Danza ! « Le Poème Harmonique

Danza !

The 17th century in France was a century of dance. Would this still have been the case without the influence of Spain? When he married the Spanish Infanta Anne of Austria, Louis XIII not only infused the royal line with Spanish blood through his son Louis XIV, he also brought folias, sarabandas, españolas and españoletas north of the Pyrenees. Illustrious strolling players, the two monarchs ushered in a golden age of ballet in which Spanish dances and motives had a role to play. When Briceño wasn’t asked to produce an aria, Le Bailly was called on to invent a Locura for the Ballet de la Folie. Guest musicians or characters in royal spectacles, the Spanish took their place in the salons of the day. The city, in imitation of the court, demanded its share of this Spanish magic, which included vocal and instrumental music, and contemporary concerts might feature the tono humano rather than the air de cour or the guitar rather than the lute. With his audiences under the spell of Spanish poet Calderón, composer Moulinié swallowed his French pride and tried his hand at the style then in vogue with El baxtel esta en la playa.

Served by the ardour of its songs and the witticisms innate to its language, the Spanish influence was soon being felt in large swathes of the French musical arts. From the palace to the street, through a multitude of genres and imaginary scenes, the same spirit haunted its sounds: the beat of the dance, relentless like the Andalusian sun, bewitching like madness.

Following the success of its CD and concerts devoted to Luis de Briceño, Le Poème Harmonique has taken its Spanish journey along a festive and choreographic path. Vincent Dumestre associates the guitar and vocals with a broad range of percussion instruments, infusing existing works with new tones and the freshness of improvisation.