Tag Archives: Hispanic Society of America

Cuarto de Pegar: A Performance of Poetry and Music by Pablo Helguera

Cuarto de Pegar / Collage Parlor is a performance by artist Pablo Helguera that includes storytelling, poetry, and music, culminating a year of research and exploration within the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum and Library.

Cuarto de Pegar departs from an early memory of the artist in his childhood home in Colonia Roma in Mexico City, a large house once owned and initially furnished by his grandfather, Ignacio Helguera, who had a particular fascination with Spanish art and literature.

This event will feature a solo performance, a theatrical monologue, that incorporates poetry, song, and storytelling in pieces composed by the artist. It will include a musician to accompany the performance and a digital projector to display archival material. The autobiographical narrative will be a reflection upon the cultural relationship between Latin America and Spain and the inheritance of those historical narratives for a Mexican family that emigrated to the United States. The work will include musical excerpts of works by Manuel De Falla (Siete Canciones Populares Españolas), Zarzuela (“Yo no sé qué veo en Ana Mari”, from “El Caserío” by Guridi), and a Spanish Renaissance song from the Cancionero de Upsala (“Si la Noche Haze Escura”).

This performance is the result of research and interactions with staff at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library as a part of Pablo’s 2023 NYSCA Artist Fellowship.

Hispanic Society Museum & Library: A Musical Pilgrimage

A Musical Pilgrimage

Hispanic Society Museum & Library

Join three-time GRAMMY®-nominated professional chamber choir Skylark for a gorgeously curated series of concerts designed specifically for the Hispanic Society, highlighting art, music, and artefacts from the museum collection.

Part 1, May 23: Musical Treasures of the Spanish Renaissance

A stunningly beautiful evening featuring hidden gems from the Hispanic Society Collection.

The manuscript collection at the Hispanic Society Library is a rich trove of handwritten copies and early editions of 16th and 17th century polyphony from masters including Tomás Luis de Victoria and Francisco Guerrero, as well as lesser-known composers like Bartolomé de Olagüe, choirmaster of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela from 1651-58. In this luminous musical exploration of Spanish renaissance treasures, Skylark will perform several pieces that are modern premieres, having been lost to history until transcribed by Skylark musicologist Dr. John K. Cox directly from the Hispanic Society collections. The first program in Skylark’s musical pilgrimage will include some of the earliest music ever transcribed for multiple voices, chants from the Codex Callixtinus, the 13th-century guidebook for the pilgrimage to Santiago. The program will also take full advantage of the marvelous acoustics in the Hispanic Society’s main courtyard, at times surrounding the audience with up to 12 individual lines performed by Skylark’s virtuoso professional singers. 

Part 2, May 30: Art and Artsong

An intimate chamber program pairing gorgeous vocal works with art from the Museum, with particular inspiration from Joaquín Sorolla’s Visión de España

Skylark has developed an international reputation for beautiful and innovative programming, which once again will be on display in this concert conceived specifically for the Courtyard of the Hispanic Society Museum. Featuring a chamber group of Skylark’s world-class vocal soloists, this concert will feature pieces of music curated for the location because they share thematic, historical, or artistic connections to specific works of visual art in the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum.

Part 3, June 13: Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot

A concert-length masterwork for choir, tracing the steps of Spain’s most enduring pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago.

Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles may be the first true choral masterwork of the 21st century. Talbot, whose dramatic compositions include well-known film scores and luscious ballets, composed the piece in 2005 for the British ensemble Tenebrae, a group similar to Skylark both in size and vocal virtuosity. The piece takes the listener on a mesmerizing vocal journey across the ancient Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northwest Spain. With its four varied and theatrical movements named for important cities along the pilgrim’s path, and its moving libretto by poet Robert Dickinson, Path of Miracles has been called “little short of a musical miracle in itself.”

“Skylark did not whisper to God, they rather shouted, cajoled, enjoined; they did battle with thieves and henchmen in pursuit of their geographic and spiritual goals, and ultimately recessed into the dark night having found transcendent peace.”
– Boston Music Intelligencer