Danny Johnson Bares All!

As we work through our week of rehearsals for TEMP Goes the Full Monteverdi, I recognize a familiar bifurcated feeling:

It’s our last concert of the season, so I’m happy that we enjoyed a good season, got to work with splendid musicians performing splendid music, and seem to have pleased the audiences!

But: It’s our last concert of the season, so we won’t get to experience the excitement of concert week again for four and a half months!

But: It’s our last concert of the season, so in addition to summer workshops, I’ll be spending lots of time researching, picking music for 2012-2013, inputting the winning music into my computer (yay Sibelius!), and enjoying other music nerd things. I admit it. [n.b. Sibelius is a music editing software, not just a composer!]

So, you see, it’s a confusing time of the year! I am very much looking forward to our Monteverdi concert, though. It’s such wonderful music, exhibiting the full palette of emotional colors. It’s fun for performers and audience alike!

And speaking of fun, here are some questions that the office elf Janey submitted to me about this concert and the answers I cribbed off someone else’s paper….

>  What's your favorite piece on the program?

There are about 10 of my very favorite pieces on this concert! "Lamento della ninfa" and "Zefiro torna" are probably in the upper tier...

>Why those?

Those were among the very first pieces of Monteverdi that really knocked my socks off when I was a sophomore in college. We performed those and others in the Collegium Musicum at Texas Tech. Unforgettable. My love affair with the passacaglia bass line of the “lamento” began immediately and hasn’t waned in all these decades!

>What pieces by Monteverdi do people know that might be on the program?  Or that might remind them of pieces on the program?

Most will probably recognize "Lamento della ninfa" and "Zefiro torna" and "Beatus vir" - but the thing that they will recognize about "Beatus vir" is that it sounds like some other piece they heard in Music Appreciation class: "Chiome d'oro". That trickster!

>Why do a Monteverdi retrospective like this?

Partly because of Monteverdi's ability to live in two eras, so it's not just a concert of Renaissance madrigals or Baroque continuo songs, but is inclusive of just about every important and lasting aspect of both eras.

>What does the audience get out of it that they wouldn't get out of a wider spread of composers?

Concerts with repertoire by a variety of composers are equally valid, of course, to represent a particular "school" of composition or national or linguistic aspects of creative art, [but] witnessing the progress and process of one genius/master/creator is a powerful experience.

We hope to see you and fifteen of your best friends at one of the two performances this weekend! Or come to both of them!

You can purchase tickets here in advance, or at the door on concert day!

Photographs by Cecily Johnson

Changes to Annual "Laurie Young Stevens and Friends" Performance

Oh my gosh, it’s February.

We’ve been preparing for our two concerts this month and now they are really upon us. Here’s a little extra info about the first of the two.

This weekend is the annual (since 2006) concert by “Laurie Young Stevens and Friends” (aka Fleurs-de LYS) with guest stars from Europe and the US. This year’s guests include German violin virtuoso Henning Vater, founder of the Göttingen Baroque Orchestra, and Dutch recorder maestro Paul Leenhouts, now director of Early Music Studies at University of North Texas in Denton.

We are very sad to announce that, due to an injury, Laurie Young Stevens will not be able to perform this weekend. She’s following doctor’s orders and giving it time to heal, but she will be at the concerts as chief MC. In her stead, prize-winning violin and viola player Veronika Vassileva, from Bulgaria and Germany will be our third special guest artist.

Austin’s stellar Jenifer Thyssen, soprano, heads up the cast of the remaining ensemble members, who come from around the US.

If you were at the concert in 2010, you might remember the encore. There’s a *chance* you could hear it again this weekend. (Here’s a hint for those who weren’t there: coming to our concert on Friday night won’t completely deprive you of hearing music by Andrea Bocelli.)

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PERFORMANCES

‣ Friday, February 10, 8PM, St. Mary Cathedral

‣ Sunday, February 12, 3PM, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church

Friday night parking at St Mary’s: concert patrons will be able to park in the garage immediately to the south of St Mary Cathedral. Access to the garage is from San Jacinto St. Concert patrons can exit the garage for free between 9:45-10:30. After 10:30, please see Daniel Johnson for tokens.

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TICKETS

For this & other TEMP performances

 ‣ purchase online

‣ by phone (512) 377-6961

‣ or at the door.

See you there!

See http://www.early-music.org/index.html for more concert info.

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More (very) soon about our second February concert!

Danny

more.

Danny Johnson's Takeaway: Holidays, Memories & Montserrat Figueras

December is but a few hours away so as I rush to finish this episode of the blog, I realize that I approach December, more than any other month, like a puzzle—a puzzle that provides much delight when finished properly but that is tricky to maneuver when in motion. And it’s in constant motion.

There are three Texas Early Music Project performances to rehearse and present; a variety of services and concerts at St. Mary Cathedral (including the famed “Celtic Christmas at the Cathedral”); the St. Cecilia Baroque Festival at First Presbyterian Church in which I am performing; and, if possible, I might even catch a concert presented by other friends.

As we enter the next phase of the TEMP Christmas performances (the phase in which the performers study their music in preparation for next week’s rehearsals), I can reflect on the pieces that I chose (while mentally writing the concert program notes) and think about the many pieces I opted not to include this time around. I also reflect on the performers I get to work with and the mentors who helped me get to this moment in time. One of the biggest influences on my artistic ventures passed away last week.

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Montserrat Figueras, married to viola da gamba master and conductor Jordi Savall for more than 40 years, was one of the most important figures in the “early music” movement in the 1970s and 80s. Because of her and others like her, early music hasn’t been a “movement” for quite some time; instead, it is a sophisticated, diverse, and lively art form, that transitioned from being a movement to being essential.

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Montserrat, Jordi and other members of their ensemble Hesperion XX were in Austin for two weeks in the summer of 1984 for a workshop masterminded by the late Dr. Robert Snow and Dr. Douglas Kirk. It was an exhausting experience, but Jordi and Montserrat were exquisite professionals: friendly but demanding, encouraging but not too-easily swayed. The attention they gave to the students was spontaneous, human, and life-changing for more than a few of the attendees. The touching thing was that it was also important for Jordi and Montserrat: they made a few lifelong friends through that workshop. Kit Robberson took them to Barton Springs for an afternoon in preparation for the second week of classes and they bubbled for days after that.

I don’t want to dwell on these memories too much, but through that experience I became more aware of the living energy of early music, the endless sources for inspiration, and the necessity of making it available for my generation and those that follow. One of my fondest memories is going to a chamber concert Jordi and Montserrat did in Oxford in 1986 or ’87; they were so surprised and thrilled to see two Texans in the audience they had a hard time suppressing smiles while they were performing. Afterwards, we talked outside the church (I had a train to catch) and they introduced me to their daughter, Arianna, and son, Ferran, who was still a baby. Arianna and Ferran are now both respected performers in Europe. It is difficult not to see or hear Montserrat in their timbres and gestures; in fact, it is reassuring.

Thank you, Montserrat.

And thank you for following along here—I hope to see you at our Christmas concerts! See early-music.org  for more info or just look at our blogspace here at texasearlymusic.wordpress.com.

Peace!

Danny

TEMP’s Upcoming Performance — Yule, Britannia! Christmas Music in the British Isles

When imagining the Christmas season in Britain, scenes of Victorian period sleigh rides, Ebenezer Scrooge, and Ghosts of Christmas probably dance through your head. But the Texas Early Music Project will celebrate wonderful earlier Christmas traditions in Britannia with a sequence of music from the late Medieval period through the 19th century. From haunting Medieval carols and English psalm-tunes to traditional Irish dances and Celtic lullabies, TEMP puts its unique stamp on these beautiful and joyful selections with innovative arrangements for solo voices, small chorus, harps, violin, flute, and mandolin.

Among the Medieval pieces on the concert, TEMP will feature the well-loved "Ther is no rose of swych virtu" and also a lesser-known gem "Lullay, lullay: Als I lay on Yoolis night” with Scottish provenance, (although its source is from Cambridge University), and a hauntingly beautiful melody and story. The Christ-child, as a baby, asks his mother why she doesn’t sing to him as she rocks him and why she doesn’t tell him what his life will be like when he is older. Her response is that she knows very little about him except what Gabriel told her. The dialogue is bookended by a narrator who relays what she saw on that Yule night.

The Renaissance portion of the concert will feature a rousing psalm-tune, "While shepherds watched their flocks by night," the 16th century predecessor of Handel’s popular setting, as well as the very popular "Good people all, this Christmastime" ("The Wexford Carol"), arranged for solo voice, strings, and flute.

The English traditional music and Celtic music will include a few favorites from past years, such as "Baloloo my lammie," and "Ye Sons of Men." Newly arranged pieces include a lively instrumental by the 17th century Irish harpist Turlough O’Carolan, ("The O’Rourkes Christmas") for plucked and bowed strings and an Irish traditional song, "The seven rejoices of Mary" for solo voices and instruments. Throughout the years, the English traditional song "Drive the cold winter away" maintained its popularity and will be featured for the first time in a TEMP concert.

TEMP is pleased that Abby Green, a specialist in Gaelic songs, will be joining as a soloist and ensemble member, and TEMP again is proud to feature nationally acclaimed historical harpists, Therese Honey and Becky Baxter. Featured soloists include Jenifer Thyssen, Stephanie Prewitt, Meredith Ruduski, Abby Green, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, Daniel Johnson, Paul D’Arcy, and Chaz Nailor.

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Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid evening of music encompassing 500 years of festive beauty that will delight your ears and heart!

PERFORMANCES

of Yule, Britannia! Christmas Music in the British Isles

• Friday, December 9, 8PM, First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Ave.

• Saturday December 10, 8PM, First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Ave.

• Sunday, December 11, 3PM, First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

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TICKETS

for Yule, Britannia! Christmas Music in the British Isles & other TEMP performances

 – Last chance to get discounted Partial Season Subscriptions! –

‣ purchase online

‣ by phone (512) 377-6961

‣ or at the door.

See you there!

TEMP’s Upcoming Performance -- They Might Be Giants: Josquin and the Renaissance

Renaissance polyphony can be sublime, suspenseful, moving, and exhilarating! We hear the interweaving voices, the imitative entrances, the artfully prepared dissonance along with the excruciating sweetness of the resolution, and we simply know we are listening to the music for a master who could control the notes, rather than the other way around. Texas Early Music Project’s upcoming concert of music by Josquin des Prez and three of his Franco-Flemish colleagues will display the skill, precision, imagination, and variety available from the best of the generation of composers who lived from c.1440-c.1520 and who set the standards for future composers.

Josquin, the most renowned composer of his day, was really a giant among giants. This concert will immerse listeners in the music of Josquin and three of his Lowlands contemporaries: Antoine Brumel, Loyset Compère, and Pierre de la Rue.  Each of these composers, including Josquin, was named in Jean Molinet’s famous ode “Nymphes des bois,” written after the death of Johannes Ockeghem, their musical father, and each of these magnificent composers contributed his own unique vision to the sacred and secular repertories of the day. Josquin, Compère, and Brumel worked for courts and cathedrals in France and Italy and influenced the next generations of composers all over Europe. Pierre de la Rue lived and worked mostly in Burgundy (now Belgium) where he continued in the footsteps of his predecessors Dufay and Busnois at the Grande chapelle, the musical establishment of the Burgundian-Habsburg court.

Among the featured pieces are some of Josquin’s standouts, including “Nymphes des bois,” and two pieces from the beginning and the end of his career. Beautifully transparent and emulating some of the techniques of earlier composers, TEMP will feature the much-loved “Ave Maria” from the beginning of his career. “Missa Pange lingua,” composed during the last few years of his life, exhibits the powers of a composer who has nothing to prove. Rather than exhibiting new skills, Josquin went deeper and composed with calm mystery, especially in the “Agnus Dei,” which ends the concert. One of the most unique masses composed during the Renaissance was Brumel’s “Earthquake Mass” (“Missa Et ecce terrae motus”) for 12 voice parts.  The Gloria of the mass is perhaps the most celebrated movement and TEMP is excited to bring the splendid and exciting music to the Austin community!

TEMP founding member Christopher LeCluyse will return to perform in this concert. A small chamber choir of 12 voices will perform some of the most splendid a cappella motets and mass movements by the featured composers and will feature some of the best voices in Austin. A trio of viols will present lively secular pieces and solo lute will perform intabulations of sacred and secular music of these Renaissance titans.

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They Might Be Giants: Josquin and the Renaissance

• Saturday, October 29, 8PM,St. Louis King of France Catholic Church, 7601 Burnet Rd.

• Sunday, October 30, 3PM, First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

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TICKETS

for They Might Be Giants & other TEMP performances

‣ purchase online

‣ by phone (512) 377-6961

‣ or at the door.

See you there!

You've Never Heard This in Texas

On September 17 & 18,  Tom Zajac and the Texas Early Music Project explored music from the New World: 17th & 18th century selections from Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico.

Make sure not to miss the next performance!

They Might Be Giants: Josquin and the Renaissance

• Saturday, October 29, 8PM, St. Louis King of France Catholic Church, 7601 Burnet Rd.

• Sunday, October 30, 3PM, First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

Josquin des Prez was the most renowned composer of his day but he was really just a giant among giants. In this concert we will immerse ourselves in the music of Josquin and three of his Lowlands contemporaries: Brumel, Compère, and Pierre de la Rue, who were mentioned in the famous ode upon the death of Okeghem, their musical father. Each of these magnificent composers contributed a unique voice to the sacred and secular repertoires of the day. A small chamber choir, viols, and lute will perform the music of these titans.

Danny Johnson's Take on ‘El Mundo Nuevo’

Listen to Danny Johnson, founder and artistic director of the Texas Early Music Project, describe the music that TEMP will perform in the upcomingEl Mundo Nuevo: 18th Century Music from Latin America.  In this interview with Sara Hessel, Danny explains how this groundbreaking project—with pieces that have never before been played in Texas—came about with guest director Tom Zajac.

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[audio http://texasearlymusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/kmfa-sara-danny-interview-sept-11-2011.mp3]

This 6 minute, 11 second clip originally aired on KMFA’s Ancient Voices on September 11, 2011.

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TICKETS

for El Mundo Nuevo & other TEMP performances

‣ purchase online, ‣ by phone (512) 377-6961, ‣ or at the door.

See you there!

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ABOUT

El Mundo Nuevo: 18th Century Music from Latin America

‣ Saturday, September 17, 8 PM, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church

‣ Sunday, September 18, 3 PM, First Presbyterian Church

In collaboration with early music luminary and virtuoso performer Tom Zajac, TEMP explores music from the New World: 17th & 18th century selections from Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. The color, flavor, and joy of the music from the Trujillo del Peru manuscript are dynamic and exotic. A small vocal ensemble, string trio, guitars, and percussionists will perform selections for Christmas Eve in Trujillo, dances from the jungles, music in the extinct language of Mochica, and motets from the cathedral of Mexico City.

Spotlight on TEMP’s presentation of ‘Nuevo Mundo’

Music from the New World is a subject of great interest to many early music performers and scholars. Viola da gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall performed some of this repertoire in Austin in October 2010 with members of Hesperion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and soprano Montserrat Figueras.

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The following excerpt is from an interview with Jordi Savall, conducted by KMFA’s Sara Hessel.  This originally aired on KMFA’s Ancient Voices in October 2010.

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SH: Does this music [from the concert El Nuevo Mundo: The Route of the New World] have a special resonance with Latin-American audiences?

JS: This music is so perfect for this type of audience because it is so close to them. This music is on the roots of the Spanish and Mexican culture. At our last concert, I have seen all the people who looked like Latin Americans smiling and dancing… it was so wonderful to see how all those people reacted to this type of music.

SH: Will Latin Americans recognize some aspects of this music from their own living traditions?

JS: These are living traditions. And even the ancient songs, they are based many times on typical rhythmical structures, that they feel very modern. The mix of this Caribbean culture was the mix of African people, coming with Conquistadores, and then the sailors and the soldiers and the priests and the noble people. And then there was an encounter between African music, Indian native music, and the Spanish music. And this was like a bomb! [laughs]  Something fantastic! And what remains today is a living tradition maintained through oral tradition.

SH: What are your thoughts on why this music has such an immediate emotional impact on listeners?

JS: I think that characteristic of this music is the same characteristic that you have with Sephardic songs, that you have with Irish fiddle music, la musique Bretonne, music from Galicia: communities from cultures who have suffered. They have suffered in South America from the oppression, from the exploitation of the Spanish, the Conquistadores; in the same way, the Breton, they have suffered from the French, or the Irish people and Scottish people have suffered from the British power.

SH: And here we had the oppression of the African-Americans, and the tradition of spirituals arose out of that.

JS: Yes, it is the same. This is surviving music: helping people to survive. And this is why all this type of music has such a special emotional element. You feel immediately touched by- really something necessary for life.  The music was really the only possibility to be really happy for one moment, and be in some harmony. And they sing and they play together. And this was what sustained people: the hope, and to remember their roots.

SH: What else can you tell us about this music?

JS: I think this music comes immediately to your heart and your soul. It is such a dynamic music; it has such an intensity, a melancholy, a happiness, it has everything. It’s a mix of what makes this music so surprising. It’s very exuberant, but it has a certain element of melancholy. It’s very old, but because it has so much improvisation, it’s always new. And this is fantastic- the most beautiful repertories are when you are working with something where you remember your roots, but you can improvise and you can improve every day this music. It becomes every day something new and something of our time, too.