Ritual

Javier Pérez Escohotado

In this repertory, Ritual. Cycle of Life, presented by Capella de Ministrers, both the sacred and the profane are explored, each invoked in what they share of ritual, of gesture and celebration, of remembrance, of culture, of communal worship. If History is the custodian of memory, we are the peninsula across which, for better or worse, willingly or by force, individuals of the three monotheistic faiths—Christians, Jews, and Muslims—have passed and coexisted. Into that vast repository which is History, all of them contributed memorable riches and their own distinctive culture.

That coexistence, far from idyllic as it often was, has sometimes been interpreted as a kind of golden age of concord and tolerance. Evidently, such an age existed only in part. Yet, even so, we would all wish that, after the passing of centuries, coexistence and tolerance might cease to be an unworkable utopia and become instead a viable possibility.

The Sephardim—Jews who form part of our own history, the very History of Spain—after their expulsion, exodus, and dispersion in 1492, gathered around the name Sefarad, the name they gave to Spain and, by extension, the Iberian Peninsula. From this symbolic and cultural center, shared by those faiths, they reached the most distant points—across a sea they navigated and knew well. Wherever they arrived, they brought their crafts and knowledge, preserving the living tongue of their ancestors: Sephardic, ladino, or Judeo-Spanish. They settled above all on the shores of that sea of veneration, the mare nostrum, the common sea. Hence these canticas of Ritual. Cycle of Life intermingle sounds of Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Bulgarian, not only Ladino or Sephardic—since in sharing a common music, one could still imagine oneself in Casablanca, Salonika, Sofia, Ferrara, Venice, Odessa, Istanbul, Tangier, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Alexandria, Smyrna… and perhaps even today, still weeping in Jerusalem.

Carles Magraner

The Ritual and the Cycle of Life that shape the repertory of Capella de Ministrers transcend cultural boundaries through the profound common root of the Mediterranean peoples. For centuries this mare nostrum has been a meeting ground, a space of coexistence for Jewish, Sephardic, Arab, Turkish, Greek, and many other communities, who shared languages, customs, and music in a web of exchanges and cross-fertilizations. After the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews from Spain in 1492, their communities maintained and enriched their musical and social traditions in their new settlements around the Mediterranean basin. Out of this arose a musical culture of great richness and diversity, expressed in many tongues—Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Bulgarian, Ladino—emblems of coexistence and dialogue among diverse peoples.

Music is a universal language, able to convey sorrow, hope, spirituality, and the daily life of those who perform and share it. It is living testimony of collective memory and a tool of social cohesion. When we evoke places such as Casablanca, Salonika, Sofia, Ferrara, Venice, Odessa, Istanbul, Tangier, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Alexandria, Smyrna, or Jerusalem, we are giving voice to a common cultural memory and celebrating the dignity and historical wealth of the peoples of the Mediterranean. This Ritual, born of crossroads and of shared histories, embodies plurality, coexistence, and the integrative force of culture, standing against oblivion, genocide, and exclusion. To honor this legacy is itself an act of historical recognition and a pledge for coexistence, peace, and dialogue among cultures.

Françoise-Flore Atlan

I had the opportunity to meet Carles Magraner in Casablanca, Morocco, just after a concert he had given with the Arab-Andalusian Orchestra in Fez. We immediately bonded over the Sephardic repertory, and shortly thereafter he invited me to collaborate. It was a true pleasure to sing surrounded by magnificent musicians, under the direction of this great artist and master—accompanied inwardly by the voices of my mother, my grandmother, and my aunts.

Moving from my lyrical voice to my more “natural” voice, and at times singing in that intermediate register for which I have such affection, I had the chance to learn enormously during this recording: a marvellous memory in an exceptional place! The ornaments, which arise so organically in the singing, are due to the excellent arrangements of Carles Magraner—faithful to tradition, yet daring at the same time: a sure way of giving life to a repertory that is multiple, commemorative, always present, and at the same time forward-looking.