The Batalha Medieval Music Days (DMMB) will take place over seven Saturdays, between 1 February and 15 March, and will be produced by CordaSonora and the Quimeras & Gárgulas Association.

According to Ricardo Alves Pereira, musician and one of the artistic directors of the initiative, the DMMB will have a “very community-oriented character”, with the main action being the formation of the choir.

“It will be open to everyone so that anyone can learn to sing Iberian medieval music”. Finally, the choir will perform at the Batalha Monastery, at the closing ceremony.

This is one of several activities with free entry, along with concerts, workshops, exhibitions and lectures.

The only one with a paid entry fee is the guitar workshop, coordinated by luthier Orlando Trindade. “It will be a historic moment”, says the organiser, because the participants will build a psaltery from scratch, in the image of one of the instruments featured in the statues of one of the porticos of the Batalha Monastery, which includes several musical angels.

According to Ricardo Alves Pereira, the DMMB aims to “democratise knowledge” about medieval music.

“Hence the community project, to share and unite, so that this music does not belong only to a few, unrecognizable and incomprehensible, because it is not: it is music that speaks about the ‘you’ and the ‘me’, but from many years ago”.

After the Leiria Medieval Music Cycle in 2024, CordaSonora is expanding its action in Batalha with the aim of “developing a medieval music community”

“We want knowledge of the authentic music of the Iberian Peninsula to belong to the people. It is a music that is in our roots and that needs to be recovered more, it needs to be in people’s voices and heads”, highlighted Ricardo Alves Pereira.