Dreams of Andalusia
SKU:
£13.50
£13.50
Unavailable
per item
Joglaresa & Belinda Sykes
Label: Metronome Recordings Ltd
Catalogue No: METCD 1062
Discs: 1
Dreams of Andalusia
Catalogue No: METCD 1062
Discs: 1
Islamic Spain from the 8th to the 15th century allowed a great flourishing of musical traditions. This multicultural haven, known by its Arabic name of al-Andalus, where Arabic, Spanish, Latin, Hebrew and Ladino were spoken, gave us troubadour lyrics, canto hondo, flamenco and the guitar – fashioned by the great Arab musician, Ziryab, who added a fifth string to the lute. The critical innovation in song was the strophic (verse-form) song with refrain: the muwashshah written in classical Arabic and the zajal written in Andalusian dialect of Arabic. The texts are reproduced with translations in Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish in the booklet.
Joglaresa is a band that embraces with gusto the extraordinary character of this spectacular music. The band is drawn from a group of musicians with both classical, world music and jazz backgrounds. Belinda Sykes, its leader, provides a characterful and virtuosic voice backed up by a thorough knowledge of the idiom, history and music of this period. The rhythm section of the band also gives a powerful and strong identity to this celebratory music and roots it very strongly in cultural traditions. The band displays the boldness and improvisatory chutzpah that gets straight to the heart of medieval music and is not too precious.
The programme includes Cantigas de Santa Maria where there are extant music notations. No such records exist for Arabic and Hebrew songs so in recreating them they have drawn on living traditions relating to the songs, using known Arab-Andalusian and Christian melodies and improvisation. In this way they are fitting inheritors of a distinctive group of performers who have explored with their imaginations this repertoire Andrea von Ramm, Esther Lamandier, Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall.
Joglaresa is a band that embraces with gusto the extraordinary character of this spectacular music. The band is drawn from a group of musicians with both classical, world music and jazz backgrounds. Belinda Sykes, its leader, provides a characterful and virtuosic voice backed up by a thorough knowledge of the idiom, history and music of this period. The rhythm section of the band also gives a powerful and strong identity to this celebratory music and roots it very strongly in cultural traditions. The band displays the boldness and improvisatory chutzpah that gets straight to the heart of medieval music and is not too precious.
The programme includes Cantigas de Santa Maria where there are extant music notations. No such records exist for Arabic and Hebrew songs so in recreating them they have drawn on living traditions relating to the songs, using known Arab-Andalusian and Christian melodies and improvisation. In this way they are fitting inheritors of a distinctive group of performers who have explored with their imaginations this repertoire Andrea von Ramm, Esther Lamandier, Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall.