II Early Music Course of the Music Festival of the Pyrenees “The Cantigas Montserratinas of Alfonso X”

The 2014 Early Music Course of the Music Festival of the Pyrenees will be devoted to the study and performance of the medieval song. In this edition the course explores the 13th-century repertoire of the so-called "Cantigas Montserratinas": a group of 12 Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X "the learned" that specifically describe miracles performed in Catalonia by Santa Maria de Montserrat. An appropriate performance of this repertoire will be attempted by conducting a thorough study of the pieces' historical context, music notation, language and rhetoric; by analyzing related literary and iconographical sources; by consulting recent musicological studies on the subject; and by applying suitable tuning, phrasing, and ornamentation.

At the end of the course the group of active students - under the name of Academia de Música Antiga del Femap - will present 2 concerts of a professional level in the Festival de Música Antiga dels Pirineus on the 16 and 17 of August.

The course is open to singers of and instrumentalists: vielle, psaltery, harp, medieval transverse flute, hurdy-gurdy, citole, medieval lute, medieval bagpipes, portative organ, and percussion (The main tuning for the course will be Pythagorean in 440Hz).

For its specialization the course is open to only a maximum of 8 participants. These students should have previous solid experienced in the field of medieval music.

Dates:

• From the 13th to the 17th of August / 2014 - lessons
• 16th and 17th of August / 2014 – concerts within the festival

Place: Escola Municipal de Música (Berga – Catalonia)

Faculty:

• Dr. Mauricio Molina, course and group direction
• Cristina Alís Raurich, assistant director and portative organ