Música Temprana

“When the choir launches into the Gloria, the whole auditorium seems to light up”, wrote De Volkskrant newspaper in 2019 after Música Temprana had performed the Misa in Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw. Música Temprana recalls the origin of the Misa Criolla: the silent philanthropical work performed by two German nuns who saved many Jews from hunger during the Second World War profoundly touched composer Ramírez, and motivated him to compose the mass. The nuns’ invisibility is reflected in the baroque music from Ecuador, and the names of the nuns who had sung these Christmas songs were written in pencil in all stanzas of these polyphonic villancicos. The nuns probably also wrote the texts. These polyphonic songs demonstrate all the finesses and rhythmic richness of traditional Latin American music.