…though the title doth promise tears, unfit guests in these joyful times, yet no doubt pleasant are the teares which musick weeps, neither are tears shed always in sorrow, but sometimes in joy and gladness. Vouchsafe then your gracious protection to these showers of harmony (\u2026) they be metamorphosed into true tears.<\/p>\n
\u2014 John Dowland (?1563-1626) in Lachrim\u00e6 or seaven teares…, London, 1604<\/p>\n
Founded in Lisbon, in 1999, by Filipe Faria and S\u00e9rgio Peixoto, Sete L\u00e1grimas ECMC \u2013 Early and Contemporary Music Consort \u2013 takes its name from the innovative collection of dances by the renaissance composer John Dowland (1563-1626) that were published by John Windet in 1604, when the composer was employed as lutenist to Christian IV of Denmark (1577-1648).<\/p>\n
Focused on dialogues between Early and Contemporary Music \u2013 and erudite music with centuries-old traditions \u2013, Sete L\u00e1grimas brings together musicians from different musical backgrounds around conceptual projects fuelled both by original musicological research and innovative, irreverent and creative processes centred on sounds, instrumentation and memories of Early Music.<\/p>\n
In these projects, it is possible to identify dialogues between erudite and popular music, between Early and Contemporary Music, and between the age-old Portuguese Diaspora of the Discoveries and the Mediterranean Latin axis. These dialogues are converted into sound through a faithful reading of the performative principles of Early Music and a distinctive approach to the defining elements of folk music and jazz.<\/p>\n
Since its first days, the consort has maintained an intense performance schedule, playing hundreds of concerts around Europe and Asia, including the following: Portugal: Centro Cultural de Bel\u00e9m (Main Auditorium, Small Auditorium), Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Calouste Gulbenkian (Grand Auditorium), Casa da M\u00fasica (Sala Suggia), Festival Cisterm\u00fasica, Festival de S\u00e3o Roque, Festival das Artes de Coimbra, Festival dos Capuchos, Festival Internacional de M\u00fasica da Madeira, Festival Internacional de M\u00fasica dos A\u00e7ores, Festival Fora do Lugar, Festival de Leiria, Festival de Almada, Festival Terras sem Sombra, Encontros de M\u00fasica Antiga de Loul\u00e9, Mem\u00f3rias Musicais de um Pal\u00e1cio (Sintra), Festival Todos, Festival Internacional de M\u00fasica de Espinho, Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Oriente, Festival Artes \u00e0 Vila, Quartel das Artes, Teatro Viriato, Theatro Circo (Main Room) (…); Bulgaria: Zora Dramatic Theatre (Sliven); Italy: Ravenna, Festival Internazionale W. A. Mozart a Rovereto); Malta: BirguFest; Spain: Festival de M\u00fasica Antigua de Gij\u00f3n, Festival de M\u00fasica Antigua de \u00dabeda y Baeza, Museo Nacional de Valladolid, Fundaci\u00f3n Juan March (Madrid), Abvlensis Festival Internacional de Musica, Teatro Zorilla (Valladolid) (\u2026); China: Macao Internacional Music Festival; Sweden: Stockholm Early Music Festival; France: Festival Baroque de Sabl\u00e9, Op\u00e9ra de Lille (…); Belgium: Gent Festival van Vlaanderen, Flemish Opera (Gent), Bozar (Bruxelles), Music Center DeBijloke (Gent) (…); Norway: Stavanger Konzerthus; Czech Republic: Prague Early Music Festival; Luxembourg: Philharmonie Luxembourg (Salle de Musique de Chambre, Grand Auditorium), Festival Atl\u00e2ntico; Germany: Elbphilharmonie Laeiszhalle Hamburg (Grosse Saal).<\/p>\n
Sete L\u00e1grimas regularly invites guest musicians working in different areas of Early Music folk, jazz and world-music. To date, these musicians have included the Gulbenkian Choir (Portugal), Mar\u00eda Cristina Kiehr (Argentina), Zsuzsi T\u00f3th (Hungary), Ana Quintans (Portugal), Mayra Andrade (Cape Verde), Ant\u00f3nio Zambujo (Portugal), Adufeiras de Monsanto (Portugal), CRAMOL (Portugal), Tain\u00e1 (Brasil), Carolina Deslandes (Portugal) ou Ana Moura (Portugal).<\/p>\n
In projects involving dialogues between Early and Contemporary Music \u2013 New Early Music Series \u2013 Sete L\u00e1grimas premiered works written specially for the consort by the composers Ivan Moody (England), Jo\u00e3o Madureira (Portugal), Andrew Smith (England\/Norway), Christopher Bochmann (England) and Filipe Faria and S\u00e9rgio Peixoto (Portugal). At the Coimbra Arts Festival in 2011, Sete L\u00e1grimas performed the world premi\u00e8re of the work Lamento, which was commissioned from the writer Jos\u00e9 Lu\u00eds Peixoto, winner of the Jos\u00e9 Saramago Literary Prize, and the composer Jo\u00e3o Madureira.<\/p>\n
With a discography of fourteen titles \u2013 Lachrim\u00e6 #1 (2007), Kleine Musik (2008), Diaspora.pt: Di\u00e1spora, vol.1 (2008), Sil\u00eancio (2009), Pedra Irregular (2010), Vento (2010), Terra: Di\u00e1spora, vol.2 (2011), En tus brazos una noche (2012), Pen\u00ednsula: Di\u00e1spora. vol.3 (2013), Cantiga (2014), Missa M\u00ednima (2016), Um dia normal – graphic poem with text and illustrations by Filipe Faria and music by Sete L\u00e1grimas – (2015), Twentie Yeares in Seaven Teares (2020) e Loa (2023) \u2013 the consort is considered by critics as one of the most relevant and innovative European projects in the field of Early Music. Internationally, mention must be made of the reviews of the recordings and concerts published in the International Record Review, Doce Notas, Aftonbladet, Novinky, Opera PLUS, Svenska Dagbladet, Lute News, Goldberg etc and the inclusion on the playlists of classical radio stations in several European countries.<\/p>\n
In 2008, 2011 and 2012, the first three releases comprising the Di\u00e1spora project were the best-selling titles in FNAC shops. In 2010, Diaspora.pt was named an \u201cEssential Recording\u201d in the Classical Music Guide and Sete L\u00e1grimas\u2019 trajectory to date was profiled in the publication \u201cAlma Lusitana\u201d (FNAC).<\/p>\n
In 2011\/2012, Sete L\u00e1grimas were invited to be the Associated Ensemble of the Season by the Centro Cultural de Bel\u00e9m (CCB\/Lisbon), performing \u201cTr\u00edptico da Terra\u201d (Triptych of the Earth) at three sold-out concerts.<\/p>\n
In 2014, at the invitation of the classical radio station RDP Antena 2, Sete L\u00e1grimas represented Portugal in the EURORADIO Christmas Folk Music Project organised by the European Broadcasting Union. The project was broadcast on 30 radio stations in 28 countries, including BBC Radio 3 and France Musique.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Philharmonie Luxembourg and Pascal Sticklies invite Sete L\u00e1grimas to develop \u2013 between 2018 and 2022 \u2013 a trilogy of original creation projects under the designation \u201cLes Explorateurs\u201d \u2013 \u201cLes Explorateurs\u201d (2018), \u201cLa Princesse Myst\u00e9rieuse\u201d (2019\/ 20) and \u201cLe Vieux Roi et la Lune\u201d (2020\/22) \u2013, inspired by the musical universe of Sete L\u00e1grimas, with 54 performances sold out in 4 years. The international and multidisciplinary team of the three projects, led by director and playwright Benjamin Prins (France), included assistant director and playwright P\u00e9n\u00e9lope Driant (France), scenographer and costume designer Nina Ball (Austria), costume and scenography assistant Nathalie Villarm\u00e9 (France), choreographer Sabine Novel (France) and, on stage, with consort Sete L\u00e1grimas and the actors and dancers Jan Bastel (Germany), Nestor Kouame Dit Solvis (Ivory Coast), Winnie Dias (Brazil), Alexandre Martin-Varoy (France), F\u00e1bio Krayze (Angola) and Alexander Fend (Germany).<\/p>\n
In 2021 Sete L\u00e1grimas joins the project \u201cIf I rained an ocean\u201d (Se chovesse um oceano) by Filipe Faria and Winnie Dias (Brazil), a video-dance, music, photography and performance project filmed by these directors in Berlin, Hamburg, D\u00fcsseldorf, Wuppertal (Germany), Z\u00fcrich (Switzerland) and Idanha-a-Velha (Portugal), with dancers Futaba Ishizaki (Japan), Naomi Brito (Brazil), Rafaela Bosi (Brazil), Rafaelle Queiroz (Brazil) , Fuyumi Hamashima (Japan), Isabella Heylmann (Australia), Hayley Page (Australia) and Borja Bermudez (Spain). In 2022, the film \u201cEgo\u201d, directed by Winnie Dias on \u201cPues que veros\u201d \u2013 a \u201cnew villancico\u201d composed by Filipe Faria and S\u00e9rgio Peixoto on a poem from the 16th century \u2013 was the winner of the \u201cBest Music Video\u201d award at the 5th MiMo – Milano Mobile Film Festival (Italy). In 2023, the same film was a quarter-finalist in the International Short Film Competition! from the Flatlands Dance Film Festival (Nevada, United States of America). \u201cEgo\u201d and \u201cSolitude\u201d \u2013 based on \u201cCruel saudade\u201d (anonymous, Brazil) \u2013 are also part of the Official Selection of the Super 9 Mobile Film Fest.<\/p>\n
At the invitation of the Centro Cultural de Bel\u00e9m – F\u00e1brica das Artes – Filipe Faria and S\u00e9rgio Peixoto develop, between September 2021 and May 2022, the project SETE – Novos Criadores das Inf\u00e2ncias – with a group of nine young musicians. This tutoring project unfolds in a set of masterclasses, artistic residencies, talks, training courses and new creations around the creative, conceptual and formal universe of Sete L\u00e1grimas.<\/p>\n
To commemorate the group\u2019s 20th anniversary, Arte das Musas published the book Twentie Yeares in Seaven Teares \u2013 Twenty Years in Seven Tears: The first twenty years of being Sete L\u00e1grimas ECMC, which includes a best-of CD of the consort’s complete discography along with two unpublished \u201cnew villancicos\u201d and a set of 30 testimonials from artistic directors of European venues and festivals.<\/p>\n
In 2023 Sete L\u00e1grimas publishes its 14th title, entitled Loa, a counterfacta proposal dedicated to the dialogue between the melodies of the Italian Laudarios of Cortona and Firenze and the 15th century translations of the Portuguese bishop Andr\u00e9 Dias de Escobar (Lisbon, ?1348-1450\/51). The project was developed in partnership with Professors Manuel Pedro Ferreira (CESEM\/Faculty of Social and Human Sciences\/Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) and Blake Wilson (Professor Emeritus of Music, Department of Music\/Dickinson College, USA).<\/p>\n
Also in 2023, Filipe Faria and S\u00e9rgio Peixoto develop a new project for their New Early Music Series (vol. 5), a set of 12 \u201cnew villancicos\u201d composed on sixteenth-century Iberian poetry, to be released at the end of the same year.<\/p>\n
In 2024, 2025 and 2026, Sete L\u00e1grimas will release, in a trilogy, the complete Cancioneiro de Elvas (Elvas, Biblioteca Municipal P\u00fablia Hort\u00eansia, Ms 11793), a Portuguese manuscript from the 16th century and one of the most important sources profane music in the Iberian Peninsula.<\/p>\n
Since 2003, Sete L\u00e1grimas have been sponsored by the Ministry of Culture (Portuguese Government) and the Directorate General for the Arts, and, since 2012, by the Municipality of Idanha-a-Nova \u2013 UNESCO Creative City of Music. The consort is represented and published by Arte das Musas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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