On Saturday, April 25, the San Francisco Early Music Society presents its spring Medieval & Renaissance Workshop Collegium, “All vol, all vol!” for voices, recorders, viols, harps, sackbuts, dulcians and all manner of early instruments. This all-day workshop will focus on German songs and devotional music as well as more rustic fare. Featured will be works from the Glogauer Liederbuch, with its unique liturgical chant settings, and songs by Ludwig Senfl, both moral and comic.
The Glogauer Liederbuch (ca. 1480) is a wonderful collection of both sacred and secular music, including both texted and purely instrumental works, bridging the gap between late medieval and Renaissance compositional styles. It is the oldest surviving set of partbooks and an important source of 15th-century music. Thought to have been destroyed during the Second World War, it was re-discovered in 1977 in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, where it still resides.
Ludwig Senfl (ca. 1486–1542/3) was a Swiss composer and perhaps the most famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac. He was music director to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and an influential figure in introducing and developing the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in Germany.
Led by this summer’s MedRen workshop director, Adam Knight Gilbert, the workshop will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier Street, El Cerrito. Lunch is potluck. Coffee and tea will be provided.
The workshop is open to all voices and early instruments. ALMOST all the music will be texted. Adam promises to share with you that special, secret, Glogauer Phrygian cadence! Please spend the day with us making glorious music. Workshop pitch will be A=440. Bring your instruments, music stands and pencils.
This collegium day raises scholarship funds to help SFEMS pay the tuition of participants who could not otherwise afford to attend the summer Medieval & Renaissance Workshop. Adam is generously donating his services toward this purpose.
Please download and complete the registration form here and mail it, by April 17, with your check (payable to “SFEMS”) to Greta Haug-Hryciw, PO Box 370069, Montara, CA 94037-0069. Update April 19: Space is still available; in-person registrations welcome! Feel free to contact Katie Hagen, SFEMS Administrator ([email protected] or 510-842-5256) with any questions.
