Program
Program Notes
Biographies

Ensemble Caprice
Salsa Baroque

Saturday, March 19, 2011     8:00 pm Synod Hall

Turn up the heat! The celebrated Canadian group returns to bring us a fascinating blend of European polyphony and Mexican and Bolivian traditional music. The New and Old Worlds came together in the 16th and 17th centuries when musical dialogue criss-crossing the Atlantic produced extraordinary and beautiful results.

Programme

Salsa Baroque
Music of Latin America and Spain

Santiago de Murcia (1673 - 1739) Anonyme (publié à Cuzco, Perú, 1631) Antonio Martín y Coll (c.1660-c.1740)	¡Jácaras! Hanacpachap cussicuinin Chacona (coll. Flores de música, 1706-1709)
Santiago de Murcia (1673 - 1739) Andrea Falconieri (1586-1656) Diego Ortiz (publ. 1553) Santiago de Murcia (1673 - 1739)	Tarantelas La suave melodia Doulce mémoire Canarios
Gaspar Fernandes (c. 1570 - 1629) Antonio Martín y Coll (c.1660-c.1740) Santiago de Murcia (1673 - 1739) Juan de Araujo (1648 - 1712)	Xicochi Conetzintle Pasacalles de 2o tono Marizapolos Los coflades de la estleya
Antonio Martín y Coll (c.1660-c.1740) Antonio Martín y Coll Andrea Falconieri (1586-1656)	Differenzias sobre la Gayta Xácara La Folia

Intermission/Entracte

Domenico Zipoli (1668 - 1726) Anonyme (coll. Truxillo del Perú II, c. 1780) Domenico Zipoli	Pastorale Allegro / Piva / Pastorale Lanchas para baylar Battalia Battalia imperiale / Battalia dolorosa / Battalia furiosa
Santiago de Murcia (1673 - 1739) Antonio Martín Y Coll (collection Flores de música) Henry de Bailly (c. 1585 - 1637) Antonio de Salazar (c. 1650 - 1715)	La Jota Temblante estilo italiano Yo soy la locura (extrait de : Ballet de la follie) Tarará
Antonio Martín y Coll (c.1660-c.1740) Antonio Martín Y Coll Antonio Martín (late 17th century)	Discurso con ecos Danza del hacha Canarios
Anonyme (trad.Argentine) Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1644-1704) Juan García de Zéspedes (1619 - 1678)	Wainjo Chaconne Le veilleur de nuit Convidando está la noche

PROGRAM NOTES

Salsa Baroque:
Music of Latin America and Spain of the 17th and 18th century

One can describe baroque music of Latin America as a fusion of harmonies and rhythms of Europe and Africa blended with Amerindian nuances and styles. This unique fusion dates back to the 16th century and gave rise to a complex and fascinating multitude of musical forms resulting in a great variety of instrumentations, structures, and rhythmic and melodic phrasing.

Salsa is the Spanish word for sauce, designating at the same time a dance as well as a family of musical genres in Latin-American music. It is this latter meaning and its ancient roots that, together with a bit of humour, we have taken to give the title Salsa baroque to our project. Despite the human and political tragedies surrounding the colonization of the South-American continent, the multipolar musical culture that resulted is distinguished by its fiery spirit and passion: here is music with a unique character that enriches the repertoire of the 17th century with refreshing novelties.

Gaspar Fernandes (c. 1570-1629) was Portuguese by birth, but emigrated to Mexico, where he became a chapel musician at the cathedrals of Guatemala and Puebla. His villancicos (a popular song form of Spanish origin) often have texts written in a mixture of an Amerindian language with Spanish or the local dialect. The touching lullaby Xicochi conetzintle utilizes the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. The collection of roughly 250 works from the pen of Gaspar Fernandes forms the largest source of 17th-century secular music from the New World.

Juan de Araujo (1648-1712), born in Spain, also spent his life as a musician in Peru and Bolivia where he was appointed Choirmaster of the cathedral in La Plata. His Los coflades de la estleya (with the subtitle Black Song for the Birth of Our Lord) and the Convidando está la noche by Juan García de Zéspedes (1619-1678) distinguish themselves through the use of African rhythms juxtaposed with sections of European counterpoint. It is perhaps through these two short masterpieces of mixed colouring that the peculiar ambiance that reigned in Latin America in the 17th century is best conveyed.

The Christmas music, Tarará, of Antonio de Salazar (c. 1650-1715), as well as the Pastorale of Domenico Zipoli (1668-1726) display the originality of composers in the New World who were able to meld their European background with—from a European point of view—the exotic sonorities of their Latin-American environment. The audacious final melody of the Pastorale gives us an inkling of the creative desires of an immigrant musician.

Spanish music is represented by instrumental works from the vast collection of Antonio Martín y Coll (1671-1734) that encompasses some hundred pieces of music in its 4 volumes called Flores de música. The Chacona and the Xácara are enriched with complex rhythms that approach those of another contemporary Spanish composer who had travelled in Latin America, Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739), whose Tarantelas, Jacaras and La Jota draw on a rich repertoire of dance rhythms.

It is evident that geographic separation did not impede the relatively rapid transfer of musical styles and genres, despite the problems imposed by the very limited means of international and intercontinental travel. The Canción de clarín con eco a discreción, also taken from the Flores de música collection, as well as the Temblante estilo italiano clearly show the Italian influence on the Iberian Peninsula. Conversely the air-de-cour Yo soy la locura by Henry de Bailly (c. 1585-1637) has a Spanish text in spite of the French nationality of the composer.

The rite Hanacpachap cussicuinin was sung and performed during religious processions in church. Published in 1631 in Peru, this the very first polyphony published in the Americas. It is a very touching piece of music, born of different cultural worlds united by the beauty of music.

Matthias Maute

   

Biographies of the Performers