Festival Chapel for Europe : Ensemble Seraphim ( Medieval Music)

At the fireside | Au coin du feu

a concert around winter medieval musics | Un concert autour de musiques médiévales hivernales

ENSEMBLE SERAPHIM, RAFFAELLA BORTOLINI, shawm, RACHEL HEYMANS, bombard, DANIEL SERAFINI, slide trumpet

Winter is a resting time for farming. Medieval peasants retreat at home and carry out tasks they didn’t have the time to do during the peak of the season: they twill, salt meat, hang out at the fireside, tell stories and sing. The lords hunt, improve their culture and celebrate life in pleasant company. The short days and early dusk immerse the society in a peculiar vibe. It is what the Ensemble Seraphim invites you to discover. From the end of fall to the arrival of the spring, weaving dance, royal dances, canons and ballads enchant your ears at the fireside.

The Seraphim Ensemble was created following the end of Master recital of its artistic director, Raffaella Bortolini. The ensemble is specialized in the medieval and Renaissance era’s repertoire from the Alta Capella, a wind ensemble from the Middle Ages, famous for its brilliance. Usually it consists of a shawn, a bombard, a trumpet and percussions. All instruments used by the Seraphim Ensemble are copies or reconstruction of ancient instruments.

By opposition and to let their audience experience all shades of ancient wind instruments, the Seraphin Ensemble completes its performances with Bassa Capella moments, which includes softer instruments such as recorders or dulcians. That alternation of wrapping and catchy sounds creates for each performance a surprising dramaturgy around programs designed to recall diverse real historical situations.