Camerata Trajectina is a Dutch early music ensemble (in English, the word, "camerata," generally means a choir or small chamber orchestra).
The ensemble was founded in Utrecht (hence Latin trajectina; of Utrecht) in 1974 by Jos van Veldhoven and Jan Nuchelmans.[1] Following the departure of Veldhoven in 1976 to lead the Utrechts Barok Consort, leadership of the ensemble passed to the current director, the musicologist Louis Peter Grijp (b. 1954).[2]
The ensemble has specialised in recovering and sometimes reconstructing Dutch vocal music from the Dutch Golden Age, and much of its discography are of Dutch-language songs which have not been recorded. The ensemble has particularly concentrated on domestic, middle-class, and Dutch-language church music which—unlike the Latin language church music of the Spanish Netherlands—is little known and little researched. The lyrics of the recovered songs often illustrate cultural history, as in the case of the ensemble's two recordings of Dutch sea shanties.[3]
They have cooperated twice with the poet Gerrit Komrij; the first time in reconstruction of Jacob Obrecht's secular works. The original texts to Obrecht's Dutch songs had been lost, leaving only Dutch incipits as titles of instrumental versions. Komrij wrote new texts in the style of lyrics of Obrecht's time. A second project based on The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things of Hieronymus Bosch set new Dutch texts to 16th Century melodies.
- ^ J. van der Klis Een tuitje in de aardkorst, druk 1: oude muziek in nederland p31
- ^ Peter Jan Margry, Herman Roodenburg Reframing Dutch culture: between otherness and authenticity 2007 xi "Grijp is also active as a musician in the Camerata Trajectina early music ensemble. He is member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received several prizes for both his scholarly and his musical work."
- ^ Geoffrey Parker Europe in crisis, 1598-1648 2001 p281 "A record, Die tyranny verdrijven: politieke liederen uit de tachtigjarige oorlog, sung by the Camerata Trajectina (Eurosound, 1979), includes 23 of the best 'Sea Beggar' and Valerius songs."