The Huehuetenango Songbook - Music from 16th Century Guatemala Jonatan Alvarado & Ariel Abramovich

• Anonymous: Virgen Madre de Dios:
• 1 Anonymous: Virgen Madre de Dios 01:31
• Introito:
• 2 Anonymous: Introito: ‘Salve Sancta Parens’ 01:19
• Kyrie eleison:
• 3 Anonymous: Kyrie eleison 02:35
• Pleni sunt (de la ‘Misa sine nomine’):
• 4 Anonymous: Pleni sunt (de la ‘Misa sine nomine’) 01:48
• Antiphona ad Magnificat:
• 5 Anonymous: Antiphona ad Magnificat: ‘Gloriose Virginis’ 01:10
• Magnificat 8 toni:
• 6 Anonymous: Magnificat 8 toni 06:45
• Benedicamus Domino / Deo Gratias:
• 7 Anonymous: Benedicamus Domino / Deo Gratias 01:18
• Claudin de Sermisy (1490 - 1562): Le content est riche:
• 8 Sermisy: Le content est riche: Paratum cor meum 01:58
• Anonymous: Pater Noster:
• 9 Anonymous: Pater Noster 03:53
• Hic solus (dolores nostros):
• 10 Anonymous: Hic solus (dolores nostros) 03:22
• Cristóbal de Morales (1500 - 1553): Missa La Caça:
• 11 Morales: Missa La Caça: Agnus Dei 01:20
• Juan de Anchieta (1462 - 1523): O bone Jesu:
• 12 Anchieta: O bone Jesu 02:33
• Pedro de Escobar (ca. 1465 - 1535): Clamabat autem mulier cananea:
• 13 Escobar: Clamabat autem mulier cananea: Cananea 03:59
• Total Runtime 33:31

Info for The Huehuetenango Songbook - Music from 16th Century Guatemala

In three remote mountain villages that were once not even accessible by road, a collection of 18 small-format choir books has been preserved, which have been treasured by the communities for centuries. Today, these valuable books are kept in American university libraries and bear the name of the department from which they originate - The Huehuetenango Manuscripts.

The collection shows how music was integrated into the daily and spiritual life of these indigenous communities and became a symbol of resistance and forced adaptation to Catholicism and other external influences. It contains copies of numerous European pieces, but these European forms passed through the minds, hands and voices of the indigenous people and were transformed into original creations.

The tenor Jonatan Alvarado and the vihuelist Ariel Abramovich leaf through the folios of the Huehuetenango singing manual and have selected mass movements, motets, chansons and villancicos from the more than 350 works written down between 1582 and 1635. This selection provides an insight into the intercontinental exchange of music between Europe and the missions in Mesoamerica on the eve of the Baroque.

Jonatan Alvarado, Tenor
Ariel Abramovich, Vihuela

Jonatan Alvarado
is an Argentinian singer, lutenist, director and researcher. He began his musical studies on the modern guitar at his hometown's conservatory of Mercedes. He would go on to pursuing a Degree in Orchestral Conducting and Composition at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, while also beginning private singing lessons in Buenos Aires. During his studies he founded his own baroque orchestra, with which he would go on to give the Argentinian premier of Bach's John's Passion on period instrument, while also performing several works by Charpentier and Scarlatti for the first time in South America. Parallel to this, he developed a successful career as a folk-singer, culminating with his performance at the Cosquin Festival with his group Dos en Trío.

Taking the decision to develop his skills as singer and performer of historical European repertories, he applied for a Bachelor in Early Music singing at the Amsterdam Conservatorium where he was accepted into the class of Xenia Meijer. While advancing in his singing studies he also explored the possibilities of period plucked instruments, taking lessons with the lutenist and theorbo player Fred Jacobs. The combination of singing and lute playing in historically informed performances would lead to a Master's in self-accompanied singing, custom-created for his studies, resulting in a “Cum Laude” for his final examination recital.

During his time as a student he became the cofounder and co-director of the ensemble Seconda Prat!ca, with which he entered the EEEmerging platform, an initiative of the European Commission for Culture to support rising early music talent. The ensemble's high level of performance has led to their releasing of the debut album “Nova Europa” in 2016 with the Ambronay label, which garnered a coup de coeur and became album of choice of France Musique.

He is currently working with Dr. Rebecca Stewart in developing vocal techniques for historical repertoires and connecting early music with oral practices such as the folklore of his own country. This research has led to the recording of his debut solo album ‘Pajarillos Fugitivos’ released by the label Ayros. It includes Spanish guitar songs found in non-spanish sources, aiming to explore its possible connections and transformations within the realm of Latin-American traditional music and poetry.

With his ensemble and as a soloist he has sung and played in some of the most important festivals of his specialty including Ambronay, Sablé, Stockholm and Göttingen. He has collaborated with other musicians and directors such as Sigiswald Kuijken, Richard Egarr, Gabriel Garrido, Adrian van der Spoel and Eduardo Eguez.

Ariel Abramovich
As a teenager, Ariel decided – after being dazzled by a fantasy by Luys de Narváez – to devote his career exclusively to 16th Century repertoire for lute and vihuela. To this day, he has kept to this decision and not regretted it.

In 1996 Ariel moved to Switzerland, where he studied under his teacher and mentor Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Later on, he went to France to learn from maestro Eugène Ferré, who showed him a unique approach to the lute and the music written for it.

In Basel, together with altus José Hernández-Pastor, Ariel started the duo El Cortesano in 1998; a musical project dedicated to the repertoire of Spanish vihuelists. In 2001, they recorded their first album, which was entirely devoted to the works of vihuela player Estevan Daça, In 2008 their second album, with works by the Salamanca-born vihuelist Diego Pisador, was recorded.

In 2008 Ariel undertook another duo project, this time with British tenor John Potter; together they revisited the literature for English lute songs.

In 2011, together with Anna Maria Friman and Jacob Heringman, Ariel and John founded Alternative History Quartet. The first album they recorded, “Secret History” was released by ECM in 2017. Two years previously, in 2015, ECM had released the quartet's second recording, “Amores Pasados”, to which musicians Tony Banks (Genesis), Sting and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) contributed works previously unpublished and /or especially written for the project.

In 2013, together with soprano María Cristina Kiehr, Ariel started the duo Armonía Concertada, solely performing 16th Century Iberian literature for voice and plucked strings. The duo's first album, “Imaginario: de un libro de música de vihuela”, was published by Arcana in 2019. It was the first reconstruction of a songbook accompanied by the vihuela. In 2021, a second album “The Josquin Songbook” (made up entirely of Josquin Desprez intabulations) was released under the Glossa label.

Ariel is also involved in a project devoted to intabulations for lutes and vihuelas with Renaissance specialist Jacob Heringman. In 2014 they recorded the album “Cifras Imaginarias”, which was released in 2017 by Arcana.

Currently, Ariel is immersed in several duo projects: with French soprano Perrine Devillers, Argentine tenor Jonatan Alvarado, American soprano Anne Kathryn Olsen, and Argentine soprano Nadia Szachniuk.

He is also a founding member of ensemble Da Tempera Velha.

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