Festival Central Program Week 2 Morning Classes

Early Morning Class Period: 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.

Nota Bene: Intermediate Early Notation with Wendy Powers

Open to soft instruments (recorder, flute, viol, lute, and others)

Class Description

This class will work on basic Renaissance notation skills--clefs, ligatures, duple mensuration, and we may dip our toes into triple time. Works by composers such as Du Fay, Brumel, Senfl, Byrd, or others will be chosen for beauty and clarity. Students should have a bit of experience with Renaissance notation and C clefs. Open to soft instruments (recorder, flute, viol, lute, and others...

Medieval Track: Who Inspired Du Fay? The Contenance Angloise of the Early 15th Century, with Annette Bauer

Open to all instrumentalists and singers

Class Description

English composer John Dunstaple (ca. 1390-1453) is credited by late 15th-century theorist Tinctoris as “fons et origo”—the original wellspring—of the new kind of sonorities that became popular with European composers of the early 15th century. Dunstaple, whose music survives only in continental sources, is believed to have been a major influence on composers such as Du Fay, Binchois, and Ockeghem. This class explores English music of the early 15th century and its traces in European sources, with sacred and secular music by Dunstaple and some of his close contemporaries, like John Hothby, John Bedyngham, and Walter Frye..

The Art of Consort Playing, with Rainer Beckmann, Patricia Petersen

For recorders

Class Description

Strengthen your ensemble abilities through playing consorts by composers of the Renaissance, Baroque, and beyond. While the word consort refers to a group of like instruments, and most often to music of the Renaissance, anything we play on a group of recorders could be called consort music. It is in this light that we will work on skills such as intonation, tone colors, articulation, rhythm, and more. All the while, we will discuss how best to play each piece: Where to play short and detached, where long and smooth? What tempo? Add ornaments? Which ornaments? Articulate in unison or according to each line? How do we stay together, all the way through the piece? What about tempo changes from one time signature to another? How do we go from sounding just ok to sounding really good as a group? These are some of the topics that will be brought up as you work on music with one of our consummate consort instructors. .

Glories of the Baroque: Bach, Handel, Corelli, and Lully with Na'ama Lion

Open to intermediate to upper intermediate recorders

Class Description

Although written for orchestra this repertoire adapts beautifully for recorders. Enhance your ensemble skills and learn about Baroque style while getting to know masterful works by these 17th- and 18th-century composers.

Recorder Master Class and Baroque Consort with Saskia Coolen

For recorder players, indicate 'play' or 'audit'

Class Description

Suggested repertoire for the masterclass is sonatas by Ignazio Sieber and Johann Ernst Galliard or repertoire of your choice. For the consort section we‘ll work together on an arrangement of Bach’s third Brandenburg concerto. Students who choose to audit the class are passive members of the class, listening to all sessions and taking notes for their own future practice. This is a very valuable learning opportunity: one learns not just the nuts and bolts of playing a particular piece, but also things that come up about the art of performance, about historical practices (bowing, articulation, ornamentation, and the like), repertoire, and more.

Renaissance Recorders with Letitia Berlin

Open to Renaissance recorders with at least two sizes of instruments

Class Description

One-on-a-part consort for accomplished players of Renaissance recorders. Blend and ensemble skills emphasized. Repertoire will include works by English, Spanish, Italian, and German composers. Performance a possibility. For players familiar with Renaissance recorder fingering who own or can borrow hand-built Renaissance recorders. Due to the pandemic we will not be sharing recorders in class, therefore all players must bring at least two sizes.

Music from the Copenhagen Manuscript, Joan Kimball, Wouter Verschuren

Open to mixed loud instruments

Class Description

Christian IV succeeded his father in 1588 and died in 1648 after consolidating the power and wealth of Copenhagen. During his reign, the royal chapel numbered over seventy musicians divided in three groups, one of them instrumentalists. This class will focus on the vocal, polyphonic repertory written down without text in the part books of the wind players at the court of Christian IV.

Petrucci’s Canti A, with Wendy Gillespie

For viols

Class Description

Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A, the very first book of printed polyphony, was published in 1501. It contains nearly 100 pieces, some clearly originally for voices while many others seem obviously for instruments. While many pieces fit on winds, the only instruments on which all of the pieces fit are viols. Could this be the first book of viol consort music? Printed in Italy at a time when people such as Isabella d’Este and her brother Alfonso were playing viols, there was a need for consort music. In this class we will explore a selection of pieces from this great collection. Pitch: A=415

Musica Divina, with Rosamund Morley

For viols

Class Description

In 1583 the Antwerp music publisher Pierre Phalèse compiled, edited, and printed a large collection of Italian madrigals in four to seven parts by twenty-five different composers working in all parts of Italy. The collection includes the astonishingly beautiful Ancor che col partire by Cipriano da Rore, well-known to viol players via the viola bastarda divisions based on it written by Dalla Casa. Immerse yourself in the Flemish craze for the Italian madrigal and explore music from composers both beloved and unknown. Pitch: A=415.

Medieval Track: The Ars Nova—Music of the 14th Century in France and Italy with Patricia Ann Neely

This class is oriented specifically towards players of Medieval bowed stringed instruments

Class Description

We will work on various elements of technique such as bowing, left hand, the art of altering some melodies to fit on the instrument and as a tool for approaching improvisation, and more. We will focus on translation of text, the complex meters in terms of its effect on emphasis and interpretation of melody, and the blending of sounds in part reading, communicating with other parts as a member of the discussion as well as understanding the role of harmonic supporter within a piece. Repertoire includes works by Machaut, Vaillant, Solage, Trebor, Landini, Jacopo da Bologna, and Gherardello da Firenze.

Baroque Keyboard Dances with Leon Schelhase

Open to keyboard players of all levels

Class Description

Dance is central to the keyboard suite, yet this knowledge can still make the performance of the dances on the keyboard feel elusive. How do we bring the art of dance to our playing and evoke a sense of elegance and grace? Through assigned repertoire this class will explore the forms of the core dances, develop technique and deepen a sense of style so each dance can be performed with captivating charm. Each day of the course we’ll examine one dance at a time (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue/Chaconne) in master class format combined with discussion, with the final day set aside as a final performance for the participants. Assigned repertoire will include dances by Louis Couperin, Francois Couperin, D’anglbert, Marchand and JS Bach. This class will be for keyboard players of all levels. Repertoire List:
Allemande:
Louis Couperin - Allemande Grave no. 69 in F Major
JS Bach – Allemande from “French” Suite no. 5 in G Major BWV 816
Courante:
François Couperin – Premier Courante from the Fifth Ordre, Book 1
JS Bach – Courante from “French” Suite no. 5 BWV 816
Sarabande:
Louis Couperin – Courante no. 71 in F Major
JP Rameau – Premier et Deuxieme Sarabande from Pieces de clavecin (1706) in a minor
Gigue/Chaconne:
JS Bach – Gigue from “French” Suite no. 6 in E Major BWV 817
Louis Couperin – Chaconne no. 75
Minuet/Gavotte:
Francois Couperin – Menuet from the Third Ordre, Book 1
JS Bach – Gavotte from “French” Suite no. 5 BWV 816

If any participant feels the need to supplement another piece that they are working on that fits the dance of the day, they are welcome to present that instead of one of the dances listed above.

New London Assembly: John Playford 1651-1670 with Ceclie Laye, Karen Axelrod, Audrey Knuth, and Eric Martin

Some spaces may be available for non-NLA participants, with the approval of the NLA director

Class Description

This workshop will cover a selection of Cécile Laye’s interpretation of the earliest editions of The Dancing Master, when John Playford was publisher, including dances not often done in the United States and a new look at old dances plus an explanation of the difficulties encountered in the reconstruction.

Coffee Break 10:30 - 11:00 a.m.

Late Morning Classes 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Recorder and Viol Band with Letitia Berlin

For recorders and viols, large recorders especially welcome! Viols please note, class pitch is A=440

Class Description

Works by Victoria, Michael Praetorius, Lully, and Frances Blaker. The lush sound of winds and strings playing together is balm for our souls in these anxious times. We’ll work on multi-choir pieces as well as works for five to eight voices. Large recorders especially welcome! Viols please note that class pitch is A=440.

Medieval Track: Brassart and Sarto: Two Burgundian Johanni, with Wendy Gillespie

Open to all instruments and voices

Class Description

Early 15th-century polyphony by two singers/composers/priests of the imperial chapel during the 1430s whose works are found copied next to or near one another.

Music for the Duke of Lerma, with Wouter Verschuren

Open to mixed loud instruments

Class Description

Lerma is a town an hour away from Madrid. It was the hometown of the Duke of Lerma, who was the first minister of the king, with his own court including palace (which is currently a hotel), collegiate church, five convents, and his own wind band. The Lerma Codex contains over ninety works by Spanish, Franco-Flemish, and Italian composers, such as Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594), Philippe Rogier (1561-1596), Thomas Crecquillon (ca.1505-1557), Cristóbal de Morales (ca.1500-1553), Nicolas Gombert (ca.1495-1560), and Jacobus Clemens non Papa (ca.1510-1556). Join Wouter in exploring this wealth of beautiful repertoire

Keyboard Continuo: The Art of Partimento, with Leon Schelhase

Open to all with a good grasp of harmony and theory, and rudimentary keyboard skills

Class Description

this course will explore the art of accompanying from a figured and unfigured bass according to Baroque performance practices. Through the very useful and beginner-friendly Italian compositional training system of Partimento we will solve harmonies according to patterns as they appear in bass lines, learn how to recognize the patterns in repertoire and explore basic elements of good composition. The course is aimed at students with a good grasp of harmony and theory, and is open to all who have rudimentary keyboard skills. It will get you playing continuo QUICKLY!

A Cappella Choir: English Renaissance Music for Voices—Tallis and Morley and Byrd, Oh My! with Temmo Korisheli

Open to all singers

Class Description

Thomas Tallis, his protégé William Byrd, Thomas Morley, John Dowland, and a host of other composers made the Elizabethan Age a musical highpoint in England's history. We will explore serious and lighthearted repertories such as madrigals, motets, anthems, mass movements, canzonets, and others, mostly in four parts, sung in English or Latin. Come join in the fun for voices!

New London Assembly Presentations

Open to all. You may drop in if you are not taking another class at this time

Class Description

NLA faculty; a different presentation every day from faculty in the New London Assembly.

Monday—Historical Social Dance (Dorothy Olsson)
Dorrie will teach a dance workshop in select European social dances from the late Renaissance. The presentation will include dances from the “Inns of Court” sources which show similarities to English country dance, as well as a minuet country dance.

Tuesday—The Influence of the French "Belle Danse” on Stepping in English Dance (Cecile Laye)
Cécile Laye will teach a dance workshop covering a variety of stepping patterns that were common in the period of the latest editions of the Dancing Master (Henry Playford and Young and Pearson) and may have been used in country dancing

Wednesday—The English Dancing Master (Cecile Laye)
This presentation will cover the early period of the country dance based on a historically informed view that will incorporate comparisons to other known social dances of the era. It is another look at the Playford era and why it is relevant to go back to this collection of dances today.

Thursday—A Trip to Netherfield: Dance in Jane Austen’s World (Graham Christian)
This talk will look at social dance as practiced in Jane Austen’s lifetime, addressing its style, music, meaning, reputation, and representation. Dancing had changed quite a bit since the days of Playford and Walsh!

Friday—Dezais, Dubreil, and the Missing Link(s) (Carol Marsh)
Carol will survey the evolution of country dance in France from the introduction of the English longways form in the 1680s to the emergence of the cotillon or square form in the first three decades of the 18th century. The presentation will focus on the publications and manuscript sources by French dancing masters Jacques Dezais and Pierre Dubreil, which contain dances in a variety of non-standard formations.

Saturday—Concert: Dance Music, Old and New, from Here and There (Karen Axelrod, Audrey Knuth and Eric Martin)
Our faculty musicians will play a tapestry of dance music from around the world. Check the daily schedule for the Saturday revisions.