EarlyMusicNews.Org

Summer School of Early Music is an Early Music course targeting the historically informed performance mainly of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Music. Some of the recorder classes concentrate on contemporary, world and folk music.

The workshop takes place every July in beautiful South Bohemian town Prachatice (130 km south from Prague, 200 km north-west of Vienna). In 2010 we will be there for the 12th time, until 1998 the course took place in Bechyně.

“Unicorn Music of Bloomington, Indiana will host a recorder consort workshop led by Han Tol during the weekend of April 9-11th th for upper-intermediate to advanced players who wish to play 4, 5, and 6-part music on matched consorts, one or two-to-a-part. 

“This recording project features a selection of our favorite lute-songs and airs of John Dowland and his comtemporaries. For us it represents the culmination of years of studying and performing this very same repertoire until we finally felt ready to record it and make it comercially available.

“St. Paul, Minn. — The five 'summiteers' have been studying with and teaching one another for 20 years or so. They get along pretty well in spite of having worked all over the globe and developed some very specific ideas on how the lute is to be played best.

Visit this YouTube site (Stuart Walsh) for a short video clip on the Greenwich Festival of Nov. 2009.

Early Music Exhibition 14 Nov 2009

Sunday, January 31, 2010, 18:30 - free admission
Santuario Madonna della Quercia
Location La Quercia (Viterbo)
Sacred music of the Venetian '600

Cristina Paolucci, soprano
Schinaia Joseph, organ

Program:
Girolamo Frescobaldi - Selection from the Mass of Our Lady (Fiori Musicali, 1635)
Francesco Cavalli - O quam suavis et decora, motet for solo voice and bc (1645)
Barbara Strozzi - Salve Regina, antiphon for soprano and bc (1655)
Natale Monferrato - Exaltabo te Deus, Glorious Mary, two motets for solo voice and bc (ca. 1650)

“The colloquium on Ben Johnston and the American Just Microtonal Tradition seeks a  wide range of approaches to the music of Ben Johnston and composers closely associated with him.  Analyses of specific works, broader discussions of Johnston's career and output, papers focusing on issues of performance practice, and historical/philosophical discussions of the American just microtonal tradition are all welcome areas of focus.

“Mark Brown talks to Geoff Smith, whose reinvention of the piano allows players to alter the tuning of notes either before or during a performance Link to this video

For a non-pianist, the idea of a microtonally fluid piano might seem either no big deal or baffling. But this weekend a composer will reveal the result of a 10-year mission – nothing less than the reinvention of one of the most important instruments in western music.

“The building of keyboard instruments began over 300 years ago. The development started with the organ and the Harpsichord, continued through the pianoforte, and reached its high point with what today is known as the modern grand piano - which remains until now virtually unchanged. (The Golden Years of grand piano construction were between 1825 and 1925).
  

“We're happy to announce the release of our 6th CD, Au Pres de Vous. Recorded in the warm and vibrant acoustic of an old country church, our latest release explores the important marriage of music, poetry and dance tunes of sixteenth century France.

39th Annual
AMIS Meeting
Library of Congress
Washington, DC
May 26 to 29, 2010

“The Library of Congress will host the 39th annual meeting of the American Musical Instrument Society from May 26 to May 29, 2010.

“As the UK’s academy of sciences and the world’s oldest science academy, we want people all over the UK to join with us in celebrating 350 years of scientific achievement and endeavour.

An article on “The Influence of Leather in the Fortepiano Evolution in the XVIII and XIX Centuries” by Gustavo Adrián DEFEO F.S.L.T.C.

The Fortepiano origin
I can imagine most of the presents will have many questions on my presentation: First of all
what is the relation between Leather and the Fortepiano? Why here in the Palazzo della
Signoria? Let’s look back three centuries ago in this same room, during the baroque period, the times of the Great Prince Ferdinando de Medici.

Observations on the Development of Wood Screws in North America by Christopher White, Mellon Fellow, Furniture and Frame Conservation Lab, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Currently: Project Conservator Arizona State Museum

“The following is the result of research conducted between September 2004 and August 2005 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Physical characteristics of a series of wood screws from the museum’s collection of 18th and 19th-century American furniture are summarized and their characteristics related to curatorial-assigned dates of fabrication and to a chronology of screw manufacturing techniques.

The American Musical Instrument Society Announces a New Publication: “The New-York Book of Prices for Manufacturing Piano-fortes by The Society of Journeymen Piano-forte Makers” with foreword by Henry Z. Steinway and Introduction by Laurence Libin.

“This site presents a complete facsimile of the "Brunetes ou Petits Airs Tendres" edited and arranged  by Christophe Ballard in three volumes published by him in 1703, 1704 and 1711.

“Through the generosity of Jack Schuman of Phoenix, Oregon and Dorinda Schuman of Sun City West, Arizona, residents of southern Oregon, visitors to the region and students and faculty at SOU will soon have access to the Schuman Collection of Musical Instruments, one of the world's largest and most unique private collections of musical instruments, which will be housed in the Music Building on the SOU campus.

“Saturday November 28th sees us into our 15th season of singing with a concert dedicated strictly to Marian music and focused on the Annunciation.  This is a true Advent program, with only a whiff of Christmas on the eve of the first Sunday of Advent.

“Carles Riera Pujal has died at age 53 on November, 4 in Barcelona. He tried to enjoy life until his last breath. His family appreciates the messages of condolence, affection and mourn they have received from people who had known and loved Carles.

“At long last and after several interruptions, our performing edition of 16th century French chansons is now available.

“To tune a lute or viol really well one must see to the exact spacing of the frets tied round the neck of the instrument. In this authoritative work Mark Lindley surveys different approaches to the problem as described from the 1520s to the 1740s by a variety of writers.

The meeting of great minds and music do mix! Cynthia Hiebert (harpsichord) and Jeremy Bell (violin) perform ad the Quantum 2 Cosmos Festival (Waterloo, Canada). 

Follow link to view video:  (scroll to the 2:45 mark to see the video) http://www.q2cfestival.com/play.php?lecture_id=7762

For several years Leopoldo Perez has administered a series of harpsichord concerts and classes ­ sometimes more than a dozen in a season ­ and those concerts have developed an audience, and given harpsichordists from at least four continents a platform in Argentina. Last year a group began  conversations about furthering the influence of the harpsichord and its music and that has resulted in a month-long series of concerts beginning Friday, Nov. 13/2009.

La Simphonie du Marais Hugo Reyne informs us of their latest CD release: “Viennoiseries musicales”.  Out of the usual real of the Baroque era, the “Viennoiseries musicales” reflect the ambiance of the Vienese “salons” at the beginning of the XIX^th century. 

Visit website for more information of this latest CD:   La Simphonie du Marais Hugo Reyne

“by Greg Benson '11  | November 5, 2009

When Music Professor Ruth Griffioen suggested to Evan Callaway ‘12 that he spend his scholarship money building a six-foot-tall instrument that lost popularity after the 17th Century she was joking. However, the computer science major and music minor said he "took it more as a challenge than as a joke."