The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the fourth and fifth pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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By Jacob Stockinger
The project has reached the midway point.
Last week was when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on various social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as well as the Internet.
One performance is released each weekday night starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The project is a way to capture some of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
The first piece was “Sequestered Thoughts,” a solo piano work by composed Damien Sneed and performed by Jeremy Jordan.
The second was “shadow of a difference/falling” by composer Richard Drehoff Jr. and solo oboist Andrew Nogal of the Grossman Ensemble.
There were featured in this blog last week.
The fourth and fifth pieces were premiered last Thursday and Friday, bringing the project to the halfway point before the Summer Solstice, Father’s Day and Make Music Madison weekend.
The fourth work is “Bridges,” a solo piano work composed by Cliff Eidelman (below top) and performed at home by Jenny Lin (below bottom, in a photo by Liz Linder).
The title refers to the composer’s focus on finding bridges from the peculiar coronavirus pandemic back to normal life.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/eidelman-lin.html
The fifth piece is “Hello World” by composer by Erin Rogers (below top, in a photo by Aleksandr Karjaka), an exploratory work for solo flute that is performed by Erin Lesser (below bottom) of the Wet Ink Ensemble.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/rogers-lesser.html
On the same page as the performance you can read what the composer and sometimes the performer have to say about the new work and what it strives to mean or express.
You can use links to go to the five past performances and premieres.
You can also follow links on the bottom of the page to see more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with some commentary and questions from The Ear, go to https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the pieces?
What do you think of the project?
Will you like to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AndrewNogal, #AWeekendintheCountry, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoccaccioProject, #ChamberMusic, #CliffEidelman, #CommissionedMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DamienSneed, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Father'sDay, #GiovanniBoccaccio, #GrossmanEnsemble, #HelloWorld, #JacobStockinger, #JennyLin, #JeremyJordan, #LibraryofCongress, #MakeMusicDay, #MakeMusicMadison, #NewMusic, #NormalLife, #RichardDrehoffJr., #Self-Isolation, #Stayathome, #SummerSolstice, #TheEar, #TheInternet, #TheU.S., #U.S.Government, #ViolaMusic, #ViolinMusic, #WetInkEnsemble, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, Andrew Nogal, Arts, audience, background, blog, Boccaccio, Boccaccio Project, bridge, California, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Cliff Eidelman, commentary, commission, composer, Congress, coronavirus, culture, Damien Sneed, difference, ensemble, exploratory, explore, express, Facebook, falling, fathers day, federal, fifth, first, flute, flutist, forward, fourth, Friday, general, Giovanni Boccaccio, government, Grossman Ensemble, halfway, hear, hello, Hello World, Home, Internet, isolation, Jacob Stockinger, Jenny Lin, Jeremy Jordan, last, library, Library of Congress, life, like, link, Madison, Make Music Day, Make Music Madison, mean, Music, New Music, New York City, night, normal, Oboe, oboist, page, pandemic, past, peculiar, performance, performer, Pianist, Piano, piece, piuece, Point, posting, project, public, questions, reader, Richard Drehoff Jr., say, second, self-isolating, shadow, share, shelter, short, solo, solstice, stay at home, summer, Summer solstice, tag, The Ear, think, third, Thursday, Twitter, U.S., unique, United States, Viola, violoist, week, weekday, weekend, Wet Ink Ensemble, world, world premiere, YouTube
Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the second and third pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
It has started.
This is the week when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on various social media sites as well as the Internet.
One performance is released each weekday night starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The project is a way to capture some of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
The first was “Sequestered Thoughts,” a solo piano work by composer Damien Sneed and performed by Jeremy Jordan. You can hear it in the post preceding this one.
Now it’s on to two new ones.
The second piece in the series is the 4-1/2 minutes “shadow of a difference/falling” by composer Richard Drehoff Jr. (below top, in a photo by James Matthew Daniel) and solo oboist Andrew Nogal (below bottom, in a photo by Jay Morthland) of the Grossman Ensemble.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/drehoff-nogal.html
The third work is the three-minute “Intuit – (a way to stay in the world)” by Miya Masaoka (below top, in a photo by Heika no koto) performed by solo cellist Kathryn Bates (below bottom) of the Del Sol String Quartet.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/masaoka-bates.html
On the same page as the performance video, you can read what the composer and sometimes the performer have to say about the new work and what the music strives to mean or express.
You can also go to past performances and premieres.
You can follow links on the bottom of the page to see more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with some commentary and questions from The Ear, go to https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the pieces?
What do you think of the project?
Woud you like to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #African-AmericanComposer, #AndrewNogal, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoccaccioProject, #ChamberMusic, #CommissionedMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DamienSneed, #DelSolQuartet, #DelSolStringQuartet, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GiovanniBoccaccio, #GrossmanEnsemble, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #JeremyJordan, #KathrynBates, #LibraryofCongress, #MiyaMasaoaka, #NewMusic, #OboeMusic, #PianoMusic, #RichardDrehoffJr., #Self-Quarantine, #SequesteredThoughts, #SocialDistance, #SocialDistancing, #SocialMedia, #StringQuartet, #TheEar, #TheInternet, #TheU.S., #U.S.Government, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, American, Andrew Nogal, Arts, Bates, begin, blog, Boccaccio, Boccaccio Project, capture, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, commission, compose, composer, coronavirus, culure, Damien Sneed, Del Sol Quartet, Del Sol String Quartet, difference, express, Facebook, falling, first, forward, Giovanni Boccaccio, government, Grossman Ensemble, Internet, Intuit, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Jordan, Kathryn Bates, Library of Congress, like, link, lockdown, Masaoka, mean, microtonal, microtone, Miya Masaoka, Music, New Music, night, Oboe, oboist, performance, performer, Pianist, Piano, piece, post, posting, premiere, project, public, quarantine, reader, Richard Drehoff Jr., second, Sequestered Thoughts, shadow, share, short, site, social distancing, social media, solo, start, stay, String quartet, tag, The Ear, third, Twitter, U.S., unique, United States, way, Website, week, weekday, work, world, written, YouTube
Classical music: Here is the world premiere of the first piece of “pandemic music” commissioned by the Library of Congress
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
It has started.
This is the week when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written by American composers for the U.S. Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — will go public and start being posted on various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as the Internet.
The project is a way to capture some of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
The first is “Sequestered Thoughts,” a solo piano work by composed Damien Sneed (below top) and performed by Jeremy Jordan (below bottom).
Below is a link to the page with the performance. You can also read what both the composer and the pianist have to say about the new work and what it means — including rippling octaves that depict the monotony of the days in isolation.
Here is the link: https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/sneed-jordan.html
You can also follow links on the bottom of the page to more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with commentary and questions, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the new piece?
What do you think of the whole project?
Do you want to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #African-AmericanComposer, #AmericanComposer, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoccaccioProject, #CommissionedMusic, #DamienSneed, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GiovanniBoccaccio, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #JeremyJordan, #LibraryofCongress, #NewMusic, #PianoMusic, #Self-Isolation, #SocialMedia, #Stayathome, #TheEar, #TheInternet, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, African American, American, Arts, audience, background, blog, Boccaccio, Boccaccio Project, Classical music, commentary, commission, composer, Congress, culture, Damien Sneed, days, depict, Facebook, first, forward, general, Giovanni Boccaccio, hear, help, home website, information, Internet, isolation, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Jordan, library, Library of Congress, like, link, listen, mean, monotonous, monotony, Music, New Music, octave, page, performance, performer, Pianist, Piano, piano music, pieces, post, posted, posting, project, public, question, rippling, say, sequester, share, short, site, social media, solo, stay at home, tag, The Ear, think, thoughts, Twitter, U.S., unique, web page, Website, week, world premiere, YouTube
Classical music: The Library of Congress has commissioned new music about the coronavirus pandemic. You can listen to the world premieres from this Monday, June 15, through June 26
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The U.S. Library of Congress (LOC, exterior is below top and interior is below bottom) has started a new artistic project relevant to a public health crisis in both a historical era and the current times.
The LOC has commissioned 10 different short works, experienced in 10 different performance videos recorded at their homes — that pertain to the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 from American composers and performers.
It is called The Boccaccio Project after the Renaissance poet Giovanni Boccaccio (below), a 14th-century Italian writer who wrote “The Decameron,” a series of stories told by 10 people who fled from Florence, Italy, to find refuge in the countryside during the Black Plague.
The musical works will start being premiered on weekdays this coming Monday, June 15, at the Library of Congress website. The works will also be broadcast on social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The website, which now has a complete list of performers and works, will soon have a complete schedule of world premieres, running on weekdays from Monday, June 15, to Friday, June 26. Then the manuscripts will be transferred to the LOC archives.
Here is a link: https://loc.gov/item/prn-20-038/
Many of the names will be unfamiliar to the general public. But an excellent story about the background and genesis of the project, including music samples, can be found on National Public Radio (NPR), which aired the story Friday morning.
Here is a link to that 7-minute story (if you listen to it rather than read it, you will hear samples of the music): https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/875325958/a-new-library-of-congress-project-commissions-music-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic
And here are some of the participants, who are noteworthy for their ethnic and geographic diversity:
Flutronix (below) includes flutist Allison Loggins-Hull, left, and composer Nathalie Joachim.
The work by composer Luciano Chessa (below top) will be performed by violist Charlton Lee (below bottom), of the Del Sol Quartet:
And the work by Damien Sneed (below top) work will be performed by Jeremy Jordan (below bottom):
The new project strikes The Ear as a terrific and timely undertaking — the musical equivalent of the photographic project, funded and staffed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during The Great Depression of the 1930s. That project yielded enduring masterpieces by such eminent photographers as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.
But several questions arise.
How much did the project cost?
Will the general public be able to get copies of and rights to these works to perform? One assumes yes, since it is a public project funded with public money.
And will this project give rise to similar projects in other countries that are also battling the pandemic? New art – literature, films, painting, dance and so on — arising from new circumstances seems like something that is indeed worth the undertaking.
Listen to them.
What works stand out for you?
What do you think of the project?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #14thCentury, #AllisonLoggins-Hull, #AmericanComposer, #BlackPlague, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BloomingtonIndiana, #ChamberMusic, #CharltonLee, #ChicagoIllinois, #ClassicalMusician, #CommissionedMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #CulturalDiversity, #DamienSneed, #DelSolQuartet, #DelSolStringQuartet, #DorotheaLange, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FarmSecurityAdministration, #GiovanniBoccaccio, #GreatDepression, #JacobStockinger, #JeremyJordan, #LibraryofCongress, #LucianoChessa, #NaionalPublicRadio, #NathalieJoachim, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #OnlineConcert, #PerformingArts, #PublicHealth, #RecordedMusic, #SanFrancisco, #SocialMedia, #StringMusic, #StringQuartet, #TheDecameron, #TheEar, #TheRenaissance, #TheU.S., #U.S.Government, #VisualArts, #WalkerEvans, #WindMusic, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, 10, 14th century, 1930s, air, Allison Loggins-Hull, America, American, archive, arise, Arts, Audio, background, battle, Black Plague, blog, Bloomington, Boccaccio, Broadcast, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Charlton Lee, Chicago, circumstances, classicalmusic, commission, complete, composer, copy, coronavirus, countries, country, countryside, Damien Sneed, dance, Del Sol Quartet, Del Sol String Quartet, depression, diversity, Dorothea Lange, eminent, enduring, equivalent, era, ethnic, excellent, exterior, Facebook, Farm Security Administration, film, flautist, Florence, flute, flutist, Flutronix, forward, Friday, FSA, funded, general, Genesis, geographic, Giovanni Boccaccio, government, Great Depression, historical, History, Home, Indiana, interior, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Jordan, Joachim, Library of Congress, like, link, list, listen, literture, LOC, Luciano Chessa, manuscript, masterpiece, minute, Monday, money, morning, Music, Musician, name, Nathalie Joachim, National Public Radio, new, New Music, New York City, noteworthy, NPR, Oboe, oboist, online, painting, pandemic, participant, People, performer, Performing arts, photography, Pianist, Piano, poet, premiere, premieres, project, public, Public health, Quartet, read, recorded, refuge, Renaissance, rights, sample, San Francisco, schedule, series, share, short, social media, something, staff\, start, stay at home, stories, string music, String quartet, tag, ten, terrific, The Decameron, The Ear, timely, transfer, Tweet, Twitter, U.S., undertaking, unfamiliar, United States, video, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, visual arts, vocal music, Walker Evans, Website, weekday, wind music, work, works, world, world premiere, worth, Writer, yes, yield, YouTube
Classical music: The weeklong Madison Early Music Festival starts Saturday. It turns 15, puts early Italian music in the spotlight and adds FREE noontime lectures while enhancing the second annual Handel Aria smack-down and using new venues. Part 2 of 2.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Can it really be 15 years already?
The Madison Early Music Festival began as a dream and an experiment. But it has endured, survived and prospered. This summer it marks its 15th anniversary with a focus on Italian music from 1300 to 1600. The theme is called “Italia Mia.”
This year’s installment starts on this Saturday, July 12, and runs through the following Saturday, July 19. It features many of the traditional things such as workshops, lectures and public concerts. But it also features new out-of-town groups, free noon-time lectures and only the second annual Handel Aria Competition, which has been enhanced.
Venues are the biggest challenge this year, given the upgrading of Mills Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
Here is a link to the festival’s home website for information about tickets, events, programs and performers:
To get things straight, and to provide a larger context, The Ear asked University of Wisconsin-Madison baritone Paul Rowe and his soprano wife Cheryl Bensman Rowe -– who are the co-artistic directors of the Madison Early Music Festival -– to do an email Q&A for this blog.
They graciously agreed, and the results has been posted in two parts, yesterday and today.
Here is a link to Part 1:
How does Italian music from that period differ from its counterparts in, say, Germany, France and England? How does it set up and participate in the artistic qualities we identify with the Italian Renaissance? What is the historical origin and role of the music from that era in that part of the world, and what is its legacy today?
Paul: Italy was the leading artistic, educational and philosophical country in Europe until the mid- to late-17th century. Its influence continued to be felt long afterwards. The musical language of Italy spread throughout Europe because many composers came to study in Italy before returning home and because it was the center of publishing.
Many of the developments in music such as polyphony, virtuosic solo writing, opera, monodic song and improvements in instrument-making took place in Italy or in other areas where Italians settled. Italy gradually lost its position of cultural leadership. It was replaced first by France and then by Germany.
What music and composers of the era have been most neglected and least neglected by historians and performers?
Monteverdi and Palestrina (below) are probably the most well-known of the major composers from Italy at this time. Others who should be better known are Cipriano de Rore, Luzzaschi, Caccini, Gesualdo, Lassus, Tromboncino, Landini and many others.
Can you tell us about the program “Trionfi: The Triumphs of Petrarch” for the concluding All-Festival Concert on Saturday, July 19?
Cheryl: Grant Herreid, who is a member of Piffaro, has been a part of the MEMF faculty since the beginning. When we chose the topic for this year, he had a wonderful selection in mind for the July 19 program. I’ve included his notes, which describe the All-Festival Concert that Grant designed for our 15th season.
TRIONPHI: A Poet’s Vision of Love and Truth — Petrarch’s Triumphs Expressed in Music of the Italian Renaissance
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch, July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374, below), considered the father of humanism, was the most influential poet of the Italian Renaissance. Autobiographical, composed and revised over 30 years, his Trionfi, or “Triumphs,” is a series of poems composed in terza rima (the same form and meter as Dante’s “Inferno” in “The Divine Comedy”) in which the poet witnesses a succession of triumphal entries or trionfi, each featuring an allegorical figure more powerful than the first: Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity.
The idea of the succession of trionfi or triumphs was a popular theme in Italian art and literature of the 15th and 16th centuries, and may even have influenced the development of tarot and playing cards (trionfo = “trump”). Many bridal chests were depicted with scenes from the trionfi, and in Florence troupes of young men and women acted out the battle of Cupid and Chastity on decorated wagons during the festivities of Carnival and Calendimaggio (May Day). Two of these “canto carnascialeschi” or “carnival songs” have come down to us without their musical settings, and are incorporated into our performance set to other carnival tunes of the early Renaissance.
The music chosen to illustrate the Trionfi runs the gamut of musical styles of the 1500s, from light-hearted “frottole” and carnival songs by Bartolomeo Tromboncino and others, through the rise of the polyphonic madrigal as cultivated by Cipriano da Rore and Orlando di Lasso, to Francesco Cavaliere and the beginnings of monody. Some pieces are actual settings of passages of Petrarch’s poem itself, including Wert’s “Nel tempo che rinnuova,” the anonymous “Dura legge d’amor” and Lassus’ “Passan vostri triumph.’ Portions of the Trionfo di Morte are sung to 16th-century melodic formulae designed for reciting terza rima or other kinds of verse.
Finally, attesting to its popularity, many characters and themes of the Trionfi are featured in songs and madrigals of the 16th century, including the frottole “Nui siam tutti amartelati,” “Alla guerra” and “Huom terren caduco et frale”; and the early monody by Cavaliere “Il tempo fugue.” The lauda (devotional song) collected by Serafino Razzi, “Dolce Dio,” reflects in its simplicity the poet’s final vision of a world conquered by Eternity, in which Time stands still. In the midst of this vision of Eternity, we rejoice with Claudio Monteverdi‘s setting of Psalm 116.
Program notes by Grant Herreid (below)
Are there other sessions, guest lectures and certain performers, performances or programs that you especially recommend to the general public?
Paul: This will be a great summer to explore all things Italian with a special emphasis on poetry and painting. Music is always at the center of things at the Madison Early Music Festival, but there were so many other cultural and philosophical developments that this will be a great summer to learn about other aspects of Italian culture.
Cheryl: This is a difficult question to answer, because I am so enthusiastic about everything we have to offer this summer! That said, everyone should be aware that there are new artists at MEMF this summer.
The Toronto Consort is new to MEMF, as is the group Trefoil (below), a hearty trio of medieval minstrels! On Friday, July 18, in Music Hall, Trefoil (at bottom in a YouTube video playing 13th-century Spanish music at a concert on Wall Street) will be performing their program “Dio Mio! That’s Amore!” that features musical works of the trecento and the Italian fixation upon love.
Countertenors Drew Minter (below top) and Mark Rimple (below middle) and soprano Marcia Young (below bottom) have appeared with leading early music ensembles around the country, and it’s the first time we’ve had two countertenors appear on one program.
There are special lectures on Monday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to noon that are not repeated as pre-concert lectures, but all the daytime lectures from 11 a.m. to noon are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Several University of Wisconsin-Madison professors will be lecturers, including John W. Barker (below), Professor Emeritus of History, who has written music criticism for Isthmus and The Well-Tempered Ear. Besides the lectures, we have a fun dance event with a live band, featuring dances of the Italian Renaissance. (Costumes are welcome!) The European court dance specialist will be teaching the dances, and she is a delightful presence, all week long!
Please check out our web site to get full descriptions about everything that is happening: www.madisonearlymusic.com
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Cheryl: The electrical system in Mills Concert Hall is being overhauled this summer, and this has been our biggest obstacle. We almost used the Wisconsin Union Theater, which would have been really exciting, because we would have been the first group in there after the renovations at the Union. But the cost was prohibitive.
So we decided to use Luther Memorial Church (below top) for the Saturday, July 12, Toronto Consort performance, the Sunday, July 13, LIBER concert, and the final All-Festival Concert on Saturday, July 19. We will be in Music Hall (below bottom) for the other concerts; Ex Umbris on Tuesday, July 15; the second annual Handel Aria Competition on Thursday, July 17; and Trefoil on Friday, July 18.
The singers in the finals of the second Handel Aria Competition (below is a photo of the first competition last year that featured just a harpsichord accompaniment) will be accompanied by a small instrumental ensemble this year. We had a higher number of applicants this year from all over the country and several from Europe.
Also, Piffaro (below), the Renaissance Wind Band, will have their only performance in Edgerton at the Wartmann Prairie, on Friday, July 11, which will benefit the Edgerton Arts Council. MEMF artists have appeared on this benefit concert for the past 11 years. William Wartmann, a great patron of the arts in Rock and Dane counties, invited us to start this series and help raise scholarship funds for students in the Edgerton area to attend summer music programs.
Paul: Since this is our 15th year, we will be celebrating some of our past events and planning for new things in the future. We are excited about several new developments that we feel will set us up well for the next 15 years.
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Classical music: The weeklong Madison Early Music Festival gets more national attention as it marks 15 years. The festival kicks off on Saturday and focuses on Italian early music and art from 1300 to 1600. Part 1 of 2.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Can it really be 15 years already?
The Madison Early Music Festival began as a dream and an experiment. But it has endured, survived and prospered. This summer it marks its 15th anniversary with a focus on Italian music from 1300 to 1600. The theme is called “Italia Mia.”
This year’s installment starts on this coming Saturday, July 12, and runs through the following Saturday, July 19. It features many of the traditional things such as workshops, lectures and public concerts. But it also features new out-of-town groups and only the second annual Handel Aria Competition, which has been enhanced.
Venues are perhaps the biggest challenge this year, given the upgrading of Mills Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
Here is a link to the festival’s home website for information about tickets, events, programs and performers:
To get things straight, and to provide both some history and a larger context, The Ear asked baritone Paul Rowe and his soprano wife Cheryl Bensman Rowe -– who are the co-artistic directors of the Madison Early Music Festival -– to do an email Q&A for this blog.
They graciously agreed, and the results will be posted in two parts, today and tomorrow.
How successful is this year’s festival compared to others in terms of enrollment, budgets, guest performers, ticket sales, media interest, etc.? This is the 15th anniversary of MEMF. After 15 years, is MEMF clearly established now nationally or even internationally?
Cheryl: We have been getting more attention in the national press, and we continue to feature ensembles and artists from Europe and Canada. This year the Toronto Consort — seen below and heard at the bottom in a YouTube video of Italian music and art from the period that MEMF will cover — will open the festival with their program “The Da Vinci Codex,” which features Italian Music from the musical world of Leonardo Da Vinci.
In May, the blog Deceptive Cadence from NPR Classical mentioned MEMF 2014 as a “Can’t Miss Classical Music Festivals” in the Midwest region.
MEMF was again the only Wisconsin music festival listed on May 14, 2014 in the The New York Times story “Birds Aren’t The Only Music Amid Nature.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/arts/music/birds-arent-the-only-music-amid-nature.html
Besides the attention in the press, we are well-known in early music circles. Our performers and faculty are also hired by many well-established festivals, including the Berkeley Early Music Festival, Boston Early Music Festival (below), Amherst Early Music Festival, Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and others.
What is new and what is the same in terms of format, students, faculty members and guest performers?
Paul: This year we are adding two new intensive workshops that will run concurrently with MEMF. One is focused on wind instruments that will form a loud band and be led by Robert Wiemken (below top) of Pifarro.
There are eight people in the loud band intensive class who play sackbut, shawm, dulcien and other instruments (below bottom). The other is a Baroque opera workshop that will be led by Drew Minter, Christa Patton and me.
We will use music from the operas “Orfeo” and “The Coronation of Poppea” by Claudio Monteverdi (below) as source material to explore Baroque gesture and dance as well as ornamentation and stylistic singing. We have 15 singers who will be taking this workshop. The two intensive classes will present an informal performance on Saturday afternoon, July 19, at 2 p.m.
Why was the topic of the Italian music 1300-1600 chosen for the early music festival? What composers and works will be highlighted?
Paul: We wanted to have a broader historical focus this year in order to include very early instruments and music as well as the larger format pieces that are a feature of the later Renaissance and early Baroque.
The most famous composer of this period is Claudio Monteverdi, but there are many others. Italy was really the hub of poetry and music for all of Western culture during the time period we are considering. The poetry of Petrarch (below) will provide the focus for the All-Festival Concert this year. This is the era of Boccaccio and Dante as well as Petrarch.
Tomorrow: What makes early music in Italy different? What will the All-Festival Concert next Saturday night be like? What is new about the second annual Handel Aria Competition and the new FREE noontime lectures?
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the last three pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The ambitious project has now ended.
Two weeks ago was when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the U.S. Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on the social media sites Twitter and Facebook as well as on YouTube and the internet.
Last week saw the last five compositions and the end of the project.
This blog has already posted the first seven compositions and performances.
Today you can hear the last three.
The project, funded by the federal government, is a way to capture some of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19. Below are photos with links to the performances.
The eighth piece is “Lobelia,” a work for solo cello composed by Ashkan Behzadi (below top) and performed by Mariel Roberts of the Wet Ink Ensemble (below bottom, in a photo by Gannushkin).
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/behzadi-roberts.html
The ninth piece is “A Shared Solitary” for solo violin and electronics by composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh (below top) and performed by Jannina Norpoth (below bottom, in a photo by Laura Ise) of the PUBLIQuartet.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/nourbakhsh-norpoth.html
The 10th and final piece is “Have and Hold” for solo singing flutist and electronics composed by Allison Loggins-Hull (below top, in a photo by Rafael Rios) and performed by Nathalie Joachim (below bottom, in a photo by Erin Patrice O-Brien), both of the group Flutronix.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/loggins-hull-joachim.html
On the same page as the performance you can read what the composer and sometimes the performer have to say about the new work and what it strives to mean or express.
You can use links to go to the past performances and premieres, to all 10 commissions.
You can also follow links on the bottom of the page to see more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with some commentary and questions from The Ear, go to https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the individual pieces?
Do you have one or more favorites?
What do you think of the project?
How successful is it?
Will you like to hear more by composers of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
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