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Texas Early Music Project

PO Box 301675

Austin, TX 78703

(512) 377-6961

For ticket and concert venue inquiries, email the Box Office

 

PO Box 301675
Austin, TX 78703
United States

(512) 377-6961

Founded in 1987 by Daniel Johnson, the Texas Early Music Project is dedicated to preserving and advancing the art of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical music through performance, recordings, and educational outreach. 

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Explore more than 700 years of musical transformation

Filtering by Tag: Italia Mia

The Ides of April.

Danny Johnson

Is that a thing, or not? Discuss.

Hmmm April 15. Seems like I’m supposed to be doing something important today. I mean, I do recall that on March 15, I made sure to avoid going to the Roman Senate, but I have this stabbing feeling that I’m missing something about today. So I made a little list of possibilities.

I do recall that I wanted to let you all know that you should check out TEMP’s Musical Taco that is coming out tomorrow, April 16. It’s monumental: Our 100th Taco! We started making them during the COVID 19 lockdown so we could provide a little solace, humor, news, and music for you while we were working remotely. (The idea was Mary Ashton’s, I’m pretty sure!) We made them weekly for several months and then moved to every two weeks, and now we mostly get them to you every two weeks. ’Ish. Sometimes.

So then, in an effort to avoid thinking about what I was supposed to do on April 15, I got curious and counted the number of blogs we’ve released since we started doing these. To my astonishment, I discovered that this might be the 114th blog. Yes, I lost count.

And so then, forgetting that April 15 was something I was even supposed to be concerned about, I decided to count the number of concerts that TEMP has given. The answer: Not enough. To that end, I’m glad to announce TEMP’s next concert, the final one for the 2023-2024 Season. It’s Italian all the way, with lots of ‘firsts’ involved. See details below!

And, as we said way back in 2014 before a similarly-themed concert:

Preservare il passato. Arricchire il presente. Coinvolgere il futuro.
Si tratta di musica antica in una luce completamente nuova. Unisciti a noi.

Meanwhile, I guess I’ll find out on April 16 what it was that I forgot to do on April 15.

Saluti!
–Danny


 
 

Italia mia:
Diverse Voices of the Late Renaissance

Saturday, May 11, 2024 at  7:30 pm
&
Sunday, May 12, 2024, 3:00 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue

Hosted by Arts on Alexander on the campus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 
2111 Alexander Ave, Austin, TX 78722.
Visit the Arts on Alexander 2023-2024 events on the AoA website.

Admission $35 general; $30 seniors (60+); $5 students with ID
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

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

Through the happy union of musicology and live performance, we can now present music to you that was not available or even known just a few short years ago. Due to recent research, we are able to present madrigals by Maddalena Casulana, the first woman composer to have an entire book of her music published. Some of her music wasn’t discovered until quite recently, so we are fortunate to have this timely opportunity. Likewise, music by the first published Black composer, Vicente Lusitano, hasn’t been available to us until the last few of years. His mastery of Renaissance polyphony and inventiveness create a wonderfully rich and beautiful architecture of sound. Although he has been in our sights for quite some time, this is the first program in which we can really explore music by Salomone Rossi, Italian Jewish violinist and composer who, like Monteverdi, was a transitional figure between the late Italian Renaissance period and early Baroque. This should give just an idea of some of the incredible musical diversity available in Italy, the heart of the Renaissance, from about 1538 until about 1638, when tastes and styles transitioned from the Renaissance aesthetic to the beginnings of the Baroque.

In addition to these brilliant but relatively unknown composers, we will feature both chamber and large-scale choral works by Monteverdi, excerpts from La Pellegrina, (the 1589 extravaganza created for an important Medici wedding), and intimate or casual pieces that are suitable for the end of our 2023-2024 Street Songs season. And we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sing the stirring title piece, Italia Mia, by Philippe Verdelot.

Our 20-voice choir will also provide the vocal soloists for the concert, and will include Jenifer Thyssen, Jenny Houghton, Shari Alise Wilson, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Page Stephens, Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon, Ryland Angel, and others. TEMP’s small orchestra of viols, violin, and plucked strings will feature Mary Springfels, Therese Honey, and theorbist Héctor Torres.

Join us as we explore 100 years of a variety of the delicious tastes of Italy
(not including some of those favored by Lucrezia Borgia…)

Click on the image above to  buy tickets now!

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No falalalalas for this walrus.

Danny Johnson

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I think my last blog rambled on a bit about earworms from La Pellegrina. Ok, as you might expect, those have been replaced by a new, but still Italian, assortment that has taken up residence in my head: the final page from Rore’s O sonno, the recurring theme from Monteverdi’s Io mi son giovinetta, and the overwhelming passion of both Satiati amor and Italia mia, by Marenzio and Verdelot, respectively. These were all combating for my attention during breakfast, but it’s virtually a free-for-all that includes the other pieces the rest of the time. Despite being such sophisticated miniature works of art, most of them are certainly whistleable and memorable.

Here's a video teaser of Io mi son giovinetta:

You are invited to join us on this whirlwind tour and then be in possession of your own set of earworms from 16th-century Italy. Click on the buttons below to purchase tickets. Enjoy!

 Danny

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Here's an invitation...To make a reservation....

Danny Johnson

Ah, October! Though we've already had several gorgeous days, our thoughts revel in the anticipation of even more cool weather and the Fall Toot and team sports played in large coliseums and our annual concert in College Station and food and drink made with substantial amounts of pumpkin. Yay! In the midst of all that is a little trip we're taking, without the need for a passport or shots or hotel bills. Yes, that's right, it's time for our much anticipated Madrigal Mystery Tour.... concert!

Danny

 

ITALIA MIA: MADRIGAL MYSTERY TOUR

 Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 8PM
Sunday, October 26, 2014 at 3PM
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Ave.
Arrive early for closer access parking, especially on Sunday!

Partial subscriptions for 4 concerts are still available: $108 general, or $90 for seniors.
Single tickets can be purchased by clicking on the button below
and are also available at the door, payable with cash, check, or credit card:

$30 general, $25 senior (age 60+).
Discount prices for students with student ID are available for purchase
at the concert door for $5. 

One of the primary characteristics of Italian music is the power of sudden contrasts. So here’s a contrast for you: Our first concert of the season was the largest we’ve ever had and our second is one of the smallest in recent memory, as we engage one of the most beguiling of all early music repertoires, the a cappella Italian madrigal.

The madrigal was one of the true tests of a composer’s skills in the Renaissance. The importance of depicting the emotions of the texts with ingenuity, originality, and flair increased, and composers used and improved on their best techniques; patrons had their most skilled performers to sing their works. Madrigals evolved from their humble, light-hearted beginnings into serious works of art, marked by variety, contrast, and quite a bit of humor.

TEMP's expert vocal ensemble brings to life some of these small gems, a few of which are in the Top 10 Renaissance Hits, such as Il bianco e dolce cigno by Jacques Arcadelt and Ancor che col partire by Cipriano de Rore. Many are rarely, if ever, performed locally: Luca Marenzio’s Satiati amor for 6 parts and O sonno, a bewitchingly insightful piece for 4 parts about the ‘elusiveness of sleep’ by Cipriano de Rore, are both revelatory and powerful. (There are, of course, a few pieces that were obviously meant for fun and pure entertainment, such as Orazio Vecchi’s 6-voice Tiridola, and others.)


The repertoire will come from the time-period of about 1535-1600, and will include three of Monteverdi’s many wonderful works from his Renaissance practice. And, of course, the concert would not be complete without Verdelot’s touching and moving title madrigal, Italia Mia.

Featured singers include TEMP regulars Gitanjali Mathur, Meredith Ruduski, Cayla Cardiff, Stephanie Prewitt, Paul D’Arcy, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Brett Barnes, and Thann Scoggin, with guests Ryland Angel (countertenor, New York) and Ron Downs (bass, Maryland) in his first TEMP performance. As a special treat, lutenist Scott Horton will perform a few versions of madrigals arranged for lute by the composers as well as by celebrated lutenists of the Renaissance.

The Italian madrigal in the 16th century was emotional, witty, daring, celebratory, passionate, sensual, experimental, and...gorgeous! These four-to-eight-part works are ideally suited for the intimate and lovely acoustic of First English Lutheran Church, located just north of the UT campus.

Preservare il passato.
Arricchire il presente.
Coinvolgere il futuro.
Si tratta di musica antica in una luce completamente nuova. Unisciti a noi.

 

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

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Earworms, Mysteries, and Memories

Danny Johnson

Photograph by Cecily Johnson

I sort of thought that the earworms from La Pellegrina would go away while I was deep into research for the Madrigal Mystery Tour concert. I was sort of wrong. Jenifer Thyssen’s opening aria still resonates in my head; Ryland Angel’s “Arion” aria still catches me off-guard; the final half of Meredith Ruduski’s aria from the 5th intermedio just will not take an exit bow!! Not to mention many magical moments from the choral and/or instrumental parts and the finale, especially, that still enter my consciousness … and you know what, they can all stay for as long as they’d like! It was such a thing!

La Pellegrina photographs by Cecily Johnson

La Pellegrina photographs by Cecily Johnson

But, onward! Such is the joy of my job that I’m surrounded by a whole passel of Italian madrigals for the 2nd of our Italia Mia: That’s Amore! concert season. (And, in our never-ending effort to make things more confusing, half the title of the upcoming concert is Italia Mia — tricky, eh? But you’ll know why at the concert, if you don’t already…) I’m listening, reading, deciding on parameters, choosing, scoring, formatting Italian madrigals 45/8. Or something like that. More on the concert soon; In the meantime, I'm not giving away any info on which madrigals we're doing, so it will have to remain a mystery! Get it? Madrigal Mystery Tour?

There is sad news to impart: the early music world has lost two extraordinary teachers and performers: keyboard artist and orchestra director Christopher Hogwood passed away this week in Cambridge. Earlier this summer, American lutenist and master pedagogue Patrick O’Brien passed away as well. Both of them touched countless lives through teaching, recording, and concerts.

RIP.

Danny

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