The last week in June I attended a seminar with the Lute Society of America in Cleveland, Ohio. There were concerts every day, lectures on early music, and lessons on playing my renaissance guitar. It was amazing to spend the week with so many people interested in the lute and related instruments and everyone was very friendly. I was surprised to learn that it is believed that Palestrina used a lute when composing some of his church music. A lute or even a renaissance guitar might have been played in church back in the day before every church had an organ. I bought a CD by the Venere Lute Quartet which has Palestrina's Missa Brevis and a number of his motets. I also bought a CD by Ronn McFarlane that has original contemporary music played on lute. It has a unique sound that I like a lot.
The last night I played with a lute band to accompany a 17th c. opera, La Daphne, which is believed to be one of the first operas. The vocalists sang extremely well and it was fun to be a part of the production.
My roommate in the dorm was a woman from Alaska and we got along real well together. We are looking forward to the next LSA Seminar in two years.
Gail Gillispie, a member of the Venere Quartet, invited us to her room for a "lute tasting."
View of the chapel ceiling.
Paul O'Dette
Ronn Mc Farlane
Karen, my roommate.
View of the chapel ceiling.
Paul O'Dette
Ronn Mc Farlane
Karen, my roommate.
No comments:
Post a Comment