Graindelavoix, más que un grupo de música antigua, es un colectivo artístico que experimenta en los campos de la interpretación y la creación, con cantantes e instrumentistas dirigidos por Björn Schmelzer. Toman su nombre de un ensayo de Roland Barthes (“le grain, c’est le corps dans la voix qui chante, dans la main qui écrit, dans le membre qui exécute...”), en el que el pensador francés buscaba aquello que constituía la esencia de la voz, una búsqueda retomada por Graindelavoix y sus investigaciones en torno a ese “grano” en sus aspectos físico y espiritual.
Fundado en 1999 por Schmelzer y con base en Amberes, este conjunto belga trabaja con material tan diverso como la polifonía de Ockeghem, el machicotage, los lamentos, la tradición mediterránea, la dinámica y kinemática de la escolástica, la afectividad, la gestualidad o la cultura de la imagen… Lo que preocupa a Graindelavoix en el campo de la música antigua es el nexo entre la notación y aquello que la elude: esa conciencia y savoir-faire que el intérprete aporta a una pieza (ornamentación, improvisación, gestos…). Schmelzer trabaja con cantantes e instrumentistas que abrazan la diversidad, la heterogeneidad, la ornamentación y la improvisación en sus planteamientos musicales. Se puede hablar de un acercamiento casi etno-musicológico a la música antigua.
Graindelavoix es desde hace varios años “invitado especial” en el Muziekcentrum DeBijloke en Gante, y disfruta de un acuerdo artístico de largo alcance con el Cultuurcentrum de la también belga ciudad de Genk.
En Poissance d’amours, Schmelzer –etnomusicólogo de formación– explora para Glossa la mús,ica y los escritos de místicos, monjes y ministriles activos en la Brabante del siglo XIII. Este disco, además de las grabaciones dedicadas a la música de Johannes Ockeghem (Caput) y Gilles Binchois (Joye), no son sino una parte de un todo mucho más amplio, que incluye conciertos en vivo (a veces con un fuerte componente teatral) y una intensa actividad de investigación. Graindelavoix, no cabe duda, es hoy en día una de las iniciativas en torno a la música antigua más estimulantes del panorama mundial.
Glossa’s album “Josquin the Undead. Laments, Deplorations and Dances of Death”, with our recording artists Graindelavoix directed by Björn Schmelzer, has been awarded a yearly “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”, in its 2022 edition. This is Germany’s most important independent award. Congratulations to our artists and (a bit) to ourselves. It’s a great honour to have been working with such a ground-breaking ensemble for more than 15 years now. [read more...]
There is something deeply troubling and inscrutable in Carlo Gesualdo’s music, something that any listener, even the most inexpert one, will unfailingly experience. This most particularly holds for Tenebrae Responsoria (1611), his definitive statement, his monument, his testament. Graindelavoix, that groundbreaking ensemble based in Antwerp and directed by Björn Schmelzer, are the ideal performers for this disquieting repertoire which originally was sung at Gesualdo’s castle and with probably only one listener in the audience: Gesualdo himself... [read more...]
For his latest Glossa CD with Graindelavoix, Björn Schmelzer takes his lead from the funeral rites for the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens in 1640 – which might well have encompassed the Requiem Mass by Orazio Vecchi as recorded here – to demonstrate the coexistence in Baroque Antwerp of two apparently contradictory, but interconnected facets. One of these facets was the continuing presence of prima prattica polyphony; the city was a major centre for music printing and Vecchi’s Requiem was brought out there – as were works by other composers represented on this disc: George de La Hèle, Duarte Lobo and Pedro Ruimonte (the recording ends with three successive Agnus Deis!). [read more...]
Much-awaited has been the new recording of the Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame from Björn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix, one of Glossa’s long-standing artistic “family” members. The work, described as a medieval monstre sacré, is performed by an all-male ensemble from Graindelavoix featuring both sharp high tenors and very low basses. [read more...]
The collective artistic endeavours of Glossa have recently been recognized with an award of Label of the Year for 2014 by a Europe-wide panel of classical music media organizations – print and online magazines, as well as radio broadcasters – who form the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) jury. This is to be presented at the Award Ceremony and Gala Concert in the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw in April 2014. The Glossa adventure began back in 1992, led by two pioneering Spanish instrumentalists – brothers José Miguel Moreno and Emilio Moreno – who set about creating a treasure trove of recorded excellence, notably in the ever-developing field of “early music”. To this day, the label remains focused on its artists, supporting their musical journeys and inclinations, with the artistic direction entrusted to Carlos Céster. With a small team around him Céster operates from San Lorenzo de El Escorial, surrounded by the abundant natural riches of the mountains around Madrid and with an austere Monasterio in sight to ever encourage him in the rigour of his work. [read more...]
Björn Schmelzer, who animates and sings in Graindelavoix, is not your typical director of an early music ensemble. Nor is the highly articulate sound world of Graindelavoix, now deployed on the newly-released Ossuaires album from Glossa, reminiscent of typical recordings of medieval music. Over the last decade or so, the Belgian group has created programmes which, whilst embracing the music of known musicians from the 12th century onwards (Johannes Ockeghem, Gilles Binchois and composers from the Ars subtilior period among them), seek new pathways for the comprehension of that art for today. Nowhere is this more evident than on Ossuaires, the first of three ambitious recordings created around the travels and shadowy biography of a certain Villard de Honnecourt, a 13th century draughtsman, whose carnet or portfolio is still in existence. [read more...]