Baroque composer Joan Araniés’ work, recorded on CD for the first time

Lleida (ACN.) – Twelve pieces from ‘Libro Segundo de tonos y villancicos a una, dos, tres y quarto voces’ (Rome, 1624) will be on CD by the end of the year. The disc will have complete compositions by the Catalan Baroque composer Joan Araniés for the first time, up until now only a few songs had been recorded. There are only a small number of works by Araniés that are preserved, but his case is unique since he was one of the first Iberian composers to have his work printed, which allowed the University of Lleida (UdL) to reproduce it. Recording began at Intèrpret Produccions in Lleida yesterday and will continue until Thursday.

Various musicians from Lleida such as Marta Infante and Rafael Bonavita are behind the Nuevo Sarao group which specialises in early music and is responsible for interpreting the work by the composer who was the choir master at the Cathedrals of Lleida and La Seu d'Urgell during the first half of the seventeenth century. The work by Araniés, recovered by the Musicology Lab of the UdL and coordinated by Professor Màrius Bernadó, was played for the first time in the summer of 2011 at the Pyrenees’ Early Music Festival (FeMAP) in la Seu d'Urgell.

The musical production ‘El Sarao de la Chacona’ was co-produced by Lleida University and FeMAP. The Laboratori de Musicologia of the UdL acted as the artistic director of the spectacle and in addition did research, documentation and transcription of Araniés’ work. FeMAP was in charge of the project’s executive production and the commercial distribution.

The revival of Araniés’ work helps to promote his value as a remarkable composer of his time, perfectly adapting to the modernity of Baroque music propagated around the world from Italy. The pieces included on the CD are an excellent example of Iberian and Italian music from the time and the best example of the close cultural relationship that existed between both sides of the Mediterranean.