Exploring The Early Renaissance With La Morra
We're almost there - just one sleep away from announcing the full festival programme for 2012.
Keeping things going with the buildup to our programme launch tomorrow evening, we've got another act to shine a light on, this time for the opening weekend of the festival.
On Sunday 12 August at 8pm, the gorgeous St. Canice's Cathedral plays home to La Morra, an international formation of young Early Music specialists who came together at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis over ten years ago.
In the time since, they've toured all over Europe and the US and their appearance at the Kilkenny Arts Festival marks their Irish debut. On that Sunday night they'll be exploring the music of Spain in the late fifteenth / early sixteenth century (Early Renaissance) in a programme of work titled Luz Del Alva or The Light of Dawn.
Kindly sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland in Ireland, we're delighted to welcome musicians Arianna Savall, Petter Johansen, Tore Eketorp, Corina Marti and Michal Gondko to perform highlights from this extraordinarily beautiful repertoire, once beloved of the Spanish aristocracy.
What Is Luz Del Alva?
Of Love, War and Transiency of Life: Spanish Songs of the Early Renaissance
The reign of the Catholic Monarchs - a stormy period in Spanish history corresponding to the last decades of the 15th and the first decades of the 16th century - has left a rich musical legacy. An essential part of it is the vast repertoire of Spanish secular art song written to amatory, political propaganda, philosophical or devotional texts. Most of this repertoire was written down the manuscript widely known as Cancionero Musical de Palacio (now in the Royal Library in Madrid) which 'towers above every other secular monument of Spanish Renaissance musical history' (Robert Stevenson).
The Repertoire
villancicos and canciones by Anchieta, Badajoz, Bruecquet, Encina, Escobar, Fernández, Wreede, Leon, Ponce, Ribera and anonymous; instrumental music by Ebreo, Torre, Ghiselin and Dalza.
Where Do They Come From
LA MORRA makes its home in Basle, the cultural capital of Switzerland. In Basle, the ensemble enjoys close proximity of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (where the performance of 'early music' has been taught for over 75 years), the town's University, and their rich resources for pre-1500 music. The ensemble (usually up to 10 vocalists and instrumentalists working under the joint artistic leadership of Corina Marti and Michal Gondko) re-defines itself according to the requirements of concert or recording projects it undertakes.
Book Your Tickets
Tickets for La Morra's performance at St. Canice's Cathedral are available to book online, priced €25 (concession €22) or you can book online at 056 7752175. You can also check out LaMorra.info for more details.
