Capella de Ministrers has recorded ‘Arrels’

PRESS RELEASE

Valencia, March 5th, 2018

Capella de Ministrers has recorded Arrels, a work based on traditional Valencian music from the perspective of historical music. It includes on the verses of five Valencian poets: Vicent Andrés Estellés, Marc Granell, Jaume Pérez Muntaner, Begonya Pozo and Isabel Robles, and prestigious musicians and artists.

Arrels, directed by Carles Magraner, reformulates the oral tradition, with the presence of the ‘versaors’, adapting it to include the beautiful poems written for this work to the ‘cant d’estil’, ‘peteneres’, ‘cants de batre’, ‘cançons de bressol’ … This album, recorded this weekend at the Centro Cultural La Beneficencia (Valencia), will be number 56 of the group and will be presented at the Serenates Festival organized by the University of Valencia and the Valencian Institute of Music in the month of June.

The album will include 15 songs and has the collaboration of artists like Josep Aparicio ‘Apa’ and Elia Casanova and musicians like Eduard Navarro, Robert Cases, Aziz Samsaoui, David Antich, Pau Ballester, Lixsania Fernandez and Sara Agueda. The goal of Capella de Ministrers, after thirty years of work in the recovery of a great musical legacy, is to value this heritage with a research and musicological work that has allowed to establish the links between oral tradition and other more archaic forms of composition that formally use common elements and similar harmonic structures.

The diversity and miscegenation is enriched by poems that contribute to unite the ancient music (that which is conserved in manuscripts) and the traditional one with songs and melodies that have passed from parents to children with improvised lyrics adapted for each occasion. They have preserved thanks to the tradition of being interpreted generation after generation.

Oral tradition
Magraner, violagambist and musicologist, says that “poems are unique and exclusive works, written specifically for this album that was just shaping up and taking shape at the Festival Arrels de Torrent”. The musician of Almussafes is “very satisfied with this exceptional collaboration with great artists and references of Valencian poetry.”

Capella de Ministrers compiles vocal songs and instrumental pieces from Alicante, Castellón and Valencia in Arrels to give value to the music of oral tradition and which it presents in all its richness. In the first edition of the Festival Arrels de Torrent, which was held from February 5 to 9, it was possible to enjoy various concerts and presentations related to this repertoire. This musical project was carried out with the collaboration of the City Council of Torrent, the Valencian Institute of Culture, Caixa Popular, the Torrent Professional Music Conservatory and the Torrent Auditorium.

Capella de Ministrers, which celebrated its 30th anniversary of presence in prestigious national and international audiences in 2017, has worked rigorously in the recovery of a heritage that has been rescued and disseminated in 1,500 concerts, a legacy that it has collected in its own albums, participations, compilations and promotional CDs.

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Capella de Ministrers fusiona música antigua y tradicional en el disco ‘Arrels’

Capella de Ministrers graba ‘Arrels’, un disco que fusiona la música antigua con la tradicional