 Un disque tout en délicatesse, produit et porté par Sara Águeda et sa "arpa de dos ordenes", un instrument rare né et développé au sein de la péninsule ibérique au début du XVIème siècle. Harpe nouvelle, elle se dote d'un jeu de cordes chromatique en plus de sa conception diatonique traditionnelle. Elle deviendra pour plus d'un siècle la harpe reine de la musique sacrée puis des divertissements profanes. C'est ce répertoire des théâtres de l'époque qui est exploré dans un enregistrement de septembre 2016. En trois actes, vingt-six morceaux courts et une longue conclusion, Sara Águeda et ses acolytes Calia Álvarez à la vièle (à archet) et Daniel Garay aux percussions s'attachent à recréer les tableaux qu'ils imaginent de ces temps passés, avec finesse et enthousiasme. Invités, la mezzo-soprano Adriana Mayer et le ténor Victor Sordo sont tout à leur rôle pour sept titres transcendants. Ces interprétations vocales dialoguent avec la harpe et coupent l'unité d'un répertoire instrumental, fait de tableaux souvent très courts, qui se place aussi sous la référence textuelle. Dans le beau livret (espagnol/anglais), Cervantes, Shakespeare, Lope de Vega et d'autres sont convoqués... Bémol ou merveille, la prise de son d'une fidélité irréprochable nous place au coeur de l'église d'Alconadilla de Segovia, minuscule et rustique, digne de son village. Une acoustique fruste portée par la meilleure technologie moderne, un choix que l'on pourrait juger de simplicité artificielle, à l'auditeur de juger ce projet inspiré. (Camille Thébaudeau) The great Cervantes, he taught me the magic and great humanity that poetry and the music of our Golden Century harbour. In the middle of the 16th century appears in Spain the “cross-strung harp”, as Juan de Bermudo confirms in his work, Declaration of musical instruments, year 1555. This appearance is due to the growing music chromatization and the progressive emancipation of the specific instrumental language. Therefore, the harp, diatonic so far, becomes a chromatic instrument in a very original way: adding an order of chromatic strings (the black keys of a piano) interwoven or intertwined with the diatonic ones (the white keys of a piano). It turned out to be an extremely practical invention for the spanish Violeros and, apparently, not used out of the Iberian Peninsula. For two centuries (1650-1750), the harp in the Iberian Peninsula becomes a king’s instrument. Its appearance in chapels, accompanying church services is more than documented. But the cross-strung harp is not set aside only to the sacred music. Its intervention both in the palace theatre and the “corral de comedias” (comedy theatre), was privileged. The famous Tonos, witness the harp’s musical intervention in these two fields, sacred and profane. This works were characterized by the use of poetic texts of religious or profane nature and, for the most part, they were composed for one or two vocalists. Thus they received the name Tonos Divinos (divine tones), those that were interpreted in a church or liturgical setting, and Tonos Humanos (human tones), those that were profane compositions. The setting for the latter ones was, specially, the theatre. Even the Tonos a lo Divino were a part of the theatre when it came to Autos Sacramentales (Sacramental Ordinances). One of the most prolific composers of the aforementioned Tonos was Juan Hidalgo, a Royal Chapel’s musician, Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s right hand and, in turn, prominent harp player. This small outlines set the cross-strung harp in a companion role, at the service of the vocalist. But is one of the few 16th and 17th century instrument that enjoys a great number of manuscripts for solo interpretation. The first sign for the harp was from Alonso Mudarra in his Tres libros de música en cifras: para vihuela (1546), with a Tiento for harp and organ, in one of the first tablature tries. Hereafter appeared the transcribers for Antonio de Cabezón’s Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, Arpa y Vihuela, Venegas Henestrosa (1557) and Obras de música para tecla, arpa y vihuela, Antonio de Cabezón collected and numbered by Hernando de Cabezón (Madrid, in Francisco Sánchez’s house, 1578). Facing this repertoire solo, I was not a moment able to dissociate myself from that role so theatrical that the harp had in the Golden Century, and here is where my game begins: THE HARP´S THEATRE. In my mind, all works that contain this treatise correspond to very typical situations, contexts and characters from the theatrical circumstances in the 17th century. I am able to imagine the scenes and profile of each character through this music, and as a result, this is my goal: for the listeners to imagine, believe and compose their own characters, situations, scenes, in short, his own story.
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