Author: jesse

Today we are exploring music for the viol consort, featuring a seldom-heard composer, Christopher Simpson.

Simpson was born between 1602 and 1606, at Egton, Yorkshire. He was the eldest son of the manager of a theatre company patronized by wealthy Yorkshire Catholics. Very few of Simpson’s musical compositions appeared in print during his lifetime except those included as examples in his books. A small number of his compositions also survive in manuscript form, such as two sets of fantasias entitled The Monthes and The Seasons, which both consist of one treble and two bass viol parts.

All his surviving instrumental works are for viol ensembles or for the solo viol, an instrument about which he wrote, “a viol in the hands of an excellent viol player may no doubt be reckon’d amongst the best of musical instruments. To play extempore to a ground is the highest perfection of it”.

In addition to Simpson’s The Monthes, we will hear Fantasia VIII by Giovanni Coprario, and La Bernardina by Josquin des Prez. Performing is the Viol Consort: Liam Byrne, Joelle Morton and Erica Rubis.

Program length: 9:34

Today we will listen to a performance of an unusual instrument, the hurdy-gurdy. It’s a stringed instrument that produces sound via a crank-turned rosined wheel that acts at the bow. Notes are played by a keyboard that presses small wood wedges against the strings to change their pitch. The hurdy-gurdy sound is characterized by several drone strings, creating a sound similar to a violin and the bagpipes.

Jacques-Christophe Naudot, born in 1690, was a French composer, typesetter, and flutist. Most of his compositions were published in Paris between 1726 and 1740, and his most well-known work is the opus 17 No. 5 flute concerto. The poet Denesle wrote a book called “Syrinx, ou l’origine de la flutte”, which was dedicated in part to Naudot and published in 1739. “Babioles” or “baubles”, published about 1750, are duets by Naudot, suitable for hurdy gurdies or bagpipes.

In this performance of Iile Babiole and Menuets I and II, we’ll hear Robert Green playing the hurdy-gurdy.

Duration: 4:33

Born in 1667, Michel Pignolet de Monteclair made his way to Paris in 1697, professional essay writing service and by 1699 was playing the basse de violon in the Paris Opera and gaining renown as a teacher. Acknowledged as one of the most important composers of the post-Lully generation, his stage works influenced Jean Phillipe Rameau’s orchestration and dramatic music. He gave a more prominent role to his obbligato instruments than any other composer of cantatas before his time, as evidenced by the use of totally independent bass lines. In fact, his music to La Triomphe de la Constance features extensive substantive solo passages for the bass viol.

In this performance of music from La Triomphe de la Constance, we will hear Amy Conn, soprano, Craig Trompeter, viola da gamba, and Doug Schneider, harpsichord.

Podcast length: 13:55

Today we’re excerpting from the Monteverdi opera Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. The Return of Ulysses to His Country is an opera consisting of a prologue and five acts to an Italian libretto by Giacomo Badoaro, based on the final portion of Homer’s Odyssey. It was Claudio Monteverdi’s first opera for Venice, and had a very successful run of ten performances at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo beginning in February 1640. The opera was then taken to the Teatro Guastavillani in Bologna, and in 1641 was revived again in Venice. The first modern revival was lead by Vincent d’Indy in Paris in 1925.

In this performance we’ll hear singers from the Chicago Opera Theater, who are joined by Ars Antigua for the Prologue and 10th scene from Act V.

Rizo Arellano, L’Humana Fragilita
David Young, Tempo
Kari Sorenson, Fortuna
Micaela Oeste, Amore
Melina Pineda, Penelope
Melina Pineda, Melanto
Edmundas Seilius, Eurimaco
Robert Burt, Iro
Jason Collins, Ulisse
Stephen Hargreaves, harpsichord
Craig Trompeter, violoncello
Jerry Fuller, violone

Today we’re featuring music of Francesco Barsanti, born around 1690 in the Tuscan city of Lucca. This city was- and would be- a center of Italian culture for centuries, boasting such notable denizens as Luigi Boccherini and Giacomo Puccini.

In 1708, Barsanti ventured to Padova, where he had initially intended to pursue an education in the field of science. After keenly observing several concerts held at the university, Barsanti embarked on a composition career instead, focusing chiefly on music for the flute and the oboe. He spent many successful years in London as a noted flutist and oboist before venturing north to Scotland in 1735, where he lived for almost a decade and continued to compose.

Sonata in C Major  – Francesco Barsanti (b. ca. 1690)
Adagio / Allegro /Largo / Presto
, recorder; Jerry Fuller, violone

Podcast length: 10:03