Trecento: Early Flowers of Polyphony

This afternoon is our final rehearsal for our first performance of the "Trecento" music set. This concert will be repeated at the Berkeley Early Music Festival in June 2010. We might get a few minutes of a break before the concert begins at 7pm.

Pedro Memelsdorff will be attending. The group is a little nervous since he is considered by many to be the world's foremost expert on the very music we will be performing. Many of the tunes will will perform tonight, his ensemble, Mala Punica, has recorded.

We are doing some very interesting pieces by Landini, Jacopo, Firenze, and Ciconia. There are now only 22 pieces on the concert.

My clothes are ready to be donned and I begin warming up once I finish up here. I leave in about 2 hours to head out into the unusually heavy rain to drive the 42 miles to the venue. Sometimes the rain makes for a small crowd at events and sometimes, it bring people out in droves. It will be interesting to see which it is this time.

Invited Back To Coro Ciconia

Well, it was a very busy concert season. My last post in November was the last time I really had an opportunity to devote any time to the blog endeavor. I couldn't believe that the performance season began so early for me this year. And that I was so terribly busy.

I have been invited back to sing with Coro Ciconia. It seems to be a good fit, thus far. My greatest appreciation for this group is their overt appreciation for having a real alto. Throughout my career, I have witnessed an enormous amount of dismissive attitude regarding altos and alto lines, in general. It has only been in rare circumstances that groups acknowledge the importance of this line and the importance of having a real alto singing it. The real kicker is that most of the time when acknowledgment is given, the alto line and singing voice is only given any real recognition when a man is is singing it.

Coro Ciconia's next concert is on Sunday April 11th; a mere 12 weeks away. I have already received 10 of the pieces. I think there will be about 16 of them. We will be singing Ciconia, of course, along with Jocopo, Landini, Firenze, and other 14th century Tuscan composers.

We will reprise the concert set a couple of times, in addition to a completely different concert program, for the Berkeley Early Music Festival in June. I am really looking forward to this experience.