Car 54, Where Are you?

We sort of feel like the guys in Car 54: We know exactly where we are, but it doesn’t feel like it’s where we’re supposed to be, which is on stage, performing in front of our audiences. And our audiences don’t know where we are, either, because…well, you know.

We have been releasing our weekly Musical Tacos, and it has been fun and will continue to be, although on less of a weekly basis, because we have serious bidness to take care of! We’ll be back to normal!! Well, except we can’t see you. You can be watching us from the coziness of your own home, which is great, except we can’t converse after the show, shake hands, and hug’n’stuff. But, we’ll be back to normal in the sense of providing some necessary artistic musical love for you. The program may not be exactly what we wanted to do in March for our live concert, but there is so much diversity in the repertoire from Medieval France that we quickly found even more wonderful music to offer.

Even though we won’t be able to see you during our video, it will wonderful knowing that you are there. And many won’t be left out due to geographical distance. Howdy, stranger!

See below for more info on our upcoming Ah, Sweet Lady Video Premiere, including our trailer!

À Bientôt!
-Danny

---

AH, SWEET LADY: PASSION IN MEDIEVAL FRANCE
A Video premiere

Premiere for subscribers and prior ticket holders:
Thursday, September 10, 2020, at  7:30 pm

Premiere for the general public:
Saturday, September 12, 2020, 7:30 pm

After the Premiere for subscribers and prior ticket holders on Sept. 10, the video link will close and then will be available again from Sept. 12–17.
The video will be viewable until Thursday, Sept. 17 at 11:00 pm. Tickets must be purchased by 9:30 pm on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Admission: $5 Student/Supporter; $15 Fan; $25 Friend; $50 Patron

The general admission price is the Fan category, $15. If you're struggling due to the Coronavirus situation, take advantage of our lower-priced Student/Supporter offer. If you’re able to pay a little more, and can help someone else pay less, please do so with the Friend and Patron prices. 

Tickets available in advance online. After the purchase of a ticket an email with video access instructions will be sent to you on September 11.

Subscribers to the 2019-2020 Season and those who purchased individual tickets to the March concert will receive an email about your tickets; you will not need to purchase tickets to view the concert video.

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email boxoffice@early-music.org.

TEMP returns from its pause after the onset of Covid-19 to present a pre-recorded video featuring music from the 13th–14th centuries in France. This music takes us back to days of yore with knights, monks, and poets, with songs of unrequited love, daily trials, melancholy, exuberance, and even blissful love.

The Montpellier Codex contains early polyphonic works in France and was likely compiled around 1300. While many of the texts deal with some truly tender variations on love themes as well as more jovial ones (“I love B. but C. loves me and I don’t know what to do because B. loves D. who loves C...”), there are others about country kids visiting the big city (Paris) with Medieval versions of the still popular trope. We also feature music by Guillaume de Machaut, the greatest and most important composer of the 14th century, who composed wonderful, whistle-able melodies as well as striking and complex polyphony.

Early Music Now Host and Producer, Sara Schneider will also present a personally crafted lecture during the video, interspersed between sets of music. The video will also contain art from the 14th and 15th centuries and evocative photography.

Sixteen of TEMP’s singers and players recorded this music live in Austin in late June and early July and remotely from New York. Our production team has worked since then to create a seamless video of music, speech, and art ever since, a path that would have seemed impossible just a few months ago, but is now the wave of the (temporary) present.

Please join us as we reconnect with you through the magic of music.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Did you enjoy this post? Give us a “like” below, leave a comment, and/or share with friends!

Found My Groove

So, speaking of the past, and we often are, when I was a sophomore at Texas Tech, we studied Medieval music as part of the music history survey, and I was introduced to the music of Guillaume de Machaut. He was not only a poet of high regard, but also a composer of both miniatures and larger musical works; for me, this introduction was yet another life-changing experience. The New York Pro Musica released their 1967 album, Ah Sweet Lady: The Romance Of Medieval France, with works by Machaut and others and it was—and still is—amazing.

This was yet another disc (of many) that I listened to so much that I created grooves in the album…. (The triple canon Sanz Cuer M'en Vols – Amis, Dolens – Dame, Par Vous especially affected me. How much fun it was to be able to sing it in the first Texas Tech University Collegium Musicum concert!) The discovery of all of the ars nova repertoire was another of the key events that directed my future interests.

Anyway … Our upcoming concert of music from Machaut and earlier is entitled Ah Sweet Lady as a tribute to the trailblazers of the NY Pro Musica.

And also: Love's Illusion: Music From the Montpellier Codex was released by Anonymous 4 in 1994, and they presented their concert of that album at UT in Bates Hall in 1996, sponsored by TEMP and the Handel-Haydn Society. In honor of those friends, we named our 2019-2020 season Love’s Illusion, fitting in many ways but also because our upcoming concert will be featuring several pieces from the Montpellier Codex as well. You can read more about our Ah, Sweet Lady concert below.

So history begat history?

And thanks for Amplifying TEMP! We will use it to bring more inspiring music to central Texas!

À Bientôt!
-Danny

---

Ah, Sweet Lady:
Passion in Medieval France

Saturday, March 28, 2020, at  7:30 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive
Sunday, March 29, 2020, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

The music from the 12th through the 14th centuries in France takes us back to days of yore with knights, monks, and poets. Songs of unrequited love, daily trials, melancholy, exuberance, and even blissful love are a natural reflection of the society at that time. Like the original troubadours in Southern Occitania, the trouvères in Northern France continued their poetic and musical tradition and extended the influence of the early singer-songwriters long after the troubadours were dispersed in the early 1200s. The songs often revolve around idealized treatments of courtly love, observations of nature, stories about loss due to death from wars or jousting. 

The Montpellier Codex contains early polyphonic works in France and was likely compiled around 1300. Guillaume de Machaut, who died in 1377, was the greatest and most important composer of the 14th century. Machaut’s compositions reveal skilled treatments of polyphony while invigorating the solo song with more subtle and adroit poetry, almost always on the topic of courtly love. 

This exciting, exuberating, sometimes experimental music in France from about 1175–1375 will be performed by a small ensemble of 16 singers, including soloists Jenifer Thyssen, Shari Alise Wilson, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Tim O’Brien, and more, along with our period orchestra of vielles, rebec, oud, gittern, harp, hurdy-gurdy, and psaltery. Our special guests are Ryland Angel (tenor & countertenor), Peter Walker (bass & also Medieval bagpipes), percussionist Peter Maund, and vielle master Mary Springfels.

Join us for some sweetness, a few giggles, toe tapping and joy,
melancholy and empathy.
BYO Armor.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Did you enjoy this post? Give us a “like” below, leave a comment, and/or share with friends!