LET’S BASK IN THE MUSIC OF THE THEORBO, THE VIOLA DA GAMBA, AND TWO VOICES!

This program includes a variety of pieces from France in the 17th and 18th centuries. The highlight is the third of Francois Couperin's Leçons de ténèbres à une et à deux voix (namely the one for two voices/a deux voix), a musical setting of text from the Lamentations of Jeremiah The Prophet, which features expressive recitatives of text in latin, and melismas on the first letter of the text in Hebrew, combining to create what English music critic Wilfrid Mellers called "the highest point of Couperin's church music, and one of the peaks of his music as a whole."

Balancing this more significant work are pieces for two voices and basso continuo by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, airs de cour from an earlier point in French music by Antoine de Boesset and Etienne Moulinie, pieces for viola da gamba and continuo by Marin Marais, and more.

The music in this program focuses on two musical eras, French Baroque music of the early 1700s, and French Renaissance music from about 100 years earlier. The ensemble plays and sings on recreations of period instruments, in a style informed by surviving primary sources of musical performance practice. The continuo section consists of theorbo, a kind of lute with an extended bass range, and viola da gamba, an instrument not unlike a modern cello, both instruments that were a significant part of the musical culture of 17th and 18th century France, both as ensemble and solo instruments. Our sopranos sing in a baroque style, and utilize period ornamentation and phrasing, coalescing in a listening experience that strives to be period-appropriate and accurate as is possible.