Written Word
- Western Arts Alliance Comes to Seattle
Next week EMS Artistic Director Gus Denhard will attend the Western Arts Alliance 2023 Conference (WAA), an annual gathering of performing arts professionals, including performers … Read more - The Emergence of Early Music in Seattle
How recorder players helped to launch the early music movement by Peter Seibert Overview: The small, fervent group of recorder players during the 1950s and … Read more - Meet La Nef
The Montreal-based ensemble returns for their second Seattle performance with more sea chanties and other maritime music. They made sea chanties famous when they recorded … Read more - Meet Mahan Esfahani
2022 Wigmore Medal WinnerMahan EsfahaniBach’s music is very often mesmerizing.It’s very rarely this fun.” – Neil Fisher, The TimesSat, March 9 | 7:30pm | Town Hall … Read more - That which is called the black soul is a white construction: A Response to Ars Longa de Habana’s “Gulumbá Gulumbé
by Peter Tracy Vīta brevis,ars longa,occāsiō praeceps,experīmentum perīculōsum,iūdicium difficile. Life is short,and art long,opportunity fleeting,experimentations perilous,and judgment difficult. – Hippocrates (460 – 370 BCE), Aphorismi[1] … Read more - william byrd (c.1540-1623), Brittanicæ Musicæ Parens
In the 400th anniversary year of the death of Byrd, who is called by some the “father of British music,” Seibert takes a look at the late Renaissance composer’s life and music. - On the confluence of Klezmer and Moldovan music: a short review of some of the writings of dr. Walter Zev Feldman
On the confluence of Klezmer and Moldovan music - University of Washington creates 45-year archive of Early Music Seattle
UW creates 45 year archive of Early Music Seattle - The Sounding of Trumpets: Ritual, Signal, Warfare, and the Hunt in the Music of Early Brass Instrumentsby Peter Tracy In his recent survey, Music: A Subversive History, Ted Gioia zeroes in on the origin point of all musical instruments. In a … Read more
- The Feedback Loop of Early Keyboard Music
by Peter Tracy “let him thunder forth as he presses out mighty roarings with a light touch” – Claudian (c. 370 – 404)[1] “With the … Read more - My Journey to Early Musicby Mauricio Roman Everyone has a different musical journey, which often starts at home. For many of us, however, the journey to early music has … Read more
- The Unity of the Brandenburg Concertos and the Idea of the Musical Work
by Peter Tracy “It is not implausible to view the history of Western music as a struggle on the part of musicians to have their … Read more - The Early Guitar and the Art of Categories
by Peter Tracy “A language is a dialect with an army and navy.” — popularized by Max Weinreich Writing history means investigating connections: between ideas … Read more - “Peace Shall Be Her First Glad Ringing”: Bells, Community, and Auditory Culture
by Peter Tracy “Peace Shall Be Her First Glad Ringing”[1] “Our bell, her metal voice devoting Alone to grave, eternal things, Shall ever feel, while … Read more - Banduras for the Blind: Minstrels, Epic Song, and the Ukrainian Culture of Resistance
by Peter Tracy In the 2014 film Povodyr (The Guide), director Oles Sanin tells the story of an American boy who, to survive the … Read more - Women in Early Music: Nannette Streicher
by George S. Bozarth Co-Artistic Director, Musique du Jour Presents The path-breaking Nannette Streicher, née Stein, who was born in Augsburg in southern Germany in … Read more - Mechanical Instruments and the Aesthetics of Human Performance
by Peter Tracy Music Box Music of Japan. Parsimoniously from the water clock the drops unfold in lazy honey or ethereal gold that … Read more - A Changing of the Guard
by Gerald Elias Author and Musician The year 2013 marked the 300th anniversary of a major changing of the guard in the music world. It … Read more - “To Please the World With Their Songs”: the Battle for Music in 17th Century Conventsby Peter Tracy It was the year 1640, and the many nuns of Bologna were trapped in their cloisters. Nevertheless, on this particular day, … Read more
- Corelli and the Elevator
by Gerald Elias Go for it. What would you say has been the most important invention over the past five hundred years or so? The … Read more - The Whimsical Past, the Scholarly Present, and the Case of the Countertenor
by Peter Tracy The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel 1559 Overly specific conjectures about the musical traditions of the past should always … Read more - Patronage, Professionalism, and Slavery: The Lives of Musicians at the Ottoman Court
by Peter Tracy A 1558 Ottoman miniature depicting an Ottoman official registering Christian boys for the devsirme The Ottoman Empire lasted over six centuries, from … Read more - Klezmer, Community, and Communication: How Music Loses its Roots
by Peter Tracy 1893 painting of a marriage procession in a Russian shtetl by Isaak Asknaziy Walter Feldman begins the preface to his book Klezmer: … Read more - An Open Letter to the Cheap Seats Right in Front of the Orchestra
Dear Orchestra Front Seats, It’s me, your old friend and patron: Thrifty Concert-goer. It seems that we’re all finally making our way back to live … Read more - Ottoman Music, Cultural Evolution, and the Problems of Musical Mythmaking
by Peter Tracy Ataturk holding a Panama hat in 1925 shortly after making the Western style hat cumpulsory for civil servants In 1928, Mustafa … Read more - Blocking out the Sun: Music Censorship and the Taliban
by Peter Tracy Minstrels in Herat 1973 In early 2001, just before the American-led invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban were in almost full control of … Read more - Ode to my Childhood Violin Teacher
By Hannah Lim There are two kinds of violin teachers. The nice ones, and the excellent ones. That’s what I used to think. Mine was … Read more - Coffee, Creativity, & Claudio Monteverdi
by Theodore Deacon Like so many things in Seattle, Early Music Seattle’s journey to fully staged period opera all started with a cup of coffee. … Read more - Poppea Reflectionsby Philippa Kiraly If you enjoy early opera and you were not here in 2007, you are in for a treat. Early Music Seattle is … Read more
- Never the Same Twice: European Folk Music and the Act of Musicking
by Peter Tracy The workers in the field sing and shout together, a song about a great grey falcon: “zapevala soko tica siva!”[1] Their scythes … Read more - A Canon is an Idea: Craft, Genius, and the Making of “Classical Music”
by Peter Tracy Watercolor of the Vienna State Operas opening concert When the Vienna State Opera opened in 1869, its first concert featured Mozart’s Don … Read more - Al-Andalus: the Music of Islamic Iberia and its Living Descendants
by Peter Tracy | August 13, 2021 13th Century Spanish Lute Player We can point to any number of moments in music history, western or … Read more - My Lunches With Fred
Fred Hauptman Reminiscences on Early Music Seattle board member and music director Fred Hauptman by his quarrelsome and devoted friend Theodore Deacon My first meeting … Read more - Ecco la Primavera!by Mauricio Roman After a year-long winter as trees blossom all around us here in Seattle, it is the ideal time to celebrate springtime with … Read more
- Tancred’s Regret at Jerusalem’s Golden Gate
By Mauricio Roman Any man who has had the misfortune of hurting a woman — even in her feelings — will certainly see himself portrayed … Read more - La Dafne: Sculpting Syllables with Music
by Mauricio Roman Opera was born in Florence among the circle known as the Florentine Camerata, a group of artists who experimented with rediscovering the … Read more - Music at a Time of Distress: Francesco Corteccia’s Passionsby Mauricio Roman The year of 1527 was one of war, plague and uncertainty, as mercenaries arrived from the North to sack Florence and Rome. … Read more
- Francesca Caccini and her Artistic Colleagues
By Mauricio Roman In the early 1600s, Florence witnessed two very talented women artists: Francesca Caccini (1687-1641) and Artemisia Gentilieschi (1693-1656). Francesca was a composer, … Read more - Encountering Love (and Music) in Hell with Dante
By Mauricio Roman On Saturday, March 13, we present “A Night In Hell: Ballo delle Ingrate” — an early Baroque dramatic work whose theme is … Read more - Memento Mori
By Mauricio Roman With music we can express what we often have no words to say; early music has a particular and effective way at … Read more - Rediscovering Sacred Music in Spain
by Mauricio Roman On February 27, we presented a great selection of works from Spain, beautifully rendered by Accademia del Piacere. One reason to focus … Read more - Celebrating Venice at Carnival Time
By Mauricio Roman This year’s celebration of Venice’s well-known carnival, which ended this week, was steeped in melancholy feelings in this time of isolation, social … Read more - Klezmer Music
By Peter Lippman European klezmer band, 19th century (from Odessa Jewish Museum) Klezmer is the traditional music of the East European Jews. Now a … Read more - Love and Jealousy
By Mauricio Roman For this year’s celebration of St. Valentine, we will consider the relation between love and jealousy. Since antiquity, erotic love has been … Read more - In Celebration – Elizabeth “Betty” Working Swift
April 3, 1930 – January 29, 2021 Elizabeth “Betty” Swift passed away peacefully with her family around her on January 29 in Seattle, Washington after … Read more - Stabat MaterBy Mauricio Roman This 13th century sequence has been rendered into music by more than one hundred composers, among which Pergolesi’s composition stands out for … Read more
- Remembering Alice Smith
By Gus Denhard Alice Smith died in October 2019 after enjoying a multi-faceted 40 year relationship with the early music community in Seattle. Her generous … Read more