Atrium Musicae de Madrid - Musique De La Grece Antique

A Madrid ensemble specializing in all kinds of ancient European music, the Atrium Musicae De Madrid was founded in the ’70s by Gregorio Paniagua, a Spanish monk. It also classifies as a family band, as membership at times included three additional members of the Paniagua klan — Eduardo, Carlos, and Luis Paniagua. Like many family bands, some members were drawn in at tender ages. Luis can brag that his debut as a performer was, at 15, onstage at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Perhaps the group’s most famous recording is Musique de le Grece Antique, in which they performed ancient Greek music carefully taken down off scattered fragments of still existing papyrus, and even a tiny snatch of Roman music as next to nothing remains of the sheet music from this once great Empire. Presumably there was a lot of sheet music lost to the fire when Rome burned. Performing the ancient compositions also meant the reconstruction of an arsenal of ancient instruments. This certainly was a fascinating aspect of the group’s life performances during a series of acclaimed international tours. It also provided an unmistakably fresh sound for the recording, although some Greek history scholars have accused the Panigua brothers of overdoing it. The success of this 1978 recording is not the only feather in the group’s collective cap. The 1976 Musique Arabo-Andalouse delves into Hispanic-Moslem music, and is credited with creating a whole new interest in this fascinating genre of southern Spain.