Early Music - the Attraction and the Passion
Our Members Say:
"Who isn’t attracted to the idea of courtly dances and music? I think the perceived romance of the period grabbed me first. Inexperienced listeners may think Early Music is simplistic, but they haven’t experienced the counterpoint, the passion and poetry of the lyrics, and best of all the glorious dissonant suspensions!!!
I started out as a recorder player, but gravitated toward viols because I played violin as a young person and wanted to transfer my skills. It’s another sonority. To be in the midst of a multi-voiced piece, to hear all the music swirling around me, understanding how the parts fit together and how dynamics and contrapuntal courtesy can enhance what’s on the page: heaven on earth."
"My aunt was a piano teacher and I started piano with her when I was about 8 years old. She had a wonderful collection of records which she would play often. The first two recordings that made a huge impression on me were Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos." Many years later, my father and I fell in love with the album "Chant" — Gregorian chants performed by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. Pretty soon, I realized that I loved baroque music and anything earlier more than any other genres (Beethoven is the exception). Later still, playing cello in community orchestras, I noticed that the conductors seldom program early music, sticking mostly to romantic composers. It was so much fun to play with others that I was happy to be there anyway, but often wished they would do an entire baroque concert or introduce the audience to the beauty of early music. By chance, another MEM member and I were placed in the same small ensemble at Amherst Early Music Festival this past summer, and she told me all about MEM. I feel so lucky to have found this group!"
"One of my earliest memories is of sitting next to my father at our upright piano with a footstool under my feet to keep the piano bench edge from cutting off the circulation in my legs. During these sessions he taught me to play the soprano recorder. After a year or so I moved on to formal piano lessons and did not pick up the recorder again for 20 years. During that time I studied piano and voice, being exposed to various eras and genres of music and I enjoy them all. My dear departed father was an enthusiastic recorder player all of his adult life and he especially loved Early Music. Because of this, it holds a special place in my heart."
"When I was attending Hartt College of Music for undergraduate degree in French horn performance, Joe Iadone [NY Pro Musica] held a Summer Workshop at Windham College in Vt. for “modern” instruments playing “early” music. It was my introduction to early music and I fell in love with the harmonies and rhythms. Joe also taught an ear training course at Hartt and used Hindemith’s ELEMENTARY EAR TRAINING FOR MUSICIANS as textbook. We loved doing the rhythm and sight singing exercises.
That Summer Dennis Godburn lent me his maple Moeck alto recorder and we would stay up past midnight sitting in a basement hallway playing through The Glogauer Leiderbuch and other rhythmically challenging pieces. We were thrilled!!!
I later bought the alto, and a soprano and a friend gave me a sopranino for Christmas. So there it is! And I now arrange many Early music pieces for my students to play on their Modern instruments."
I started out as a recorder player, but gravitated toward viols because I played violin as a young person and wanted to transfer my skills. It’s another sonority. To be in the midst of a multi-voiced piece, to hear all the music swirling around me, understanding how the parts fit together and how dynamics and contrapuntal courtesy can enhance what’s on the page: heaven on earth."
"My aunt was a piano teacher and I started piano with her when I was about 8 years old. She had a wonderful collection of records which she would play often. The first two recordings that made a huge impression on me were Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos." Many years later, my father and I fell in love with the album "Chant" — Gregorian chants performed by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. Pretty soon, I realized that I loved baroque music and anything earlier more than any other genres (Beethoven is the exception). Later still, playing cello in community orchestras, I noticed that the conductors seldom program early music, sticking mostly to romantic composers. It was so much fun to play with others that I was happy to be there anyway, but often wished they would do an entire baroque concert or introduce the audience to the beauty of early music. By chance, another MEM member and I were placed in the same small ensemble at Amherst Early Music Festival this past summer, and she told me all about MEM. I feel so lucky to have found this group!"
"One of my earliest memories is of sitting next to my father at our upright piano with a footstool under my feet to keep the piano bench edge from cutting off the circulation in my legs. During these sessions he taught me to play the soprano recorder. After a year or so I moved on to formal piano lessons and did not pick up the recorder again for 20 years. During that time I studied piano and voice, being exposed to various eras and genres of music and I enjoy them all. My dear departed father was an enthusiastic recorder player all of his adult life and he especially loved Early Music. Because of this, it holds a special place in my heart."
"When I was attending Hartt College of Music for undergraduate degree in French horn performance, Joe Iadone [NY Pro Musica] held a Summer Workshop at Windham College in Vt. for “modern” instruments playing “early” music. It was my introduction to early music and I fell in love with the harmonies and rhythms. Joe also taught an ear training course at Hartt and used Hindemith’s ELEMENTARY EAR TRAINING FOR MUSICIANS as textbook. We loved doing the rhythm and sight singing exercises.
That Summer Dennis Godburn lent me his maple Moeck alto recorder and we would stay up past midnight sitting in a basement hallway playing through The Glogauer Leiderbuch and other rhythmically challenging pieces. We were thrilled!!!
I later bought the alto, and a soprano and a friend gave me a sopranino for Christmas. So there it is! And I now arrange many Early music pieces for my students to play on their Modern instruments."