The musicians of the Portico
Twenty-four elders tune their instruments on the archivolt of the Portico of Glory. They are one of the most complete surviving images of medieval music.
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On the central arch of the Portico of Glory, around Christ, sit the twenty-four Elders described in the Apocalypse of Saint John. The biblical text says they held harps and golden bowls. Master Mateo gave them the instruments of his own time, carved in such detail that they are now a first-rate source for twelfth-century music.
The elders are not still. They talk to each other, glance at their neighbours, tune their strings. It is as if the concert were about to begin.
The instruments
The elders are grouped in pairs, and most play string instruments:
- Fiddles: the most numerous instruments. There are oval fiddles and figure-of-eight fiddles, played with a bow.
- Harps: two Romanesque harps, plucked.
- Psalteries: flat boxes strung with strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum. Some are shaped like a harp-psaltery.
- Lutes: two instruments with a neck and a rounded body.
- The organistrum: at the centre, in the place of honour, a large string instrument played by two elders at once.
The organistrum
The organistrum is the ancestor of the hurdy-gurdy. It has the body of a fiddle, but instead of a bow it has a wheel that rubs the strings when turned by a crank. A long box with keys changes the notes.
Because of its size it needed two players: one turned the crank and the other worked the keys. On the Portico it occupies the centre of the archivolt, right above Christ. It is carved so precisely that it could be rebuilt from the stone.
Instruments that sounded again
In 1993–1994 the Provincial Council of Lugo led a project to research and rebuild these instruments. In its musical instrument workshop, a team of craftsmen, organologists, art historians and musicians studied the sculptures from every angle. The result was a collection of wooden replicas faithful in sound and form: harp, gigue, lute, organistrum, rota, psaltery and several arm viols.
With the replicas, the ensemble Porque Trobar…, directed by John Wright, performed medieval repertoire in several European countries. Their album Compostela Medieval received the “Choc” award of the magazine Le Monde de la Musique in 1999.
Music heard in the cathedral
The Portico’s instruments are not invented. The Codex Calixtinus, written in Santiago in the same century, describes pilgrims singing and playing in the cathedral through the night on instruments of many kinds. Mateo carved the music he heard around him.
For an association like ours, which works with early music and the Cantigas de Santa María, this stone choir is a constant reference.
Further reading
Provincial Council of Lugo: rebuilding the instruments of the Portico of Glory · Xacopedia: musical instruments of the Portico · A. García Omedes: Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, in La guía digital del arte románico