Concerts: from medieval to modern

We attended a show directed by Jordi Savall at L'Auditori, and wanted to immerse ourselves more in local culture. We missed a couple jazz performances I would have liked to hear, but they were offering a good discount on a 6-concert series of Early Music, and I was sold because these were being held in medieval churches throughout the city; from their own blurb:

The Festival Llums d'Antiga celebrates its fifth edition divided between three of the most fascinating medieval buildings in Barcelona: the Basilica of Sant Just and Sant Pastor, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi and the Monastery of Sant Pau del Camp.

I'm not knowledgable about early music and I wish I'd read up on the development of music including the "invention" of polyphony in the middle ages: it would have helped me appreciate what was being played.  I really did enjoy hearing un-amplified music -- voices and strings -- in these massive ancient buildings with all their stony reverb.

The Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor was built between 1342 and 1574. It was a bit gaudy inside, for my tastes, but had great sound for the choral works.

The Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi was built between 1319 and 1991 on the site of a church then outside the city walls dating back to 987. This was more restrained inside, with fine acoustics for the choral and strings concerts we attended. 

We noticed skulls and other inscriptions carved into some of the stones of the floor; this one is interesting because the "7" is carved backwards in the date "ANY 1739"; accident, or secret satanic message??

My favorite was the Monastery of Sant Pau del Camp, where "camp" refers to it being out in the countryside outside the city, but now it's in the El Raval neighborhood near our place. The monastary dates back to 977. This was the most unadorned and -- to my taste -- elegant and serene of the buildings and was an intimate space for the choral concert.

And now for something completely different! 

Separate from this series was a concert of music by French composer Éliane Radigue, played at one of the halls in the L'Auditori complex itself. I'm a little surprised I hadn't heard of her, because she was one of the pioneers of electronic music, working since the 1950s in musique concrète, tape feedback, and early electronic synthesizers from Buchla, Moog, and ARP. She associated with other pioneers like Laurie Spiegel and Morton Subotnick, and worked with Robert Ashley (who I enjoy quite a bit).

The show's poster image showed a woman in front of an analog synthesizer, but this show (and her 21st century work) was entirely acoustic. The composition, Occam Océan, was performed by Ensemble Dedalus, which employed two saxophones, a horn, violin, cello, and a bowed guitar. The players carefully layered their instruments over time, weaving in and out subtly. When I closed my eyes, I could imagine that these sustained notes and drones were being made by analog synthesizer oscillators rather than strings and brass. I thought I could detect beat frequencies and high order harmonics soaring over the notes. A very cool experience.