DIÁLOGO INTERCULTURAS
NO MEDITERRÂNEO MEDIEVAL

[EN] "Intercultural Dialogue in the Medieval Mediterranean" is an intimate program that pays tribute to the medieval musical heritage with Mediterranean roots, seeking to highlight the intercultural richness of this region, with a historically informed practice, both in written and in oral tradition.

The repertoire seeks to evidence the stylistic intertwining between the cultures that coexisted in this period in the Iberian peninsula: Christians, Sephardic Jews and Moors, as well as their dialogue with the East, in the Sephardic Diaspora territories, and after the edict of expulsion during the reign of King D. Manuel in 1492.

This intercultural musical journey aims at enhancing historical awareness and, in the words of Jordi Saval (European Union Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue and Artist for Peace), humbly contributing as an antidote to humanity's historical amnesia.

Ensemble Med is a laboratory of research and musical creation that focuses on the point of contact between the universes of historically informed ancient and traditional music, seeking its own lively and current interpretation, in a multicultural and transversal approach.

Diaspora

The political and cultural identities that have coexisted in the Mediterranean Middle Ages are very rich and diverse. Both christians, jewish (later on called sefardits) and arab cultures coexisted, therefore the musical content cannot be unveiled without taking this diversity into account. These entwined poetic subjects and forms in the Mediterranean Basin express the cultural understanding between these three cultures in the Middle Ages.

The christian unification of the Iberian Peninsula happened with the reign of Queen Isabella I of Castilla with King Fernando II of Aragon, the Catholic Monarchs, at the turn of the XVI century and prevailed till the contemporaneity. In Portugal, it occurred with the edict of expulsion of the Jews in 1492, during the reign of King Manuel I.

At this point, these three cultures were separated in the Iberian Peninsula. Most of the expelled Jews (sefardit) settled in various parts of the Ottoman Empire, in particular Salonica and Constantinople, and whose traditional language is Ladino, similar to Old Spanish. Some went further east to the Arabic-speaking territories of the Ottoman Empire. Hence the complexity of the Music found in the Mediterranean basin and its neighbour territoire.

Project co-funded by Portuguese Directorate General for the Arts in 2018 (national circulation) and 2020/2022 (national and international circulation).