Let's start with a set of three treatments of the popular chanson "Jay pris amours." The first is by Heinrich Isaac, the second by Jean Japart, and the third by Johannes Ghiselin-all performed by the Forgotten Clefs.
[EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Forgotten Clefs, Indiana University, First Church Boston, June 12, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Jay pris amours set: Jay pris amours (Heinrich Isaac) / Jay pris amours (Jean Japart) / Jay pris amours (Johannes Ghiselin) (approx. 4:15)]
Oberlin Baroque
This hour, we're bringing you part two in a three-part look at Early Music America's 2015 Young Performers Festival. Seven groups from some of the finest institutions in North America were invited to participate. In part one, we featured ensembles from Case Western Reserve University, The Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and the University of North Texas. This week, we'll hear from Oberlin Baroque and a renaissance wind band from Indiana University.
Oberlin Baroque, under the direction of Webb Wiggins, put together a program called Pleasures Plus, works by LeClair and Charpentier. Here's Charpentier's motet "Domine non secundum." We'll hear baritone Aaron Keeney, Nicholas Loucks on viol, Jeffrey Girton and Emmy Tisdel on violin, and Jennifer McPherson on organ.
EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Oberlin Baroque, First Church Boston, June 10, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Domine non secundum (for bass baritone with two violins) (4:10)]
Here's another piece from the young performers of Oberlin College. Here's the Chaconne and Tambourin from Jean-Marie Leclair's Deuxième Récréation de Musique. We'll heard Nicholas Loucks on viol, Jeffrey Girton and Emmy Tisdel on violin, Jennifer McPherson on harpsichord, and flutists Zoe Sorrell and Sarah Lynn.                                                              Â
EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Oberlin Baroque, First Church Boston, June 10, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Jean-Marie Leclair, Deuxième Récréation de Musique, Op. 8: Chaconne and Tambourin (10:30)]
Forgotten Clefs
Another university group that came to Boston for the Young Performers Festival was the renaissance wind band Forgotten Clefs from Indiana University. They performed a program of French popular songs and their concordances of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Let's hear their performance of music from Tielman Susato's Dansereye of 1551.
The Forgotten Clefs are Sarah Heubsch, C. Keith Collins, and Kelsey Andrew Schilling-all playing shawms, dulcians, and recorders; Chris Canapa and Alex Drawczyk on sackbut; Brian McNulty on percussion; and director Charles Wines, (who you'll also hear playing shawms, dulcians, recorders, pipe and tabor, and bagpipes).
[EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Forgotten Clefs, Indiana University, First Church Boston, June 12, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Selections from "Dansereye" (Teilman Susato, 1551): Bergerette & reprise / Passe & medio, reprise / 2 Allemaingnes, Bransles d'escosse (pub. Pierre Phalese), (8:35)]
We have time for one more set by the renaissance wind band Forgotten Clefs. Here's the popular 16th-century French song "Jouissance vous donneray."
[EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Forgotten Clefs, Indiana University, First Church Boston, June 12, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Jouissance vous donneray set:Â Jouissance vous donneray (pub. Arbeau 1589) / Jouissance vous donneray (Claudin de Sermisy) /Â Jouissance vous donneray (Antoine Gardane) /Â Jouissance vous donneray (Nicolas Gombert) (6:10)]
We'll be hearing more performances from this festival. On the next and final program of this 3-part series, we'll hear highlights from concerts by Seattle Historical Arts for Kids and McGill University's Early Music Ensemble.
Berliner Gambenbuch
There's a leather book-about the size of a 4×6 index card-housed at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris under the call number Réserve 1111.
Réserve 1111 has never been published, and much of the solo viol music that comprises this 17th-century manuscript has never been performed. But viol player Julianne Laake offers listeners a chance to hear 40 of the 273 pieces from Réserve 1111 on a recent recording made up largely of world premieres.
In the 17th century, music lovers sometimes copied and collected their favorite pieces of the day into books for their own use and enjoyment, and that's probably how Réserve 1111 came to be. The compiler of the manuscript-likely a wealthy amateur player who lived in the Brandenburg region of Germany-mostly gathered short, generically titled dance pieces into his or her collection.
Here are a few movements from a G major dance suite. We'll hear a prelude, allemand, courant and gavotte.
 We heard music from G Major suite of dance movements found in a 17th-century manuscript of viol music performed by Julianne Laake on her 2015 recording Réserve 1111, which is also the title of the source manuscript.
The majority of the pieces in this manuscript are anonymous, we do know the names of a few contributing composers, and still a few others can be identified by cross-referencing additional documents. Here's a Sarraband composed by the Englishman Charles Coleman.
In addition to dance movements, this recording includes several settings of Lutheran hymns for solo viol. Composers like Bach often wrote chorale preludes on well-known religious tunes for the organ, but these viol transcriptions of Lutheran hymns are much more unusual. Besides what is found in Réserve 1111, there are only a few other isolated examples of this repertory-a repertory that was likely used for private devotional use at home rather than for public performance.
Break and theme music
:30, EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Oberlin Baroque, First Church Boston, June 10, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Marc-Antoine Charpentier, from Amis, les ombres raccourcies (from Acteon) (excerpt of 4:15)
:60, EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Oberlin Baroque, First Church Boston, June 10, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Les Plaisirs de Versailles (excerpt of 28:10)
:30, EMA's 2015 Young Performers Festival, Forgotten Clefs, Indiana University, First Church Boston, June 12, 2015, [live performance recording; not commercially available], Fantasia 33 on "Une jeune fillette" (Eustache duCaurroy) (excerpt of 3:25)
Theme:Â Danse Royale, Ensemble Alcatraz, Elektra Nonesuch 79240-2 1992 B000005J0B, T.12: La Prime Estampie Royal
The writers for this edition of Harmonia are LuAnn Johnson and Janelle Davis.
[Special thanks to Brandon Labadie from the EMA and engineer Rachel Boyd from the School of Music Recording Studio at Texas Tech.]
Learn more about recent early music CDs on the Harmonia Early Music Podcast. You can subscribe on iTunes or at harmonia early music dot org.
