Early Music America Fall 2007 5

soundbytesCompiled by Angela Fasick

Appointments, Awards, & Grants

Robert Cole will stepdown as director of Cal Per-formances at the conclusionof the 2008-09 season. Aconductor and instrumentalistby training, and a one-timemember of the EMA board,Cole assumed the directorshipof Cal Per-formances in1986 andfounded theBerkeley Fes-tival andExhibition in1990. Under his tenure, thepresenting organizationoffered performances ofcommissions, debuts, andpieces that garnered interna-tional acclaim. Cole receivedthe Berkeley Citation in 1997,was made a Chevalier of theOrder of Arts and Letters in1995, and received a WilliamDawson Award for Program-matic Excellence in 1998.

The Indianapolis EarlyMusic Festival appointedMark Cudek as its new musicdirector. Cudek, the director

of the earlymusic depart-ment at thePeabodyConservatoryat JohnsHopkins Uni-versity, playsthe guitar,

recorder, crumhorn, bass viol,and percussion with groupssuch as Hesperus, Apollo’sFire, the Catacoustic Consort,and the Baltimore Consort.He joined retiring directorFrank Cooper at this sum-mer’s festival concerts.

French soprano AnneAzéma will become the

Boston Camerata’s new artis-tic director in September2008, succeeding husbandJoel Cohen when he takes onthe role of music directoremeritus. Programs in the2007-08 season were chosento represent ensemble mile-stones: “Renaissance Christ-mas” was the first Camerataprogram to gain nationalattention in the 1970s; “Tris-tan and Iseult” garneredrecognition for the ensemblein Europe and Asia, especiallyafter winning the Grand Prixdu Disque in the 1980s; and“Alla Turca,” a collaborationwith a Turkish ensemble, rep-resents the Camerata’s workin cross-cultural dialogue.

The Boston Camerata has also appointed KathrynWelter as executive director.Welter holds a Ph.D. in musicology from HarvardUniversity and has experienceas an arts administrator, per-former, scholar, and teacher.She joins the Camerata fol-lowing several years as execu-tive director of the Com-posers Conference andChamber Music Center atWellesley College.

Eric Rice has been namedthe new artistic director ofthe Connecticut Early MusicFestival. Rice is visiting assis-tant professor and director ofthe collegium musicum at theUniversity of Connecticutand has sung with Exsulte-mus and Capella Alamire inthe Boston area.

Harpsichordist and organ-ist Mahan Esfahani received ascholarship from the Fon-dazione Marco Fodella forstudy and research in Italyduring the 2007-08 year. Esfa-hani will study early key-

boards at the Institute forEarly Music in Milan and pursue research.

For his lifetime achieve-ment, “so immediately andclosely linked” to the work ofJohann Sebastian Bach, Niko-laus Harnoncourt receivedthis year’s Leipzig Bach Medalfrom Leipzig mayor BurkhardJung. The International BachPrize is awarded annually tothose musi-cians whohave specialmerits forthe per-formanceand cultiva-

tion of Johann SebastianBach’s music. Former awardwinners include Ton Koop-man (2006), Sir John EliotGardiner (2005), HelmutRilling (2004), and GustavLeonhardt (2003).

Tafelmusik music directorJeanne Lamon is one of therecipients of the 2007 BettyWebster Award, “in recogni-tion of her 25 years of leader-ship of Tafelmusik BaroqueOrchestra, the profile she hasbrought to Canada interna-tionally through live perform-ance, recording, and teaching,and for the inspiration andinsights she generously shares

Ron Cook Is New EMA President Early Music America announceschanges in the membership and leadership of its board of directors.Arts administrator Charlotte S. New-man finished her term as president inJune; she will remain on EMA’s board,and Ron Cook of Porter Wright Morris& Arthur LLP will serve as EMA’s newpresident.

Cook performs regularly on historical harp, recorder,and other historical wind and stringed instruments and is afounding member and past president of the HistoricalHarp Society. He is also a past officer and director of theAmerican Recorder Society. For 30 years he has directedThe Early Interval, a Medieval and Renaissance consortperforming both vocal and instrumental music, and he hastaught recorder and regularly lectures on early music topicsat Capital University (Columbus, OH).

Susan Weiss of the Peabody Conservatory will serveas EMA’s new secretary, arts consultant Mary Ann Haganas assistant secretary.

Liane Norman (Chatham Baroque), Rob Ganley(Dollar Bank), and flutist Sandra Miller finished their service to the board – EMA would like to acknowledge the fundamental role each played in supporting and steer-ing the organization. Replacing them are trumpeter BarryBauguess, Jordan Sramek of the Rose Ensemble, andLaurence B. Sutter of the Penthouse Media Group.

Cole

Cudek

Harnoncourt

6 Fall 2007 Early Music America

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as a teacher and leader.” Theaward is given annually byOrchestras Canada to cele-brate outstanding contribu-tions to Canadian orchestras.

Katherine McKee has beenappointed assistant musicdirector of San FranciscoRenaissance Voices. Shereplaces Andrea Klein, whoresigned for health reasons.The group made its debut in 2004 and is directed by Todd Jolly.

After an April concert ofBach’s Mass in B Minor by theNetherlands Bach Society inthe Bovenkerk Cathedral inKampen, Holland, artisticdirector Jos van Veldhovenwas made a Knight in theOrder of the Dutch Lion. Hereceived the royal decorationfor his groundbreaking workin the early music world, bothin the Netherlands and inter-nationally. After the presenta-tion, the ensemble embarkedon its spring American tour,perforning at the Metropoli-tan Museum in New YorkCity.

The Fanfare Consort(Monroe, CT) received a 2007Chamber Music Americapartnership program grant. Incollaboration with the Mon-roe Historical Society andHeritage Preservation Trustof Newtown, the ensemblewill perform Baroque musicfor students in Connecticut’sMonroe and Newtown schooldistricts.

In April, two early musicorganizations received 2007NEA Access to Artistic Excel-lence grants. Philomel Con-certs (Philadelphia, PA)received $10,000 to support“Imagination Workshops,”“Kids’ Concerts,” and “Con-certs & Conversations.” Theeducational outreach pro-

grams and family concertswill provide access to andbuild long-term audiences forearly music. Chanticleer (SanFrancisco, CA) was awarded$25,000 to support a nationalconcert tour and educationalresidency project. Activitieswill include choral coaching,youth choral festivals, andadvanced choral training foradult singers.

Three organizations withearly music affiliationsreceived $30,000 grants fromthe Philadelphia Music Proj-ect in 2007. The Choral ArtsSociety of Philadelphia willproduce a concert titled “ABaroque Festival of Lights”that will feature the music ofSalamone Rossi. Piffaro, theRenaissance Band, will pres-ent a Vespers program forEpiphany that combines16th-century repertoire withnewly commissioned worksby Philadelphia composerKile Smith. And Tempesta diMare will perform “NoStrings Attached: Love andDeath with Music and Pup-pets,” an evening of narrativeworks with original puppetstaging by Mock Turtle Mari-onette Theater.

The New HarmonieWinds, composed of studentsand alumni of the EarlyMusic Institute at IndianaUniversity, performed in theFlanders Festival’s competi-tion for historical wind instru-ments in Antwerp thisAugust. Members of theensemble are Nurit Blum andEileen Walsh, clarinet;Kathryn Baker, Jared Disbro,and Hani Molles, horn; andElizabeth Hardy and KelseySchilling, bassoon. New Har-monie Winds was the onlyAmerican group asked to playat this event.

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Upcoming SeasonThe Washington Bach

Consort is celebrating its 30thanniversary with an expandedseason featuring Bach’s signa-ture works – the opener is aperformance of the B MinorMass. This year, the consortwill also begin a partnershipwith the Shakespeare TheatreCompany, becoming the soleresident music ensemble atthe new Harman Center forthe Arts’ Sydney HarmanHall.

Ars Lyrica (Houston, TX),under artistic directorMatthew Dirst, will begin itsseason with a concert entitled“Mad Women”: Purcell’s Bessof Bedlam, Clérembault’sMédée, Handel’s Lucrezia, andmad scenes from Handel’sImeneo and Hercules.

Boston Baroque will openits season with a semi-staged

version of Mozart’s Così fantutte directed by Ned Canty.The production will be sungin Italian, with English titles,and will feature Lauren Skuce,Jennifer Holloway, Vale Ride-out, Hugh Russell, SaraHeaton, and Kevin Burdette.

Music Before 1800 willopen its 2007-08 season withAlexander Blachly directingPomerium in “Battling theSerpent: The Caput andL’Homme armé Traditions inMusic,” a new program ofprimarily Flemish Renaissancemusic. Also scheduled toappear in NYC under MusicBefore 1800’s sponsorship arethe Newberry Consort, Cap-pella della Pietà dei Turchini,Ciaramella, Sequentia, TheClerks’ Group, the Choir ofCorpus Christi Church, and IlFondamento.

The Newberry Consort,

under the new direction ofDavid Douglass (see page 39),will begin its season with“Shakespeare’s Songbook.”Ross W. Duffin, musicologistand author of Shakespeare’sSongbook, will give a pre-concert lecture for each ofthe four Chicago-area performances.

The Opera Workshop and

Early Music Ensemble ofPacific Lutheran University inTacoma, WA, will produceMonteverdi’s L’Orfeo underthe musical direction ofStephen Stubbs and MaxineEilander in November.

The opening program ofMusicians of the Old PostRoad’s season will commem-orate the 250th anniversary of

Early Music America Fall 2007 7

Washington Bach Consort

the birth of Domenico Scar-latti. Soprano Pamela Dellalwill join the ensemble in itsperformances of cantatas andsinfonia of several Scarlattis:Domenico, Alessandro,Giuseppe, and Pietro.

News from TorontoFrom June through Sep-

tember, the Summer Music inthe Garden series offers 20free concerts in the TorontoMusic Garden, which wasinspired by a Bach cello suite(in a PBS show with Yo YoMa). Of particular interest toearly music lovers: perform-ances by The WindermereString Quartet; “Flights ofFancy: String Quartets Do theFugue” with violinists LindaMelsted and Julie Baumgartel,violist David Rose, and cellistShane Neill; Folia’s “GardenGrounds”; “Biber RePass”with Linda Melsted, LoriFreedman, and Julia Sasso;The Rosetta String Quartetmaking its Toronto debutwith “Signs, Games, Messagesand Fantasies”; and EnsembleLa Rota, also making itsToronto debut with “A Madrede Deus.”

In May, the Bata ShoeMuseum presented The Musi-cians in Ordinary (sopranoHallie Fishel and lutenist JohnEdwards) in “In the Shoes ofan Elizabethan Lady: Musicfrom the Life of FrancesWalsingham.” The perform-ance was accompanied by apair of Walsingham’s shoesand a pre-concert lecture byElizabeth Semmelhack, themuseum’s curator.

In September, the TorontoEarly Music Centre will hostits 23rd Early Music Faire, anafternoon of musical presen-tations, displays, CD sales,

and booths featuring earlymusic vendors.

Concerts of NoteArs Antiqua followed its

May concert in Chappaqua,NY, “The Divas: Cuzzoni &Bordoni, A Musical Battle,”with opera cake and cham-pagne. Sopranos Anne Harleyand Mailia Bendi Meradhelped to re-create the 1726Haymarket Theater con-frontation between two ofHandel’s most flamboyantdivas.

Bacchanalia BaroqueEnsemble (Arlene Travis,soprano; Laura Thompson,Baroque flute; Jim Miller,Baroque trumpet; AaronBrown, Sophie Arbuckle,Baroque violin; Louise Schul-man, Baroque viola; MarthaMcGaughey, viola da gamba;Gabriel Shuford, harpsichord)gave a June concert in NewYork City entitled “Love onthe Tiber” that featured Italian Baroque music.

The Bach Sinfonia con-cluded its 12th season in Mayunder the direction of DanielAbraham with a concert in

8 Fall 2007 Early Music America

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FACULTYFrances Conover Fitch, chair, harpsichord

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Michael Collver, cornetto, voice

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Jane Hershey, viola da gamba

Sonja Lindblad, recorder

Na’ama Lion, Baroque flute

Dana Maiben, Baroque violin

Laurie Monahan, voice

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Andrew Schwartz, Baroque bassoon

Daniel Stillman, Renaissance winds

Peter Sykes, harpsichord, fortepiano

Anne Trout, Baroque bass/violone

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Silver Springs, MD, featuringsoprano Jacqueline Horner ofAnonymous 4. The perform-ance, “A Baroque Bouquet,”featured works by Telemann,Bach, Handel, and Pachelbel.

In April, the Boston Cam-erata flew to Paris for a spe-cial concert reprise of itswell-known “Sacred Bridge”program. Joel Cohen led theCamerata, assisted by theSharq Arabic Music ensemble,in a performance of Medievalmusic from Christian, Jewish,and Muslim sources. The per-formance took place underthe auspices of Radio France.

The Boston Early MusicFestival Orchestra & Chorus,Paul O’Dette and StephenStubbs, musical directors, per-formed Pergolesi’s MarianVespers in May at EmmanuelChurch in Boston’s Back Bay.Soloists included Pamela Del-lal, Amanda Forsythe, YuliaVan Doren, Teresa Wakim,soprano; Ricard Bordas,Kirsten Solleck, alto; JasonMcStoots, Aaron Sheehan,tenor; and Sumner Thomp-son, Douglas Williams, bari-tone. Robert Mealy joinedO’Dette and Stubbs for a pre-concert talk.

Early Music Colorado andBerkeley Community UnitedChurch of Christ presented a“May Faire” at the Denverchurch. In addition to nineMay poles, the event featuredmusic from a variety of

groups, a performance ofselect scenes from Romeo andJuliet by students from TellerElementary, Medieval snacks,and various games and activities.

In June, La Monica madeits Seattle debut in a perform-ance of “The Amorous Lyre”at St. Stephen’s Church. Intheir program, La Monicaexplored the passion, drama,and innovation of 17th-cen-tury Italian music.

Ex Umbris’s program“Crime and Punishment: TheMusical World of 17th-Cen-tury Spain” offered jacaras ofEscarramán, Doña Estrella,and Zurdillo de la Costa; lovesongs from the MoorishQuarter, the docks, and thegalleys; and the Gran Chacona.The concert was held in NewYork City in May.

Boston-based Exsultemusoffered a free concert seriesof music from RenaissancePortugal in May, performingat churches in New Bedford,Lowell, East Cambridge, andBoston, MA. Each concertwas followed by a receptionfeaturing Portuguese foods.

In May, Nota Bene PeriodOrchestra presented “TheRoad to Brandenburg,” a pro-gram that explored the devel-opment of the concertogrosso form in the works ofTorelli, Muffat, and Bach. TheMay concerts in Waterloo andGuelph, Ontario, were led by

Early Music America Fall 2007 9

HARM NIAOLa Monica

10 Fall 2007 Early Music America

musical director Linda Melst-ed and artistic director BorysMedicky.

Parthenia welcomedRenaissance violinistsRobert Mealy and ShiraKammen and organist JohnScott for a May concert enti-tled “Royal Consorts: The-atrical Chamber Music forViolins, Viols, and Organ”that was held at CorpusChristi Church in New YorkCity.

Pacific Camerata (DanielRatelle, director) presented“The Surprising LombardNuns” at St. Paul’s CathedralChurch in San Diego in June.The program featured a rangeof offerings by 17th-centurywomen who lived in northernItaly and were nuns and com-posers, including IsabellaLeonarda.

The Rose Ensemble’s sea-son finale was “The GirlKing,” a concert series cele-brating the incredible life andtimes of Christina, 17th-cen-tury Queen of Sweden. Theprogram included Medievalchant for St. Bridget, Renais-sance hymns and traditionaldances, Swedish-languagecathedral music, Italian cas-trati motets, French balletmusic for Baroque instrumen-tal ensemble, and the world

premiere of a new work by J.David Moore. Patricia Hampland Barton Sutter served asnarrators for the performanc-es, which took place in St.Paul and Minneapolis in May.

In May, the SeattleBaroque Orchestra and Seat-tle Early Dance presented“Handel’s Theater Music.”SBO’s music director IngridMatthews and Anna Mans-bridge, artistic director ofSED, collaborated on the per-formance of Handel’s musicfor the theater, as well as twoof the composer’s Opus 3Concerti Grossi, Purcell’s KingArthur suite, and the music ofCharles Avison Croft.

Music & Arts at Saint Lukein the Fields presented Trefoil(Drew Minter, Mark Rimple,and Marcia Young) in “That’sAmore: Love in the 14th

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Early Music America Fall 2007 11

Century (Music of MedievalItaly)” in June in New YorkCity.

The Schola Antiqua ofChicago will present theheadline concert at the annualCongress of the InternationalAssociation of Bibliophiles atChicago’s Newberry Libraryin September. Featuringunpublished music found inseveral rare manuscriptsacquired by the Library, theprogram includes two Grego-rian chants from a prayerbook of an 18th-centuryFrench missionary sent toconvert a Mohawk communi-

ty. The accompanying chanttexts are written in Mohawk.To prepare, the ensemble wascoached by two specialists inNative American andMohawk linguistics.

Sendebar (Mauricio Moli-na, director, frame drums,bagpipes; Carlo Valte, oud;Emily Eagen, voice; TimFuson, percussion, voice) per-formed “Cantigas, Cansos eDansas: Medieval Songs andDances of the WesternMediterranean” at theAmherst Early Music Festivaland at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in NYC this July.The recital explored the richrepertoire of paraliturgicaland secular songs and dances

composed in Spain, France,and Italy during the 13th and14th centuries.

Summer HighlightsThe 35th Aston Magna

Festival (NY and MA) pre-sented six programs this sum-mer, opening the series with aperformance of Vivaldi’s“The Four Seasons” that fea-tured violinist Stanley Ritchie,a charter member of the festi-val, and oboist Stephen Ham-mer. Other programs includ-ed “18th-Century Italian Vir-tuoso Music for Violin andGuitar” with guitarist Richard

Savino; “Bach at the Court ofFrederick the Great,” whichincluded the Musical Offeringwith soloists John Gibbons(fortepiano) and ChristopherKrueger (Baroque violin);“The Wit and Wisdom of theFrench Baroque” with sopra-no Dominique Labelle;“Mostly Monteverdi” withtenors Frank Kelly and

William Hite; and “The Pas-sion of Purcell” with Debo-rah Rentz-Moore as Dido.Artistic director and Baroqueviolinist Daniel Stepner ledvarious combinations ofmusicians during the season;participants included Baroqueviolinist and violist Jane Stark-man, gambist Laura Jeppesen,and fortepianist and harpsi-chordist John Gibbons.

The 2007 Capitol HillChamber Music Festival –supported by the District ofColumbia Commission on theArts and Humanities, theNEA, and St. Mark’s Episco-pal Church – presented twoconcerts this July: “Mozart:The Complete Flute Quar-tets” with flutist JeffreyCohan, violinist Risa Brow-der, violist Stephen Creswell,and cellist John Moran, and“Baroque Concerti from Ger-many, France, and Italy” inwhich the same lineup per-formed works by Telemann,Naudot, and Pergolesi.

Celebrating the 70-yearhistory of the Carmel BachFestival (CA), music directorBruno Weil presided over thefestival’s hybrid orchestra,part modern, part historical,in an opening night programof music by Arvo Pärt, MaxReger, and various works byBach. In 2007, 200 concerts,recitals, interactive talks, mas-ter classes, social events, andeducational experiences wereperformed during a 23-dayperiod.

Les Voix humaines (SusieNapper and Margaret Little)

of Montreal,Canada, per-formed at theIsrael Festivalin June. Theygave two con-certs (“Sainte-Colombe &Marin Marais:Master and

Pupil”) in Jerusalem, preced-ed by a conference (“The SunQueen: The Reign of theFrench Viol”). In August theyplayed at the Viola da GambaSociety’s Pan-Pacific GambaGathering in Honolulu. Inbetween they performed aconcert featuring Marais,Boismortier, and Sainte-Colombe with MélisandeCorriveau, viol, and EricMilnes, harpsichord, at theFestival international demusique baroque deLamèque, New Brunswick.The ensemble received a Dia-pason d’Or for their fourthand final volume of the com-plete Concerts a deux violesesgales by Sainte-Colombe, andtheir CD L’Ange Marais, withWieland Kuijken, was award-ed a 10/10 from ClassicsToday and was nominated fora MIDEM 2007 ClassicalPrize in the Baroque category.

The Tafelmusik ChamberChoir brought its 25thanniversary season to a con-clusion with Handel’s oratorioSolomon. In a rare presentationof the work in its entirety,Tafelmusik was joined byKarina Gauvin as the Queenof Sheba, Laurie Reviol asSolomon’s Queen, Colin Balz-er as Zadok, and NathanielWatson as a Levite. Britishcountertenor Michael Chancemade his Tafelmusik debut asSolomon.

Under the direction ofnew artistic director JonathanMills, the Edinburgh Interna-tional Festival 07 celebratedearly music with a series ofconcerts, recitals, and operasby Jordi Savall, RinaldoAlessandrini, Mark Padmore,Chiara Banchini, AndreasScholl, Claudio Cavina, PaulHillier, Konrad Junghänel,and The Tallis Scholars. In addition, EIF offered anew string of concerts inGreyfriars Kirk that traced

Sendebar

Schola Antiqua of Chicago

12 Fall 2007 Early Music America

the development of Euro-pean vocal music through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Festival Vancouver’s six-concert TD Canada TrustMain Stage Series included anAugust production by EarlyMusic Vancouver, in collabo-ration with L’Académie

Baroque de Montréal, ofHandel’s La resurrezione. Ledby Alexander Weimann, theperformance featured sopra-nos Suzie LeBlanc and Shan-non Mercer, countertenorMatthew White, tenor ColinBalzer, and baritone TylerDuncan in the Vancouverdebut of the oratorio.

SoHIP, the Society for His-torically Informed Perform-ances, presented six concertsin and around Boston in June,July, and August. Its SummerEarly Music Concert Seriesfeatured the El DoradoEnsemble in “Giardino Musi-cale,” Heliotrope Consort in“Les Ondes et Les Zéphirs,”Cut Circle in “Dueling Mas-ters,” Sprezzatura in “CorMio: Madrigals of Love and

Regret,” La Donna Musicalein “Venezia!: WomenComposers in 17th- & 18th- Century Venice,” andAmphion’s Lyre in “So Harmonious a Life.”

Service & Learning“The Ascending Voice,” an

international four-day festivaldevoted exclusively to a cappel-la music, took place at Pep-perdine University in Malibu,CA, in June. Anonymous 4,Cappella Romana, and theConcord Ensemble wereamong the groups selected toperform during the event.

The American HandelSociety and the PrincetonUniversity department ofmusic hosted the 2007 Ameri-can Handel Festival in Prince-ton, NJ. The April weekendincluded papers, panel discus-sions, performances (includ-ing Hercules), and access to theJames S. Hall Collection ofG.F. Handel, part of the Man-uscripts Division of theDepartment of Rare Booksand Special Collections ofPrinceton University.

Every year, the Viola daGamba Society of Americaholds an auction at its con-clave to fund scholarships andwork-study students as well asother conclave activities. In2007, participants donatedeverything from bric-a-brac tobass viols for the cause. The

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Send Us Your News!Sound Bytes Winter 2007Deadline: September 24

Sound Bytes tries to cover earlymusic news and newsmakers ascompletely as possible, but wecannot publish every news item.All materials must include aname, date, and contact number.Send news to Sound Bytes,EMAg, 2366 Eastlake Ave. East,#429, Seattle, WA 98102; e-mail: emag@earlymusic.org(include “Sound Bytes” in subjectline). Digital photos may be sentby e-mail as 300 dpi TIFF or JPEG images in color or b&w.

Early Music is the subject ofthis magazine, and is some-

thing that we all love—eventhough we may not be able tosay what it is that we love, oragree with somebody else oncewe’ve agreed that we both loveit. We know that it’s partly theexcitement of rediscoveringmusic from the past that wewouldn’t know were it not forthe efforts of the early musicmovement, and partly it’s anattitude toward music-making,a way of taking music on itsown terms, of letting the musicspeak for itself.

Each of those is laudable,and each is objectionable.

The rediscovery and preser-vation of the music of the pastis admirable. There’s still a lot ofmusic that hasn’t been playedfor a long time, and we mightenjoy if we did play it or hear it.But you have to wonder why ithas been forgotten. It’s not thatit’s bad; it’s just that time hasmoved on. Is it possible that thepreservation of music from thepast gets in the way of themusic of the present? Is thatwhat our detractors dislikeabout the whole early musicthing? Are we a sort of land-marking operation that tries toprevent Donald Trump, say,from building his 45-storycondo hotel in Greenwich Vil-lage, or makes Renzo Pianoalter his plans for an addition tothe Whitney Museum so as topreserve the façade of a brown-stone house? Maybe we don’tparticularly like the Trump build-ing, but as far as I’m concernedanybody who has been to the

Menil Collection in Houstonwould not want to impedeRenzo Piano in making a newmuseum.

But the world has only somuch space in it, and there arethose who think that retainingthe old reduces space for thenew. It is certainly true that inMozart’s day audiences muchpreferred new music to old.Who would go to hear a sym-phony, or an opera, that onehad already heard if one couldgo to a new one? Nowadays, ofcourse, audiences tend to avoidanything new: why take achance on music we may not

like when we could hear lovelymusic that we know we like?

This last problem is largerthan the Early Music problem,of course, and Early Musicshares with ContemporaryMusic (note how the word“Music” has to be qualified,somehow reduced, by a modifi-er) the gift of music as yetunheard by the audience; andaudiences like that—at least theminuscule audiences for earlymusic and for contemporarymusic do.

As to early music as an atti-tude to music-making, why onearth, say the critics, would youwant to play a harpsichord

when you could play a Stein-way? Or play on one of thosetinny little Baroque violins?Music has changed over time,and instruments have gottenbetter, and we train people inthe conservatory how to singand play, and things have neverbeen better. Except for youretro-people with yourrecorders.

Well, we are like the slowfood movement, the naturalfiber people, the people whowant to keep Grand CentralStation from suffering the fateof Penn Station. It reallydepends on whether youbelieve in progress. I don’t.(Well, in some areas, sure:nobody wants to return to his-torical dentistry.) The history ofthe arts is a great smorgasbordof wonderful things to choosefrom, and there’s no reason wecan’t keep right on adding to it,as people have always done.There’s always room for more,and early music surely has itsplace at the table.

Thomas Forrest Kelly is a professorof music at Harvard University and a board member and pastpresident of Early Music America.

by Thomas Forrest Kelly

EARLYMUSIC

MUSINGS

A Place at the Table

It really depends on whether you

believe in progress. I don’t.

Early Music America Fall 2007 13

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ENSEMBLES :Peabody Renaissance EnsembleBaltimore Baroque BandBaroque OperaRenaissance & Baroque Chamber MusicRecorder Consort

BOSTON UNIVERSITY School of MusicM.M., D.M.A. IN HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

Peter Sykes, Department Chairman; harpsichord,fortepiano, continuo, performance practice

Martin Pearlman, Artist in Residence; baroqueorchestra, chamber ensembles, performancepractice

Marilyn McDonald, baroque violinJane Starkman, baroque violinChristopher Krueger, baroque fluteEmlyn Ngai, baroque violinSarah Freiberg, baroque celloMarc Schachman, baroque oboeLaura Jeppesen, viola da gambaAldo Abreu, recorderFaculty of the Voice and Opera Departments

Boston University and Boston BaroqueAn Exciting Collaboration in Historical Performance Training

An equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.

Resident Professional Ensemble Boston Baroque provides training,educational enrichment, and performance opportunities for current students and graduatesof the program. Students play and learn side-by-side with distinguished professionals.

For more information, contact:Tracy Rider, Director of Admissions

800-643-4796 • 617-353-3341cfamusic@bu.edu • www.bu.edu/cfa

14 Fall 2007 Early Music America

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July workshop met at TheUniversity of Puget Sound inTacoma, WA; to celebrate its45th anniversary, the conclavechose “A Bow to History: 700Years of Violin Music” as thisyear’s theme.

Chatham Baroque’s“Peanut Butter & Jam Ses-sions” are informal concertsdesigned specially for pre -schoolers and their accompa-nying grownups. The ensem-ble’s April concert featuredspecial guest David Douglassin “The Adventures of Viand Lin,” while the May edi-tion treated Pittsburgh kids to“Loud and Soft.” Further ses-sions are set for September,October, and November.

New PublicationsAnonymous 4 has begun

working with Hal Leonardand www.a-cappella.com topublish its songs from Ameri-can Angels in octavo editions.Several songs are alreadyavailable and more are on theway during 2007. Sheet musicdownloads for 13 songs fromGloryland are also available,and A4 will make several oftheir Medieval editions avail-able later this year, includingthe music of Hildegard ofBingen.

The New Bach Edition(Neue Bach-Asgabe), thescholarly edition of all the

works of Johann SebastianBach, has been completed.An all-German project, it hasbeen in the works since theearly 1950s, with the BachInstitut, Göttingen, and theBach-Archiv, Leipzig, leadingthe way. The edition has beenpublished since 1954 byBärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel,and the final volume (of over100) was symbolically pre-sented to the public in June atSt. Thomas’s Church, Leipzig.

The four-part editionComplete Keyboard Works by JanPieterszoon Sweelinck is nowavailable. Harald Vogel andPieter Dirksen started theproject in 2004, and the firstthree volumes were entitledToccatas, Variations on Choralesand Psalms, and Variations onSongs and Dances. The last vol-ume to be published, Fantasiascontains 20 works from thisgenre and is available fromBreitkopf-Härtel.

MiscellanyIn January, WETA (Wash-

ington, DC, 90.9 FM) con-cluded its two-year experi-ment with news and talk radiowith a switch back to classicalprogramming. The station hassince seen its audience morethan double, in part becauseformer commercial rivalWGMS folded. “The diversityof choices in radio – Internet,

Chatham Baroque

SOUNDbytes

Early Music America Fall 2007 15

&

FacsimilesCollections directed by Jean Saint-Arroman

M éthodes T raités

L a M usique F rançaise C lassique

New site

B.P. 406 - COURLAY - 79306 BRESSUIRE CEDEX - FranceTél. 05 49 72 91 20 - Fax 05 49 72 02 03

E-mail:info@editions-classique.comCommande en ligne - www.editions-classique.com

D ominantes XV e- XX e siècles

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satellite – is staggering,” DanDeVany, WETA’s generalmanager said in a June articlein The Washington Post. “Thereis something to be said, how-ever, for good old conven-tional radio. If you’re wellfocused and thinking locally,you can do well.”

The Royal Opera House ofCovent Garden has boughtrenowned classical music anddance DVD production anddistribution company OpusArte UK Ltd. In a story on theRoyal Opera House website,chief executive Tony Hallsaid, “We have over 40 won-derful recordings of produc-tions by The Royal Opera andThe Royal Ballet available fordistribution, Opus Arte has acatalogue of some 140 titles.This new company completesour broadcast capability fromrecording through post-pro-duction and packaging toworld-wide distribution. Wewill be able to forge aheadwith delivering high qualityopera and dance both fromour own and from ourEuropean and international colleagues.”

In November, the Schoolof Music and Sonic Arts ofthe Queen’s UniversityBelfast is hosting the interna-tional symposium “Under-standing Bach’s B-MinorMass.” The event is primarilyfor scholars to discuss eachother’s work in depth, buteveryone is welcome to listento and even join in the debate.Christoph Wolffwill give thekeynote lecture. Inaddition to the sym-posium, attendeescan expect work-shops and lecturesfor students (ofvarious age groups)as well as the exhi-bition of researchmaterials. The week

will conclude with the per-formance of the work by theDunedin Consort directed byJohn Butt.

In May, the NorthwesternUniversity School of Musicpresented “Popular Idioms inSolo and in Consort” a doc-toral lecture-recital by PhillipSerna on double bass andviola da gamba. Sernaexplored the intersection ofpopular music and art musicin the 17th century.

In May, the Milanese PoldiPezzoli Museum saw the pres-entation of the catalogue InSearch of Lost Sounds by JohnHenry van der Meer. The vol-ume includes articles on thehistory of the harpsichord,the fortepiano, the modernpiano, the harp, and manyother plucked instruments, aswell as pieces on art and musicology. Publishedby Villa Medici Giulini, thesmall encyclopedia ofstringed in struments is alsoaccompanied by a CD.

Music lovers can now hearwhat Chopin’s music wouldhave sounded like on thecomposer’s own instrument.Frédéric Chopin’s French-made Pleyel grand piano,brought to England in 1848on the composer’s concerttour, has turned up in a coun-try house in Surrey and is cur-rently on display at Hatch-lands, the National Trusthouse where the Cobbe Collection is housed.

Chopin’s piano

16 Fall 2007 Early Music America

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Outstanding Titles in MUSIC

Prices subject to change.

Ligeti, Kurtág, and Hungarian Music during the Cold WarRachel Beckles WillsonMusic in the Twentieth Century$90.00*: Hardback: 978-0-521-82733-1: c.300 pp.

Schoenberg’s Musical ImaginationMichael CherlinMusic in the Twentieth Century$90.00: Hardback: 978-0-521-85166-4: 414 pp.

The Cambridge Mozart EncyclopediaEdited by Cliff Eisen and Simon P. Keefe$35.99: Paperback: 978-0-521-71237-8: c.660 pp.

The Music of Louis AndriessenYayoi Uno EverettMusic in the Twentieth Century$90.00: Hardback: 978-0-521-86423-7: 282 pp.

The Invention of “Folk Music” and “Art Music”Emerging Categories from Ossian to WagnerMatthew GelbartNew Perspectives in Music History and Criticism$95.00: Hardback: 978-0-521-86303-2: c.304 pp.

The Cambridge Companion to BalletEdited by Marion KantCambridge Companions to Music$80.00: Hardback: 978-0-521-83221-2: 394 pp. $24.99: Paperback: 978-0-521-53986-9

J.S. BachA Life in MusicPeter Williams$35.00: Hardback: 978-0-521-87074-0: 418 pp.

Heinrich Heine and the LiedSusan Youens$99.00: Hardback: 978-0-521-82374-6: c.376 pp.

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