A MÚSICA E OS ELEMENTOS

Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música Laurence Cummings, harpsichord and musical direction   Jean-Féry Rebel, Os Elementos -

Georg Philipp Telemann Música Aquática, TWV 55:C3

The fascination with describing Nature is part of the imaginary of the eighteenth century. Rebel and Telemann wrote their works at a time when French models were changing. Les Éléments is a ballet that mixes the elements with chaos, in a reading that was innovative for its time. Water Music, premiered in 1723, was written to celebrate the centenary of the Hamburg Admiralty. It is a work that uses the compositional technique of "word painting", through which the music seeks to imitate the emotions, actions or real sounds of the subject at hand, and in which a group of water deities is portrayed. The rigour of baroque dance, ornamentation and fantasy blend in narratives that transport us to a period with very different concerns about environmental phenomena.