I am always on the look out for good medieval music. Last month I reviewed Moat Jumpers Christmas CD, Christmas At The Renaissance Fair. Recently I discovered a band out of Poland named Pospolite Ruszenie. Their latest album, I am stuck in my ways and still call them albums, not very 21st century I know!,…
Joaquin Ayala of Winter Harp performs on a menagerie of strange musical instruments from medieval times, and none is more archaic than the monstrous organistrum. Grandfather of the hurdy-gurdy, with the body shape of a guitar, the instrument is played by two musicians, one of whom turns a rosined wheel that rubs or bows the…
Fans of classical music will have two opportunities to enjoy themselves in the coming week at the Paramount Theatre in Austin. • Cellist Hong Wang and pianist Ian Shapinsky will perform music of Stravinsky, Chopin and Rachmaninoff at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for senior citizens, $7 for students and $25…
The Rose Ensemble presented a spectacularly tight concert of music about St. Francis of Assisi in St. Joseph Chapel, which is both a great acoustic setting for Renaissance music and the home of the School Sisters of St. Francis. The Franciscan nuns in the audience were a reminder of the music’s sacred nature; so were…
Scotland had some very beautiful medieval music preserved in a St Andrews manuscript alongside French repertory. One piece nestles here among plainchant and alluring modern vocal items by composers ranging from true Scots such as James MacMillan (his superb Os mutorum) and James McCarthy (the hypnotic The Stars in Their Courses) to Joanne Metcalf, Peter…
