Giving Tuesday Now

#GivingTuesdayNow is a worldwide day of giving and unity on Tuesday, May 5 that aims to meet the urgent needs of nonprofits created by the pandemic. In central Texas, this is being hosted by I Live Here, I Give Here as an Amplify Austin event. Many of our local nonprofits are struggling as funding sources, ranging from ticket sales to City of Austin support, are plummeting. Please consider giving generously to support nonprofits of your choice by going to www.amplifyatx.org.

Texas Early Music Project is participating in this event, and if you wish to help support TEMP and its artists please go to TEMP’s page at www.amplifyatx.org/organizations/texas-early-music-project.

The pandemic has been devastating on so many levels for us as individuals, as families, as businesses, and as artists. But Texas Early Music Project, as an arts organization, is not throwing in the towel. We are working out what we will be doing to continue giving you, our audience, the experience of joy and beauty that music can bring, and finding ways that we can support our artists while we are on a performing hiatus. Please stay with us as we work out exactly how we are going to do this!

And meanwhile, while you are staying healthy in mind, body, and spirit, please enjoy our TEMP Taco Tuesdays, which provide you just the musical snack you need to carry you through these challenging times.

Danny Johnson, Artistic Director
Anthony Toprac, Board President

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

Strange days have found us...

Remember the good old days? The big question was, “Now, is it the night to set out the recycling or the night to set out the trash?”. I used to chuckle at myself for even having to think about it, but now we are mindful of absolutely everything we do.

We are also mindful of what we can’t do and what we really want to do: We want to gather together, rehearse, and present concerts for you (and for ourselves—we wouldn’t present the music if we didn’t love it!). As I mentioned in the previous blog from March, we were preparing to present music by a composer (Machaut) who was seminal in my "career path” before plans were derailed.

Our current plans, subject to change by the ever-fluid situation, include extending our 2019-2020 season for several months so that we can more safely gather to present the two postponed concerts: Ah, Sweet Lady: Passion in Medieval France, previously scheduled for March, and The Student Becomes the Master: Monteverdi & Cavalli in Venice, previously scheduled for May, We will let you know as soon as we have more details and we will, of course, honor purchased tickets at our rescheduled concerts. If we are not able to safely include audiences, we will come up with other plans, including live-streaming or videotaping the concerts.

There are many wonderful writers who have waxed eloquently about the human situation during these strange days, so I know I don’t even have to attempt to do the same other than to hope for your continuing health and safety.

In the meantime, I hope you are able to catch our Tuesday Musical Tacos. We’re trying to offer a variety of “flavors” so we can appeal to every palate! For additional audio samples, please visit our Recordings page and enjoy past videos on our Gallery page.

All the best,
-Danny

Sign up for a free audio “taco” every Tuesday!

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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

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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!

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Unknown Facts

1960 Fender Concert Amplifier

So, it’s generally unknown, but pretty true, that I was in a band in high-school in Big Spring. Our name was the Summits, which was picked by going through the phone book and doing the closed-eyes and point technique and whatever the street name was, that was the selection. It was about the 3rd attempt. I don’t recall what the first ones were, but they were probably something like 18th street or Nolan or some other street that was nowhere as good as Summit Street. Anyway: I was the singer (I played bass a little) so since I didn’t have instruments to carry, I wound up carrying the amplifiers, which were, you know, necessary to a fledgeling rock band doing covers of the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Dylan, Monkees, etc etc … Wow. I miss the Summits. Good times. There was that time that … well, more later.

And here it is is, &$^&$#@%&%$@ years later, and amplification is still necessary for music groups, even relatively fledgeling [compared to some] or established [compared to others] early music groups. So please help me amplify TEMP later this week: March 5–6!  Read all the deets below. And prepare yourself for some covers of Medieval French hits by Anonymous, Anonymous, and Machaut later this month.

More soon!
-Danny

AMPLIFY TEMP!
6 pm March 5 – 6 pm March 6

Our organizational goal is to raise $10,000 for our general operational expenses (especially for musicians’ compensation) and our educational outreach. TEMP is actively creating educational outreach programs to join forces with Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Austin Independent School District. To make this program free for our partners, we need to raise funds for instruments, instructors, and performers. 

Please visit our Amplify page to read more about it.

Here’s how you can help:

Please consider donating $25 (or more!) on TEMP’s page on Amplify Austin. Any Amount Helps! Here are some suggestions:

• $25–$199 Helps with office supplies and program printing 

• $200–$499 Helps cover venue rental costs 

• $500–$999 Helps our educational outreach programs with TSVBI and AISD

• $750–$999 Assists with artist compensation

• $1,000–$4,999 Assists in Director compensation 

• $5,000 + Sponsors a concert

NO NEED TO WAIT: donate NOW!

Enter #LoveTitos and $5 will be added to your donation!

You don't have to wait until March 5 to participate in Amplify Austin! You can donate now! Just click on the "Donate now" button on the TEMP campaign page.  And if you enter the hashtag #LoveTitos when you check out, Tito’s Handmade Vodka will add an extra $5 to your donation!

BE A FUNDRAISING CHAMPION!

You can also become an individual fundraiser for TEMP by creating your own campaign page on the Amplify Austin website and inviting family, friends, and colleagues to donate to your TEMP campaign. Go to the TEMP campaign page and click on the "Fundraise"  button in the top right of the page next to the Donate button.

BE A MEDICI - BUT NICER! AMPLIFY TEMP AND AMPLIFY AUSTIN!

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

She loves, but when she confesses...

…it gets really interesting!

 Sometime in the 17th century, or maybe a little earlier, someone wrote these words about love:

My shepherdess, with no fickleness in loving, causes me to find good things every day. But you must manage your time carefully: For it flows away and is lost hour after hour.
Whoever wishes me to fall in love, let him at least tell me, with what: Broken hope, eternal faith? Better a thousand times to die, then for to live thus still tormented.

Crying is my only pleasure; I nourish myself only with tears. Grief is my delight and moans are my joys.
The heavens are raining disasters on me every hour. What can I say? My tears, why do you hold back? Why not give vent to the proud sorrow?
The sun refuses to show his light, and day shall then be turned to night; Then lose no time, for love hath wings, and flies away from aged things.

Your contempt each day causes me a thousand fears, My treasure, I would find torment with you that would be sweeter than happiness with another. My beloved, I suffer... O my sweet love!

Granted, no one poet wrote all of those lines: They are one-liners plucked from each of the songs (in Italian, French, and English) that we are performing in a couple of weeks as part of the cavalcade of “love songs” performed during the Valentine season. We are attempting to give you a pretty full gamut of the emotions involved in 17th-century love songs, but they anticipated Joni Mitchell’s “comfort in melancholy” line in a big way. (I did omit the blatantly ‘happy’ lines in my hodge-podge teaser above... but there are actually a few!)

 Beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Robert Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier).

There are eight soloists and seven instrumentalists; it will be intimate and intense. Maybe we will supply the hankies...

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

Happy Valentine’s Day(s) - Why limit it to just one day?
-Danny

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She Loves and She Confesses:
Love Songs from the Baroque

Saturday, February 22, 2020, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue
Sunday, February 23, 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 metaphysical English poet Abraham Cowley, who wrote the text of our title song, with music by Henry Purcell, also wrote this:

A mighty pain to love it is, And ’t is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain it is to love, but love in vain.”

Joni Mitchell wrote that there’s a sort of comfort in sadness; both classical and popular composers have long relied on tearjerkers with angst and melancholy to exhibit their powers of expression, and many seem most comfortable when composing in this vein. Barbara Strozzi, John Dowland, and others fit very comfortably into this mold, with music that is passionate and powerful and exquisite.

We will also feature a few wonderful songs about the delights of blissful love, and their exuberance and enthusiasm set them apart from their less happy cousins.

Enjoy these audio teasers from past concerts:

Our 21st season, Love’s Illusion, continues with beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Frescobaldi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, Boësset, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier). Our soloists, accompanied by a small band of lutes, harp, harpsichord, and strings, are Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Jenny Houghton, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Brett Barnes, and special guests Ryland Angel, countertenor and tenor, and Donald Livingston, harpsichord.

Join us for a few tears, a few giggles, toe tapping and joy, melancholy and empathy. Oh, and some scary jealousy.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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December needs another week!

So that we can all go to all the concerts we want to go to, perform in all the concerts we want to / need to, and still have a little time for, oh, I don’t know, maybe shopping/eating/visiting and the occasional nap! I know I’ve seen this idea proposed on other forums but no one seems to do anything about it. C’mon! Someone do something!

Because, as it turns out, we have our very own Christmas concert(s). NEXT WEEK. Three days in a row. So I’m too busy and having too much fun to start the 5-week-December campaign.

An Early Christmas is, by all accounts, one of our favorite concerts, because we cover so much territory, historically speaking, that we change the parameters of what early music is and even what Christmas music can be, and yet still tug at the heartstrings. So join us next week. And then, maybe after the New Year, get into gear with the 5-week-December campaign.

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

See ya! It’s multilicious!
-Danny

Tickets for Saturday and Sunday's concerts are selling fast. Guarantee your seat by purchasing your tickets in advance. There is still plenty of room on Friday!

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AN EARLY CHRISTMAS

Friday, December 13, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. John's United Methodist, 2140 Allandale Road
Saturday, December 14, 2019, at  7:30 pm
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Avenue
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 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.

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of Christmas music through the ages. Different cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous English and French carols, magnificent motets for 8 parts from Italy and France, and lively Celtic songs, dulcet Dutch carols, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

Enjoy these audio teasers from our most recent CD, In dulci jubilo: Early Music of the Season:

Enjoy more selections from Gaudete: An Early Christmas, Swete was the Songe, Noël: An Early Christmas and Stella splendens: An Early Music Christmas.

Brett Barnes, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Jenny Houghton, Gil Zilkha, and Jenifer Thyssen are featured soloists, and acclaimed harpist Therese Honey, countertenor Ryland Angel, and Karelian chromatic kantele player Viktoria Nizhnik are featured as special guests.

Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. And you can use our new word, multilicious!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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They're writing songs of love...

…and we're singing them!

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Song of Songs 1:1, Bible moralisée (76 E7, f. 122r): c. 1371 - 1372,
National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague

And it’s not even February / Valentine’s Day! But these songs of love aren’t your everyday, ordinary love songs. They’re divine, mystical (in some interpretations), and gorgeous. With a chamber choir, and viol consort, TEMP presents Praising the Beloved: The Song of Songs.

Enjoy this beautiful duet from our Monteverdi 1610 concerts during our 2016-2017 Season.

Purty music. Y’all come! We won’t see you again until Christmas!

-Danny

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PRAISING THE BELOVED:
THE SONG OF SONGS

Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX
Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Dr., Austin, TX

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
buying season tickets or sponsoring a concert!

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

The Song of Songs or Song of Solomon from the Hebrew Bible provided the texts for many of the most polished, sensual, and beautiful compositions by the master composers of the Renaissance and early Baroque, c. 1450-c.1650. Well-known composers such as Dunstable, Josquin, Lassus, Guerrero, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and others will be represented, as well as more rarely performed but splendid works by Vecchi, Clemens, Brumel, Weerbeke, Grandi, Rovetta, Ducis, and Ingegneri. Some of the texts echo the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, sometimes explicitly. Other verses are more indicative of “wisdom literature,” offering teachings about divinity, virtue, and relationship.

TEMP will perform this serene and entrancing music with a small chamber choir, a consort of viols, and theorbo. Featured singers include Brett Barnes, Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Laura Mercado-Wright, Cayla Cardiff, Shari Alise Wilson, Tim O’Brien, Steve Olivares, and more, including special guest Ryland Angel, countertenor. Our consort of viols, led by guest Mary Springfels, will perform instrumental versions of some of these exquisite motets.

Superb and intense music performed in a quiet, intimate setting.
Bring someone you love.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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Please sir, can I have another?

Another concert, that is! Yes, we’re finally back to concert time and so we have two different programs this week. The first was Sept. 18, the inaugural Kerr Educational Outreach concert at Univ. of Texas: Sephardic Songs: Myths and Realities. We were the recital part of a lecture-recital, with the lecture portion being presented by Prof. Edwin Seroussi, renowned ethnomusicologist from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was awesome and we were honored to be featured with him.

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The second program, starting our official 2019-2020 concert season, is completely different because, of course, why wouldn’t it be! Oh, Henry! No, not the short-story writer. The composer, Henry. Henry Purcell. You’ve heard his music in countless soundtracks, often in the background, often featured. At any rate, we’re featuring him and only him! This Saturday and Sunday. See all the details below. There are some absolutely emotionally devastating moments in his music as well as tunes that will encourage you to dance [while seated]. The world of Henry Purcell: complicated, complex, and way too short!

See ya this weekend!
-Danny

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OH, HENRY!
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PURCELL

Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Ave., Austin, TX
Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Martin's Lutheran Church, 606 W 15th Street, Austin, TX

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
buying season tickets or sponsoring a concert!

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

No, even though O. Henry did sing in the choir at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, this is a concert of music by Henry Purcell. Sorry for any possible confusion, O. Henry fans.

Henry Purcell is deservedly known as England’s greatest composer before Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His music is used often in movie soundtracks and his operas are revived frequently on international stages. As organist and composer at Westminster Abbey and also the Chapel Royal, he wrote vast amounts of sacred music, which resounds in modern day churches and concert halls.

TEMP has often explored the musical world of this genius, but never with a full concert dedicated to his eclectic and diverse repertoire. We are thrilled to begin our 2019-2020 season with music from Purcell’s compositions for the theater, the opera, the court, the sanctuary, and the pub.

With gifted soloists, a choir of twenty-six, and eleven instrumentalists, TEMP will present selections from Ode to St. Cecilia, the operas King Arthur, Dido & Aeneas, The Fairy Queen, and more, including a couple of catches (or rounds) suitable for late night rowdiness.

Soloists and featured singers include Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Meredith Ruduski, Shari Alise Wilson, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, David Lopez, Tim O’Brien, and special guests from the New York area, countertenor Ryland Angel and bass Peter Walker.

As Purcell himself wrote, “Prithee, be not so sad and serious,” come hear “How the wild musicians sing a welcome” to all who would hear music from the “Fairest isle, all isles excelling.”

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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