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Ministriles de Marsias are strictly speaking a formation of ministriles or early wind instruments (cornet, shawm, sackbout, doulcian), which takes its name from the contest between the civilised string player Apollo and the ministril Marsyas, the barbarian Silenus with his tibia flute.
This confrontation was evoked by Monteverdi and his contemporaries who arranged their works around the ministriles’ ability to imitate and sustain the human voice. And not just by musicians but also illustrious painters (Ribera,Rubens, Velazquez ...) and writers of the time.The group specialises in the performance of Spanish instrumental and, above all, vocal music and recreates, with the addition of singers and organ, the typical formation whose music filled the chapels of our churches and cathedrals, where the ministriles were afixture from the end of the 15th to well into the 18th century and where ourbest music has its roots (Anchieta, Peñalosa, Morales, Guerrero, Victoria,Cabezón, Correa de Arauxo ...).
As well as Spanish music, Ministriles de Marsias perform virtuoso Italian music in the stile moderno popular in Venice in the first decades of the 17th century, and the Italianate music of Germany (Schütz, Rosenmüller, Schmelzer, Fux) up to Bach and his The Art of the Fugue.
Ministriles de Marsias have performed throughout Spain and most of Europe at leading early music festivals (Antwerp,Utrecht, Ghent, Perugia, San Sebastian, Segovia, Salamanca, Granada, Daroca, Sajazarra, Murcia, Toledo, León, México, Portugal ...), joined on occasion by vocal groups like Capilla Peñaflorida, or by solo organists (Javier Artigas, José Luis González Uriol) or singers (MartaAlmajano, Erika Escribá). They have also made a number of recordings for radio and TV networks and music labels.
Their disc “Trazos de los ministriles” was voted the best Renaissance music recording of 2010 by readers of music magazinenCD Compact.
Their disc “Invenciones de glosas (Antonio de Cabezón)” was voted the best Renaissance music recording of 2011 by the Spanish Association of Classical Music Festivals (Festclasica).
The members of the group are teachers giving musicalinstruction in schools and summer courses, and soloists who play the equivalent modern instruments with symphony orchestras; an activity they combine with musicology research and occasional recitals.
Translated by Karen Welch