Concert brings Elizabethan era music to life
Dar Al Athar Gifted musicians explore early British repertoire
DBy Chaitali B. Roy Special to the Arab Times
ar Al Athar Al Islamiyyah brought a whiff of post -medieval air into Kuwait on a cold winter evening on Wednesday Dec 16, at 7 pm at the Yarmouk Cultural Centre. The event featured ‘The British Early Music Consort’, a welcome addition to the much-celebrated concert series curated by Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyyah. On Wednesday, the musical evening at the Dar took an interesting turn when it turned its attention to a pivotal period in English history – a time when the country was finding itself in many ways with a group of gifted musicians led by Emma Dunnell, who explored a Renaissance and early British repertoire recreating music that had a resonance and relevance to the era.
The programme for the concert was insightful and self-explanatory. It said, “The night will begin with a trumpet fanfare, as would have been played to inform courtiers of the entrance of the Monarch...We will hear songs which would have been sung in taverns and Inns by ordinary people; also songs predating the period which were intrinsic to British culture, hailing in the happiness felt by all following the end of a harsh winter, and the joy of the new spring to come.” The ensemble included leading musicians in Kuwait, who have willingly shared their knowledge and passion with their audience time and again.
Emma Dunnell (Soprano vocals, descant recorder, treble recorder, violin, drum , tambourine), Oana Severin (Soprano vocals, violin), Richard Bushman (Bass vocals, viola, drum, tambourine) and Dan Massoth (Trumpet, trombone, descant recorder, drum, tambourine) went on to create a distinct sound, and gave their audience a rare chance to hear Elizabethan music performed. Apart from folk music, the musicians also played suites and galliards , along with music from Italy and France, two countries that played significant roles during the Renaissance.
Greatness
The Tudor period was a defining time for Britain. It was an age that spawned greatness in the likes of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Marlowe, Shakespeare and many others. It was an age that saw the emergence of a new religious order, the establishment of the formidable British navy and the formation of American and other British colonies. By the time the Tudor dynasty came to an end, Britain was on its way to form one of the most powerful colonial empires in history. Music, too found its space in this age that saw far-reaching changes in language, literature and the arts. According to Gerald Fench, noted radio broadcaster and classical music enthusiast: “The Elizabethan period was an era rich in musical and religious turmoil and produced such great giants such as William Byrd, John Dowland and other well- known figures such as William Lawes and Anthony Holborne.” The concert presented an eclectic mix of music that was representative of an age when bawdy lush ballads and tunes filled London’s crowded streets along with more stylized and educated music that was practiced at court.
“Music was intrinsic to the Elizabethan times,” said Emma Dunnell, music teacher at the
Emma, Oana and Dan in costume
International British School in Fahaheel, and the initiator of the project. “Music was completely important. The only form of entertainment they had in those times was writing, poetry, theatre, listening, singing and making their own music. And, this is what we wanted to put across through the concert.” Emma is no stranger to Early British music. As a young girl in England, she actively participated in period plays. “I was part of a recorder group, and together we used to play Elizabethan music in Shakespearean plays,” she recalls.
Along with Harvey Pinces of Dar Al Athar, yet another early music enthusiast, she and her group of friends and associates chose the music and the instruments to present an Early Music concert. “We wanted to play instruments that would allow us to create a truly medieval sound.” To do that the ensemble used the tambourine, trombone, drums, violin, recorder, trumpet and the viola.
The show began with ‘Summer is Icumen In’ one of the oldest known musical round in Middle English that celebrates the advent of spring with lyrics evocative of an English idyll. “This song predates Elizabethan times, but it would have been very popular at that time still,” Emma explained. “We will sing what would now be considered pop songs; folk songs that people sang in taverns and at home, and we will follow this up with more formal pieces of music that would have been played at court.” The second song in the programme was Ale and Tobacco, a composition by Thomas Ravenscroft, a 17th century composer remembered for his social songs and psalm settings. Incidentally, writer of the famous nursery rhyme ‘Three Blind Mice’, Ravenscroft wrote of the pleasures of smoking and drinking and in the process brought alive social history by contextualizing the music.
The Elizabethan plays too made prolific use of music. Shakespeare himself made dramatic use of music in several plays including ‘As you Like It’ and ‘The Twelfth Night’, which starts with a famous verse dedicated to music. “Yes, Shakespeare used a lot of music, and a lot of these pieces would probably have been played around. In fact, we are playing a galliard, and we know for sure he used a galliard,” observed Emma. The concert which ran chronologically to present an overview of the musical evolution of this period also provided an opportunity to the audience to participate in the celebration. While playing ‘The King of Denmark’s Galliard’ composed by John Dowland to probably appease his employer King Christian IV of Denmark, the musicians invited the audience to participate in the beautiful structured martial like piece, which the audience did happily.
Natural
The sound of Elizabethan music or Early British music was different, as was the instruments that were played. While speaking of trumpets, popular instruments during the Renaissance, Dan Massoth, music teacher at the American International School shared, “In those days, there were two different kinds of trumpets. There was a natural trumpet, which was longer than the modern-day trumpet, and it had no valves. There was another instrument with a trumpetlike sound called a cornetto. It was a curved shaped piece of wood with a mouthpiece that was exactly the same as a trumpet mouthpiece, but you played it like a recorder.”
Elizabeth I and her father Henry VIII were both skilled musicians. They belonged to a time when music was an essential part of one’s education and was considered imperative to the overall well-being of a person. The music of the times as was evident from the concert at Dar was diverse. It ranged from secular entertainment like simple tunes and ballads to religious hymns and more sophisticated music of the court. The sound of music of those times was not that refined, but it was intense. Emma Dunnell sums it up quite nicely when she says, “I love the music of that period for its honesty and purity of sound. In order to express the music you need to have a very refined sense of emotion.”