Music as God sends

One of the first initiatives promoted by the director of the Museum of Music of Barcelona, ​​Jordi Alomar, when premiered in office just four years ago was the creation of a cycle that highlighted the intercultural dialogue that is music and took it to the streets of the Catalan capital, beyond the walls of the equipment. The idea was baptized as’Trànsits‘(Transit) and was made in collaboration with the Office of Religious Affairs of the City Council. The result is a series of concerts that in four editions have established itself as a reference of Interculturality, through religions: A more than commendable initiative for these convulsive times in which it tends more to create barricades than to build bridges.

• Music:
  Cristóbal de Morales, Palestrina, detachment.
• Interpreters:
  Ensemble Cristóbal de Morales. J of the blonde, organ. Pl biosca, address.
• Date:
  February 20.
• Place:
  Church of Pi, Barcelona.

This edition has opened in a Catholic Church, to give us the opportunity to listen to the Misa Ave Maris Stella de Cristóbal de Morales – Fine Canela, and how forgotten we have it – in its natural context: a complete Mass, with its readings, its prayers, its sermon and its communion. Here the museum and its director lead us to another reflection: we have become accustomed to listening to masses in the auditoriums, and the churches have become accustomed to putting aside this part of their heritage. Perhaps this dialogue should be more frequent, seen than the one that Basilica of the PI was full to overflow a day during the week at nine o’clock.

He officiated the liturgy Santiago BuenoDean of the Cathedral of Barcelona, ​​who in his preaching reflected on the essence of the human being as a creature at the same time created and creative. Morales, after all, was a creative God as he spread those notes for his papers. He also remembered that music in the liturgy does not only have an beautifying function, but has the task of approach the mystery of the divine. Thus, he invited the parishioners to close their eyes and let themselves.

There the other protagonist of the ceremony came into play, the Ensemble Cristóbal de Morales, founded in Barcelona by Pere Lluís Biosca in close collaboration with the organist Juan de la blonde. In case with them two foul talent, the singers who make up the group are of an enviable level: all of them have worked with some of the best teachers, such as Ton Koopman and Jordi Savall, and carry out interesting careers as soloists or in specialized formations in ancient music.

The result certainly forces to close your eyes and get carried away. The Mass Ave Maris Stella, interpreted within the framework of the liturgy, reveals that wisdom of the composer, capable of transmitting at every step the nuance that the faithful need in their introspection. Nothing to do with isolated listening, from end to a tail, to which disk recordings have accustomed us. Here Morales’s work charges a completely different dimensionand polyphony is a balm in the aridity of some passages of the ceremony. Morales Mass was accompanied by other compositions of Palestrina and detachmentwhich allowed to verify the stratospheric level that reached the music of the Sevillian.

The voices the choir and the accompaniment of the organ demonstrate absolute solvency in the interpretation of this repertoire. Balance, elegance, delicacy and emotion They are the badges of this group founded in 2023 with the task of giving life to the scores of Morales that are preserved in the Lleida Museum. Biosca’s work is commendable. His long career supports him, but in the Ensemble Cristóbal de Morales and in this particular project he seems to have found something to go further. They have already drawn the first album, precisely with this Mass Ave Maris Stella, and promise to give many joys in the coming years. We will have to be attentive. Morales is well worth a mass. Enough masses, in fact.