Trazos de los ministriles

Juan García de Salazar (1639-1710)
Regina coeli  

Anónimo (ca. 1510, Catedral de Burgos, sillería del coro)
Entrada 

Francisco Soto (fl. 1526-1563)
Tiento del sesto tono 

Francisco de Peñalosa (ca. 1470-1528)
Sancta Mater istud agas 

Luis Milán (a. 1500-d. 1561)
Pavana y gallarda 

Mateo Flecha (1481-1553)
Jerigonza 

Adrian Willaert (c. 1490-1552)
Vecchie letrose 

Antonio de Cabezón (1510-1566)
Tiento (organ solo)
Diferencias sobre el canto de Madama le demanda 
Diferencias sobre las Vacas
Canto del cavallero (organ solo)

Juan García de Salazar
Da pacem Domine 

Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1584-1654)
Tiento 3º de 6º tono sobre la batalla de Morales

A. Martín y Coll (1671-1734)
Tamborilero (organ solo)

Francisco Tejada (Libro de clavicímbano, 1721)
Gitanilla 
Zambomba
Marizápalos
Folias de España (organ solo)

Fabritio Caroso (c.1527-c.1605)
Canarios con sus glosas

Ministriles are, according to the Diccionario de Autoridades (the first edition of the dictionary of the Real Academia Española de la Lengua), at the late date of 1732, wind instruments, the most significant examples being reed instruments, shawms and dulcians.  The ensemble of ministriles is completed by instruments with mouthpieces, the cornetto and the sackbut.  Occasionally the ministriles would play recorders in order to obtain variety of timbre.

The ensemble of ministriles, thus composed, was not exclusive to Hispanic lands.  However, its deep and intense sound is, together with the Iberian organ, one of the most characteristic in Spanish music.  The cultural importance of the ministriles arises from their long existence in Spain, of the multitude of functions attributed to them, of the impact they had (transforming themselves into other ensembles of great popularity), their sonic peculiarity and their obstinate vocation to imitate the human voice and their permanent relationship with the voice in churches and cathedrals.

Marsyas is an old satyr from Greek mythology, who plays a wind instrument and who challenges Apollo, who plays a stringed instrument, to a musical competition, which he loses.  Apollo then flays him.  It seemed to us appropriate and in character, as the Ministriles of Marsyas, to deal in some detail with what we may call the competition between Apollo and Marsyas, which appears in many texts from the period, written by vihuelists and organists, from sympathetic literature and even by Monteverdi, in which the ministriles are “flayed”.  These texts are the fruit of the discussion amongst instrumentalists of the imitation of the human voice, and are part of a wider debate, part of Western culture, concerning nature and culture.  Such arguments, Apollonian, proper, amongst us, to the must cultivated of musicians, vihuelists and organists, are of the kind that in Italy led to the seconda prattica.  On the other hand, the ministriles went to the heart of musical practice in demonstrating what the imitation of the human voice is: quality of sound, dynamics, good pronunciation, the ability to play in all modes and, as music was considered discourse, ornamentation and glosas.

In their affectionate attachment to nature (Marsyas, unlike Apollo, lives in contact with nature), that is, to the human voice, the minstriles take on wonderfully the risk of imperfection, being replaced, before the middle of the 17th century, by technically and culturally more advanced instruments, though in Spain, a country of late harvests, the continued until the 19th century!

In this programme, which demonstrates no more and no less than two and a half centuries of Spanish music for ministriles, both sacred and profane, we reclaim, with the curiosity of the ministriles mentioned by Hernando de Cabezón, the heritage of this firm, humble and very Spanish sound.

Paco Rubio
Ministriles de Marsias

Ministriles de Marsias

Ministriles de Mársias is  a true group of minstrels, players of wind instruments in cathedral choirs.  The name of the group has to do with the argument between the civilized Apollo, with his harp, and the savage minstrel Marsyas, playing on the tíbia.  This rivalry between strings and winds was evoked by Monteverdi and other contemporaries when they scored their works in order to reflect the ability of the minstrels to imitate and support the humen voice.  And not only musicians, but famous painters (Ribera, Rubens, Velázquez...) and writers of the time.  The ensemble specializes in the performance of Spanish music, not only instrumental but vocal, bringing together singers and organ in order to recreate the model that was typical of the chapels of Spanish churches and cathedrals, in which minstrels were indispensable from the end of the 15th century to the mid-18th century, and where some of the greatest Spanish music was conceived (Anchieta, Peñalosa, Morales, Guerrero, Victoria, Cabezón, Correa de Arauxo).  The Ministriles de Mársias began to make recordings arising from their extensive work in the recovery of the heritage of Spanish music.  Their CD “Trazos de los MInistriles” won the first prize for the best renaissance CD in 2010, awarded by the readers of the Compact CD magazine.  Their most recent double CD, Invenciones de glosas: Antonio de Cabezón was classified as an ”exeptional disc” by Compact CD magazine (May 2011).  The Ministriles de Mársias have performed all over Europe and within Spain in prestigious early music festivals.  Its members have either taught musical pedagogy both during the academic year and on summer courses, or are members of symphony orchestras as soloists on modern instruments, carrying out musicological work or giving solo recitals.

Church and Convent of Santa Clara, Funchal

The church of Santa Clara had acquired a small positive organ with Italo-Iberian characteristics in the 18th century. With the extinction of the religious orders and the subsequent sale of the congregation’s goods, the organ was also put up for sale, being purchased by a certain Romano de Santa Clara, who kept it in a wing of the dissolved convent. In 1921 he gave it to the fraternity of Santa Clara, so that it could once more be put to service in the worship of the church. In October 1923 the task of ‘repairing’ it was put in the hands of the musicians César R. Nascimento and Guilherme H. Lino, who completed the work in November of the following year.

Unused and badly damaged for many years, this instrument of considerable historical value underwent a major restoration by Dinarte Machado on the basis of proper criteria drawn from a knowledge of the organ-building practices of the instrument’s period. This was completed in 2001. The poor state of the instrument, completely disfigured, required a rigorous, in-depth study on which to base this restoration. Thus we see how from the outset Dinarte Machado went to considerable pains in the course of this restoration.

Manual (C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb-c’’’)

Principale (c#’-c’’’)
Ottava (4’)
Quintadecima
Decimanona
Vigesimaseconda e Trigesimasesta
Flauto 8’
Flauto 4’
Cornetto (c#’-c’’’)