Manuel Pascual, Josue Melndez: cornett
Dani Pelagatti: shawm
Cristina Hess, Keal Couper: trombone
Barbara Sela:  dulcian

Programme:

Claudio Merulo da Correggio (1533 – 1604):
Canzoni per Sonare con ogni sorte di stromenti. Libro Primo:
Canzon 23 a 5
Venice 1608

Cesario Gussaro (1550 – 1620):
Sonate a quattro sei et otto, con alcuni Concerti a Otto
La Rizza, sonata à 4
Venice, 1608

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (ca. 1525 - 1594):
Primo libro dei Motetti:
Ave Maria
Venice, 1583
:
Vicenzo Ruffo (1510 – 1592)
Capricci in Musica a tre voci:
La Gamba in Basso e Soprano
(Milano, 1564

Giuseppe Guami (ca. 1540 – 1611)
Canzoni da sonare
Canzon la Cromatica a 4
Venice, 1601

Giovanni Gabrieli
(ca. 1553-1612)
Canzoni e sonate
Canzon III a 6
Venice, 1615

Tomas Luís de Victoria (1548 - 1611)
Motecta
Vidi Speciosam a 6
Venecia 1572

Juan Bermudo (ca. 1510 – ca. 1565)
Declaracion de instrumentos musicales
Pange Lingua a 3
Osuna, 1555

Cristóbal de Morales (ca. 1500 – 1553)
Moralis Hispani Motecta,
Manus tuas Domine a 5
Venice, 1546

Francisco Guerrero (1529 - 1599)
Canciones y villanescas espirituales
Niño Dios d’amor herido
Venice 1589

Carlos Patiño
(1600 - 1675)
Motetes
Salve Regina. Motete a 6
Cuenca, 1650

Anonymus:
Cancionero de Medinaceli
Danza
 

About the Programme:
Italian and Iberian music for wind instruments

Music was an essential part of civic, religious, and courtly life in the Renaissance. The rich interchange of ideas between Italy and Spain, as well as political, economic, and religious events in the period 1500–1700 led to major changes in styles of composing, methods of disseminating music, new musical genres, and the development of musical instruments. Much of the best music of the early Renaissance was composed for use by the church—polyphonic (made up of several simultaneous melodies) masses and motets in Latin were written for important churches and court chapels. In the sixteenth century, most of the main churches of the larger cities from Italy and Spain had an instrumental ensemble, and composers were invited to write for it. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, patronage of music was split among many areas: the Catholic Church, Protestant churches and courts, wealthy amateurs, and music printing—all were sources of income for composers.

The ensemble combination of cornetts and trombones was one of the most popular combinations of instruments during the second half of the sixteenth century. In Italy in particular, this ensemble became an essential part of church musical life. Hundreds of compositions were written for this combination by prominent composers. It was common for cornetts and trombones to “double” voices in the church choir – that is, to play the choir parts together with the singers. The players would also make “diminutions”, or decorative ornaments, on top of the choir’s melodies. The practice of making “diminutions” over a line of music was the specialty of cornett players. Several treatises were written in the renaissance era to explain to professional musicians, and amateurs as well, how one should learn to improvise these diminutions – obviously this kind of improvisation was a very important part of performance practice at the time.

Already in the early sixteenth century, cornett and trombone players routinely played vocal music on their instruments. In this period, when the franco-flemish style of composition had reached its peak, one of the favourite kinds of vocal music that instrumentalists liked to play was the French chanson. French chansons almost invariably began with one particular rhythm: a half-note followed by two quarter-notes. This rhythm consequently became the distinctive opening rhythm of the instrumental genre which developed from the chanson, which in Italy came to be known as the “canzona” or “canzon da sonare” (literally “song to be played”).

The instrumental canzona, and later, the sonata, became the standard instrumental genres in Italy during the later renaissance. Today’s program includes several canzoni by famous Italian composers of the late Renaissance, including Giovanni Gabrieli, who was perhaps the most talented and prolific writers of instrumental music of the period. A variety of Spanish vocal music will also be performed this evening, which has its own distinctive Spanish flavour.
 

Bio:
Hexacordo was founded in Cuenca in 2003 with the specific purpose of recreating the atmosphere of that music ensemble, where the pleasure of meeting one another gave a special flavour to making music together. Its repertoire encompasses instrumental music ranging from the Renaissance to the early Baroque, performed according to strict philological canons, but without compromising its ability to communicate with the present.