31 Aug 2012 [SEATTLE, WA] – Early Music America has published the Fall 2012 issue of its quarterly publication, Early Music America magazine. Call 1-888-SACKBUT or email info@earlymusic.org now to request a complimentary copy.
Early Music America magazine is now available in a new online, enhanced format! This new version of the magazine gives quick access to music samples, YouTube videos and links to early music-related web sites.
NOTABLE IN THIS ISSUE:
Eleventh Annual Berkeley Festival and Exhibition: Musical Mosaic Explores “Encounters of Interspersing Peoples” Don Kaplan gives a summary of the 11th Berkeley Festival and Early Music America’s Young Performers Festival.
Excerpt: “This year’s theme, ‘A Musical Mosaic’, focused on the ‘encounters of interspersing peoples-artists, migrants, traders and adventurers-that have sparked astonishing creativity, profoundly shaping the course of Western music.’ And this celebration of musical cross-fertilizations extended beyond the stage into the community as well.”
Excerpt from “Back to the Future with the Berkeley Young Performers Festival”: “What was the best advice they ever received from a music teacher or coach? ‘There are no early music police. If it feels right, you should perform it that way.’ And to another student? ‘Perform without inhibition. Use your own ears.’ And to a third? ‘Hopkinson Smith said music is like alchemy. It moves beyond the technicalities and speaks through the instrument. There’s no magic or higher sorcery to it.’”
Reconstructing Spanish Songs from the Time of Cervantes Teacher and performer Grant Herreid describes the creative research techniques used by today’s early musicians allowing us to enjoy popular songs from 17th-century Spain.
Excerpt: “Reconstructing popular Spanish songs requires both the detective work of the musicologist and the intuition of the improvising performer. Sometimes popular melodies are incoporated into learned polyphonic works, but often the only musical source for a tune is an instrumental rendition, in the form of basic chordal patters and instrumental variations, without lyrics.”
Janet See: Traversist on Two Continents Lee Inman interviews the performer on her introduction to period instruments in college, her early career overseas and return home, and her advice to your performers starting out.
Excerpt: “As I get older, I am more and more grateful for having had music as the focus of my life. Even though the move now is towards fabulously intricate technological possibilities, I think having a life with an instrument that is pretty much devoid of any technology except one’s own technique, which you work on almost every day of your life, is an usual and wonderful thing. For sure it is not easy or terribly secure, but it is a very special focus for a life.”
Also in this issue: Profile: A Classical Playlist on Your Cable Television by Beth Adelman In Conclusion: Conducting Early Music by Matthias Maute Plus Recording Reviews, Book Reviews, and Sound Bytes (news from the field).
About Early Music America Early Music America serves and strengthens the early music community in North America and raises public awareness of early music. EMA was founded in 1985 and provides its 3,000 members with publications, advocacy, and technical support. EMA publishes the quarterly magazine Early Music America. “Early music” includes western music from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, performed on period instruments in historically-informed styles. For more information, contact Early Music America at 206-720-6270 or 888-SACKBUT, or visit our web site at www.earlymusic.org.
