In this new programme, Leonardo García Alarcón invites us to discover the accompanied monodies, arias and madrigals for one or two voices by Sigismondo d’India, a late-Renaissance and early-Baroque Italian composer, carried by the sublime voices of Mariana Flores and Julie Roset.
Madrigals for one or two voices
While the exact date and place of birth of Sigismondo d’India (c. 1582 Palermo – before 19 April 1629 in Modena) is unknown, his extraordinary career as a musician-courtier and the modernity and expressive power of his music make him, in the words of musicologist Paolo Emilio Carapezza, “one of the founding fathers of modern music, between the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque period.”
During d’India’s time, solo vocal music was characterized by ornate vocal melodies composed to the words of a secular poetic text and an instrumental accompaniment played by one or more instruments capable of producing harmonic chords, such as the harpsichord, organ, lute, theorbo, guitar, harp or viol.
“Our aim is to reveal the elegance, depth and poetry of Sigismondo d’India’s music, which sets it apart from the frivolities of the dramaturgical universe of opera, which emerged around 1600. This music is not intended to entertain or amuse. This is music that we must reflect on and savour in an almost philosophical way, like an incursion into the depths of human emotion. Under the hand of Sigismondo d’India, this return to silence is almost like a pathway to purification, in the deepest sense of the word. It is a precious gift in the aftermath of the silent world that was imposed upon us in 2020.”
Leonardo García Alarcón
Artists
Mariana Flores & Julie Roset, soprano
Cappella Mediterranea
Margaux Blanchard, bass viola da gamba
Marie Bournisien, harp
Quito Gato, theorbo and guitar
Mónica Pustilnik, archlute
Cappella Mediterranea
Leonardo García Alarcón, harpsichord, organ and direction
