Early music ensemble Rondellus
Early music ensemble Rondellus.
Cantigas de Santa Maria.
(Codice de Toledo)
Rondellus
Maria Staak – vocals, wheel lyre
Ester Alperten – vocals, portative organ
Johanna-Maria Jaama – fiddle, nyckelharpa, percussion
Johannes Christopher Staak –vocals, recorders, backpipes
Robert Staak – lute, percussion
Cantigas de Santa Maria (Songs to the Virgin Mary) are among the largest surviving collections of monophonic song from the Middle Ages. These songs were gathered and written down over the course of King Alfonso X (1221–1284). It is possible that several of the songs are his own compositions.
The Cantigas survive in four different manuscripts. The oldest of these is the so called Toledo Codex (Códice de Toledo). The manuscripts are illustrated with beautiful miniatures depicting musicians playing various instruments of the time. The songs are written in Galician.
The concert is part of the public programme of the exhibition „Dives Toletana: Treasures of Toledo Cathedral from Medieval to El Greco“
Rondellus was formed by Maria and Robert Staak in 1993 to perform and promote medieval and renaissance music. All members of the group are professional musicians with years of experience in Estonia’s finest early music groups. Rondellus’ repertoire includes both sacred and secular music ranging from Gregorian chants to love and drinking songs and instrumental dances, including music of the trouvères and troubadours, works by Hildegard of Bingen, Guillaume Machaut, Josquin Des Pres and others.
