This ensemble takes its name from the Chapel of the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra in Portugal, from where the unpublished musical manuscripts on which the heart of the work is elaborated contribute to the sound research into the origins of Portuguese Baroque music.

This project aims to establish bridges between theoretical musicological research and the search for a sound that revives and justifies the value of these treasures from one of the main Portuguese cultural centres during the 16th and 17th centuries: the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra.

Contents:

Invocatio
1. Deus in adjutorium

In nativitate Domini
2. Octavo calendas Januarii - Calenda de Natal
3. Hodie nobis caelorum Rex - Responsório
4. Zente Pleto - [Vilancico] de Negro

Intermedium primum
5. Agostinho da Cruz: [Tento do] 4º Tom
6. De peña en peña las ondas - Tono

In festo Corporis Christi
7. Diego de Alvarado: [Verso do] 6º tom por Dsolre
8. Credidi - Salmo
9. Sale alumbrando a la tierra - [Vilancico]

Intermedium secundum
10. Dom Jorge (début XVIIe s.): [Verso do 1º Tom]
11. Ai amores, Ai mi Dios - [Vilancico]

In Nativitate Domini
12. Octavo calendas Januarii - Calenda de Natal
13. Al Neglio de Mandiga - [Vilancico] de Negro

Intermedium tertium
14. Agostinho da Cruz: [Tento do] 4º Tom
15. Al son que los christales - [Tono]

In Ascensio Domini festis
16. Ascendo ad Patrem meum - Responsório breve
17. Oy que los cielos se alegran - [Vilancico]

Dimissio
18. Pedro de Cristo: Benedicamus Domino

Twenty years ago, harmonia mundi and France Musique joined forces to produce the first albums of a new generation of musicians from around the world. Mostly unknown to the general public when they first entered the recording studios, these ‘nouveaux interprètes’ (as the first series was called) included Isabelle Faust, Paul Lewis, Piotr Anderszewski, Emmanuelle Bertrand, Frank Braley, François-Frédéric Guy, Jean‑Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov, Lawrence Power, Ekaterina Sementchuk, Alexandre Tharaud, Cédric Tiberghien, Xavier de Maistre, Alban Gerhardt and many others. Since then, the vast majority of these have made quite a name for themselves and have become the mainstay of many a recordcompany, not least harmonia mundi itself.

Now following the success of ‘Les Nouveaux Interprètes’ (which later became ‘Les Nouveaux Musiciens’), harmonia#nova is a new series to welcome a new generation of young artists. harmonia#nova will provide a technical, editorial and promotional showcase measuring up to the high production standards of harmonia mundi. Each artist will subsequently have the spotlight trained on them, on disc, online (streaming, downloads, social media) and in images – and then, for a year, in the form of an accompaniment to their artistic development, in concert, in promotional activities, in every territory. It was the least harmonia mundi could do to give all these musicians access to the international diffusion that has made the label’s reputation. Welcome young talents! Long life to harmonia#nova!