In “Du temps & de l’instant” (Moments in time) we offer a highly personal selection of the music that has moved us by its tenderness and beauty, as well as its ability to promote dialogue and harmony.
The pieces evoking “time”, represented here by the music of former ages, are the living memory of a past that in some cases is remote and yet at the same time very close to us, because it has become part of our historical as well as our individual imagination. Those evoking the essence of “the moment” include all the unique and fleeting musical moments which spring forth when musical discourse is allowed to flourish in freedom and harmony, perpetually seeking new forms of expression.
Existing only at the moment when it becomes materialised in the form of sound waves produced by the human voice or instruments, Music is the art of memory par excellence, and it is precisely this temporal constraint which makes it the most human and the most spiritual of the arts. Music is one of the most universal means of expression and communication; its importance and significance must be gauged not according to the evolution of its language – in the sense of its history and progress – but in terms of its expressive intensity, its intrinsic richness and humanity. From this perspective, the historical significance of a work of art stems not from the necessary development of the sound material (melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, and so on) but from a will to achieve expression on the part of those (composers and performers) who use it.
The programme of “Du temps & de l’instant” is conceived as an inter-cultural dialogue whose purpose is to point to or build firm bridges between:
Eastern and Western music,
cultivated music and popular (anonymous) works derived from the oral tradition,
ancient and contemporary music,
different generations of performers,
and also between performers and their audiences.
As musicians, we are above all the product of our time. To be more exact, we are the result of a unique equilibrium between the individual spirit and the age in which we live. From our vantage point at the beginning of the 21st century, the decision to perform a repertoire dating back to the 11th century responds to an inner need that is born equally of vocation and passion. Learning to understand the most representative works of the past and bringing them to life in our own day and age, respecting their various historical and stylistic contexts, but steering clear of an academic approach, is essentially a means of rediscovering the very sources of our civilization. In renewing this space for creation, improvisation and experimentation through a dialogue between different cultures and traditions, we will also steadily forge a space in our imagination for all those musical treasures which have shaped and must continue to nurture one of the essential mainsprings of humanistic civilization in the modern era: Music, the true living history of mankind.

JORDI SAVALL
Cardona, Spring 2005

Translated by Jacqueline Minett