Savall traces ‘The Routes of Slavery’
Famed musical historian brings acclaimed project to Berkeley, Stanford
Throughout his long and distinguished career, Jordi Savall has researched, conducted and performed music from many countries and cultures, in the process unearthing masterworks that would otherwise have been lost to time.
This week, the great Catalan composer, conductor, historian and viola da gambist arrives in the Bay Area to present one of his most significant projects. “The Routes of Slavery (14441888)” traces the influence of African music on regions that engaged in the devastating international slave trade.
Featuring a large cast of singers and musicians, this revealing musical journey pays tribute to the cultural contributions of enslaved Africans and their descendants. A testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit, the show makes its West Coast premiere at Cal Performances and Stanford Live this weekend after receiving rave reviews in performances throughout Europe.
In a call from the Netherlands, where he was conducting concerts with two of his ensembles, Hesperion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Savall said the project arose many years back while he was working with both groups on early music from Mexico, Colombia and the Spanish countries: “Anticos,” he said, “with influences of African
countries.
“In this style, the influences of African culture were very clear,” he added. “But we wondered — what about music from the slaves?”
That question, he said, prompted the multiyear investigation that yielded “The Routes of Slavery.” Savall and company spent years finding music of the slave trade; although more than 25 million Africans were transported from freedom into slavery, he says, musical documentation was sparse.
“There are very few sources,” he said. “Nobody
has written down this music. It’s an oral tradition, a long, complex tradition dating back over 400 years, from Africa, South America and Europe.”
Songs, instrumental and choral music are woven into the show, beginning with a 15th-century expedition that brought slaves from Africa to Portugal and Spain. From there, it fans out across Africa, Europe, North and South America, spanning the early days of the colonial period to the oral traditions of slave descendants in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
In addition to Savall’s
ensembles, the production features the Tembembe Ensamble Continuo and vocalists from Mali, Colombia, Catalonia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mexico, Brazil and West Africa. Celebrated Bay Area actor and Santa Clara University theater professor Aldo Billingslea serves as narrator in historic texts by Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr. and others.
From Baroque works to Malian griot songs, the music covers a wide stylistic, geographical and emotional terrain, describing spirituality, resistance, family bonds and more. “The music
expresses hope,” said Savall, “to love, to have children, to have a normal life.” Other pieces, he said, describe how slaves managed to escape to freedom.
Surprisingly, given its grim subject matter, critics and audiences have described “The Routes of Slavery” as an exuberant, even joyful experience. Savall, who recorded the show’s score on the Alia Vox label, says the music expresses a stunning depth of humanity. “The power of this music is incredible,” he says. “You feel the connection. Many of the songs are quite beautiful — like requiems,
they can be so sweet. You wonder: How can they make music when they’re suffering? In this way, it’s similar to music of the Jewish Sephardic tradition: the worse the suffering, the more beautiful the yearning to survive.”
The dates appending “The Routes of Slavery” are significant — 1444 is the year of the first mass slave expedition, while 1888 is the year slavery was abolished in Brazil. Those dates serve to bookend a shameful past. But Savall notes that, in one sense, the past is still present.
“After this concert, I think people have a better idea of what happened,” he said. “We tend to forget. But it’s still going on. If you go into stores today, you see shirts made in India and Pakistan. These, we know, are often the products of modern slavery.”