Houston Early Music

A Welcoming Congregation

Location: 5200 Fannin Street (at Southmore Blvd) Houston, TX 77004
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Phone:     713-526-5200   Fax:   713-526-3037   Email: church@firstuu.org

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston

Fortune’s Wheel: making music from the far past seem like it was wrriten yesterday

By CHARLES WARD, January 13, 2008

…. But the Fortune’s Wheel singers - Lydia Heather Knutson, Aaron Sheehan and Shira Kammen - perfromed as if the Medieval English style had become their primarily musical language. Their simple communication with the audience made the essentially unfamiliar music as appealing as the Three Bs. Kammen, on the harp, and Mealy, on the fiddle, added sinuous accompaniments. ….

Read the full review

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

All medieval music is glimpsed from a great distance, but no repertory is so hard to see as that of  England in the middle ages. Where France had a tradition of lyric song that lasted long enough for thousands of songs to be enshrined in manuscripts, the music we have from England of the same period is scattered and faint: much was destroyed when the monasteries were taken over by the state in the Renaissance, and much more has suffered from the ravages of time. What has come down to us, though, speaks in astonishingly vivid voices.

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Download PDF file of Post Card for Fortune’s Wheel

Read Mirie It Is email announcement

From Jonathan Saville, San Diego Reader

… The group’s latest program, Mirie it is, presented them with difficulties of a special kind. A great deal of medieval French music has come down to us with both words and tune, and to realize it in a modern performance what is needed is an informed feeling for the style and an ability to improvise historically suitable accompaniments and embellishments. The Fortune’s Wheel musicians are exceptionally good at this, neither too bold nor too cautious, but with a wonderful air of spontaneity and freedom.

… more

Mirie it is                                                             c.1225
Instrumental                                                        traditional Scottish tune
Edi beo þu hevene queenë                                  pre-1300
 
Ave celi regina virginum                                      14th century
Ave mundi rosa          
 
Estampie from Robertsbridge Codex                       c.1360
 
Ar ne kuth ich sorghe non                                    c.1270
Fuwëles in the frith                                              c.1270
Man mei longe him liues wene                             pre-1250
Bryd one brere                                                     c.1300
Solaris ardor romulis                                            mid-14th century
 
The hymns by St. Godric                                     c.1215
            Criƒt and ƒainte Marie
            Sainte Marie virgine
            Sainte Nicholaes
 
Worldes bliƒƒ, have god day                              c.1280
Virgo salvavit                                                      14th century
 
Stand wel moðer under rode (dialogue)              early and mid-14th century     
English dance                                                     arr. Kammen/Mealy
On Yooles night (carol)                                      mid-14th century
 
Stantipes (14th century dance tunes)                  arr. Mealy/Kammen
In secreit place—text by William Dunbar,          arr.  Kammen
    c.1460–c.1520

4:00 PM, Sun., Jan.13, 2008
Trinity Episcopal Church, 1015 Holman (at Main) [map]
Pre-concert lecture, 3:00 PM
Tickets: 713-432-1744

MIRIE IT IS – A Musical Glimpse of Medieval England

Houston Early Music will present the Boston-based Fortune’s Wheel with Mirie it Is–A Glimpse of Medieval England at 4:00 pm, Sunday, January 13, 2008 at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1015 Holman (at Main). Noted for performing “with a wonderful air of spontaneity and freedom” (The San Diego Reader), Fortune’s Wheel will present a concert of most of the surviving vernacular treasures from the once vast, now largely lost repertoire of the English Middle Ages.

Fortune’s Wheel is a spirited collaboration of four distinguished early-music performers—vocalists Lydia Heather Knutson and Aaron Sheehan, and instrumentalists Shira Kammen & Robert Mealy performing on vielle (medieval fiddle) and harp. Devoted to rediscovering the riches of medieval musical traditions, the ensemble made its debut at the 1996 International Festival of Early Music in Mexico City, where critics acclaimed the group’s “style, diction, tuning, perfect balance, and total engagement with the music.” Since then, the ensemble has been presented by early music concert series in San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Tijuana, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Houston, Jackson, Tucson, Columbus, Cambridge, and Duke University. They have also appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, the Amherst Early Music Festival, The Cloisters and the Frick Collection in New York City, Yale University’s Collection of Musical Instruments, and many other series.

Fortune’s Wheel released its first CD, Pastourelle, on Dorian Recordings. Website www.fortuneswheel.org

Prior to the concert, at 3:00 pm, ensemble member Robert Mealy will give a preconcert talk discussing the music to be performed on the program.

Tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for seniors, $10 for students, under 15 free. Tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling 713-432-1744.

FORTUNE’S WHEEL

MIRIE IT IS – A Glimpse of Medieval England

From the rough vigor of folk music to the refined sophistication of rarely-heard polyphony, Fortune’s Wheel presents most of the surviving vernacular treasurers from the once vast, now largely lost repertoire of the English Middle Ages.

http://www.fortuneswheel.org/

“Fortune’s Wheel takes its medieval music seriously and then transforms the music at hand and voice into living, breathing art”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Houston Early Music cordially invites you to a special holiday reception following our Christmas Concert IN DULCI JUBILO 

AULOS ENSEMBLE with JULIANNE BAIRD, soprano

7:30 p.m., Tue., Dec. 11, 2007
Christ Church Cathedral  
1117 Texas Avenue

Please share this concert and reception announcement with friends who might enjoy our Christmas program.  You may forward our Christmas Concert email announcement

 Please note that Houston Early Music’s Christmas Concert starts at

7:30 p.m., Tue., Dec. 11, 2007

This is a bit earlier than the majority of our evening  concerts.