Location
Kalamazoo, Michigan, 49007
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Sun, Mar 01 03:00 PM
Music to Tug at your Harpstrings -
Sat, May 30 03:00 PM
Looking Bach – J. S. Bach and the Music of Palestrina
About this event
Join Early Music Michigan as we continue our hands-on exploration of Gregorian Chant in “Chant as Early Music II.”
Chant represents the oldest surviving large musical repertoire of the Western world, with an enduring cultural footprint. While many people today encounter chant in movie and video game soundtracks, or even in humorous videos on social media platforms, for over a millennium chant has been (and continues to be) the ubiquitous accompaniment to the rituals of the Christian church. Over this time, it has served as a shared lexicon of melody that has informed sacred and secular music alike.
In this workshop, we will continue to explore some of the oldest manuscripts containing chant notation and use them to inform a highly nuanced performance of this remarkable music. There is a unique thrill that accompanies looking at a 1200-year-old manuscript and translating it into sound. And this won’t be a purely academic exercise—we will sing the results of our explorations together! For our second outing, we will also explore some of the earliest uses of polyphony as we sing this music together.
This workshop will focus on the historical musical content of chant instead of the theological, so all faith backgrounds are welcomed. In addition, no ability to read modern musical notation is required for this workshop, and we welcome singers of all abilities and experiences. If you can talk, you can sing. Finally, both new and repeat attendees are welcome–the content of this workshop will be different from our first one last year, and you don’t need to have attended our first workshop to attend this one. Come sing with us!
