FROM CENTURIES OF THUNDERFUL SILENCE
Ensemble for early and traditional music Renesans
The Renesans Ensemble for Early and Traditional Music (Belgrade, 1969) has been continuously working since its first concert on January 14, 1970. It has held more than three thousand concerts throughout the country and the region, as well as in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In Serbia, Renesans affirmed early music and was an inspiration and role model for many who themselves began to explore and interpret this type of music. The Ensemble’s repertoire includes musical works created from the 12th to the mid-18th century. The songs of troubadours and trouvères originate from the Middle Ages, songs from the collections Cantigas de Santa Maria and Llibre Vermell, Carmina Burana, as well as a large number of dances from the most famous Italian, French and English manuscripts. The ensemble also performs music from the Renaissance period in Italy, France, Germany, England, Flanders and Spain, which is presented through several concert programs: Carnival Music of Venice and Florence, Music of Renaissance Paris, Music of Shakespeare’s Theatre. A special place in the repertoire is occupied by compositions by early Baroque masters, but also by works by Vivaldi, Handel, Telemann, Bach and other famous creators of the Baroque era. In their research into early music, the members of the ensemble have paid special attention to the musical tradition of Dalmatia (12th-18th centuries), old Serbia and the Balkans.
Each member of Renesans plays a large number of instruments (original, from the era or their copies) and all programs are realized in an adequate, historically faithful, manner. The ensemble’s impressive discography includes five records (Music of Ancient Serbia, Music of the Old Adriatic, Greatest Hits, Mon Amy and Hommage a l’Amour) and six compact discs (Marco Polo – The Journey, Renaissance en Barcelona and Los primeros siete annos, Gems of Medieval Music, Journey to Jerusalem, Anthology, Journey Through Dalmatia, Roots of the Balkans). The ensemble has also contributed to Serbian theatre and cinematography, and at the initiative of its members in 1994, the study of the musical heritage of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as well as mastering instruments from these eras, was introduced into Serbian music education. In 2004, they founded the Renesans Center for Early Music.