The Ordinary and the Sublime: English Sacred Music in 1527 with Dr. Kerry McCarthy

$40.00

The Ordinary and the Sublime: English Sacred Music in 1527 with Dr. Kerry McCarthy.
Sunday, March 14th 2027 1-4pm
Grace Memorial Episcopal Church, NE Broadway, Portland

Rose City Renaissance sets the time machine 500 years back to March 1527 to experience an afternoon with a group of Tudor musicians. This workshop will explore the whole range of styles and venues in Renaissance England, from big open-air public events to exclusive performances in small private chapels. (When the traveling scholar Erasmus visited England during these years, he complained that the church music there was overwhelmingly flowery and that it was too austere to take seriously. He seems to have been stunned by the sheer variety of sounds that English musicians were creating every day.)
The centerpiece of the day will be John Browne’s monumental Stabat Mater, a splendid 15-minute piece from the Eton Choirbook, which we will sing and play by candlelight at the end of the workshop. We will also learn to improvise music together in Tudor style, making a new work of our own on a miniature scale. The workshop will include short talks by Kerry McCarthy about a day in the life of an English Renaissance musician.

Recommended Viewing

Stabat Mater by John Browne:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Mg4b18Yj0 (sung by an excellent English choir that was founded in the 1520s and has not changed its basic lineup of parts since then)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jT5TcZSiY (in 16th-century meantone temperament, with a scrolling score for us to follow)

Renaissance improvisation taught by three great teachers:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFs75fUKT9I&t=270s (Elam Rotem)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D35Il0lqV7I&t=333s (Adam Gilbert)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WOijOCtpys (Peter Schubert)

The Ordinary and the Sublime: English Sacred Music in 1527 with Dr. Kerry McCarthy.
Sunday, March 14th 2027 1-4pm
Grace Memorial Episcopal Church, NE Broadway, Portland

Rose City Renaissance sets the time machine 500 years back to March 1527 to experience an afternoon with a group of Tudor musicians. This workshop will explore the whole range of styles and venues in Renaissance England, from big open-air public events to exclusive performances in small private chapels. (When the traveling scholar Erasmus visited England during these years, he complained that the church music there was overwhelmingly flowery and that it was too austere to take seriously. He seems to have been stunned by the sheer variety of sounds that English musicians were creating every day.)
The centerpiece of the day will be John Browne’s monumental Stabat Mater, a splendid 15-minute piece from the Eton Choirbook, which we will sing and play by candlelight at the end of the workshop. We will also learn to improvise music together in Tudor style, making a new work of our own on a miniature scale. The workshop will include short talks by Kerry McCarthy about a day in the life of an English Renaissance musician.