Soundscape of the Corpus Christi procession in Valencia (17th-18th centuries) The Feast of Corpus Christi, established in 1264 by Pope Urban IV, became one of Valencia's most important and magnificent celebrations. It's origins are tied to a Eucharistic miracle that occurred in Valencian territory-the Miracle of the Corporals of Llutxent-Daroca around 1239. This connection helped Valencia become one of the first cities in the Iberian Peninsula to organize a general Corpus Christi procession, beginning in 1355. By the 17th century, the celebration had evolved into a grand public spectacle, rich in music, theatre, and ritual. On the eve of the feast, a parade called the Cavalcada del Convit invited the populace to participate, while the afternoon featured traditional religious theatre in Valencian (els Misteris) and choreographed dances commissioned for the procession. The main procession was a stunning display involving the whole of Valencian society-from guilds to the highest civic, royal, and ecclesiastical authorities. A rich musical tapestry accompanied every step: folk instruments like the dolcainaand tabal, dramatic theatre music, ceremonial city bands, plainchant from clergy, and elaborate polyphony performed by the Cathedral's chapel. In 1672, municipal musician Josep Gomar compiled a manuscript preserving the texts and music of these plays and rituals. Today, this music offers a rare glimpse into the soundscape of baroque Valencia. This concert brings those sounds back to life, allowing audiences to relive the awe and splendor of the city's most cherished feast. Imagine yourself on a Valencian street in the late 1600s, watching and hearing the vibrant procession pass by-an unforgettable journey into the soul of a city's tradition.

The Christian tradition's liturgical repertoire prominently features Masses and Offices commemorating the life of Christ and feast days of saints. Alongside this, another significant repertoire revolves around Christ and the saints through their relics, which are venerated as physical representations of divine presence. These relics vary in significance, with those tied directly to Christ holding the highest status, followed by those connected to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Apostles, and holy martyrs. A notable private collection of relics belonged to the Byzantine Emperor until 1204, when it was mostly acquired by Louis IX of France, who constructed the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to house them. Similarly, in the Kingdom of Aragon, relics were venerated in a royal context, with a collection established during the reign of Martin I. This collection included fragments of the Holy Cross, the Holy Grail, and relics of Saint George, which were later deposited in the cathedral of Valencia. This presentation of relics was not only a spiritual practice but also integrated into religious ceremonies, often accompanied by hymns and prayers. Many of these relic-based traditions have been preserved in manuscripts that reflect medieval spirituality, offering a glimpse into the deep connection between relics, music, and devotion. The music associated with these relics, though little known today, is a rich part of the medieval cultural and religious legacy.

Bicinia and Love Villancicos in the Uppsala Songbook. "Villancicos (songs) by various composers for two, three, four and five voices, now freshly revised..." (Venice, 1556) - this is the name under which the Duke of Calabria's Songbook (or the Uppsala Songbook) was printed. The selection of�villancicos�it contains is grouped under three themes: popular songs and pastoral songs; Christmas carols, and love songs. In this album we can listen to a selection from this songbook of works for two and three voices, some of them instrumental works under the title 'Polyphonic song themes", which are structured as exercises in composition around Gregorian techniques.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This release is the first in a trilogy dedicated to Ramon Llull. The album includes pieces that represent the most influential genres of Llull’s time. These works are performed by Capella De Ministrers, conducted by Carles Magraner.

Morales' Lamentations were his best-known works, together with his Masses and Magnificats. This repertoire enjoyed an extraordinary international fame in Europe and the New World within the context of Pre-Tridentine and Post-Tridentine liturgy, owing principally to the fact that these works were composed to be performed in some of the most prestigious chapel choirs of the Renaissance. This recording by Capella de Ministrers recovers the interpretative context of this repertoire in accordance with the musical practice of Emperor Carlos V's Royal Chapel Choir, whereby the Lamentations were sung polyphonically with an instrumental accompaniment on violones.

Arrels (Roots) represents a new approach to traditional Valencian music, interpreting it through the prism of the early music repertoire. After three decades working to recover our musical heritage, Capella de Ministrers felt it was time to undertake a re-evaluation of music from the oral tradition by seeking out the links between this tradition and the oldest known compositional forms (those found in threshing songs and lullabies, in instrumental pieces with irregular beats, and in the chants of the auroros ('dawn singers') as well as the more famous boleros, fandangos and peteneras, whose commonalities of form and harmonic structure with passacaglias and ostinatos suggest that they too originated in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Arrels presents songs and instrumental pieces that trace and reaffirm the oral traditions of a rich and diverse musical world, reuniting the early music of it's manuscripts or printings with the oral traditions of it's people. Beyond "flamenco" in Spanish musical tradition.

Classical Music

Capella de Ministrers presents this 30th anniversary commemorative album, a live recording with a selection of instrumental works of its latest recording on Raymond Lully, a musical mixture that enjoins the dreams of all the Mediterranean shores. Raymond Lully is born in the island of Majorca ca. 1232, shortly after King James I had conquered it from the Muslims. After his apprenticeship, Lully begins his first trips on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea, in Italy, France and Tunis, with his eyes always set upon the East, the Holy Land, with a special emphasis on the idea of a “pax universalis”, an idea that was not utopian for him but both possible and necessary. He will never stop fighting for it until his last trip to North Africa and from where, once back in Mallorca, he would die. The Medieval Journey: a musical mixture that enjoins the dreams of all the Mediterranean shores, the privileged space wherein Lully would act.