Tuesday 25 November 2014

Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe 1764 - Jerusalem

"Matins is the monastic nighttime liturgy, ending at dawn, of the canonical hours. In the Roman Catholic pre-Vatican-II breviary, it is divided into three nocturns. The name "matins" originally referred to the morning office also known as lauds. When the nocturnal monastic services called vigils or nocturns were joined with lauds, the name of "matins" was applied at first to the concluding morning service and later still to the entire series of vigils." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matins
Musically speaking, matins (mornings) refers to a composition of sacred character intended to be performed from late night until before dawn. Its structure is quite simple: An introduction (Deus in adjutorium), ensuing by an alternation of antiphonies sung in plain chant and responsories constructed in a more elaborated way sung with instrumental accompaniment by soloists. For finishing is sung the salm "Te DEUM". In this recording were added intentionally two works of Sumaya; as interludio "Albricias mortales" (mortals, good news) and as ending "Angélicas milicias" (heavenly militias).

Enjoy :)
Here

Thursday 6 November 2014

La Música de la Catedral de Oaxaca, México

Let's continue our journey through hispanoamerican baroque music with this release of Sumaya's sacred music.

Enjoy :)
Here

Sunday 2 November 2014

México Barroco Vol II - Navidad


This cd is really a jewel (though, I only retrieved the cd among a bunch of cd's I had forgotten beneath my bed). I tried to do a little research on the web, but I only succeeded to find this: http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/urt2002.htm. It is a shame that not only in the main page of the label "URTEXT" exist this album, and much less about its predecessor.

The value of this recording not only resides on its fine interpretation and sound, or on the great quality of the pieces selected, but in that it represents one of the first Echenique's recordings of mexican baroque, being Echeniques a pioneer in this kind of repertory (though already existed by then previous recordings; e.g. Chanticleer's), making of this cd a piece of collection.

If someone has the booklet or knows about the previous recording of this series "México Barroco (1990-1991)" (that is different from the series of the same name already posted) please let me know.

Enjoy :)