Weekend Classes March 25 & 26

Music and dance have always enjoyed a steady partnership, yet many musicians don't dance, and dancers generally don't play instruments. How then can we as players of music improve our end of the bargain?

Learn about translating the physicality of dance to music with techniques to improve rhythm, coordination, and a strong sense of pulse. Music will include select Minuets, Sarabands and Courants of the 17th and 18th century by Louis Couperin, Hotteterre and Marais.  Participants will have opportunities to play along with accompaniment - harpsichord players can play the bass lines, or move on to extravagant realizations, or anything in between!  Open to all instrumentalists, pitch: A=415.

Van Eyck - Pavaen Lachrymae, with Saskia Coolen, recorders
The melodies collected in his Der Fluyten Lusthof represent the top 40 of the most popular tunes in the 17th century in Europe. Students can prepare the Pavaen Lachrymae with variations (nr. 8 and nr. 56 in Der Fluyten Lusthof). Saskia will play and demonstrate, and volunteers will be invited to play - please send a note to Click here to show mail address if you might be interested to play for the class - Saskia is looking for 2-3 volunteers. Together we will listen and also look at other arrangements of the same melody from that time to understand the broader context of this particular tune. Geared to: recorder players, intermediate and up. Pitch: A=440

Currently residing in Vienna, this extraordinarily legible set of manuscript partbooks contains music that was still popular around 1530, even though several of the best-represented composers had long since passed on.  Curiously, it postdates the beginnings of printed music by some 30 years.  Perhaps commissioned by or dedicated to Ludwig Senfl, it contains music by him and other influential composers of the time:  Senfl’s teacher Heinrich Isaac, Josquin, Paul Hofhaimer, Pierre de la Rue, and many others.  The three-to five-part music, primarily instrumental, primarily secular, presents a retrospective of high-Renaissance polyphonic style.  We’ll look at the key features of that style and how they translate to modern transcriptions.

Pat and Doug will present the pieces on recorders at A=440, 4’ pitch; you can join on any part you wish, any instrument you wish, reading from modern transcriptions or from the partbooks themselves.  It’s a rare opportunity to take the plunge into reading from early notation, in the privacy of your own boudoir or studio! Open to: all  Pitch: A= 440.