Capella de Ministrers will open the 3rd INTERNATIONAL COURSE ON MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE MUSIC with a special concert program in commemoration of this event: Timete Deum, the Apocalypse of St. Vincent Ferrer (Youtube). Full information: Cultural Comes.
In order to put an end to the Great Western Schism – which had led to the paradoxical situation of three simultaneous popes in dispute for the primacy – and to address several doctrinal issues of the Catholic Church, an ecumenical council took place in Constance from 1414. In the preparations for this historic event, two Spanish figures had a decisive role: Benedict XIII, pope of the Avignonese line (known as “el Papa Luna” in Spanish), and the Valencian saint Vincent Ferrer. Their decisions were to be crucial for their own fate and for the future of Europe. Thus, on 18 July 1414 the antipope Benedict XIII, fleeing from Avignon, the Valencian saint and King Ferdinand I (father of Alfonso V the Magnanimous) met in Morella. Their parley lasted for fifty days but was unfruitful. Shortly thereafter, King Ferdinand and St. Vincent Ferrer, in a sermon in Perpignan, decided to withdraw their former support to the Aragonese antipope, who was then isolated in Peñiscola until his death. Taking the 600th anniversary of this event as starting point, the 3rd edition of the International Course and Festival on Medieval and Renaissance Music of Morella will pay homage to these figures, decisive for Late Medieval Europe. To mark this anniversary, Carles Magraner, leading the ensemble Capella de Ministrers, will open the Festival with a special concert program in commemoration of this event: Timete Deum, the Apocalypse of St. Vincent Ferrer.
The additional activities of the course that will develop around this are: exhibitions by instrument makers, lectures by specialists elaborating on the relationship between and historical relevance of St. Vincent Ferrer and the Papa Luna, and on diverse aspects of Medieval and Renaissance music, student concerts by the different course sections, a night tour to the medieval castle, and the concerts of the Festival of Medieval and Renaissance Music, which will take place in the Gothic Town Hall of Morella, the Archpriestal Church of St. Mary (built in 1265-1330, and housing an original Baroque organ by Turull), and the Convent of St. Francis (founded in 1272), whose surviving Gothic cloister’s chapter house features a 15th century mural painting representing the Medieval dance of death (Dansa de la Mort), which is the leitmotif of the course from its birth. Furthermore, the present edition includes a seminar on traditional music and its relationship with Medieval and Renaissance art music, with specialists on instruments and repertories belonging to t!he Mediterranean oral traditions.
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