Hidden inside the binding of a XVII sec. book, the Cantigas de amigo of the troubadour Martin Codax, were discovered by Pablo Vindel from Madrid among 1913-14. They consist in six melodies and seven poems and represent the only galligo-Portuguese secular cantigas form in the Middle Age. Here the melancholy spirit of lyric joints to some popular music forms. Their shorts texts with simple melodies communicate the thoughts of a young woman (moça) watching the sea remembering her man faraway from Vigo Coasts, symbol of frontiers between sea and heart. The songs are refrained by traditional instruments with Arabian- Andaluse musical forms (Muwassahat and Karjas). The Ensemble Calixtinus was founded in 1991. It is inspired by the homonym code from which takes the starting point for a research on vocal and instrumental practices from XI to XV sec. He joints his music passion to the careful historical, linguistic and iconographical studies, necessary to reconstruct the European musical traditions in the Middle Age, and particularly in the Mediterranean Region.
