|
Ensamble Continuo blends Hispanic baroque guitar music
with contemporary jarana music from Veracruz.
The group plays baroque guitar music pieces gathered from Spanish
and Mexican tablatures, and links them with traditional sones jarochos.
This musical overlapping demonstrates how and why the “Baroque” and the
“Jarocho” expressions are two faces of the same coin, distant in time
and close in spirit.
Continuo is dedicated to exploring historical and cultural connections
among diverse instruments. Its performances revive the festive spirit
of the 17th century New Spain Fandango and the contemporary Jarocho
Fandango through music, song, and dance.
|
Members of the ensemble joined creative forces in 1995, while
conducting a musicology research project,
funded by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
This project traced the roots of son jarocho and focused on fieldwork
in Veracruz,
through first-hand interviews with traditional musicians, and an
exhaustive review
of Hispanic musical sources from 17th-and-18th centuries.
This project established the origins of son in the baroque Hispanic
world,
and the evolution of this musical genre in Mexico.
The son is today at the core of contemporary Mexican traditional music
and reflects the Mexican collective identity.
In 1998, the group began integrating their theoretical results with
musical performances,
and created what today is known as Ensamble Continuo, thus fusing
Hispanic baroque guitar music
with contemporary jarocho and huasteco music.
The group’s name, Continuo, refers to the continuity of this music
through time,
linking past and present, and illustrating that the Mexican son is also
a baroque son.
|