IN STILE MODERNO
The Lily and the Rose:
France and England Entwined
Friday, February 15, 2019, 7:30 pm, Cambridge Friends Meeting
Saturday, February 16, 2019, 7:30 pm, Brattleboro Music Center
Agnes Coakley Cox, soprano
Nathaniel Cox, lute
For most of the early modern period, England and France were bitter rivals. There was considerable cultural exchange between the two nations, however, especially after the marriage of King Charles I of England to Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625.
Our Valentine’s Day program presents the music that sprang from this union of two Royals and two countries, featuring the songs of Robert Johnson, Etienne Moulinié, and Nicholas Lanier, among others.
Curious and Modern Inventions:
Novelties, Oddities, and the Birth of the Baroque
Friday, September 21, 2018, 7:30 pm, Brattleboro Music Center
Saturday, September 22, 2018, 7:30 pm, Cambridge Friends Meeting
Agnes Coakley Cox, soprano
Nathaniel Cox, cornetto and theorbo
Simon Martyn-Ellis, theorbo and guitar
Karina Schmitz, violin
The beginning of the seventeenth century saw a surge of innovative new musical techniques, as composers began to experiment with effects such as instrumental dialogues, echos, double and triple stops on the violin, and the imitation of other instruments and even animals! We are joined by violinist Karina Schmitz and lutenist Simon Martyn-Ellis in this exploration of the eccentricities of early seventeenth-century Italian composers such as Biagio Marini, Giovanni Battista Fontana and Sigismondo d’India.
La Vesuviana:
Tracing the Sources of Neapolitan Folk Music
Friday, May 24, 2019, 8:00 pm (note change of time!), Brattleboro Music Center
Saturday, May 25, 2019, 7:30 pm, Cambridge Friends Meeting
Agnes Coakley Cox, soprano
Nathaniel Cox, cornetto and theorbo
Fabio Pirozzolo, percussion and voice
Dan Meyers, winds and percussion
Simon Martyn-Ellis, guitar
While northern Italy in the seventeenth century was a patchwork of independent city-states and principalities, all of the South was ruled by Spain. Spanish influence can still be heard in the folk music of southern Italy, which prominently features the Spanish guitar and castanets. Our final program of the season combines the living tradition of folk music from across southern Italy with music by seventeenth-century Neapolitans Andrea Falconieri, Girolamo Montesardo and Simone Coya. We are joined by Italian folk percussionist and singer Fabio Pirozzolo, multi-instrumentalist Dan Meyers, and our favorite Spanish guitar player, Simon Martyn-Ellis.