Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste, 26 September 2026

Carlos V Las Canciones del Imperio (Charles V: Songs of the Empire)

Xistras is a Spanish early music ensemble specialising in medieval and Renaissance repertoire. Originally founded as a recorder consort, the group gradually expanded to include voices, percussion, and a variety of historical string instruments, allowing it to broaden and enrich its repertoire. The ensemble has performed primarily at concerts and festivals held in historic venues, paying equal attention to both the musical and the theatrical dimensions of its performances. Xistras’s principal aim has always been to recover and promote historical music through a rigorous approach to interpretation, seeking to recreate the way it may have sounded in its original context as closely as possible.

A concert inspired by the music that may have remained in Emperor Charles V’s memory during his retirement at the Monastery of Yuste, recalling the dances and other Renaissance compositions that had accompanied him throughout his life. It evokes the musical experiences he recalled in those final years. Through works by Spanish composers such as Juan del Enzina, alongside Franco-Flemish masters including Josquin des Prez, the programme invites us to journey back to the age of the emperor.

Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste, 19 September 2026

The programme presented by the Coro Amadeus de Puebla de la Calzada offers different listening perspectives with the aim of commemorating the 500^th anniversary of the marriage of Charles I (Prinsenhof, 1500 – Monastery of Yuste, 1558) and Isabella of Portugal (Lisbon, 1503 – Toledo, 1539). These programme notes seek to guide listeners and highlight information, interpretations, and aspects that may enrich the concert experience.

Blending fiction and historical reality, the distinguished figure of Miguel de Cervantes, portrayed by an actor, will, through his characteristic prose, recount the story of Charles and Isabella in four stages of their lives. Rather than following a conventional chronological approach based on facts, dates, and music corresponding to each period, these stages focus on the love story that we can infer and perceive from contemporary documents and testimonies.

Our programme is therefore structured around music that expresses universal affections (affetti) transcending the historical stature of its protagonists: (1) the emotions of first love; (2) those of adulthood; (3) destiny and the loss of a loved one; and (4) the final years; memory and reflection. Each section concludes with a brief sacred epilogue that provides moral balance and spiritual resolution to its theme. Thus, the excesses of youth end in repentance (Peccantem me quotidie); the labours of daily life, in admiration (O gloriosa Domina); the workings of fate, in faith (In manus tuas); and mature reflection, in remembrance, gratitude, and hope (Pulchra es).

Religious Background

A second perspective highlights the importance of the Catholic faith and the values that helped shape what are now Spain, Europe, and Hispanic America. Through a number of chants, the programme reflects this legacy while underscoring the significance of the Hieronymite Order in Extremadura and how, through royal patronage, it fostered a remarkable humanist flourishing documented in the monasteries of Yuste and Guadalupe. These religious centres enhanced their liturgies, Masses, and ceremonies with music of exceptional artistic quality, which today continues to be studied and remembered.

In this regard, it is worth noting that the three introductory monophonic chants in the opening sections all come from the collection of choir books preserved at the Monastery of Yuste (Requiem aeternam from E-CUYm/Cant 1, the antiphon Magno Hieronimo, and the hymn Nunc sanctae nostra from E-CUYm/Cant 24, respectively). Likewise, the responsory In manus tuas by Fray Melchor de Montemayor, transcribed from the musical holdings of the Monastery of Guadalupe, bears witness both to the musical legacy that the Hieronymite Order left in our region and to the tribute this programme pays to the new Holy Jubilee Year of Guadalupe.

Other Considerations

Having explained the reasons behind the structure and overall concept of the programme, we now turn to other aspects of the repertoire.

The sacred polyphonic works that conclude each section (and open the final one) serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, they establish a coherent chronological and stylistic progression; on the other, their increasingly rich harmonies and ornamentation reflect the growing majesty experienced by the protagonists of this commemoration throughout their lives. Following these principles, the first sections conclude by highlighting the importance of the Seville school during the first half of the 16^th century through the works of Cristóbal de Morales and Pedro Fernández de Castilleja (regarded as a “master of masters”). Both composers may well have witnessed the marriage that this programme commemorates. The third section features an eight-part work by Melchor de Montemayor, which bridges the stile antico still preserved in the musical collection of the Monastery of Guadalupe with the transition to the early seventeenth-century Mannerist style. Finally, the last section gives pride of place to the polyphony of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, an outstanding musical figure whose technical mastery and stylistic influence transcended centuries, borders, and even Church councils.

The secular repertoire, meanwhile, deliberately extends beyond the chronological boundaries of the programme in order to strengthen its dramatic narrative. Alongside the celebrated “Mille regretz” —known as the “Emperor’s Song”— the programme includes works by Juan Vázquez as well as pieces drawn from several important songbooks, including those of Uppsala, Turin, and the Casanatense. Although some of these compositions are little known today, they make a vital contribution to the emotional narrative that the concert seeks to convey.

Finally, special mention should be made of the prominent place given to the Extremaduran composer Juan Vázquez in this programme. A verse from his villancico “En la fuente del rosel” inspired the title of the programme and forms the basis of the final contrafactum, created especially for this production. This newly written text transforms the original song into an evocation of Charles and Isabella, bringing the musical journey full circle by returning to its point of departure, now enriched by the experience of the concert itself.

Church of the Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste. On 21^st September 2024

“Ave Virgo” – Francisco Guerrero (1527-1599)

Along with Tomás Luis de Victoria and Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero is considered one of the greatest Spanish composers of the Renaissance. He is the only one who worked in Seville almost throughout his life, which contributed to making him the most popular and esteemed composer of his generation in Spain. Despite this deep-rootedness, he travelled periodically, and aware of the power of Flemish, French, and Italian printing presses, he did not hesitate to use them for the publication of most of his musical output. In fact, this programme is drawn from several of those publications: “Sacrae cantiones” (1555), “Motecta” (1570), “Canciones y Villanescas Espirituales” (1589), and “Cantus Motecta” (1597).

The work of Francisco Guerrero encompasses almost all the genres of religious and secular music of his time. His production illustrates the expressive achievements attained in the mid-16^th century; they were translated into the harmonisation of text and music, and were widely praised by his contemporary Juan Vázquez. His youthful works include madrigal-like pieces, performed in court circles and Sevillian academies. Alongside these, and derived from his duties at the cathedral, he composed numerous canzonets for the main festivities of the annual liturgical cycle. Only a select few of these, “transformed into the divine”, would see the light of day later when he decided to print them in the aforementioned “Canciones y Villanescas Espirituales” (Venice, 1589), motivated by the errors in their manuscript transmission. All the compositions in Spanish in this programme belong to this collection.

His work made its way into the repertoire of the Cathedral of Seville, displacing that of other masters, sometimes monopolising the solemnisation of ceremonies held at this institution. Additionally, Guerrero’s musical production occupies a privileged place in the manuscript books preserved for the use of 16^th-century wind instrumentalists. This fact was likely favoured by the tradition of wind ensembles participating in the Cathedral of Seville, a pioneer in their stable employment since 1526, as well as by the composer’s own musical training, as he was a player of the seven-course vihuela, harp, cornett, and other instruments.

The composer’s prestige helped spread his handwritten and printed work throughout Spain, both in the metropolis (Toledo Cathedral) and in the colonised territories (Cathedrals in Mexico, Guatemala, and Lima). Over the fifty years serving the Cathedral of Seville, a significant portion of Francisco Guerrero’s musical production became canonised in the institution’s musical repertoire. After his death, various mechanisms were put in place to ensure his legacy continued well into the 19^th century, a further testament to the respect Francisco Guerrero was held in for centuries at his Cathedral. With this collection of works for 5 voices, and the recording of these pieces presented in March 2022 at the Cathedral of Seville (specifically in the Chapel of La Antigua, where Maestro Guerrero’s remains are buried), A5 Vocal Ensemble aims to pay tribute to the most renowned Sevillian composer. As befits the deeply Marian city of Seville, some of the chosen pieces revolve around the figure of the Virgin, reflected in the monumental works that begin and end the programme: “Ave Virgo sanctissima” and “O Virgo benedicta.”

Church of the Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste (Cáceres) | 23 September 2023

AMOR. NO TE LLAME AMOR: Canciones en el teatro del Siglo de Oro

This first verse of “El caballero de Olmedo”, one of the best known works by Lope de Vega, gives the title to this programme that focuses on the music that accompanied the plays of the Spanish Golden Age; solo songs with a generally profane text whose origin is found in songs or airs performed in coemdies, operas and zarzuelas and which were called tonos. These songs, or tonos, were separated from the original works as they were originally intended, and became part of an independent repertoire within courtly circles, not only Spanish, but also Austrian and French, where this music was very successful. Let us remember that Louis XIV of France was the son and husband of two Spanish women who introduced part of the traditions of the peninsula to the court of the neighbouring country. The musical characteristics of tonos are their simple melodies, of a popular nature, and their great rhythmic complexity, highlighted by the accompaniment of the Spanish guitar.

While, in the rest of Europe, due to Italian influence, the succession of Recitativo and Aria is imposed as the standard form of theatrical music, in Spain the traditional structures of estribillo (refrain) and coplas (stanza) are preserved, although merging experiments between Hispanic and Italian forms were not uncommon.

Our programme Amor, No te llame amor brings a series of tonos together, mainly by Juan Hidalgo (1614-1685), who is considered one of the best composers of this genre and author of the first Spanish opera, “Celos aun del aire matan”, which he wrote with the playwright Calderón de la Barca whom he used to work with since 1657. The programme includes a tune by the former master of the Royal Chapel with Felipe V, Sebastián Durón called “Abril floreçiente”; a tune by Manuel Egüés entitled “¿Quieres estarte quieto, Cupido?”, which is part of the Manojuelo Poético-Musical de Nueva York, a manuscript compilation of poetic-musical pieces of the 17^th and 18^th centuries that is preserved in the library of The Hispanic Society of America; and the beautiful anonymous tune “No hay que decirle el primor”, which was very famous at the time that Cervantes himself names it in “El rufián dichoso”. The programme is completed by three instrumental pieces by renowned composers, such as Antonio Martín y Coll and Diego Ortiz.

With this concert, we hope that the audience will be able to recreate in their minds what an evening in court or an afternoon in open-air comedy theatres that filled the city of Madrid was like.

Church of the Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste (Cáceres) | 16 September 2023

 Carlos V: La música en la intimidad de un imperio

Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire was, like his firstborn Philip II, a great defender of musical art. Our selection of works and authors that represent the Renaissance style and the incipient Baroque is a sample of the quality and spiritual intensity of the sonorous art of the Iberian Peninsula during the 16^th and early 17^th century. This quality is shared by vocal and instrumental genres in works ranging from soloist to antiphonic formations with double choirs and a large number of instruments.

This concert seeks to immerse the audience in a sound journey through the music of the time, presenting pieces and compositions that would have been appreciated and enjoyed in the intimate circles of the court and the emperor himself. From sacred music and polyphony to folk songs or dances, the programme offers a variety of styles and genres that capture the richness and diversity of music of that time. The instruments of the time, such as lutes and Renaissance flutes, transport listeners, along with the voice, to an authentic atmosphere, and recreate the magic of music in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

Next, we invite you to read a brief biographical outline of Tomás Luis de Victoria that we hope will serve as an illustrative example of the active musical scene of this golden period of our nation’s music. Tomás Luis de Victoria was born in Ávila in 1548 and began his career in music as a singing boy in the cathedral of his hometown.

The young man learned the rudiments of music with the chapel masters Gerónimo de Espinar and Bernardino de Ribera. It is very likely that he had the opportunity to listen to the great Antonio de Cabezón when he played the cathedral organ in 1552 and in 1556. His classical education was always linked to the Jesuits and it is at the Collegio Germanico in Rome where he probably comes into contact with Palestrina, chapel master at the neighbouring Roman Seminary and learns the subtleties of the Palestinian style that would distinguish him among his peninsular contemporaries since his first works.

In the dedication of his Missarum libri (1583) to Philip II, Victoria expresses his desire to return to Spain and lead a simple life as a priest. The king, in reward to the dedication of the musician, appoints him chaplain of his sister and the musician begins to reside in the Monastery of the Descalzas de Santa Clara in Madrid, where he worked as master of the choir and organist until his death in 1611. His work is not as prolific as that of Palestrina or Lassus and is limited to texts in Latin, but this was not an obstacle for his works to be published in luxurious formats and with a large number of reprints throughout Europe and Latin America.

Royal Monastery of Yuste, 18 September 2021. 13:00 h.

Duo Orpheo specialises in the repertoire of vocal music with the accompaniment of stringed instruments; they cover a wide range of periods and styles in their programmes, ranging from the Renaissance to present day. They have already offered many programmes in very diverse festivals in Spain and abroad, where the following stand out: the Festival de Música Española de León; the Festival de Música Antigua Camino de Santiago de Jaca; the Festival de Música Antigua “Antonio de Cabezón”, in Burgos; the Festival de Música en los Claustros, in Évora (Portugal); the “Norba Caesarina” International Classical Guitar Meeting, in Cáceres; the Classical Guitar Weekend at the Bridgewater Hall, in Manchester (UK); the concert cycle “Napoleon and Europe” in Paris (France);  the Festival “Música y palabras” in Molinos (Teruel), etc…

On 6 October 2019, at the Royal Monastery of Yuste

The programme of this concert, which coincides with the eighth centenary since King Ferdinand III “the Saint’s” marriage with Beatrice of Swabia, revolves around the worship of Virgin Mary, its success coinciding with the dawn of the late Middle Ages. This worship led to the promotion of the creation of important works of sacred and profane music in Latin as well as in vernacular. This tradition kept increasing during the following centuries, particularly in Spain, even after the Council of Trent set the texts of Marian liturgy.

The programme begins with some of the works included in the famous Codex Las Huelgas, named after the Royal Monastery of Santa María la Real, located close to Burgos, secularly known as “Las Huelgas”, since it was preserved there. The Codex comprises polyphonic works, dated during the first decades of the 13^th century, composed for a changeable number of voices (from one to four). The Monastery of Las Huelgas is clearly mentioned in song 122 of the Cantigas de Santa María attributed to Alfonso X “the Wise”, as well as Nas Olgas, logar de bon prez, (“Las Huelgas, lugar de buena oración” in Galician-Portuguese).

Apart from these works, others written by some of the great masters of Spanish polyphony, such as Cristóbal de Morales or Tomás Luis de Victoria, based on texts related to the worship of Virgin Mary, will be interpreted and will be alternated with other compositions of contemporary authors, such as Arvo Pärt or Max Beckschäfer, based on medieval mystic texts. All of them will contribute to draw a geographic and chronological bridge between beginning of the 13^th century Spain and Germany and what they are nowadays.

On 21 September 2019, at 13:00 pm, at the Royal Monastery of Yuste

We recover a selection of beautiful pages from the past, starting from the 15^th century till the beginning of the 18^th century. All of them include different themes: love, religion, celebration, war feats … of authors, such as Juan del Enzina, Mateo Flecha, Juan Vásquez, Tomás Luis de Victoria … and others who are anonymous. After the discovery of America the travel to and from the New World makes music and religion blend in with the native culture resulting in music jewels compiled in codices on the other side of the Atlantic.

A first set of works, Cantos de la Cristiandad, are inspired by Christianism. A furious dispute, a victorious parade that puts an end to the reconquest in Granada, but it is simultaneously a song of lament of King Boabdil as a cause of his defeat. This news was spread among all peoples and somewhere a group of shepherds sings Levanta Pacual, announcing this event. Ande, pues, nuestro apellido celebrates the coming of Jesus Christ symbolising victory over evil. Going forward in history, we move on to America’s colonial period with Sancta María, a popular prayer in Náhuatl (language of the Aztecs) to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Cantos de amor y desamor. These take us to palatial cultured settings of Renaissance Spain. Universal clichés are sang via poetry, such as love and lack of love in its most humane dimension. Al Alba venid and Con qué la lavaré, are two pieces included in Renaissance song books that include content dealing with abandonment and lack of love, with feelings that bring along sad destinies, thresh quiet fears and place hope in the light of dawn. De dónde venís amores and Teresica hermana, murmur about off time love, that goes against the norm, of furtive lovers hidden in the night …

Cantos de fiesta. Includes Hoy comamos y bebamos by the illustrious poet and musician Juan del Enzina, which calls upon carnal pleasures. Dances, such as the Folia Rodrigo Martínez, liven the celebration with humour in the most popular settings. Un sarao de la chacona will close the concert. It is a tribute to good life, a festive dance that sings to the amusement, makes everyone laugh, making fun of characters of the time and which is not exempt from certain social criticism.

Cantos por el qu’es nasçido is the title of a set of works, whose common denominator is the birth of Jesus and human expressions of happiness due to this divine event. An example of this is Serenisima una noche. A sample of the exchange with the New World are “Negrilla’s” carols: Eso rigor e repente, Convidando está la noche, Los coflades de la estleya and Ay andas, a tocar, a bailar, with syncopated rhythms that encourage dancing and whose text is the phonetic transcription of the native speakers; a sample of the artistic miscegenation between both continents.

APRIL 8, 2017. At the Royal Monastery of Yuste

A concert of the choir Amadus on the occasion of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation’s 25^th anniversary and included in the Cycle of the Emperor’s Concerts, which are promoted through the collaboration between the European Academy of Yuste Foundation and National Heritage.

IN SAECULA SAECULORUM

The choir sang In saecula saeculorum, a tonal music contemporary programme with soft and brilliant stresses that included works of their Amadeus Coral Composition International Contest. This contest has, not in vain, managed to project Extremaduran culture and music mainly to the rest of the country, Europe and Ibero-America. This is the same programme that the choir has elaborated to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of its foundation. It includes Latin texts on Christian tradition, poems translated from English to Latin, along with other writings that were originally written in English, French, in the evocative castúo spoken by Gabriel y Galán and popular and strong Castilian spoken by F. G. Lorca in his conclusion. As a final touch to this sample of European linguistic, literary and musical diversity, a version ad hoc of the European Union’s official anthem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, based on F. Schiller’s homonymous poem, will be included out of the programme. The choir enjoyed the collaboration of the pianists from Montijo, José Luis Pérez Romero and Alberto Pérez García, and the sopranos Gloria Pérez Jaramillo and María del Mar Machado Morán. The choir is conducted by its principal and founder, Alonso Gómez Gallego.

September 23, 2017. At the Royal Monastery of Yuste.

The reign of both old Habsburgs, Charles V and Philip II, which almost covers the whole 16^th century, coincides with an awakening of creativity in Spain included in all the arts and in all musical genres: sacred vocal and secular polyphony (Victoria, Lobo, Morales, Juan Vázquez), keyboard music (Cabezón), viola da gamba (Diego Ortiz) and particularly vihuela music (Narváez, Mudarra, Pisador, Valderrábano, Milán), where Spanish masters became well known. In this programme, Álvaro Marías and his group Zarabanda, with the voice of Sandra Redondo, stress some milestones of this flourishing period, taking the arrival of Charles in Spain five centuries ago as the starting point. Honouring the title of the programme, the song Mille regretz (sometimes written “regrets”) of the Franco-Flemish master Josquin des Prez, which became very popular in the Europe of the time, will be played. “A thousand regrets for abandoning you and leaving your loving face”, sings Josquin, the patriarch of Renaissance polyphony. “I have such great sorrow and pain that soon my days will be seen to be numbered”. Innumerable copies and versions were made of this song (it inspired Cristóbal de Morales when he composed one of his most famous masses) and it was César Carlos’ favourite. This was so to such an extent that the vihuela player Luis de Narváez called his magnificent transcription “the Emperor’s song”.