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 […]
medieval music
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Capella de Ministrers’ Travels Down the Silk Road
Looking at the discography listed on the website of Valencian early music ensemble Capella de Ministrers is an impressive thing indeed. I count no less than 56 titles there, and the group has managed that number of releases in a mere matter of 41 years. The one that hooked me in its re-release 13 years […]
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A Tale of Two Vielles
On a special Labor Day edition of The Early Music Show broadcast back on September 4, 2017, I interviewed David McCormick, founder of the Charlottesville-based Early Music Access Project. The Project holds its annual fundraiser at Swannanoa Palace in Alton on Sunday, June 24 at 3 pm. This interview with David was my first chance […]
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Beneath the Northern Star: How the Music of the Spheres Joined Forces with Western Art Music
“Common practice” period music – basically Bach through Rachmaninoff – is so prevalent on classical radio that one might surmise that the smooth and consonant was the established rule in Western Art music from the very beginning. On the contrary, from the time music manuscripts reflect the practice of harmonizing Gregorian chant begins a painful, […]
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Les Witches – Musical Europe at the Court of Christian IV
Alpha’s reissue series continues with this landmark 2008 recording from Les Witches. The recording was built around a program of music that would have been heard by Danish king Christian IV around 1600. Christian IV was a patron of the arts, and his home Konge Af Denmark became a cultural center for Scandinavia. Les Witches […]
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Intimate music, intimate performance of Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut’s poem Le Voir Dit, written when he was in his sixties, recounts a love affair between himself and a young girl. Machaut included several pieces of music to help illustrate the text – a true multi-media medieval work of art. This is spare, yet intimate music. Machaut was acknowledged to be one […]
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A Stirling Musical Discovery
It’s not hard to figure out how a work should go — you just follow the music (we’ll keep the discussion simple and leave interpretation out of the equation for now). But what if there’s no score to follow? That’s always the problem with music from the medieval and early renaissance. Sometimes there’s no music, […]
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What is Classical Music? Part 2 – Medieval Mystery
In part one I outlined some of the guidelines I personally use to select music to air on “Gamut.” And for the most part, that rule works pretty well. What is classical music? Primarily (IMHO) it’s music conceived, composed, arranged, and notated by a single person. OK, that’s pretty straightforward if you’re dealing with Beethoven, […]