EarlyMusicNews.Org

(From a recent Unquiet Thoughts blog post)

“Today’s quotes will serve as an entrée of sorts as we plan the menu for our next recording and also revisit our roots as a duo for voice and lute.   As we enter the final stages of recording music from Pilgrimes Solace (1612), John Dowland’s last book of songs, necessity dictates that we look ahead to our next project, which we do with a happy anticipation and a certain amount of relish. …
    

(From a recent Unquiet Thoughts blog post)

“… This morning, we dip into the writings presumably authored by Giovanni de' Bardi, Count of Vernio (1534 – 1612), from his correspondence with Giulio Caccini  (1551 – 1618). Bardi is credited by posterity as a cheerleader for the simpler, more dramatic and expressive monody that led to what we have come to know as Baroque music, in opposition to the headier polyphony that  characterized much music from the 16th century. …”
    

A lot from the latest newsletter from The Sixteen. There have been more additions to their online digital store offerings, a busy concert schedule, and, details of a fundraiser for plans for volume 2 of their series of Palestrina masses due for release in autumn 2012.
         

From the latest newsletter of the Country Dance and Song Society, the CDSS Store is featuring some items of early music interest. If your interests also include those of period dance as well as dance repertoire on CD, you may be interested in visiting the society’s web store pages.
                    

“Brill and the Frick Collection have signed an agreement to digitize c. 3,300 historical art sales catalogues from the Frick Art Reference Library for Brill’s publication Art Sales Catalogues 1600-1900 Online (ASCO).
            

“A Research Libraries UK and Preservation Advisory Centre joint seminar for RLUK members which explored the relationship between research libraries' approaches to preservation and conservation and the wider context of their overall strategy for collection management.
              

“Summer term dates for our regular Baroque and historical dance   classes in London, Bath, Cardiff, Gloucester and Exeter are now online.

Also, a reminder that booking is open for our Baroque dance summer school.  The whole course is ten days, but many people come for just a few days, with popular options being the first weekend or the last three-day bank holiday weekend.  Lower fees are available to those who pay a deposit before the end of April.”
                 

From the latest Colbert Artists Management newsletter

“As we welcome the warmer weather and the added sunlight of springing forward, we also welcome new growth here at Colbert Artists.  As promised in last month's newsletter, we've since announced the arrival of two new artists to our roster: soprano ELIZABETH FUTRAL, and baroque conductor and harpsichordist JEANNETTE SORRELL. “
     

“Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir with this concert exploring the power of words and music from the baroque and beyond: songs of praise and penitence, of love and regret, of joy and celebration. Composers include Bach, Handel, Rameau, Martin, Poulenc, Tavener and Whitacre. …
         

“This is the performing and recording arm of Southampton University's Cantum Pulcriorem Invenire research project: 13th Century Music & Poetry, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, begun in October 2010.

The outcomes of the project include a series of three CDs, Conductus I, II & III (appropriately subtitled) which will be released by Hyperion from July 2012 onwards, sung by John Potter, Christopher O'Gorman and Rogers Covey-Crump. The live version of the project is initially for two tenors (John Potter & Christopher O'Gorman) with a specially commissioned video by Michael Lynch, to be launched at the York Early Music Festival in 2012.
      

A reminder that the Early Music America (EMA) scholarship application deadline is fast approaching. Early Music America (EMA) offers a variety of scholarships to its members. The application deadline is 15 April 2012.
  

(From the latest newsletter at Project MUSE, some more research journals additions and some changes. Note that access to these journals are usually accomplished through University libraries or some municipal libraries. You will have to check with these local libraries to check to see if access to Project MUSE periodicals is available.  If your interest lies in early music research, Project MUSE inventory of publication may be of interest to you. -- Editor)

Background: “Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community.  Since 1995 the MUSE journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE is the trusted source of complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies, with over 120 publishers currently participating. UPCC Book Collections on Project MUSE, launched in January 2012, offer top quality book-length scholarship, fully integrated with MUSE's scholarly journal content.“
                               

“Barbara holds classes in Baroque & Renaissance Dance in London, around the UK and abroad, for both beginners/elementary and intermediate/advanced students.
       

“This latest instalment of Ian Bostridge’s ‘Ancient and Modern’ series juxtaposed the tender melancholy of the Elizabethan age with the modernist anxieties of the early twentieth century, revealing both a sensitivity to textual nuance and profound human sensibilities which transcend temporal epochs.
    

“I didn’t really know that much about Mrs Mary Potts when she was my harpsichord teacher in Cambridge, so I googled her name (in 2005) expecting to find a complete biography. She had, after all, been a student of Arnold Dolmetsch, in Haslemere, back in the 1920s, and had bought an eighteenth-century harpsichord by Burkat Shudi from him in 1929.
       

“GEMS and many of New York's early music vocal ensembles are featured on WQXR's program "The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle" broadcast on Sunday, September 25.  Click below to listen to the entire program, including performances by Anonymous4, EM/NY, ARTEK, Green Mountain Project, Pomerium, Lionheart, My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and an interview with GEMS Executive Director Gene Murrow.”
     

“When we think of the ‘English oratorio’, the composer whose name most readily comes to mind is George Frideric Handel, the ‘adopted’ Englishman who in the first half of the eighteenth-century both anticipated and dictated English musical and theatrical taste.
    

“My grandfather, Marcel Salomon, seems to be well known because he founded and sold lots of historical musical instruments. This part of our website is dedicated to his collection and memory. It is now a virtual collection, since he only left 3 photo albums from his "Berceau Royal" shop.
   

With the many different early music ensembles, groups, associations etc. on our weblinks making use of photos on their sites or newsletters, I thought it would be worthwhile to read through this article on preserving digital photographs.

“Digital preservation is the set of management processes that ensure the long-term accessibility of digital information. At NDIIPP we deal with these issues on a grand scale, working to ensure the nation’s (”USA” -- ed.) valuable digital cultural heritage survives for the long-term benefit of all.
    

Three Theaters
January 28, 2012 By Andrew Appel

Keeping us up-to-date with news from Opera Lafayette; Andrew Appel blogs on the “goings on” of the group and other tid-bits.

“Friday, January 20, 2012 7 PM The Atlas Performing Arts Center The presence of an art center is a known catalyst for the renaissance of a neighborhood on the down and outs. It attracts peaceful, benign folks (artists, families) ; it fertilizes parallel businesses like restaurants, and when well considered, it serves the community, from young to old. The Atlas is a perfect example. Opera Lafayette chose the Atlas as a rehearsal home many years ago …

“I spoke with Vivica Genaux in December 2011, when she stopped in New York at the end of one of her concert tours. The Alaskan mezzo- soprano now spends most of her time in Europe and only visits Alaska on special occasions.
    

“In comparison with Sweelinck’s keyboard works, which are unanimously praised by connoisseurs and heard frequently and with pleasure by music lovers, his vocal music has remained seriously under-exposed to this day. The great majority have not even been recorded before.
  

“EMA’s Outreach Grant is intended to support outreach and/or educational projects for children or adults by ensembles and individual artists. Grants will be awarded for projects taking place during the year July 1-June 30 following the application deadline. The typical grant award is $1000.
  

From the latest newsletter of 11 Jan 2012, MuziekHandel Saul B. Groen sends us a list of their list of new publications for the period of October to December 2011.
  

“From Monteverdi's Orfeo to the Tribun of Mauricio Kagel, from the birth of opera to its maturity, Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing. in its 30 years of existence, has explored four centuries of music: Campra, Handel, Lully, Mozart, Monteverdi, Rameau, Vivaldi, Weill, opera seria, opera buffa, tragic opera, musical theater, melodramas, sacred music: it is thus, that, over the seasons, Atelier lyrique has established itself as a test bed of original events. Much of this creative work builds on a collaboration with orchestras and the use of original instruments: La Grande Ecurie du Roy and the Chamber. ...“