Las Ensaladas, - CD Baroque - K617

42
lack of information in the case of Bartomeu Càrceres,
of whose life we know so little that he may have
been called either Bartomeu or Bartolome. Since he
could have been of Valencian origin, neither of these
two names would have appeared strange in the midsixteenth
century.
There are already several recordings of ensaladas by
Fletxa or other composers on the market, all very
different from each other. Our approach is not so much
to try to compete with the other available versions
as to offer a different conception that gets as close
as possible to the text (and perhaps the context). For
to imitate a guitar (to take an example that appears
twice on this disc) by means of vocal onomatopoeia is
a very different thing from the virtual pleonasm that
occurs when one imitates a guitar with . . . a guitar! In
the same way, we believe that the courtly, madrigalian
character, the type of intimacy required by these
ensaladas is finally very well matched by the sobriety
– which does not mean austerity – of a performance
by four voices.
Josep Cabré
Translation: Charles Johnston
translator’s note:
1. Nowadays a type of small coloured sweet, but
according to Covarrubias’s dictionary a sort of
preserved fruit cut into small ‘chips’.
2. This term (pautador de libros) designates the person
responsible for ‘ruling’ music paper, registers, etc.,
that is for drawing the staves on which the music
will be written.
per manca d’informació, és el cas de Bartomeu
Càrceres, la notícia biogràfica del qual és tan
minsa, que tant podria anomenar-se Bartomeu
com Bartolomé i essent possiblement valencià
d’origen cap dels dos noms havia de fer-se-li
estrany en aquesta meitat del segle XVI.
D’enregistraments discogràfics sobre les ensalades
de Fletxa i d’altres n’hi força, tots ben distints,
en el mercat. La nostra proposta busca no tant
una competència amb altres versions disponibles
sinó una visió diferent, el més propera possible
al text (i tal vegada al context). De tal manera
l’efecte d’imitar una guitarra, per citar un exemple
que trobem dos cops en aquest disc, a base
d’onomatopeies vocals és ben dissemblant del
quasi pleonasme que es pot produir tot imitant
una guitarra amb..... una guitarra!. Creiem
igualment que el caràcter cortesà, madrigalístic
i de certa intimitat que requereixen aquestes
ensalades troba finalment un bon equilibri amb
la sobrietat, que no austeritat, d’una interpretació
a quatre veus.
Josep Cabré