There’s something about the sound of a cornett I find very soothing. It’s even mellower than the flugelhorn. And when played by William Dongois, it can sound as smooth as melted caramel. And, in this case, that’s all to the good. This release features a selection of works by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Schmelzer (c.1623-1680) was […]
early music
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Pacoloni Ensemble performs Thysius Lute Book with rough authenticity
Dutch philosopher, theologian, and musician Adriaan Smout collected over 900 compositions from the late 1500s. This massive collection made its way to John Thysius, a book collector, for whom the collection is named. The collection is a virtual cross-section of European lute music. While most of the sources aren’t listed, modern scholars have traced works […]
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Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain – An Irish-Appalachian Celebration
In 2015 Apollo’s Fire released “Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering.” This Classical Crossover chart-topper celebrated the connection between Scotch-Irish mountain music and early Celtic and British music. “Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain” revisits the premise with a fresh batch of tunes. Rest assured these are no delicate forays into folk music by classical practitioners. Director Jeannette […]
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Margaretha Consort Delivers Authentic 17th C. German Christmas
Marit Broekroelofs and the Margretha Consort present a fascinating program of seasonal music. There are plenty of early Baroque Christmas albums to choose from, in just about every flavor. What makes this recording stand out is the consistency of the artistic vision. Broekroelofs has taken the seasonal repertoire of the early Protestant church and presents […]
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Johannes de Lublin Tablature – A snapshot of 16th Century keyboard music
The 1540 “Tablature of Jan de Lubin” is one of the largest collections of 16th Century keyboard music. It’s possible that a good portion of it was written, transcribed, and/or arranged by Johann de Lublin. The bound collection includes many other pieces that added after the fact (and possibly after de Lublin’s death). Corina Marti […]
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F for Fake – Copyleft in 18th Century Music
I suspect the ubiquity of the term “fake news” inspired this compilation. But it does raise an interesting point. How much does authorship influence our assessment of a work? The Trio Glie Speziali present a variety of Baroque compositions that were attributed to others — some famous, and some not. Misattribution could be accidental. The […]
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More from the Stone Age of Early Music Performance
Back on June 26, 2017 I presented a Historic Radio Special on The Early Music Show, consisting of ‘early’ recordings of early music, beginning with the barely audible spectacle of a Handel oratorio captured on wax cylinders in 1888 to a formative solo disc of countertenor Alfred Deller singing a Thomas Morley tune, made around […]
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Wesser-Renaissance Bremen Ideally Suited to Johann Rosenmüller
In the 1650s “The Amphion of his Century” was an up-and-coming musician in Leipzig. He was poised to take over as the cantor of St. Thomas’ in 1653 (a position J.S. Bach would hold years later). Suddenly everything changed. A scandal forced Johann Rosenmüller to leave in haste. While it was a setback for his […]
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Sandro Volta’s Unvarnished Take on Petrucci Tablatures for Lute
Ottavio Petrucci was not the first music publisher. But he was the first to figure out how to print complex polyphonic scores. This release collects from his Intavolatura di Liuto (lute tablatures) — a genre that blossomed thanks in part to Petrucci’s innovations. Lutenist Sandro Volta performs music by Francesco Spinacino, Joan Ambrosio Dalza, and […]