La música del Pórtico de la Gloria. Medieval Stringed Instruments from the Codex Calixtinus

The Portico of Glory in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela represents not only a magnificent work of 12th-century art, but also a unique source for understanding the musical instruments used during such an enigmatic period as the Middle Ages. Thanks to the pilgrimages to Santiago and the cultural legacy they left behind, along with the music preserved in the Codex Calixtinus and other contemporary documentary sources, we can begin to imagine the harmony produced by these string instruments in the hands of the choir of Elders that surrounds the arch of the portico. Those instruments, scorned by thinkers of the time and even condemned by the Church, survived in the depths of human hearts, achieving eternity in stone. Centuries later, other men have revived these instruments from their granite dream, bringing them back to life in wood and strings. And that music has been able to sound once again.