Share your musical gifts during a week-long intensive early music workshop. Enhance your skills in small classes each day taught by expert instructors with emphasis on improving technique and playing with ensembles – master classes and consort classes. The workshop includes four daily classes, morning exercise/stretches, impromptu group playing, and a daily happy hour. Wednesday includes a free afternoon to explore the beautiful Monterey area, play music, or just relax! There is a faculty concert and at the end of the week participants perform in an orchestra ensemble, then celebrate the last evening with an open mic party.
The workshop 2024 theme is Continental Connections: Exploring the relationships between native composers and émigrés in Italy and Germany from 1300 – 1750 and beyond. Musicians often traveled far from home, going where the work called them. European courts vied for the best composers, singers, and instrumentalists, luring them with competing salaries and prestigious positions. The result? A rich blend of Franco-Flemish with Italian styles, and English and Italian influences on German genres. This year we’ll explore the distinct styles of these countries and the gorgeous new sounds created by contact with “foreign” composers and colleagues.
The workshop takes place at the Hidden Valley Music Seminars, An Institute of the Arts in Carmel Valley, California, nestled amongst oak and buckeye trees below majestic hillsides. Along with our rich opportunities for music making, bird watching, walking, and many other local activities can be enjoyed nearby.
This program is for intermediate to advanced recorder and viola da gamba players. Recorder players must be able to play at least two sizes (at least one F instrument and one C instrument).
Registration Deadline: All Road Scholar programs close enrollment 35 days before they start. This means that you MUST register for the Early Music Workshop week #1 through Road Scholar by Saturday September 21st. Road Scholar does not offer any exceptions to this rule.
Composing a musical tribute upon the death of a famous person is a long-standing tradition in music history. Among these, the musical tributes for influential composers, often written by those composers’ students, are especially moving. We will explore several late 14th-early 16th century musical tributes following the deaths of Guillaume de Machaut († 1377), Gilles Binchois († 1460), Johannes Ockeghem († 1497), and Josquin Des Prez († 1521) in four compositions by F. Andrieu, Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin Des Prez, and Nicolas Gombert. Open to: recorder players, all levels, and other instruments/singers (please note: play-along files are made on recorders, i.e. sound an octave higher than written pitch). Pitch: A= 440 Hz.
The recorder is a fantastic instrument for people who want the social experience of playing with others, wish to play a variety of repertoire, and can learn to do so at a basic level in a relatively short time. Whether you’ve never played recorder before, or if it has been eons ago since you have played, can or cannot read music, this is the course for you!
Professional recorder player and teacher Lawrence (Larry) Zukof will lead you through this course and help you build a solid foundation and help you learn the fundamentals of making a beautiful sound from the start: blowing, hand/finger position, tonguing, basics of note reading and rhythms.
Dates:
Sunday, November 10th at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT, 5 p.m. PT)
Wednesday, November 13th at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT, 5 p.m. PT)
Sunday, November 17th at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT, 5 p.m. PT)
Wednesday, November 20th at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT, 5 p.m. PT)
Class materials will be provided except for the recorder and the required Sweet Pipes Recorder Book Alto Book 1 for older beginners. This course will use the following method book which provides excellent methodical exercises while providing simple tunes to satisfy the soul! The Sweet Pipes Recorder Book: A method for adults and older beginners by Gerald Burakoff and William E. Hettrick. Alto, Book One. SP02318. (This book has a red cover!) This book can be purchased from Von Huene Workshop HERE.
For this course, you will need the Sweet Pipes Recorder Book and an alto recorder. Consider purchasing these from one of our business partners, and please allow ample time for mail delivery! If you have purchased the Sweet Pipes Recorder book online but are concerned that you may not receive it in time for your first class, we can provide you with a "temporary" copy for download. Instructions will be in your emailed registration confirmation notice.
Do you need to purchase an alto recorder? You cannot go wrong with the best plastic recorders on the market. Yamaha, Aulos, and Zen-On all make fine sounding and in-tune plastic recorders. Consider purchasing an instrument from one of our business partners (the names in quotes below cite the original 18th c. recorder makers from which the plastic models are modeled):
Von Huene Workshop (The Early Music Shop of New England)
Yamaha "Rottenburgh" alto recorder
https://www.vonhuene.com/p-115-yamaha-rottenburgh-plastic-alto.aspx
Aulos "Haka" alto recorder
https://www.vonhuene.com/p-126-aulos-plastic-haka-alto.aspx
Zen-on "Bressan" alto recorder
https://www.vonhuene.com/p-6331-zen-on-g1-a-440-bressan-alto-recorder.aspx
Sweet Pipes Recorder Book
https://www.vonhuene.com/p-3689-burakoff-gerald-hettrick-sweet-pipes-recorder-book-book-1-adults-and-older-beginners.aspx
Honeysuckle Music
Alto recorders
https://honeysucklemusic.com/show3.php?cat=Alto
Sweet Pipes Recorder Book
https://honeysucklemusic.com/showf.php?item=5289
Lazar's Early Music
Yamaha "Rottenburgh" alto recorder
https://lazarsearlymusic.com/collections/recorders/products/yamaha-abs-resin-recorder-alto?variant=29092748591186
Recorderforge.com
Alto recorders
https://recorderforge.com/Shop-by-size/F-Alto/?order=name-asc&p=1&properties=151fe63ecadb49aebf3ed9923ead2718
The workshop will explore tunes from our French Fiddle Tunes for Two book. This collection of 37 traditional French tunes offer you the opportunity to play many different dance forms, including a couple of bourées, mazurkas, as well as a branle, a farandole, a galop, a schottische, and tarantella. These charming pieces are from several regions of France, including Alsace, Auvergne, Brittany, Flanders, and Gascogne.
The Workshops will be on Tuesday, November 12, 7 PM, Central Time, Wednesday, November 13, 10 AM, Central Time, and Friday, November 15, 7 PM, Central Time.
Different tunes will be played at each session.
We will read, play, and discuss various survival skills for these tunes. A treble clef version of the sheet music for the tunes being played will be displayed on the screen during the workshop.
There is limited enrollment, and pre-registration is required. The cost for each workshop is $10.00.
The cost of each optional book is $15.00 (includes shipping if ordered with workshop registration).
To read reviews of the French Fiddle Tunes for Two collection, click on the following link:
https://www.greenblattandseay.com/book_42_french.shtml.
For more information, and to register for the workshop:
https://www.greenblattandseay.com/workshops_french.shtml
This hour-long free event will allow you to meet other members, provide an opportunity to ask questions about membership benefits, show you all everything the American Recorder Society website has to offer, and end with a virtual play-a-long! Hosted by Jody Miller and Phil Hollar.
This class is available at no charge to both ARS members and non-members. Click HERE to join the ARS.
On The Cusp Between the Middle Ages and the RenaissanceMusic of the Middle Ages and music of the Renaissance - what is the difference? In our November playing meeting, recorder player and composer Frances Blaker will take us on a musical journey to the very cusp between these two historical time periods. We will play two medieval and two renaissance pieces to hear for ourselves how to distinguish and navigate their different musical styles. The two featured compositions on the medieval side are by Leonel Power (1380-1445) and Francesco Landini (1335-1397), and by Constanzo Festa (1485/90-1545) and William Byrd (1540-1623) for Team Renaissance!
You will find the music on the Chicago chapter web site. If you can, please download the PDF files, print a copy of each piece, and bring it with you.
https://chicagorecorders.org/
We will have some extra copies at the meeting to distribute.
It is also time to make plans for our annual Yuletide concert on December 15. We will be performing in the sanctuary, a beautiful place featuring excellent acoustics. Please send me the names of any pieces you plan to play, with the name of the composer and the musicians taking part.
Lisette will lead us again, practicing for the piece that we will plan to perform at the concert. Nancy Chabala opens the meeting at 2 PM with another session of playing crumhorns.
Please also renew your membership for 2024-2025 if you have not already.
Mark Dawson
President