Imaginario: An Imaginary Songbook of Renaissance Spanish Music comes to Vancouver, April 27
Early Music Vancouver presents Ariel Abramovich, vihuela de mano, and María Cristina Kiehr, soprano
María Cristina Kieh (left) and Ariel Abramovich.
Early Music Vancouver presents Imaginario: An Imaginary Songbook of Renaissance Spanish Music at Pacific Spirit United Church on April 27 at 7:30 pm
THOUSANDS OF vihuelas de Mano were built and played in Spain during the 16th century—but only about five or six survived. It’s not known why; were the instruments destroyed in annual bonfires that took place on the feast of San Juan? Some people speculate they were later converted into guitars, and to this day there’s fierce debate over whether the existing instruments should be called vihuelas or guitars.
The body of surviving books of the vihuela repertoire totals just seven. Printing materials, especially the purpose-specific type needed to print vihuela tablature, were scarce at the time.
Ariel Abramovich has created a new imaginary songbook out of the surviving vihuela books and other manuscript sources, for a dreamy contribution to the vihuela repertoire with various instrumental and vocal combinations.
Abramovich teams up with soprano María Cristina Kiehr for this concert that will travel to Renaissance Spain.
See Early Music Vancouver for more information.
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