Capella Sanctae Crucis - France
CAPELLA SANCTAE CRUCIS is a laboratory of study and performance focused on the Portuguese polyphony of the 16th and 17th centuries, founded by Tiago Simas Freire in 2012. It owes its name to the musical chapel of the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, from which the musical sources that constitute the main objects of our study originate.
Working mostly on unpublished manuscripts preserved in the General Library of University of Coimbra, the programmes are conceived to recreate the richness of each work's original context. Faithful to a philological approach, historically and culturally formed beyond what is expressed in the sources, the interpretation challenges and explores sound texture and balance, discourse and phrasing, instrumentation, and ornamentation.
The present-day Man is thus transported, through this aesthetic experience, to a widening of his imaginary, past, present, and future.
The present-day Man is thus transported, through this aesthetic experience, to a widening of his imaginary, past, present, and future.
The passions that drive the team are evident: the emotion of maximum proximity to the sources; the constant questioning and experimentation; the admiration of the harmony of the spheres represented by Renaissance music; the enthusiasm for the emotional metamorphoses of early Baroque music; and the ambition to discover Portuguese repertoires that are little known to musicians and the general public.
Capella Sanctae Crucis
3 Passage Mas, Lyon, France
/ administration@capellasanctaecrucis.com
TERRA donde me criei
Switzerland
The Portuguese poetic-musical songbooks of the 16th century and the popular songbooks of the 20th century are, in fact, both cornerstones of a strong cultural identity.A common identity emerges on multiple levels. It would be possible to trace similar melodic and melismatic characteristics, shared themes, as well as enduring musical instruments. Thus, it would be conceivable to draw a cultural bridge spanning five centuries, one that has reached us and invites us to contribute to the construction of a rooted and conscious future identity.
Passionate about this popular richness and well-versed in the Portuguese songbooks of the 16th century, five musicians seek to weave aesthetic and musical connections between the Renaissance court songbooks and the popular songbooks collected in the 20th century.
