¡Ay que sí, Ay que no!
Ancient and traditional music from Spain
This program combines vocal and instrumental music, mainly from the Renaissance and Baroque.
Until 1492 different cultures lived together on the Iberian Peninsula: Arab, Jewish, Visigoth, Basque and Celtic influences merged with the Latin world to form an amalgam that has lost none of its fascination to this day. This diversity was also reflected in art and music and remained present in the centuries that followed. Today we are able to interpret these ancient songs through two different forms of transmission. On the one hand, there are historical sources such as Cancioneros from the 15th and 16th centuries, lute books from the 16th century and collections of composed works from the 17th century. On the other hand, there is oral tradition with collections dating back to the 19th century. They were written down or recorded by musicologists in the 18th and 20th centuries.
The oral tradition of the music of that time did not remain in Spain alone. At the end of the 15th century, the orally transmitted music traveled with the refugees from Spain to various places in Europe, Africa and Asia. It remained alive as so-called Sephardic Music in many places around the world.
Our program is like enjoying a menu whose starters and main courses are filled with jácaras, romances, traditional Basque songs, secular songs from the “Siglo de Oro”. They tell of love and its sad and serene circumstances, of battles between Moors and Christians, but there are also odes to freedom and the beauty of nature.
As entremets, the famous theme “La Folia”, which was the inspiration for numerous improvisational models and compositions and thus almost became a symbol of Spanish music in the 16th and 17th centuries, is varied.
For dessert we will surprise you with sweets that will take us to a later era, the 19th century and its fin de siècle.
June Telletxea: Sopran
Max Hattwich: Theorbe & Baroque guitar
Julia Kursawe: Baroque cello & cello piccolo
Kastagnetten and Tamburin give the dishes on the menu the right flavor.