Ensemble Diatessaron

Elena Martínez de Murguía (viola da gamba)
Rafael Bonavita (theorbo, baroque guitar)

Musika Loreak – Musical Flowers

The Basque messenger: An encounter between cultures in the Europe of kings

Artist message to visitors

We have taken the title Musical Flowers from a collection by Martin y Coll, which reflects many types of songs that were fashionable and that shaped the Europe of the time. We like it because it displayed a way to make music: melodies were borrowed, rhythms were copied, enriching and changing the music according to the time and place. It is very nice to see that the same song was known and used in different countries. Variations appeared, the so-called "floreaba", which means free ornamentation. Since we identify with this creative spirit, we travel and wish to show that we are more alike than different, driven by the same energy and that we enrich each other.

About the project

The idea for the programme was born quite naturally since we like the instruments we play and their repertoire. The programme presents one of the best and most productive periods in music, when artists invented and experimented and music was a way of life. With our audience we like to communicate and share the emotions that the ever-living music, originating from different sources, evokes in us. We believe that through infinite flow of musical languages one gets from local to universal, from folk to cultivated.

It should be noted that the title chosen for the collection is not something new. Rodríguez Coelho was one to publish a collection with the same name already in 1620 in Lisbon. What’s more, such titles were widespread throughout Baroque Europe. Just think of Frescobaldi’s Fiori musicali or Musikalisches Blumenbüschlein by Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer.

In the first half of the 17th century Spanish music became popular in France, particularly by ways of theatre. At her wedding with king Louis XIII of France, Anna of Austria, daughter of Philip III of Spain, was accompanied by a group of Spanish musicians and dancers. In 1625 Louis even ordered a portrait of himself dancing to the music of Spanish musicians playing guitars.

Next, Maria Theresa of Spain, daughter of king Philip IV of Spain, brought to her wedding with Louis XIV of France a group of Spanish comedians. At the time the composer Lully was very popular in Versailles. As a tribute to the queen, he (working with Moliere) sometimes used Spanish characters and literary myths in his comedies and later tragedies. He was also responsible for Spanish dances becoming more refined. Pavanes, folias, chaconnes, sarabandes, and others that Versailles loved, were newly transformed; as such they returned to their homeland and were greeted as old friends that rose in status.

Similarly, works with folk origin (such as Tonos de Palacio or Canciones más communes) were built on already established melodic, harmonic and rhythmic patterns. We have nice examples of foreign canciones, which were transcribed but retained typical Spanish rhythm. The compositional techniques used unveil the French court dances such as menuet, rigaudon, bourrée, or allemande, courante or sarabande that quickly became part of the ‘French suite’.

In 1553 Diego Ortiz set the foundations of basso continuo in his work for viola da gamba Tratado de Glosas, thus making it quite normal for many pieces for two voices to demand fuller harmonies with the help of bass, whether its part be written or not.