July 2012: The Foundation for Iberian Music is co-sponsoring the Summer immersion course 1st International Course on Medieval Music Performance (12th-14th c.) Besalú with Professor Mauricio Molina, recipient of the Higini Anglès Dissertation Award (2006) and a graduate of the Program in Music at the City University of New York, the Graduate Center.  During the week of July 9-14, Dr. Molina will be leading a group class “Theory and Performance of Medieval Music” and instrument lessons “Medieval Frame Drums and Percussion (tambourine, square frame drum, tariya).”

Also, the Foundation is proud to sponsor two students Octavio Beltrán Santiago and Gabriel Alejandro Hernández that will be attending the summer courses at Besalú.  Gabriel has a Masters in musicology from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and plays Baroque violin and Medieval viella.  Octavio is an ethnomusicologist and performer specializing in traditional Mexican instruments.

The course descriptions:

Theory and Performance of Medieval Music

“In this class we will conduct a global study of different historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of the music of composed between 1100 and 1300. This will be done though the analysis of different historical sources, and modern musicological studies. The elements under consideration will be: sources, notation, solmization, modal theory, social development of the different repertoires, compositional techniques, and musical analysis.”

Medieval Frame Drums and Percussion (tambourine, square frame drum, tariya)

• Reconstruction of performance techniques based on both the study of medieval iconographical and literary sources, and the observation of appropriate oral traditions.
• Development of a rhythmic accompaniment following different rhythmic theories of the period (Christian and Arabic treatises), analysis of the repertoires, and the description of percussionists in medieval literature.
• Reconstruction of the sound aesthetic based on the physical and functional context of medieval percussion.