Program Notes: “At Home in Sweden”
In “At Home in Sweden,” we explore how music from 17th-century Europe’s courts, theatres, churches, and street corners all made its way into the very same pages where it delighted communities of friends and family in Sweden’s living rooms.
Program Notes: Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
In 1582, four teenage Japanese boys of noble birth set sail from Nagasaki to Lisbon. They were students at the Jesuit school in Kyushu and were sent on a tour of Italy and Iberia as ambassadors of three Japanese daiymo, or feudal lords, who had converted to Christianity. They were known collectively as the Tenshō Embassy. Discover the amazing story of the 1582 Tenshō Embassy and their musical journey from Japan to Europe and back!
A multigenerational family of Jewish musicians, the Lupo’s exodus from Iberia, migration to Northern Italy, and recruitment to England coincided with key developments in the evolution of the viol and the flourishing of its associated repertoire.
Program Notes: “In Sweetest Sympathy”In Sweetest Sympathy showcases the lyra viol, complete with sympathetic strings. We explore vocal and instrumental repertoire for this fabulous instrument and its relationship to different contexts of 17th century music making within and beyond England.
We explore the musical lives of known viol players in colonial MA, from amateur players, reverends, and teachers to women unnamed in historical records.
In the “Old Kitchen” of the Quincy Homestead, still preserved from its original 1680’s construction, we explore at-home music making in colonial Massachusetts through a historic lens.
We celebrate the talents and accomplishments of Tarqunia Molza (1542-1617), the virtuosic soprano, viol player, and highly paid employee at the Este Court in Ferrara, who was known for her unrivaled ability to accompany her own singing on the viol.
We hope you’ll help us keep Molza’s legacy alive by exploring our new catalogue of such madrigals, complete with basic information, where to locate each piece, and a few English translations.
We celebrate the talents and accomplishments of Tarqunia Molza (1542-1617), the virtuosic soprano, viol player, and highly paid employee at the Este Court in Ferrara, who was known for her unrivaled ability to accompany her own singing on the viol.
We trace the documented history of the practice of accompanying a solo voice with a single viol from Italy with the 1543 publication of Silvestro Ganassi’s Regola Rubertina, to England, where the practice enjoyed its 17th century heyday.