Languedoc Band, Melodies from the Days of Yore

In a small charming auditorium sheltered in a garden on one slope of Mount Piltriquitrón, the exquisite soberness and subtlety of medieval music revives in the atmosphere. This is the scene magically created by Languedoc.

Since 1994, its members, Marcelo García Morillo, Alejandro Aranda, Adriana Ottone, Viviana Russo Rabel and Meli Araujo, have devoted themselves to the study and interpretation of this music era.

Through the songs written in Romance languages and the singular sonority of its instruments, the band recreates and transmits the atmosphere and spirit of the Middle Ages.

Accompanied by text reading, ancient manuscripts iconography and the costumes of the performers, the music flows as it takes the audience back to other times.

The saraceno guitars, harps, rebecs, dulcimers, psalteries and lutes used in the plays and performances by Languedoc have been researched by García Morillo for 20 years in order to reconstruct the musical history between the XII and XIII centuries. The assembling of these instruments was in charge of his luthery atelier and it was made in cypress, lenga, maple trees, raulíes and maitenes, following the procedures used in those days.

The atelier managed by Morillo and his partner Horacio Dolcini has already built more than one hundred ancient instruments. Some of them appear in the catalogs of Early Music Shop in London.

Languedoc, along with this undertaking, has become a real socio-cultural phenomenon that is gaining strength in this particular region, far from the cities, the large cultural centers and the conservatories.

During its more than 13 years of existence, Languedoc has presented ten musical drama performances attended by about thousands of people. The richness of its plays, which ranges from the rescue of troubadours to a representation of Carmina Burana, has been presented mostly in the shire and, in some occasions, in Bariloche, Trelew or Neuquén, as well as in cultural TV channels such as Films&Arts and Canal Á.

But its band's aim is to work permanently to organize the annual presentation of a show in El Bolsón, thus creating a meeting point on site for ancient music in Patagonia.

Also, in order to contribute with its broadcasting and public knowledge, Languedoc has recorded, independently of its productions, “Sounds from the Middle Ages”, “Highway to the Stars”, “Carmina Burana” and “Totus Floreo”, as well as other popular artistic activities.

Its latest show: “Under the Encina” is a tribute to the tree as a representative of nature, with a clear message about becoming aware of the need to take care of the forests. The songs and the music evoke the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In this work, everything from Norwegian melodies to Spanish romances may be appreciated. Inspired under the leafy shade of ash trees, oaks, encinas and other beautiful trees, Marcelo expresses “as the director of Languedoc, I feel proud to lead this homage to the tree and as a luthier, eternally grateful to these wonderful beings that sound today and tell us their story through the instruments I make”.