La dolça melodiaBaroque music

La dolça melodia is a programme of music dedicated to the composer and chapel choir master Pasqual Fuentes Alcàsser. Studying the composer, his music and texts, gives us an insight into eighteenth-century Valencia, a reality not too different from the present day. It is the history of a city of contrasts, of remarkable stories and everyday ones, in which we can recognize ourselves and feel identified. Performed here by the Música Trobada group and the soprano Cecilia Aymi, La dolça melodia is an excellent example of his work.

The music of Pasqual Fuentes Alcàsser
Pasqual Fuentes’ compositions are surprising and captivating for a variety of reasons: the vast quantity of work he produced, the quality and use of a new musical language, the strong influence of the Italian style of music, his use of the Valencian language in some pieces, his elaborate vocal compositions, or the use of popular and traditional music. Furthermore, among the hundreds of pieces he wrote, we can find delightful gems such as the Missa per a la Mare de Déu dels Desemparats, from 1767.

Fuentes’ music can be found in many archives around the Spanish peninsula such as Cadiz Cathedral, the Escorial Monastery, Tarragona Cathedral, the National Library of Catalonia, Girona Cathedral, and the archives of Valencia.

Research carried out by Música Trobada has led to the recovery of about twenty of his compositions, many of which have been included in two recordings: lamentations and short popular pieces (villancets) in Valencian. The group has also performed his music at the Zarzuela Theatre in Madrid, and at festivals in Vélez Blanco, Peníscola and the Pyrenees.

Amor y bravura (Georg Friedrich Händel) performed by Música Trobada