Capella de Ministrers is an early music group formed in 1987 in Valencia, Spain by its director, the Valencian musicologist Carles Magraner

Carles Magraner

Carles Magraner is a Spanish musician.-Life:Carles Magraner was born in Almussafes and studied music at Carcaixent, the Conservatorio Superior de Valencia , Toulouse and Amsterdam...

 (viola da gamba).

The primary importance of the group is in the focus on restoring Valencian musical culture. Along with another Valencian early music group Victoria Musicae

Victoria Musicae

Victoria Musicae is a Spanish early music group based in Valencia, Spain.The group was founded in 1992, and since 1993 has been led by Josep Ramón Gil-Tàrrega. The group has worked with other Valencian ensembles Capella de Ministrers in early music and the instrumental ensemble Estil Concertant in...

 directed by Josep R. Gil-Tàrrega, the Capella de Ministrers receives significant local government support from the Valencian Community

Valencian Community

The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain located in central and south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Valencia...

 (la Generalitat Valenciana). Part of the group's mission is the recovery of Valencian musical heritage, from their first CD of 1989 - Música Barroca Valenciana. This first release was particularly musicologically significant in unearthing unknown villancicos by a swathe of Valencian composers: Juan Cabanilles

Juan Cabanilles

Juan Bautista José Cabanilles was a Spanish organist and composer at Valencia Cathedral...

 (1644–1712), Francisco Hernández Pla (d.1722), Joseph Pradas Gallén (1689–1757), Francisco Vicente Cervera (d.1749) and Pere Rabassa

Pere Rabassa

Pere Rabassa was a Catalan composer and musicologist.He received early music lessons from his uncle, Ramon Rabassa, an organist, and voice training at the choir of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, Barcelona. The maestro de capilla till he was 13 was Joan Barter, and then the more famous Francisco...

 (1683–1767).

The productions of the group follow the example of their neighbouring Catalan colleague Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall i Bernadet is a Catalan viol player, conductor and composer. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol back to life on the stage...

 in providing historical context to musical performance and releasing books with CDs, as in the book Music and Poetry for Ausiàs March

Ausiàs March

Ausiàs March was a Valencian poet who was born in Gandia towards the end of the 14th century. He was the son of Pere March, nephew of Jaume March II, and cousin of Arnau March....

 dedicated to the 15th Century Valencian poet. The books and booklets of the group feature essays in the Valencian language, though almost identical with Catalan language

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

.

The Iberian composers promoted by Capella de Ministrers cover a span of 500 years from anonymous medieval pieces such as found in the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat

Llibre Vermell de Montserrat

The Llibre Vermell de Montserrat is a manuscript collection of devotional texts, containing amongst others some late medieval songs. The 14th century manuscript was compiled in and is still located at the monastery of Montserrat outside Barcelona in Catalonia.-The manuscript:The manuscript was...

, El Cant de la Sibil·la, El Misterio de Elche, etc., through baroque works such as the ensaladas

Ensalada (music)

The ensalada is a genre of polyphonic secular music mixing languages and dialects and nonsensical quodlibets.The term is known mainly through a publication, Las Ensaladas de Flecha Prague by Mateo Flecha the younger, that contains six long four-part vocal compositions by his uncle Mateo Flecha...

 of Joan Brudieu

Joan Brudieu

Joan Brudieu was an Catalan Spanish composer. Brudieu was born around 1520 in the diocese of Limoges and died in la Seu d'Urgell in 1591, but can generally be considered as a Spanish, since the few biographical details found him locate him in Catalonia.From 1539 was cantor at the Cathedral of...

, to better known composers such as Vicente Martín y Soler

Vicente Martín y Soler

Vicente Martín y Soler was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure today, in his own day he was compared favorably with his contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a composer of opera buffa. He has been called the Valencian Mozart.He was born in Valencia and studied...

. Soler's zarzuela

Zarzuela

Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...

 La Madrileña (Madrid 1778) was revived by Magraner in 1996. The group has also promoted a revival in public and academic interest in the Majorcan composer Antonio de Literes

Antonio de Literes

Antonio de Literes was a Spanish composer of zarzuelas, a type of performance that mixes spoken word, song and dance...

by performance of Los Elementos and other works.