Tag Archives: Medieval

Newsletter 2 April 2010

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Houston Early Music

presenting the world’s finest period ensembles and soloists … bringing to life music from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance to the Baroque and Classical periods. Experience with us early music played on original instruments, by musicians reviving performances of the past.

Our Next Concert will be:

clip_image002 Fri., Apr. 16, 2010, 8:00PM

TAPESTRY

Faces of a Woman

Trinity Episcopal Church
1015 Holman (at Main)

(There will be no pre-concert lecture)

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Austin Troubadours Present: Mediterranean Journey

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http://www.houstonearlymusic.org/archives/530)

Houston Early Music would like you to be aware of the following event:

Austin Troubadours Present:
Mediterranean Journey(Medieval and Renaissance music of Mediterranean countries)

Please send mail to svujisic@austin.rr.com or call Slobodan at   512/331-2856 for more info

(click on poster to see full size)

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Newsletter 29 November 2008

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Houston Early Music

presenting the world’s finest period ensembles and soloists … bringing to life music from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance to the Baroque and Classical periods. Experience with us early music played on original instruments, by musicians reviving performances of the past.

Liber unUsualis

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Nowell: Christmas Songs Old & New

7:30PM, Monday, December 8, 2008
Trinity Episcopal Church
1015 Holman (at Main)

Houston Early Music will present the Boston-based vocal ensemble Liber unUsualis in a program of holiday music for four voices: a unique and broad-ranging collection of pieces from the Middle Ages and Renaissance combined with modern choral works based on ancient texts. The program, entitled Nowell: Christmas Songs Old & New, intertwines carols, villancicos, motets, and lullabies from across Europe with modern works such as Hugo Distler’s “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen,” John Joubert’s “There is no rose” and John Harbison’s “O magnum misterium.” The performance will be 7:30PM, Monday, Dec. 8, 2008 at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1015 Holman at Main.

Since its founding in 1996, Liber unUsualis has soared to prominence for its warm, compelling, and assured performances of Medieval and early-Renaissance music. The ensemble’s mastery of medieval vocal technique and its inventive programming have drawn enthusiastic audiences throughout the United States and Europe, where it regularly performs. The Boston Globe has praised Liber unUsualis for its “deeply moving” performances and its “hair-trigger sensitivity to what the words had to say.” These are the very qualities that have won for the group a grant from The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions (2004), First Prize at the International Young Artist’s Presentation – Early Music (Belgium, 2002), the Professional Development Award from Early Music America (2002) and semifinalist status at New York’s prestigious Concert Artists Guild Competition in 1999.

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.

Our full season schedule is at http://www.houstonearlymusic.org/front/season

Contact

Houston Early Music P.O. Box 271193 Houston TX 77277-1193 Phone 713-432-1744 email info@HoustonEarlyMusic.org Web http://www.HoustonEarlyMusic.org

tca_black_h Houston Early Music is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
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Review of Fortune’s Wheel concert

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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. ….

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Program Notes for MIRIE IT IS

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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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San Diego Reader Review of MIRIE IT IS

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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.

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Program Selections for MIRIE IT IS

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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