in artistic residencies at the CCR de Ambronay (EEEmerging), at the Mazā Ģilde in Riga, at the Pavia Barrocca Festival, at the Cité de la Voix de Vézelay, at the Royaumont Foundation, at CNCM Voce de Pigna and the University of Coimbra, and receives support from the Bullukian Foundation, the Renaud Foundation, the BCP bank, the Center National de Musique, the DRAC Rhône-Alpes, the Caixa Cultura Program, the General Directorate of Arts and Creative Europe.
After the release of its first album “Zuguambé” by the label Harmonia Mundi, CAPELLA SANCTÆ CRUCIS is at the origin of the creation of a series of albums-books “Mundos e Fundos” in a partnership between the University of Coimbra and Artway Records, dedicated to the rediscovery of Portuguese musical heritage.
More than a group, it is a project to rescue a very rich and little-known musical heritage. Each concert is a discovery of true sound cathedrals lying dormant in the Portuguese archives. Each program is a new page in your Music History.
Always confirm with the concert hall or promoter the conditions of access, confirmation of the date or time, ticket place of sale, price, and availability.
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