Albert Recasens recovers the music for the 'Forty Hours' of Sebastián Durón, exiled genius of the Spanish Baroque.

During the 17th century, a religious celebration known as the Forty Hours was developed in different Spanish cities. In this ceremony, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed on the altar for three days, the time Christ remained in the tomb. Sebastián Durón (Brihuega, 1660 - Cambo-les-Bains, 1716), one of the great musical geniuses of the Baroque and master of the Royal Chapel at the Court of Philip V, composed music for this solemn act surrounded by a certain mystery. The work of the musicologist Albert Recasens, researcher of the group 'Vínculos, creatividad y cultura' (Links, creativity and culture) of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra, has allowed the recovery of one of the acts of this devotion, known as 'siestas'. The album Sebastián Durón. Music for the Forty Hours, performed by the early music ensemble La Grande Chapelle and published by Lauda, is the first recording of this celebration in the world.

"This ceremony arose at the time of the Counter-Reformation and, while in Italy composers began to write music in Latin and were forbidden to do so in Italian or any other Romance language , in Madrid something fascinating happened: the repertoire was nourished by pieces for four or fewer voices in Spanish", explains Recasens. Thus, he points out that "thanks to Durón, we had the opportunity to reconstruct one of the most important ceremonies that were organized at the Court every Thursday, Friday and Saturday of each month, attended by the royal family and their entourage, nobles and ambassadors".

The researcher underlines that Durón, "was a composer who used very catchy melodies that came from the profane sphere, a repertoire board member sacred with a lot of popular flavor". This particular style can be appreciated in the siestas, in which vocal chamber works were sung combined with instrumental pieces. This disc includes mainly tunes and carols to the Blessed Sacrament "whose popular texts are a wonderful mixture of candor and sophistication".

For its recovery, Recasens has resorted to sources from Madrid, El Escorial, Jaca, Palencia, Segorbe, Barcelona, Segovia, Valencia, Canet de Mar, Guatemala City and Sucre. One of the singularities of this work, which faithfully recreates the sound of the festivities, is the use of the bajoncillos, a kind of small bassoon, used during the 16th century and with a rough sonority. "Practically nothing has ever been recorded with bassoons, because they are difficult to find, there are very few instrumentalists who master their technique and they involve different difficulties. For the occasion, they were lent to us and we had to make some transpositions so that it could be played with other historical instruments," he recalls.

Another aspect to highlight in the recording, made in the Monastery of Santa María de Zenzarruza (Vizcaya), is the opportunity to have an organ by José de Echevarría from 1686: "It is a contemporary instrument of Durón's. It was restored and it sounds with the period pipes, with the tone that the composer listened to". It was restored and sounds with the period pipes, with the tone that the composer listened to". In addition, the harps used are also from the baroque period.

The result, of great patrimonial value, allows not only the vindication of one of the great musicians of the Spanish Baroque, exiled in France due to his express support to the House of Austria during the War of Succession, but also the recreation of a unique ceremony from a sonority faithful to that of the seventeenth century. The recording has been supported by committee Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in whose collection 'Música Poética' the disc is published, and by the Comunidad de Madrid.