Join us for Music of the Hundred Years’ War—a teaser of our summer short series. Led by Rachelle Romero, we will play pieces representing the major French musical movements contemporaneous with the conflict between France and England from 1337-1453. We will sample Late Medieval and Early Renaissance conventions depicted in the monophony of the Roman …

Rachelle Romero: Musical Evolution through the Hundred Years’ War Read More »

The Lai de la Fonteinne is one of the very few long medieval pieces to become part of our modern repertoire. The Lai was composed some time around 1340 by the greatest composer of the century, Guillaume de Machaut (c1300-1377). It consists of 12 stanzas dedicated to the Virgin. Every other stanza is a canon, …

Mary Springfels: Chasing the Good Lai—Machaut’s Lai de la fontaine Read More »

Historical harps are forgiving instruments—just about anyone can pluck a string and make a decent sound. But with some effort and basic knowledge about how to approach playing plucked string instruments with breath, you can elevate your harp playing from plucking around to playing with more mastery.   This class is for beginning and intermediate …

Cheryl Ann Fulton: To Pluck and Not To Plink—That Is the Secret! Read More »

This class will focus on three- and four-part canons and works with strict imitation spanning several centuries and continents. Participants will have the option of playing various parts and compare the subtleties of being “first” or “second” or “last”. Composers represented will be Guillaume Machaut, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, The infamous Anonymous and Matthias Maute.    …

Vicki Boeckman: Canons and Imitation across the Nations Read More »

In 1832, someone proposed that the difficulties of tuning and temperament were created by “the Deity” in order to “show his inscrutable power.” Indeed, trying to reconcile musical acoustics with the scale of western music has fascinated, aggravated, and puzzled musicians and theorists for centuries. From the basics of the harmonic series, to Pythagorean tuning, …

Ross Duffin: The Tuning and Temperament Conundrum Read More »