Ensemble Micrologus is an Italian group that performs vocal and instrumental

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance ...

, including both religious and secular pieces from the 12th to the 16th century in their repertoire. Through research into

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced ...

organology Organology (from Ancient Greek () 'instrument' and (), 'the study of') is the science of musical instruments and their classifications. It embraces study of instruments' history, instruments used in different cultures, technical aspects of how ...

, and

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

, and a familiarity with

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

research on the musical traditions of the Mediterranean, they revive the sound of the Middle Ages, playing reconstructions of ancient instruments as well as using period wardrobe and scenery. They perform more than forty concerts worldwide annually, introducing one or two new shows every year, as well as collaborating in movies and theater productions, such as the soundtrack of the Academy Award-winning ''Mediterreneo''. In 2007 and 2008 they toured wit
''Myth''
a theater-dance show produced by Belgian choreographer

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (born 1976) is a Belgian dancer and choreographer and director. He has made over 50 choreographic pieces and received two Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, three Ballet Tanz awards for best choreographe ...

. They also teach medieval music courses at the ''Festival of

Urbino Urbino ( ; ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of ...

'', the ''Royaumont Abbey'', and the ''Cité de la Musique'' in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

Members

The group was founded in 1984 by musicians who had participated for several years in the Calendimaggio medieval festival in

Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born around ...

(

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

). The four founder members were: * Patrizia Bovi (

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

and harp), * Adolfo Broegg (1961-2006) (

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can re ...

psaltery A psaltery ( el, ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer; the harp, virginal, harpsichord and clavichord were also inspired by ...

and

citola The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithara, ...

), * Goffredo Degli Esposti ( flute, bombarde and

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

) * Gabriele Russo ( viela,

rebec The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed string instrument, stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to fiv ...

and

lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a ...

). Additional performers include Ulrich Pfeifer (vocals and

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a v ...

Awards

Over the past 26 years they recorded more than 20 performances on the labels Opus 111 (later bought by Naïve) an
Zig Zag Territoires
which have received numerous awards: * 1996 - ''

Diapason d'Or The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...

de l'Année'' for the album ''Landini e la Musica Fiorentina'' * 1999 - ''

de l'Année'' for the album ''Alla Napolitana'' (in collaboration with ''

Cappella della Pietà de' Turchini Cappella Neapolitana is an early music ensemble based in Naples and dedicated to the recovery of Neapolitan musical heritage, primarily from the baroque era. The Cappella Neapolitana was founded in 2016 by the musicologist and conductor Antonio ...

'') * 2000 - Best recording of the year from Goldberg Magazine, for ''Cantico della Terra'' Other recordings that have received awards are ''Napoli Aragonese'' (2001), ''Laudario di Cortona'' (2001), ''El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat'' (2003), and ''Le Jeu de Robin et Marion'' by composer

Adam de la Halle Adam de la Halle (1245–50 – 1285–8/after 1306) was a French poet-composer '' trouvère''. Among the few medieval composers to write both monophonic and polyphonic music, in this respect he has been considered both a conservative and prog ...

(2004).

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Italian musical groups Medieval musical groups Early music groups Musical groups established in 1984