The following information relates to MEMF 2009; details about MEMF 2010 will be posted in December, 2009.

Class Information

The week-long class schedule appears first. Descriptions are listed below. Click by a class time to jump to that section of descriptions.

MEMF 2009 Class Schedule

MEMF 2009 Class Descriptions

EARLY MORNING CLASSES
8:30am – 9:30am

Lute: Honing Your Skills (Chris Morrongiello)
Beginners to Intermediate
A hands-on course which covers the basic physiological mechanics involved in playing the lute well.

Wake Up Krumhorns (Joan Kimball)
Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced
Wake up with buzzies and play delightful consort music every morning at 8 am! We will work on the technical issues that assure good intonation, and I will bring along tools, tape and beeswax to adjust instruments and reeds as needed to bring them into perfect tune. There will be some instruments available on loan for the week.

Viola da Gamba 'Upgrade' Class (David Morris)
Intermediate and Advanced Cellists
For cellists who want to learn to play gamba, and for gambists who are ready to develop more proficiency on a different size of viol. We will cover basic bow techniques, acquaint ourselves with a different tuning system and solidify skills we already have in a new musical arena.

Early Violin Family Technique and the Music of Gasparo Zannetti (David Douglass)
Intermediate and Advanced
We will touch on the early history and technique of the violin family, and put the technique to practice in the music of Gasparo Zannetti, the mid-17th century dancemaster and author of Il Scolaro, an exciting publication of early dance music. We will be reading modern and original notation, including violin tablature.

David's Harp and the Music of the Spheres (Christa Patton)
All Levels
The harmony of the celestial bodies in the macrocosmos was also expressed in the harmony of the microcosmos or the human soul. This celestial harmony was represented for the Christians by David and his harp who, by drawing the harmony of the celestial bodies into Saul's unquiet soul, soothed him. The harp has always had a special role in music to order one's senses both calming and energizing them at the same time. In history for this reason throughout Europe, the harp was used for everything from the recitation of epic stories by master storytellers as entertainment for kings in the middle ages, to moments of extreme piety in the churches of Spain and Italy. Join with whatever harp and harp playing skills you may have as we experience the harp on all levels from sublime droning to the perfection of polyphony with exquisite music taken from medieval, Renaissance, and baroque sources.

The Art of the Dulcian/curtal/bajon (Bob Wiemken)
Intermediate and Advanced
Among the many Renaissance and early Baroque double reed instruments, the dulcian presents the player with unique challenges and distinct technical concerns. This class will address those concerns and build technical fluency, in the context of consort playing of music from Italian masters from the mid-16th into the early 17th centuries. The class will also discuss the history of the instrument and its use not only in Italy, but throughout Europe, from it emergence in the 1540’s until the arrival of the magnificent octavebass near the end of the century. (Intermediate to Advanced players, both A=440 and A=466)

Duly Noted (Greg Ingles)
Intermediate to Advanced Singers and Instrumentalists
If you’ve ever been interested in being able to work from original manuscripts reading early notation, this class is for you. Using primary source part books, you will be introduced to nonstandard clefs (alto, tenor, mezzo soprano, soprano, and baritone), early note values and the process of matching given text with the notes on the page. Though this may sound daunting, you’ll be surprised how quickly you will attain these new skills and how rewarding it is reading from the original sources. All singers and instruments welcome. Intermediate to Advanced.

"As the World Turns": Dances in the Round (Julie Andrijeski)
Open to dancers of all levels, and intermediate to advanced musicians.
Renaissance and Baroque Dances from the court and countryside.

The Cabinet of Musical Curiosities (Tom Zajac)
Advanced Recorder
Many intrepid composers of the Renaissance and Baroque sought to apply the spirit of scientific inquiry to their compositions, in the form of intellectual puzzles, experiments with modes and tuning and in the manipulation of various musical devices. In this class we will seek to unravel the mysteries of a sampling of these works. For advanced recorder players.

Recorder Techniques (Priscilla Smith)
Intermediate

Harpsichord: Improvising Skills (Barbara Weiss)
Intermediate and Advanced Players
We will explore a variety of approaches to improvising, so you can adopt a method that suits you. Never done it before? – here’s your chance to jump right in. We will have lots of drills to get your chops in shape. All keyboard players welcome!

Men’s Voice Class (Aaron Sheehan)
All levels
Warm ups, technical work to start the day!

Women’s Voice Class (Cheryl Bensman-Rowe)
All Levels
Morning is a great time to get your voices ready for the day! Besides vocalizing and technical work we will use pieces inspired by the heavens to warm up.

MID-MORNING CLASSES 9:45am – 10:45am

Musica Recitativa – The New Music, circa 1600 (Paul Rowe [with Grant Herreid])
All Levels
This class will explore the social and musical conditions that resulted in Caccini’s landmark publication, Le Nuove Musiche in 1602. We will perform the music, discuss ornamentation, figured bass and poetic imagination and attempt to achieve Caccini’s goal to “move the affect of the soul” with monodic song. Open to singers, lutenists and chitarrone players of all levels.

Recorder Consort Playing (Joan Kimball)
High Intermediate and Advanced
Each class will start with breath and articulation warm-ups, and move to explorations of articulation and phrasing in late 16th century, early 17th century works for multiple voices, 6 to 10 parts (depending on the number of people in the class).

Viola da Gamba Divisions on the Great Madrigals (David Morris)
Intermediate and Advanced
A class for the viols on divisions based on the great madrigals of the time (like "Ancor che col partire"), as well as ground-bass divisions (like those of Ortiz) and then madrigals for viols, especially Monteverdi and his contemporaries.

Beginning/Intermediate Technique for Renaissance Double Reeds (Bob Wiemken)
Beginning to Intermediate Players of open double reed instruments*
Interested in starting shawm or dulcian, or returning to it after years of being away, or just wanting to review the basics of playing these predecessors of the oboe and bassoon and brush up on your skills? Then join us for this class that will take nothing for granted and answer most of your questions about double reed playing and put you on the path toward attaining a solid technique on these wonderful, but challenging, Renaissance instruments. (* Must have own instrument and reeds. Instructor can supply some reeds, if need is known well enough in advance of the festival.)

Beginning Harp (Christa Patton)
No harp experience is expected. Bring your own if you have one – a few harps will be available for rental.

Sackbut Techniques (Greg Ingles)
Intermediate and Advanced
This technique class is suitable for sackbut players of all levels. Topics of discussion will include articulation, tone production and quality, breathing techniques and exercises, phrasing and warm-up routines specifically for the sackbut. Daily group reading sessions will be included as well as an option for some assigned work to be developed individually throughout the course.

Not Holst: The Planets (Judith Malafronte)
All Levels
An exploration of music honoring, describing, or featuring the Greek and Roman Gods and Celestial Entities. Repertoire drawn from lute songs, airs de cour, Cavalli operas, English ballads, etc.

Renaissance Flute Consort (Tom Zajac)
Intermediate and Advanced Flute Players
For players of early or modern flutes. Some instruments will be available for loan.

Historical Tuning Theory: Problems and Solutions (Ross Duffin)
All Levels

Eloquent Invention: New Music of the Seventeenth Century (Robert Mealy)
Intermediate and Advanced
This class will focus on the virtuosic and rhapsodic string music of the 17th century, from the wild inventions of Castello and Fontana to the German virtuoso repertory of Biber and Schmelzer. Intermediate to advanced players on both violin-family and gamba-family welcome. Both modern and original notation involved. Come and be astonished at what you can do!

MASTER CLASSES 9:40 - 10:50 am

Voice Master Class (Ellen Hargis [with John Chappell Stowe])
Advanced Singers

Recorder Master Class (Marion Verbruggen [with Barbara Weiss])
Advanced Players

Lute Master Class on Renaissance & Early Baroque Lute Music (Chris Morrongiello)
Intermediate and Advanced
This course will explore in a relaxed master class format the relationship between musicology and performance: how does an understanding of modes (and their various emotional connotations), voice-leading and harmony, cadences, solmization, hexachords, musica ficta, temperaments, and rhetoric influence interpretation? How does knowing about a work’s source and concordances (if any), form and history, text and variants (in the case of vocal music or an intabulation), choreography (in the case of dance music), and social, cultural, and literary contexts come to bear on interpretation? Lutenists may perform any repertoire, solo or ensemble, from the Renaissance to the early Baroque.

LATE MORNING CLASSES 11:00 am – 12:00pm

Select one of the beginning classes or the lecture series.

Beginning Voice (Lyssandra Walsh)

Beginning Recorder (Instructor TBA)

Beginning Gamba (Instructor TBA)

(Beginning Harp is offered in the mid-morning period 9:45-10:45 am)

Lecture Series:

Sunday July 12: “The Galilei, Father and Son" (Michael Shank)
Monday, July 13: "Commas, Split Keys, and Other Delights of Early Tuning" (Ross Duffin)
Tuesday, July 14: "The Purgatory of Books: The Index Librorum Prohibitorum and Galileo's Times" (Stefania Buccini)
Wednesday, July 15: "Galileo's Musical Heritage and Temperament" (William Baylis)
Thursday, July 16: “How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and why you should care)” (Ross Duffin)

Notes on lecture series: 

The lectures on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday will be repeated as shortened pre-concert lecture those same evenings at 6:30 pm.  Additional lectures are scheduled at other times during the festival week.

EARLY AFTERNOON CLASSES    1:30 – 3:00 pm
SMALL ENSEMBLES

Renaissance Loud Band ( Bob Wiemken and Joan Kimball)
Intermediate and Advanced
Some of the brightest stars in the Renaissance and early Baroque musical constellations were the professional wind players of the official court and city bands, the players of shawms, cornetti, dulcians and sackbuts. MEMF’s 2009 Loud Band will light up the night sky with late Renaissance repertoire from the likes of Cipriano de Rore, Giovanni Gabrieli, Luca Marenzio, Adriano Banchieri, Carlo Gesualdo, among others. A special look into the explorations into chromaticism of these Italian composers in the late 16th century will stretch accepted spherical harmonies to the breaking point. (For intermediate through advanced players of shawms, cornetti, dulcians and sackbuts. Depending on the numbers and abilities of the class participants, we will divide the class into appropriately graded ensembles, but also do some larger works for all involved. Pitch will be A-440)

Singing the Hymns of Orpheus (Grant Herreid)
Intermediate and Advanced Singers and Instrumentalists
The Orphic Hymns, composed as early as the 3rd century BC, comprise 87 short religious poems addressed to various planets, stars and other deities. To Marsilio Ficino of Florence (1433-99), tutor to Lorenzo de’ Medici and the leading Neoplatonic philosopher of his day, one of the achievements of his age was reviving “the ancient singing of songs to the Orphic lyre.” His philosopher friend Pico della Mirandola wrote in 1486 that "in natural magic nothing is more efficacious than the Hymns of Orpheus, if there be applied to them suitable music, and disposition of soul, and the other circumstances known to the wise." Ficino was well known for his singing of the Orphic Hymns to his own accompaniment on the lute or lyre, described by an eyewitness “as if curly-headed Apollo took up the lyre of Marsilio and fell victim to his own song. Frenzy arises. His eyes catch fire ... and he discovers music which he never learnt.” Just what shaped his musical renditions is a matter of conjecture, but using his writings about planetary song as a guide, we will create our own settings for a contemporary Latin translation of the hymns, utilizing the musical models available to Ficino, Pico and other magical musicians of the late 15th century.

Just Mean: Making Historical Tuning Work in Practice (Ross Duffin)
Advanced Instrumentalists
Small group coaching using historical tuning. Tuning, repertoire, and instrument combinations will vary with enrollment.

Francesco Landini and the Italian Trecento (David Douglass)
Upper Intermediate and Advanced
Explore the rich and varied repertory of the Italian Trecento, from intricate puzzles to simple, ravishing ballads. The difficulty of the repertory requires a minimum of upper intermediate abilities. Singers, medieval strings, and wind players particularly welcome.

Polish Music from the Time of Copernicus (Tom Zajac)
All Levels
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) was the Polish astronomer who first formulated the theory of a sun-centered universe. He was a student at the Jagiellonian University in the city of Krakow, one of the great cultural centers of Renaissance Europe. We will explore music from this singular time and place by composers both known and anonymous. Motets, songs, dances and mass movements for all players and singers.

16th Century Polyphony in Different Modes (Priscilla Smith)
Beginning and Intermediate Players and Singers
16th cent. polyphony/instrumental fantasias in the different modes that were associated with different affects, and consequently, different planetary states. Composers wrote cycles going through the modes including Lassus and Willaert. Many sacred plainchants are always in a specific mode and we will study these plainchants, get the modes in our ears, and work on some of the chant-based polyphony and falsobordoni. It’s an easy way to learn modes, and the simple, unornamented ones are to the point and easy to get through! Mixed consort (instruments and voices).

Monteverdi Madrigals, Books IV - VII. (Paul Flight)
Advanced
In order to do this we will cover the five parts needed, SSATB. For singers and conductors. We will be reading through the repertoire in these books of madrigals, and working on a few of them intensively for performance in the Participant Concert.

Marvelous Monteverdi (Aaron Sheehan [with Barb Weiss])
High intermediate and Advanced
Performance based class focusing on solos and duets of Monteverdi. We will explore the issues of text, melody, rhetoric, and accompanying. Open to both singers and continuo players.

Advanced Recorder Consort (Marion Verbruggen)

Concerto delle Donne (Ellen Hargis and Judith Malafronte [with Christa Patton])
Advanced Women’s Voices
One on a part duets, trios and more. Pieces by Luzzaschi, Monterverdi and others.

MID-AFTERNOON CLASSES    3:15 – 5:00 pm (Paul Flight, Robert Mealy, and Grant Herreid)
ALL FESTIVAL REHEARSAL
Rehearsals for the final All Festival Concert on Saturday, July 18.

“La Pellegrina”, Intermedii et Concerti, by Antonio Archilei, Cristofano Malvezzi, and Luca Marenzio Resident artists and workshop participants combine to rehearse the Italian Renaissance ceremonial music (Florence, 1589) for the wedding celebration of Ferdinando de’Medici and Christine de Lorraine, Princess of France.

Intermediate and advanced bowed string players will also explore the great orchestral dance suites and concerti grossi of the 1680’s, including astronomically-themed works of Lully and Muffat and overtures and concerti grossi by Erlebach and Corelli.

LATE AFTERNOON CLASSES    5:15 – 6:00 pm (Julie Andrijeski [with Edith Hines])
Historical Dance
Renaissance Dance for All  
This dance class for all levels provides a perfect end to a long day of (sedentary?) concentration. Class begins each day with a few stretches to work out the kinks and then proceeds with typical Renaissance dances. Instrumentalists will enjoy playing music with Edith for the dances.