Bridging Musical Heritage

©Adriana Romero

BMH - Bridging Musical Heritage is a new project that creatively promotes and spreads European early music heritage. The project consolidates connections steadily weaved over the last 10 years between research and historical performance practice centres in Portugal, Spain and France, aiming to broaden their respective spectrum of action and influence.

Through the circulation of musicians, by making recovered scores from the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra (Portugal) easily accessible, by producing digital free-view content, and by holding multiple and diverse pedagogical actions, Bridging Musical Heritage will offer new perspectives on early music heritage and promote the transnational exchange of musicians and patrimony within Europe. This will have a lasting impact on present and future generations by catalyzing interest and curiosity towards Europe's shared culture and musical heritage, while simultaneously making them widely and readily accessible.

CONSORTIUM

ACTIVITIES

Musicology

Historical study and critical edition of 16th and 17th-century music manuscripts and printed (including the reconstruction of lost music parts) from Coimbra (Portugal) and Valladolid (Spain).

Concerts (all firmly rooted in the recovered music manuscripts)

Bando de Surunyo will present 1 concert in Serbia, 2 concerts in Spain and 1 concert in Portugal. Capella Sanctæ Crucis will present 2 concerts in Spain, 2 concerts in France and 1 concert in Portugal. Both ensembles will participate in the joint concert “Dance of the planets” in Portugal. This will be the project's final concert, enhanced with staging and dance.

Conferences

Tiago Simas Freire, Hugo Sanches, Soterraña Rincón and Paulo Estudante will give conferences about music in 16th and 17th century manuscript and printed sources from the collections held by the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Archivo Musical de la Catedral de Valladolid (Spain) in order to provide contextualization and share scientific knowledge. The aim is to engage a more interested audience, sparking curiosity towards the repertoire and eliciting a sense of European added value.

Workshops

Tiago Simas Freire and Hugo Sanches, apart from being the artistic directors of the ensembles named above, are also active musicians (cornett and recorder, and lute, respectively). They will both give workshops on historically informed performance at each set concert. This is also another way of engaging the audience and/or the student community with both the project and the music, reaching immediate results.

Pedagogical Activity

Tiago Simas Freire is a teacher at CNSMDL and will lead the pedagogical project, assisted by Soterraña Aguirre Rincón, Paulo Estudante and Hugo Sanches, for the students of Early Music department of CNSMDL on performance of Iberian polychoral repertoire from the end of 16th century until mid-17th century in Latin and vernacular – "Iberian polychorality 1590 - 1650" / "Polychoralité ibérique 1590-1650".

Publishing

The edited music and facmisiles will be available on the official website of the project to free download. 2 CD-books, namely “Missa La zagala mas hermosa" and “Polychoralité ibérique 1650”. Concert videos will be available on the official website of the project and/or partners websites and/or online platforms during and/or after the concerts. Video-documentary about the project, registering every stage, from the manuscripts study to their critical editing, from the rehearsals and backstage to the concerts, workshops and conferences, the whole enriched with several interviews.