Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Early Music

NYC Early Music Concert & American Road Trip

New Amsterdam was established by the Dutch in the 17th century at the southern tip of Manhattan. Today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network comes to us from contemporary New York City.

The New Amsterdam Consort will present music by composers whose lives coincided with the infancy of the island’s European settlement, including Antonio Bertali (1605-1669), Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704), Ricardo Rognoni (c.1550-1620), and Georg Muffat (1553-1704).

The program was recorded at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 325 Park Avenue, on October 18, 2018. Free midtown concerts are presented at the Chapel at St. Bart’s on Thursdays at 1:15 p.m. during the regular season. This year, that season commences on September 5 with The Vivaldi Project performing classical string trios.

These concerts are made possible in part by Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports artists and organizations in New York City devoted to Early Music. Learn more and check out the events calendar at gemsny.org.

Then stick around: with Labor Day weekend ahead, we’ll hit the road with an afternoon of American music evocative of some of our country’s natural and man-made wonders. It’s a journey that will encompass a number of our cities, states, and favorite vacation spots.

Among our featured works will be “Yellowstone,” for violin and orchestra, by Jett Hitt, Composer. Hitt, who holds a doctorate in composition, conducts guided horseback tours at the national park.

The RV is all gassed up and ready to go. We’ll hit the pike, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

August 27, 2019
Oldest Melody Found Armenian Roots

Early Music lovers take note. This is one of those items I’ve been sitting on, waiting for a slow news day. Well, that day is upon us – so here, without further ado, is the oldest known notated melody, attributed to ancient ancestors of the Armenians.

This 3400 year-old toe-tapper was dedicated to the goddess of orchards. Now pardon me while I enjoy some peaches.

World’s oldest surviving melody was composed by Armenian ancestors 3400 years ago

August 3, 2019
Early Music Festival NJ: Serpent & Song

If the early bird gets the worm, then Early Music gets the “serpent.”

The Guild for Early Music will present its 14th annual Early Music Festival at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, on Sunday, March 24. An afternoon of mini-concerts of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Early American music will be performed by over a dozen ensembles As always, the day will include sculpture tours, pop-up performances about the 42-acre grounds, and a “petting zoo” of early instruments – who knows, perhaps even a serpent (pictured).

Join me today for the first of two Noontime Concerts on The Classical Network, which will feature representatives of the Guild as my special guests. We’ll hear a selection of madrigals and canzoni performed by Delaware River Consort and La Spirita, Buxtehude and Bach sung by Princeton Pro Musica Chamber Chorus, and Bach and Couperin played by Le Triomphe de l’amour.

My co-hosts for today’s broadcast will be Judith Klotz and Janet Palumbo; on Friday, I’ll be joined by John Burkhalter and Abigail Chapman.

The 14th annual Guild for Early Music Festival is free with paid admission to the park. To find out more about the event, look online at guildforearlymusic.org or groundsforsculpture.org; then listen in this Tuesday and Friday at 12 p.m. EDT.

Following today’s concert broadcast, we’ll continue to honor Early Music Month, in our way, eyes locked in a distant mirror – albeit a bit of a funhouse mirror – as contemporary composers linger in the worlds of courtly dances, madrigals, and hymns.

At the same time, we’ll be keeping it local, with music for string orchestra inspired by 12th century abbess Hildegard von Bingen, by Philadelphia-born Aaron Jay Kernis; a playful work for guitar, loosely tied to early dance forms, by Princeton University professor emeritus Paul Lansky; an organ processional in the French Baroque style by Philadelphia-based composer Robert Moran; and a Vespers setting by composer, writer, and radio personality Kile Smith – in a recording that brings together The Crossing and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, no less.

Everything will be faraway so close, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Early Music America
#EarlyMusicMonth

March 12, 2019
Early Bird Dulcian Discovering Obscure Instruments

The early bird gets the… dulcian?

August 11, 2018
Early Music Month: American Renaissance Sounds

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we continue our celebration of Early Music Month with three works by contemporary American composers who look back to the Renaissance.

William Kraft (b. 1923), long associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, composed “Vintage Renaissance” for the Boston Pops. The work incorporates two 15th century melodies: “Danza,” by Francesco de la Torre, and an anonymous “bransle.”

George Frederick McKay (1899-1970), the so-called “Dean of Northwest Composers,” founded the composition department at the University of Washington, where he taught for over 40 years. His “Suite on Sixteenth Century Hymn Tunes” is based on works by Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510-1559), compiler of Calvinist hymn tunes and composer of the Protestant doxology known as the “Old 100th.”

Lukas Foss (1922-2009), the German-born musical prodigy who settled in the United States in 1937, composed his “Renaissance Concerto” in 1986. The work, for flute and orchestra, falls into four movements: “Intrada;” “Baroque Interlude” (on a theme of Rameau); “Recitative” (after Monteverdi); and “Jouissance” (after a 1612 madrigal by a composer of the name David Melville).

I hope you’ll join me, as American composers cast an affectionate look back, on “It’s Never Too Late to Be Early,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network.

Early Music America

March 18, 2018

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