EMA Recording & Book Reviews

In 18th- and 19th-century Europe, dancing was used to make social connections and impress members of one's class. 'Dance and Sociability' offers detailed descriptions of the social context for European dance among the upper classes during this period, including a thought-provoking article on how to define “grace.”

Great artists express their identities through their art, yet many artists are forced to live in a society that does not accept their true identity. 'Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos,' from Sonnambula, an ensemble of violins, viols, and keyboard, explores works by a range of such societal outcasts from the 16th and 17th centuries.

New recordings of Bach's 'Saint Matthew Passion' continue to come at us apace. The latest, from the Bay Area's Cantata Collective, is highlighted by stellar vocal soloists and by Nicholas McGegan's emotionally subtle conducting.

Searching for music actually linked to the late-14th c. 'Canterbury Tales,' Elisabeth Ellison found almost none. So she searched the archives and found dance tunes and sacred works that Geoffrey Chaucer and his pilgrims may have heard in their own day.

As historically informed musicians know, a performance conveys much more than just the notes on a page. 'Performing by the Book,' a recent collection of essays, covers an enormous temporal range — not exhaustive, of course, but by moving from the 15th century to the 21st it yields interesting comparisons.

Throughout European history, the lament has been associated with women. The outstanding Cappella Artemisia, led by Candace Smith, turns its attention to this mournful weeping and the Italian convents of the 16th and 17th c.

The newest recording from Baroque Music Montana collects sacred and profane love songs and virtuosic instrumental works from the early Baroque. With soprano, violin, dulcian, and lute, it makes an unfamiliar, often enchanting, combination and sets their sound apart.

At his death, J.S. Bach owned two mellow-toned keyboard instruments called lautenwerk or lute-harpsichord, and wrote (and transcribed) music for it. Charlotte Mattax Moersch's latest recording is devoted to this unique but forever-obscure instrument, including a Bach original and transcriptions by her teacher, Gustav Leonhardt.

There's no shortage of recent transcriptions of the 'Goldberg Variations,' but the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, led by harpsichordist Frank Nowell, offers its own distinct take on J.S. Bach's beloved masterpiece.

In a new book every medievalist will need, 'Early Medieval Wind Instruments,' author Lucy-Anne Taylor uses available evidence to build horns and trumpets, bagpipes and hornpipes, bone pipes, panpipes, and an organ. Anything that helps us understand what Medieval music really sounded like is useful information.