An early musician’s rant about the streaming-service behemoth Spotify: We have better options! From sound and search to library size and liner notes, there are two newer services that will improve the quality of your early-music listening experience. They’re somewhat more fair in artist compensation, too, a meaningful distinction for the consumer.
I Care How You Listen: Streaming Early Music Read More »
In a revealing look into the lives of ‘ordinary’ folks in 17th and 18th c. Germany, author Tanya Kevorkian taps a wealth of sources that detail city life, from religious beliefs to weddings to the rhythms and rules of town watchmen. With compassion and wisdom, the author notes that historians who look at street life “have to some degree replicated the perspective of the authorities.”
Life on the Streets Read More »
Emily Zazulia’s valuable ‘Where Sight Meets Sound: the Poetics of Late-Medieval Music Writing’ explores notational aesthetics in polyphonic music, where it’s not obvious how you’re meant to sing what’s on the page.
Medieval Sights and Sounds Read More »
Meet Nuova Pratica, a stylish ensemble with a progressive-retro attitude. They reject the notion that everything’s already been said in the Baroque language. By re-opening the book on Baroque composition, their new works are at turns fresh, varied, and imaginative.
21st Century Baroque Read More »
The innovative, cross-cultural work of Salamone Rossi, a Jewish musician at the Gonzaga court in Mantua, has long stirred controversy and strong opinion. The Bay Area’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will perform Rossi’s 1623 ‘Songs of Solomon,’ a set of Psalm settings in Hebrew in the Italian polyphonic style.
Salamone Rossi’s ‘Songs of Solomon’ at 400 Read More »
