Early Music Weekend

The Early Music Festival has begun, but I am just going to the concerts this year, so my blogging should not be affected. It was a refreshing change to have time to do other things this weekend, like have brunch with Travalon and OK Cap at the Manna Café on Saturday morning, work more on my old condo on Saturday afternoon, and watch the World Cup final with Travalon, Prairie Man, Handy Woman, and OK Cap yesterday afternoon. Usually I would have been taking classes and rehearsing with the All-Festival choir most of the weekend.

Saturday evening the concert was music of Leonardo da Vinci’s time. Did you know he was a renowned musician in his day? I did not realize that. Apparently he was the original Renaissance Man, good at everything and good-looking to boot, although maybe back in those days it was tougher being illegitimate and homosexual. Anyway, none of the music he composed has survived, since it was all extemporaneous, so this was just music from his day, interspersed with readings from his early biographies (within a generation of his lifetime) and his own writings. It made me so curious about the man that I did some online research about him and discovered he was a vegetarian and would buy caged birds just to set them free. He was supposed to have been delightful company, charming and witty, so he is one historical figure I would have liked to have met.

Last night’s concert was more difficult music to listen to, ars nova stuff from the High Middle Ages. I can’t help wondering if it was their equivalent of our modern classical music, more about how clever it is rather than how it sounds. Did they really love this stuff back in the day, or if there were a Top 100 of 1370, would any of those songs be on it? After all, 700 years from now if people look at modern classical music, they might wonder what we were thinking, if our popular music did not survive. The popular music I have heard from the Middle Ages is generally quite catchy, so in 1370, just as in 2014, the average person doubtlessly preferred a tuneful composition that was easy to sing.

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