ALL is pleased to partner with local arts venues to build upon their performances with lectures that provide additional context and insight. These lectures are free, however registration is required. Tickets for performances are available through our partners.

Bruce Matthews | 60 seats available
Friday, September 21
12:00pm - 1:00pm

The Rose Ensemble visiting Wolfville on 23 September 2018 is an interesting group of musicians whose aim is in part to show something of the culturally connected world of medieval Spain, specifically how music linked Muslims, Jews and Christians in an era when these religions were not always theologically or politically cooperative, and sometimes downright hostile to each other. 

The ALL program kindly asked me if I might present a brief historical backdrop to this subject, not so much a sketch of the music, instruments, songs, etc., of the era (if you like flamenco, its roots are here!), but of the communities and polities of the Mediterranean from the time of the advance of Islam into North Africa and Europe in the seventh century to about 1500 CE.  This is a vast topic, and in the context of just fifty or so minutes, it is best for our purposes to focus principally on al-Andalus or Spain as the foremost example of how the rich history of the so-called Abrahamic faiths in the medieval world inter-acted with each other, sometimes negatively, but often surprisingly cooperatively.

For ticket information for the performance of Land of Three Faiths by the Rose Ensemble, please visit the Acadia Performing Arts Series website at pas.acadiau.ca.