CÉSAR CARAZO

Medieval Singing

The aim of the course is fundamentally an approach to the interpretation of Medieval music sung up to the 13th century.

• Natural vocal technique, essential for medieval singing.
• Knowledge of the repertoire: Liturgical, religious, and secular.
  • From Mozarabic hymns to Gregorian chants
  • Cantigas de Santa María
  • Occitan and Galician troubadours
  • Songs of the Goliards: religious and secular chants
  • Early polyphony: Codices Calixtinus (12th century) and Huelgas (13th and 14th centuries)
• Interpretation elements: Rhetoric, phrasing, articulations.
• Ornamentation and the possibility of adding polyphony in the style of the period to enrich the versions to be interpreted.
• Pronunciation and phonetics of languages from the 13th century and earlier.
• Instrumental accompaniment.

A higher technical level is not required, but some knowledge of musical and vocal language will always be helpful for a better experience in the course.

Born in Badajoz, he began his musical studies and violin at the Conservatory in his city.
In 1983, he studied Singing at the Escuela Superior in Madrid and at the Conservatory of San Lorenzo del Escorial. Later, he perfected his vocal technique with Isabel Álvarez and participated in numerous courses on the interpretation of Baroque music with masters such as Marius van Altena, Isabel Poulenard, and Harry van der Kamp in the Netherlands, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Mijas, and Daroca.

From 1983 to 2000, he was a member of the Neocantes group, dedicated to the study and performance of Spanish Renaissance and Baroque music, with which he gave countless concerts both in Spain and abroad. Since 1993, he has collaborated with the Early Music Group of Eduardo Paniagua, specializing in the interpretation of Spanish Medieval music in its three facets: Christian, Andalusian, and Sephardic. In 1999, he founded the Quarteto de Urueña, together with Luis Delgado, specialized in this Medieval repertoire. In 2018, he founded the group Carmina Terrarum with Aníbal Soriano. He has collaborated with the groups Axivil Criollo, dedicated to 19th-century Hispano-Cuban music, Axivil Castizo, focusing on Spanish Baroque music, and with other Early Music ensembles such as Tre Fontane, Al Aire Español, Capilla Real de Madrid, Capella Real de Jordi Savall, Capilla Peñaflorida, Magios, Capilla Real de Las Palmas, Accentus (Vienna), Marizápalos, and Artefactum.With the Concento Musical, he has performed as a soloist in oratorio productions such as The Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Caldara’s Dies Irae, and Monteverdi’s Vespers. With the Opera Bequadro group and the Madrid Goyesco Company, he participated in the staging of operas such as The Magic Flute, Bastian and Bastiana, and numerous tonadillas by Blas de la Serna, Pablo del Moral, Maestro León, etc.

He has participated in a large number of discographic recordings with the Eduardo Paniagua Early Music Group, Neocantes, Concento Musical, Capilla Real de Madrid, Capella Real de Cataluña, Axivil Criollo, Axivil Castizo, Goyesco, Musicos de Urueña, Artefactum, Capilla del Real de Las Palmas, Tre Fontane, Ibn Bayya (Spain-Morocco), and Accentus (Austria). In 2016, he became the director of the Coro Municipal de Bonares (Huelva) for three years.
Regarding teaching singing, he has been a professor at the Arteaula and Albéniz Academies in Seville and is currently teaching at the Musicry School in Jerez de la Frontera, as well as giving Medieval singing courses in the village of Urueña, Valladolid.