Capella Sanctae Crucis

Capella Sanctae Crucis is a laboratory of study and performance focused on the Portuguese polyphony of the 16th and 17th centuries, founded by Tiago Simas Freire in 2012. Part of the vast multidisciplinary project Mundos e Fundos of the Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies of the University of Coimbra (CECH-UC), it builds bridges connecting research and musical practice, seeking a sounding result that revives the value of the Portuguese musical heritage, which remains barely known to this day.

It owes its name to the musical chapel of the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, a centre of extraordinary artistic activity, particularly during the 16th and 17th centuries, from which the musical sources that constitute the main objects of our study originate.

 

The passions that drive the team are evident: the emotion of maximum proximity to the sources; the constant questioning and experimentation; the admiration of the harmony of the spheres represented by Renaissance music; the enthusiasm for the emotional metamorphoses of early Baroque music; and the ambition to discover Portuguese repertoires that are little known to musicians and the general public.

 

Working mostly on unpublished manuscripts preserved in the General Library of University of Coimbra, the programmes are conceived to recreate the richness of each work’s original context. Faithful to a philological approach, historically and culturally formed beyond what is expressed in the sources, the interpretation challenges and explores sound texture and balance, discourse and phrasing, instrumentation, and ornamentation. The present-day Man is thus transported, through this aesthetic experience, to a widening of his imaginary, past, present, and future.

 

The ensemble regularly performs at several international festivals and its projects are hosted by artistic residencies at CCR de Ambronay (Eeemerging), Riga’s Mazā Ģilde, Pavia Barrocca Festival, Cité de la Voix de Vézelay, Royaumont Foundation, CNCM Voce de Pigna and the University of Coimbra. Has received sponsorships from Creative Europe, DRAC Rhône-Alpes, Centre National de la Musique, Adami, Caixa Cultura Programme, Direcção Geral das Artes, Cité de la Voix, Coimbra University, Centro de Estudos Clássicos e Humanísticos, Bullukian Foundation, Renaud Foundation, BCP bank.

Its project “Bridging Musical Heritage”, a partnership between the University of Coimbra, the University of Valladolid, Artway, O Bando de Surunyo and Capella Sanctae Crucis, was the winner awarded the REMA Award for the best European cooperation project in 2024.

 

After the release of our first album Zuguambé on Harmonia Mundi, Capella Sanctae Crucis has dedicated itself to the creation of a series of CD-books entitled Mundos e Fundos as part of a collaboration between the University of Coimbra and Artway Records, devoted to the rediscovery of the Portuguese musical heritage.

 

More than an ensemble, it is a project aiming to rescue a very rich and little-known musical heritage. Each concert is a new discovery of sound cathedrals lying dormant in Portuguese archives. Each programme is a new page in the history of Portuguese music.