Archives: EMAg Feature Article

The admired a cappella ensemble bids the world farewell after three decades of radiant artistry. Sunday morning, August 3, 1986. The Upper West Side of Manhattan had been deserted by anyone who could get away, and not many showed up on West 99th Street at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, where four of us—two choir members […]

Conductors with roots in early music are taking their expertise to symphony orchestras. There was a time, not so long ago, when modern performers tended to be wary of the early-music movement. Often, these two musical communities stood with their backs to each other, separated by a chilly silence. And occasionally a war of words

Many people think a peace treaty was signed after the vibrato wars of the 1970s, when the plush string textures of the modern symphony orchestra were challenged by the leaner sound of historical instruments. Eliminating vibrato, along with playing on gut strings, was the most noticeable mark of historically informed performance style. Before it was even called HIP, employing “authentic instruments” set early-music players apart from symphony orchestras, and singing with a pristine, boy-like sound marked a new vocal coloring.

The peripatetic and exhausting and fascinating and insanely fulfilling life of an early musician in America.

A prof from Ohio guides collegiate singers in Cambridge, England, in the illuminating tuning system known as Just Intonation.