Monday, 5 July 2021, 21.30, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Main Reading Room
The Musical World of Alfonso X: Courtly Song and Marian Miracles at the Sanctuary of Terena
Narratives from Brittany
- Anonymous, Lai of Tristan: Dom Amor, eu cant’ e choro
- Anonymous, instrumental: Lamento di Tristano
- Anonymous, Lai of Hélys: Amor, des que m’ a vós cheguei
- Anonymous, instrumental: Estampie royale nº 3
Miracles of Terena (I)
- Alfonso X, CSM 198 Muitas vezes volv’ o demo
- Alfonso X, CSM 199 Com’ é o mundo avondado (version for instruments)
- Alfonso X, CSM 334 De resorgir ome morto
Troubadour interlude
- D. Dinis, cantiga d’amor: Amor fez a mim amar
- Peire Vidal: Pos tornatz sui en Proensa (version for instruments)
- Pero G. Ambroa, cantiga de maldizer: Pero d’Armea, quando composestes
- Vidal (jew from Elvas), cantiga d’amor: Moir, e faço dereito
Miracles of Terena (II)
- Anonymous, Alpha, bovi et leone (version for instruments)
- Alfonso X, CSM 200 Santa Maria loei e loo e loarei
- Alfonso X, CSM 223 Todolos coitados que querem saúde (version for instruments)
- Alfonso X, CSM 213 Quem serve Santa Maria
Troubadour postlude
- Alfonso X, Bem sabia eu, mia senhor
- Anonymous, Su la rivera (version for instruments)
- Martin Moxa, cantiga de maldizer: Maestr’Acenço, dereito faria
- Lopo Lias, cantiga de maldizer: Quem hoj’houvesse
- João Garcia de Guilhade: Vi hoj’eu donas mui bem parecer
Vozes Alfonsinas
Susana Conde Teixeira – Mezzo-soprano João Pedro Sebastião – Tenor
Sérgio Peixoto – Tenor
Victor Gaspar – Baritone
Madalena Cabral – Rebec and vielle
Pedro Sousa Silva – Recorders
Nuno Torka Miranda – Lute
Manuel Pedro Ferreira – Direction and presentation
Vozes Alfonsinas. Founded in 1995 by Manuel Pedro Ferreira, the ensemble Vozes Alfonsinas, based in Lisbon, has been at the forefront of research-based performance concerning medieval and early Renaissance sources in the Iberian Peninsula, with numerous modern premières. It performed in most of the Portuguese territory, besides Spain, Italy, Holland and the USA. Six concerts were recorded live for the radio. The critics have commended its “great stylistic awareness” (Público), “very clear sonority” (Expresso), “moments of great emotion and intensity” (Além-mar) and the “exquisite purity” of the singing (Plainsong & Medieval Music).
Discography:
1998 – CD As melodías de Martín Codax /VG.233-1998, in Johán de Cangas. Martín Codax. Meendinho: Lírica Medieval, 1200-1350, Vigo: Edicións Xerais de Galicia, ISBN 9788483022511 (recording: 1995)
2000 – CD O Tempo dos Trovadores / The Time of Troubadours, Strauss/Ministério da Cultura, col. PortugalSom SP 4287 (recording: 1999)
2001 – CD La mar de la musica: Vilancicos e música instrumental dos séculos XVI e XVII, EMI-Classics Portugal 7243-5-57130-2-5 (recording: 1998)
2008a – CD Cânticos bracarenses de Natal e Matinas de S. Geraldo, Murecords MU0104/II, in Manuel Pedro Ferreira, Antologia de Música em Portugal na Idade Média e no Renascimento, Lisboa: Arte das Musas / Cesem, ISBN 978-95983-1-7 (recording: 2000)
2008b – CD Antologia sonora: dos Visigodos a D. Sebastião, Murecords MU0104/I, in Antologia, cit. (recording: 2008)
2010 – Participation in DVD Percursos da Música Portuguesa, dir. Jorge Matta, Lisboa: Valentim de Carvalho/RTP, 947/2010, I/1-2 (recording: 2008)
2015 – Tracks 10/11/14 in CD Cantigas de Trovadores: de amigo, de amor, de maldizer, Lisboa: A Bela e o Monstro, ISBN 978-989-8737-21-2 (live recording: 2013)
2019 – CD Mon seul plaisir. Canções de corte do século XV do códice Porto 714, MPMP CD50 (recording: 2002)
Manuel Pedro Ferreira studied Music and Philosophy in Lisbon and earned his Ph.D from Princeton University. He is a Full Professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Dpt. of Musicology), where he also chairs, since 2005, the CESEM–Centre for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music. From 1995 onwards he has been performing and recording with the early music ensemble Vozes Alfonsinas, as its founder and director. He published over a hundred scholarly papers. His prize-winning book O som de Martin Codax (Lisbon, 1986) was followed by many others, either as an author or editor, e.g. Cantus coronatus (Kassel, 2005), Aspectos da Música Medieval, 2 vols. (Lisbon, 2009-2010), Revisiting the Music of Medieval France (Farnham- Burlington, 2012), Musical Exchanges, 1100-1650: Iberian connections (Kassel, 2016) and The Notation of the Cantigas de Santa Maria: Diplomatic Edition, 3 vols. (Lisbon, 2017). He has been additionally active as a music critic, a composer and a poet. He is a member of the Academia Europaea (since 2010) and Director-at-large of the International Musicological Society (since 2012).
