is created ex tempore, it is the music of
the present moment: a moment later it's gone, leaving only
its effect in those who heard it. Historical music on the
other hand is fixed, something from the well-documented and
unchangeable past, written down or printed hundreds of years
ago by monks and ministers, court composers and town pipers,
carefully preserved against the destructive forces of mice
and military men, alongside paintings and sculptures, tools
and trinkets - the "fine knacks for ladies" of Dowland's
song.
ctually it's not like that at all. From
before the eras of sound recording and mechanical
instruments, there is no historical music - there are only
historical notes, from which we can make music which sounds
at the moment of its creation, possibly its re-creation but
certainly its new-creation. Hundreds of teachers wrote
thousands books - some printed, many transmitted in
handwritten copies - which tell us very clearly how
musicians thought and felt and did, how much of their music
was written down and how much improvised, what replicable
effects they created in their listeners, how they taught and
learned a craft which every educated person could practise
and theorise on, music as a creative Art, yes, but music as
a systematic Science, too: on top of that, archival
documents tell us who was paid how much to do what and when
and where, how many musicians played for a Medici wedding,
what they did with the rest of their time, what their
instruments were like, what their values were - and so much
more...
ne way to reconstruct the musical life
of a young Baltic University is by looking for positive
evidence of surviving notes in Baltic sources: much has
passed beyond our reach, but what has survived has delighted
the ears of today's Tartu on many occasions. But Via
Sonora's solution is another, a freer approach. From
backgrounds as varied as the Catholic church and the jazz
club, the music school and the symphony orchestra, their
music is a celebration of integrated diversity. The lives of
composers like John Dowland and Tobias Hume are
well-researched today: whether as soldier or spy, wandering
student or cultural ambassador, we know they were in France
and Italy, in Germany and Sweden, that the notes of their
music are found in all those places, and that the merchants,
the nobility and academia in the Baltic area shared a common
culture with the rest of Greater Sweden and northern
Germany: so "why shouldn't they have been heard here too?"
mprovised Music
ctually it's not like that at all. From
before the eras of sound recording and mechanical
instruments, there is no historical music - there are only
historical notes, from which we can make music which sounds
at the moment of its creation, possibly its re-creation but
certainly its new-creation. Hundreds of teachers wrote
thousands books - some printed, many transmitted in
handwritten copies - which tell us very clearly how
musicians thought and felt and did, how much of their music
was written down and how much improvised, what replicable
effects they created in their listeners, how they taught and
learned a craft which every educated person could practise
and theorise on, music as a creative Art, yes, but music as
a systematic Science, too: on top of that, archival
documents tell us who was paid how much to do what and when
and where, how many musicians played for a Medici wedding,
what they did with the rest of their time, what their
instruments were like, what their values were - and so much
more...
ne way to reconstruct the musical life
of a young Baltic University is by looking for positive
evidence of surviving notes in Baltic sources: much has
passed beyond our reach, but what has survived has delighted
the ears of today's Tartu on many occasions. But Via
Sonora's solution is another, a freer approach. From
backgrounds as varied as the Catholic church and the jazz
club, the music school and the symphony orchestra, their
music is a celebration of integrated diversity. The lives of
composers like John Dowland and Tobias Hume are
well-researched today: whether as soldier or spy, wandering
student or cultural ambassador, we know they were in France
and Italy, in Germany and Sweden, that the notes of their
music are found in all those places, and that the merchants,
the nobility and academia in the Baltic area shared a common
culture with the rest of Greater Sweden and northern
Germany: so "why shouldn't they have been heard here too?"