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Discovering Baroque Music with the HBCU Early Music Initiative

EMA Press Releases, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, News

To inaugurate the HBCU Early Music Initiative Project, two of Early Music America’s IDEA Taskforce members, harpsichordist Joyce Chen and viola da gambist Patricia Ann Neely, gave an engaging demonstration on baroque performance practice at Delaware State University. This outreach event was presented to a diverse group of student and community members, including non-majors taking intro to music courses and music majors who are planning on pursuing graduate degrees.

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CD Review: How Much ‘Historical’ Performance Do We Really Want?

EMA Recording Reviews, News

A new recording of Debussy’s opera raises complicated and interesting questions on issues of vocal sound and the attitude towards performance style. Do we want to adopt every aspect of Debussy’s sound world into our own? Do we prefer to call upon the highly refined and skilled vocal qualities that are prevalent today, or are we obliged to adhere to the styles of the past?

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CD Review: Orlando Consort Premieres Music from Golden Age Florence

EMA Recording Reviews, News

The Orlando Consort’s latest album explores music from GuillaumeDu Fay, Heinrich Isaac, and numerous anonymous pieces. But a standard treatment of the Florentine Renaissance this is not. In conjunction with research by musicologist Patrick Macey, who authored the detailed liner notes, the album presents a surprising number of premiere recordings.

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Book Review: Finding ‘Voice’ in Medieval French Culture

EMA Book Reviews, News

The collected essays take “voice”—with its multiple meanings—as the starting point for lively discussions on the construction of gender in medieval culture. The essays extend from 12th century Arthurian romance to Anne de Graville’s writings in the 16th century. The bulk of the book is dedicated to music of the 12th and 13th centuries, considering the troubadour and trouvère song and the polyphonic and polytextual ars antiqua motet. It draws a connection between literature and song and provides a wonderful example of how new perspectives can be found on medieval material via the application of contemporary critical tools.

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CD Review: A Mesmerizing Medieval Debut from Concordian Dawn

EMA Recording Reviews, News

It’s exciting to discover an up-and-coming early-music ensemble, especially one with a focus on Medieval repertory. Concordian Dawn, with its debut album, is just such an ensemble. Its theme speaks to us today: fortune, desire, and hope, in the wake of forces beyond our control. The ensemble focuses on music that depicts medieval love and loss, anger, bitterness, grief, anticipation, and joy—emotions many of us have felt over the last few years.

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