Hespèrion XXI is an international

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...

ensemble. The group was formed in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in 1974 as Hespèrion XX by Catalan musical director

Jordi Savall Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish Conducting, conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol ...

(bowed string instruments, particularly the

viola da gamba The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...

), his wife Montserrat Figueras (soprano), Lorenzo Alpert (

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

), and

Hopkinson Smith Hopkinson Smith (born December 7, 1946) is a Swiss- American lutenist and pedagogue, longtime resident in Basel, Switzerland. Smith was born in New York City, the son of architectural writer and photographer G. E. Kidder Smith. He graduated fr ...

(

plucked string instrument Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the string (music), strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to ...

s). The group changed its name to Hespèrion XXI at the beginning of the 21st century. The name "Hespèrion" is derived from a word in

Classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

which referred to the people of the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and Iberian peninsulas. The ensemble is noted for its scholarship in early music, especially the music of 16th and 17th century of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Their performance practice is noted for the liberal use of

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

around the basic melodic and rhythmic structures of the early pieces, resulting in great emotional intimacy and immediacy.

Awards

* Grand Prix de l'académie du Disque Français * Edison-Prijs Amsterdam *

Grand Prix du Disque Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

of the Charles Cros Academy of France * Grand Prize of the Japanese Recording Academy * Cannes Classic Award *

Diapason d'Or The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...

* Grand Prix FNAC * Giorgio Gini Foundation Prize

Selected discography

As Hespèrion XX

''Note: The name of composer Juan del Encina (or Enzina) is spelled below as printed on the individual CD covers.'' * 1976 - ''Music from Christian and Jewish Spain, 1450-1550''.

Villancico The ''villancico'' ( Spanish, ) or vilancete ( Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, P ...

s and romances from the cancioneros

Colombina Columbine ( Italian: Colombina; French: Colombine; ) is a stock character in the commedia dell'arte. She is Harlequin's mistress, a comic servant playing the tricky slave type, and wife of Pierrot. Rudlin and Crick use the Italian spelling C ...

, Palacio, and Upsala; recercadas from the Trattado de Glossas; and sephardic romances from the Romancero. * 1978 - "Cansós de Trobaritz". A recording of songs of Catalan Troubadours. * 1979 - ''

Llibre Vermell de Montserrat The ''Llibre Vermell de Montserrat'' (, "Red Book of Montserrat") is a manuscript collection of devotional texts containing, amongst others, some late medieval songs. The 14th-century manuscript was compiled in and is still located at the monast ...

''. A 14th century pilgrimage * Feb. 1990 - consort music by Jenkins (Astrée Auvidis) * 1991 - ''Juan Del Enzina: Romances & Villancicos, Salamanca, 1496''. Works by Spanish composer Juan del Enzina honouring King

Ferdinand II of Aragon Ferdinand II, also known as Ferdinand I, Ferdinand III, and Ferdinand V (10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), called Ferdinand the Catholic, was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella I of ...

and Queen Isabella of Castille. The lyrics express Spain's anticipated rise to greatness as adventurers, such as Columbus, set off to return the world's riches to the homeland, thereby assuring Spain's wealth and power. * 1991 - ''

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age (1492–1659) of Spanish Baroque literature, Baroque literature. In the literature of ...

: Intermedios del Barroco Hispanico, 1580-1680'' * 1993 - '' Matthew Locke'', '' Consort of Fower Parts'' 1650-1660 * Oct. 1994 - consort music by

Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's ...

(Astrée Auvidis) * 1998 - ''Elizabethan Consort Music 1558 - 1603, Works by Alberti, Parsons, Strogers, Taverner, White, Woodcoock & Anonymes'' * 1999 - ''El Barroco Hispánico'' * 2001 - ''Music for the Spanish Kings'' * 2001 - '' J. S. Bach: Die Kunst Der Fuge''

As Hespèrion XXI

* 2000 - ''Diáspora Sefardí'', Alia Vox — a recreation of music of the Eastern

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

communities * 2002 - ''Ostinato'', Alia Vox * 2004 - ''Isabel I: Reina de Castilla'', Alia Vox * 2005 - ''Altre Follie'', Alia Vox * 2006 - ''Orient-Occident'', Alia Vox * 2008 - ''Estampies & Danses Royales: Le Manuscrit du Roi ca. 1270–1320'', Alia Vox * 2009 - ''The Book of the Science of Music'' by

Dimitrie Cantemir Dimitrie or Demetrius; Cantemir (; ; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known by other spellings, was a Moldavian prince, statesman, and man of letters. He twice served as voivode of Moldavia (March–April 1693 and 1710–1711). Durin ...

, Alia Vox * 2009 - ''Le Royaume Oublié: La croisade contre les Albigeois – La tragédie Cathare'', Alia Vox * 2011 - ''La Sublime Porte: Voix d'Istanbul, 1430–1750'', Alia Vox * 2013 - ''Esprit des Balkans'', Alia Vox * 2016 - ''GRANADA 1013 - 1502'', Alia Vox

References

External links

Official Hespèrion XXI site

Recordings of Hesperion XXI at Alia Vox, from Jordi Savall
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesperion Xxi Mixed early music groups Musical groups established in 1974