Un mar de músicas

Jordi Savall is not only one of the leading viol players of our time, but also a pioneering thinker in the field of historically informed performance practice. As the founder of numerous top quality original sound ensembles, he has rediscovered several centuries of forgotten music from around the globe and regularly made it accessible in thematically curated concerts. Together with guest musicians from Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Mali, Venezuela and Mexico and his ensembles Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, in “Un mar de músicas” Jordi Savall now pays homage to the more than 12 million people deported and enslaved by the European powers over four centuries – and their musical languages. An evening that recalls this human tragedy and that spreads a net of sound across the Black Atlantic, from the coast of Africa to the shores of America, to the Caribbean and back to Europe, revealing the routes that musical influences took in both directions: European Baroque and Renaissance music influenced the Creole songs and composers of the colonies, while in turn the music of the slaves inspired composers in France and Spain. “Un mar de músicas” supplements these sounds with texts that recount the history of the European slave trade in all its vehemence: from the first expeditions by human traders in Africa, taking in the incipient uprisings in the Caribbean region and moving on to the eventual decision to abolish slavery. An act of remembrance for all those for whom music became a means of survival.