Agenda Defunctorum

Capilla Peñaflorida

Conductor: Josep Cabré

THE COMPOSER Juan Vásquez was born in Badajoz around 1510. His first association with music was recorded in 1530 when he gained admission as a chorister at Badajoz Cathedral, where five years later he served as the succentor. Evidence of his musical prowess is that he was engaged as the music master to teach the choirboys in the same year that he was admitted as a chorister. In 1533 he was taken on as the singing instructor to teach not only the choirboys but also the prebendaries. In keeping with the mobility that characterised professional Spanish musicians throughout the Old Regime...+ info

Obra para Órgano - Manuel Castillo (1930-2005)

José E. Ayarra, órgano

Tomás Marco, a great connoisseur of Manuel Castillo’s oeuvre and personality, has defined this Sevillian master as “the Spanish composer of his generation who has served the organ world the most frequently and with the highest quality” (Manuel Castillo, Transvanguardia y Postmodernidad. Málaga 2003: 74). Marco remarks that between a generation of illustrious musicians such as Cristóbal Halffter, Luis de Pablo, Carmelo Bernaola, Antón García Abril and Tomás Marco himself, “it is absolutely certain” that nobody has written o...+ info

La Música de Al-Andalus

Ensemble Al-Ruzafa

Conductor: Hames Bitar

Aleppo: custody of the musical tradition from the Orient.   Aleppo is an important trading city and communication cross-point where the most pure traditions of Arabic chant have been preserved. The most characteristic expression of this chant is the vocal improvisations or layali, through which the complete doctrine of maqam was developed into a form of choral music, the qad (alqudud in plural), related to the muaxaha genre, very well-known in Al-Andalus.   From the eighteenth century onwards, the muaxaha expanded through the Mid-Orient, particularly in Aleppo, where it is known ...+ info