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GALWAY EARLY MUSIC www.galwayearlymusic.com galwayearlymusic@gmail.com +353 (0)83 461 9039
WELCOME TO THE 26TH GALWAY EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL We are so happy to welcome you to the first live festival in two years! However, we are also aware that not everyone is ready to travel, so many of our events are available online. So welcome to our online audience as well! Musica et Scientia - Music and Science - what’s the connection? We think of music as separate from science, but in medieval times and right up to the Baroque period, music was a science – one of the four pillars of scientia or ‘knowledge’, together with mathematics, geometry and astronomy! Music was seen as part of all creation – the planets sing in their orbits and our own bodies sing physically and spiritually. Early composers and musicians strove to express the music of the universe with voice and instrument, and for us, as modern concert goers, recognising this can give a new and rich way of experiencing their music. Listen to beautiful music while being immersed in starscapes or in Renaissance art, take a trip from the Middle East to Europe and on to the Americas following the movement of scientific and musical ideas, enjoy Machaut’s mathematical puzzles, take part in a discussion on the relationship between music and the dark sky movement, learn about the early Irish harp and much more! Immerse yourself in the music of the Universe!
CONCERT
Live and Live stream
Voyages with an Astrolabe FRIDAY, MAY 27 7:00 pm
St Nicholas Collegiate Church
Tickets: Live: €18/€14/€6 Online: €15
Wolodymyr Smishkewych, voice, sinfonie, percussion, Leonie Curtin, violin, vielle, rebec, Ciara Taaffe, harps, Steven Player, guitars Although we moderns prize ourselves on being of an age which values science and reason, we cannot claim ownership of knowledge by virtue of our times. The Medieval period — sometimes pejoratively called “The Dark Ages” — in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East and Asia was replete with mathematicians and philosopher-scientists who studied nature and the heavens, as well as the human mind. In our Voyages with an Astrolabe, we invite you on a journey of exploration sailing the seas and rivers of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and finally across the Atlantic to the Americas. It is especially appropriate that we should take this voyage in Galway, at the gateway of Western Ireland, where a large majority of Spanish and Portuguese astrolabes have been recovered from shipwrecks! Our travels will take us along the Silk Road, across the steppes of Ukraine and along the Black Sea through the Bosporus. Then, across the Mediterranean we sail, until we reach the Iberian Peninsula and the northern shores of Africa, before we launch across the Atlantic Ocean to find out how the traditional dances of Africa became encapsulated in the dance collections of Spanish colonisers. We’ll hear the songs and dances of Oswald von Wolkenstein and Dmitri Cantemir, two musician-diplomats who travelled far and wide and described their travels (and sometimes, their wild high-jinks) in very musical terms. From the sun’s dawning in the east to the far west of the lands of Altramar, journey with us to explore the marriage of science, mysticism, travel, and poetry through music.
CONCERT CONCERT
Live and Live Stream
Discovering Light Teddie Hwang, baroque flute Yonit Kosovske, harpsichord Discovering Light is a programme inspired by celestial beings and the wonder of our natural night sky. Baroque flutist Teddie Hwang and harpsichordist Yonit Kosovske invite listeners into a space of contemplation in our starry cosmos, accompanied by Teddie’s nightscape images especially curated for this program. She weaves her night sky experiences into the narrative of the music such as the incomparable Sonata in B-minor for flute and obbligato harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as other brilliant compositions written for this instrumentation. Contemplative pieces such as Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Dialogue of the Muses” and Jean-Henri d’Anglebert’s “Tombeau de Monsieur de Chambonnières” pave the way from our earthly world to the divine, and offer moments of solace. Enjoy this journey of discovering light in our timeless universe. Featuring music by J.S. Bach, J.Ph. Rameau, G. Ph. Telemann, J.C.F. Fischer, and other Baroque composers. Landscape astrophotography from the spectacular dark skies of Europe and the USA.
SPECIAL FRIDAY BUNDLE TICKET Make it a proper night out and enjoy our two Friday concerts for a special price! €30 / €22 concession (and perhaps an early bird dinner at the House or the Hardiman!)
Friday, May 27 9:00 pm
St Nicholas Collegiate Church
Tickets: Live: €18/€14/€6 Online: €15
COFFEE CONCERT Live
The Art of Sound and Silence The Early Music Group of Kiili, Estonia with Martin Meibaum, baritone, violincello Saturday, May 28 10:30 am
St Nicholas Collegiate Church
Tickets: €10 (includes tea/coffee, cake) Please Note: Drinks and cakes service will stop when the music begins at 11 am, so come between 10:30 and 11 am to be served and settled. Catering will also depend on the current regulations concerning Covid.
Coffee, cakes and music – what could be better on a Saturday morning? This diverse and playful concert program takes the audience on a seven-century long time-traveling adventure to ancient pilgrim tracks, royal courts and lovers’ dreams. Why not take a coffee break and enjoy pilgrim songs, dances, renaissance polyphony, and noble love songs in the wonderful and atmospheric St Nicholas Collegiate Church. You will even get a chance to sing along in Latin! The early music group of Kiili is a youth ensemble with lots of stage experience. During 19 years of existence they have given more than 600 concerts in different venues in Estonia (manors, churches, concert halls, radio, television), produced 3 CDs, experienced welcoming audiences on tours to the USA, Canada, Ireland, Spain, UK, Norway, Finland and Sweden. They feature a great collaboration between young musicians from different age groups. Most of their members have received prizes in different competitions. Their instruments include flutes, recorders, violins, cellos, trumpet and percussion. Listeners have admired the diverse programmes, musical quality, historic costumes, choreograpy, and explanations about the music and its style. We are very grateful to KULKA Cultural Endowment of Estonia for their support with this concert.
CONCERT CONCERT
Live and Live Stream
From Chaos to Lawes Alphabet Baroque Club Maria Caswell, violin, Gwyneth Davies, viola da gamba, Phebe Craig, harpsichord, with guest Ruth Cunningham, voice, recorder, harp and Ingrid Nicola, violin This programme explores the relationship of music to the sciences and liberal arts of earlier times, from the musings of Hildegarde von Bingen on wisdom through Jean-Féry Rebel’s clever depiction of the creation (beginning with Chaos, which is then separated and refined into the four elements), to a piece originally written for Anonymous 4 by 21st-century composer Richard Einhorn on a text of Galileo. In between, we visit some of Machaut’s rhythmic puzzles, pay tribute to the muses of astronomy and music in two viol consort pieces by Michael East, and present one of the Fantasia suites of William Lawes, who, in spite of his name, broke many of the rules of composition. We will also examine the state of medical science in the 18th century with Marin Marais’s delightfully macabre musical picture of a bladder stone surgery, L’Operation de la Taille. Narrative assistance will be rendered by special guest, noted author Adrian Tinniswood. The programme is rounded out by selections from Marais’s Pièces en Trio. The Alphabet Baroque Club’s instrumental combination may be somewhat quirky, but they think of themselves as the kind of group that would have existed in a multi-generational musical household in or around the 17th century, where the older members played the instruments they were used to, while the younger ones preferred the newly popular violin. (Roger North in the late 17th century described his grandfather as playing that antiquated instrument, the treble viol.) They might have arranged music for the instrumental forces available to them. We follow a similar practice, performing earlier pieces written for viols, as well as later music composed for violin.
Saturday, May 28 4:00 pm
St Nicholas Collegiate Church
Tickets: Live: €15/€12/€6 Online: €12
CONCERT Live
Photo copyright: Eric Richmond
Listening to Pictures The Orlando Consort
Saturday, May 28 7:30pm
Matthew Venner Countertenor Mark Dobell Tenor Angus Smith Tenor Donald Greig Baritone Project adviser: Professor Tim Shephard, University of Sheffield
St Nicholas Collegiate Church
Ticket: €20/€18/€6
The Orlando Consort is delighted to present a visual and aural feast featuring some of the greatest painters and composers of the Renaissance. This multimedia production vividly reveals how Renaissance art is full of sound – angels sing out from altarpieces, ancient gods and goddesses compete in musical contests, and music provides an essential backdrop to sensuous, amorous encounters. The Consort’s presentation has been specially devised to pair the magnificent paintings of Gentile da Fabriano, Fra Angelico, Luca della Robbia, Carlo Crivelli, Zanobi Strozzi, Mercantonio Raimondi and others with glorious music by composers such as John Dunstaple, Guillaume Dufay, Heinrich Isaac, Josquin Desprez, Antoine Brumel, and Adrian Willaert. A professionally created visual sequence on a 16ft screen brings the viewer close to stunning works of art, offering a privileged view that recreates the experience of encountering them in their original historical Italian setting. Full images dissolve into spectacular close-ups, all to the accompaniment of glorious music from the same era and chosen by the Consort for the specific connections to the paintings on view. The concert is preceded by an introductory illustrated talk by Prof. Tim Shephard.
CONCERT Live CONCERT
Over the Alps Resurgam Chamber Choir The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble Malcolm Proud, harpsichord Siobhán Armstrong, harp In his lifetime, Johann Rosenmüller was considered one of Europe’s greatest and most well-travelled musicians, and a key figure in bringing Italian musical ideas to Germany. Thus his music looks both ways across the Alps: grandiloquent Venetian splendour meeting Teutonic contrapuntal discipline. Resurgam brings the colourful and virtuosic beauty of his concerted vocal music to Ireland for the first time, with a collation of Latin psalm-concerti, each a mini-cantata. The splendidly sonorous C minor Magnificat in eight parts caps a Vespers setting in the grand Venetian style. Sean Doherty’s new work, setting an ancient Vesper hymn, forms a contrast in the centre of the programme. Johann Rosenmüller (1619-1684), Vespers Dixit Dominus Laudate pueri Dominum Sean Doherty: Hail! Gladdening Light – New commission, World Premiere Laetatus sum Magnificat
In Partnership with
Sunday, May 29 5:00 pm
St Nicholas Collegiate Church
Tickets: €25/€22/€10 Tickets also available from www.musicforgalway.ie
CONCERT Live
Sunday, May 29 1:30pm, The Hardiman Hotel Ticket: €5 / children free
Music of the Spheres Featuring students and teachers of Athenry School of Music, Coole Music, and very special guests Early Music Group of Kiili (Estonia) with soloist Marten Meibaum. Project facilitators: Jenny Robinson, Recorder, Malachy Robinson, viol, & Eamon Sweeney, Lute & Early Guitars The Music of the Spheres was the theory of an ethereal harmony thought by the philosphermathematician Pythagoras to be produced by the spinning of the celestial spheres. The universe remaining in balance was a reflection of the harmony of these vibrations – as were musicians adding to this harmony. These theories were taught in universities as part of the Quadrivium – a group of studies consisting of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. Study of these subjects enabled the ‘The Age of Discovery’ – the extensive overseas exploration which spanned the Renaissance and Baroque periods and drove the globalisation of European culture. However, cultural exchange is never simply in one direction and European culture also absorbed dances and rhythms from overseas. This special concert will reflect the meeting of musical and scientific worlds with music from The Age of Discovery from South America and West Africa, and from European composers Galileo, Praetorius, Farnaby, Dowland, Lassus, and others.
FESTIVAL LUNCH
Festival Lunch Join us for soup and sandwiches, and a lovely opportunity to get together with other festival goers, performers and festival organisers to chat about the concerts and our shared enthusiasm for early music. The lunch runs from 12 pm to 12:45 pm, just prior to our first Festival multi-media talk. Two talks follow the lunch at 1 pm and 2:30 pm, which you can register for online or at the door.
Saturday, May 28 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Early bird menu available from 5-7pm 2 course €28 // 3 course €35
The House Hotel Ticket: €16.50
TO BOOK: email: dine@thehousehotel.ie or call 091 538900 www.thehousehotel.ie
House Hotel Early Bird 1/4 advert May22.indd 3
05/05/2022 11:05
TALKS CONCERT Live & Zoom
Photo copyright: Teddie Hwang
Music, Photography, & the Dark Sky Movement – an interdisciplinary conversation Illustrated talk with Teddie Hwang, baroque flute, astral photographer, and Georgia MacMillan, Mayo Dark Sky Park Development Officer/Employment Based PhD scholar, funded by the Irish Research Council Astronomy is often referred to as the oldest and most beautiful of sciences. A view of the celestial wonders in a dark sky overhead has invoked curiosity and inspired art and culture since the dawn of civilisation. In this multimedia presentation, flutist and photographer Teddie Hwang partners up with dark sky educator Georgia MacMillan to talk about how music, photography, and our natural night sky heritage are intertwined in a fascinating way.
Voices of the Goddess and God Simon & Maria O’Dwyer, Ancient Music Ireland At the Stone Age and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne, the great megalith of Newgrange a beam of sunlight illuminates the central chamber on the first day of the new year celebrating the renewal of life. Music is at the heart of this astronomically aligned megalith. The later Bronze Age horns and trumpets found in pairs represent male and female. We believe that a male bronze trumpet and female bronze horn were played at the inaugurations of Kings and at majestic ceremonies. The ‘Earth Goddess’ and the ‘Sun God’ come together to ensure the continuity and wellbeing of people, crops and livestock, thus evoking the ancient horns and trumpets as the voices of the ‘Goddess’ and ‘God’. Ancient Music Ireland tell this story.
Live & Zoom Saturday, May 28 1:00 pm The House Hotel FREE EVENT Register for either the live or Zoom event on our website. Also at the door
Live & Zoom Saturday, May 28 2:30 pm The House Hotel FREE EVENT Register for either the live or Zoom event on our website. Also at the door.
Early Irish Harp Discovery Day
LISTEN
Sunday, May 29 12:00 pm Nuns Island Theatre Ticket: Live & Online: €10
Sunday, May 29 1:00 pm Nuns Island Theatre Free event live & Zoom
Sunday, May 29 2:30 pm Nuns Island Theatre Ticket: €20 Live only Limited to 8 participants
The Music and Songs of Carolan & his Contemporaries Siobhán Armstrong (early Irish harp), Doimnic Mac Goille Bhríde (voice) The prize-winning Donegal singer, Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde, and Ireland’s foremost scholar-performer of historical Irish music, Siobhán Armstrong, recently began a collaboration to explore the vocal music of the old Irish harpers. In this Discovery Day concert they will perform treasures they have reconstructed from manuscript sources of the 1700s, including neglected versions of well-known 18th-century compositions by Turlough Carolan, with Siobhán accompanying Doimnic’s raw and powerful singing on a beautiful copy of an early 18th-century Irish harp.
LEARN
From science to sweet music: rediscovering the lost craftsmanship of Ireland and Scotland’s historical harps Dr Karen Loomis Ireland and Scotland’s long tradition of metal-strung harps died out two centuries ago, but a number of these iconic instruments survive. With the help of modern technology, their historical craftsmanship is being rediscovered for a new generation of harp makers. In this presentation we’ll explore these harps inside and out with state-of-the-art imaging. We’ll see hidden workmanship and repairs, reveal lost decorations, find clues to their histories, and see the results of radiocarbon dating one of the oldest European harps!
HAVE A GO! Sylvia Crawford
In this beginners’ workshop you will have the opportunity to learn to play the First Tune traditionally taught to harpers, Mailí Bhán, collected by Edward Bunting from the Armagh harper, Patrick Quin. Through learning this tune you will learn, from hands-on experience, four important old Irish harp playing techniques: bualadh suas, briseadh, leagadh anuas and leath leagadh. I believe that these are the building blocks for learning to play the old Irish harp in a traditional style.
MUSIC IN THE RED EARL’S HALL CONCERT
Drop-in performances in the archeological remains of the oldest building in Galway Built in the 1200s, the Red Earl’s Hall was used for tax collection, holding banquets, and the administration of justice. By the 16th century, it was already a ruin. In 1997 it was rediscovered and identified with the help of the 1651 Pictorial Map of Galway City that listed the site as the old castle of the most illustrious Lord, Richard de Burgo, the Red Earl. Happily, the decision was made to preserve the ruins and make them accessible to the public. Galway Civic Trust/Dúchas na Gaillimhe now manages the site and has welcomed our musicians in to entertain you! 11:30 am and 2:00 pm Jacopo Bisagni medieval pipes/recorders Music from the time of the Red Earl. Who knows? Maybe he knew some of these tunes! 12:00 pm and 2:30 pm Vox Orbis, dir. Mark Keane Renaissance vocal music by Youll (England), Scheidt (Germany), Cristo (Portugal) and Victoria (Spain)
12:30 pm and 3:00 pm Natalie Surina Early Irish Harp Music of the old Irish harpers including Carolan, and others.
Saturday, May 28 11:30 am - 1:00pm 2pm - 3:30pm
Red Earl’s Hall Druid Lane
FREE EVENT
Thank you to Dúchas na Gaillimhe / Galway Civic Trust for their wonderful welcome to Galway Early Music.
DAY BY DAY FRIDAY 27 MAY
SATURDAY 28 MAY
7:00 pm
VOYAGES WITH AN ASTROLABE Wolodymyr Smishkewych, Leonie Curtin, Ciara Taaffe, Steve Player St Nicholas Collegiate Church
10:30 am
9:00 pm
DISCOVERING DARKNESS Teddie Hwang, Yonit Kosovske St Nicholas Collegiate Church
MUSIC IN THE RED EARL’S HALL 11:30 am Jacopo Bisagni, Vox Orbis, Natalie 1:00 pm and 2 pm - 3:30 pm Surina
COFFEE CONCERT: The Art of Sound and Silence Early Music Group of Kiili, Estonia St Nicholas Collegiate Church
Red Earl’s Hall, Druid Lane
All- In FESTIVAL TICKETS Enjoy the full festival experience and immerse yourself in a weekend of glorious music!
12:00 pm
Live Festival Ticket: €95 / €80 conc. This ticket covers all concerts and talks. (It does not cover the Festival Lunch or the harp workshop)
1:00 pm
Online Festival Ticket: €50 This ticket covers all online concerts and talks. Please note that we are not able to record ‘Listening to Pictures’ or ‘Over the Alps’.
2:30 pm
TALK: Voice of the Goddess and God Ancient Music Ireland The House Hotel
4:00 pm
FROM CHAOS TO LAWES Alphabet Baroque Club with Ingrid Nicola & Adrian Tinniswood St Nicholas Collegiate Church
7:30 pm
LISTENING TO PICTURES The Orlando Consort St Nicholas Collegiate Church
SPECIAL LIVE FRIDAY BUNDLE! €30 / €22 concession A special price for two special concerts: Journeys with an Astrolabe and Discovering Light. These two opening concerts reflect many aspects of our festival theme and are a wonderful pairing.
FESTIVAL LUNCH The House Hotel, Spanish Parade TALK: Music, photography & the Dark Sky Movement Teddie Hwang, Georgia MacMillan The House Hotel, Spanish Parade
PROGRAMME SUNDAY 29 MAY EARLY IRISH HARP DISCOVERY DAY Nuns Island Theatre 12:00 pm
LISTEN: The Music and songs of Carolan & his contemporaries Siobhán Armstrong, Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde
1:00 pm
LEARN: From Science to Sweet Music - Rediscovering the lost craftsmanship of Ireland and Scotland’s historical harps Dr Karen Loomis
2:30 pm
GIVE IT A GO: Taster Workshop Sylvia Crawford
1:30 pm
5:00 pm
THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES Students of Coole Music & Athenry Music School, Early Music Group of Kiili, Estonia, with Malachy Robinson, Eamon Sweeney & Jenny Robinson The HardimanHotel OVER THE ALPS Resurgam, English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble St Nicholas Collegiate Church
VENUE MAP IS ON THE BACK COVER OF THIS PROGRAMME
TICKET BOOKING ONLINE www.galwayearlymusic.com You can book tickets either from an event page, or from the ‘Tickets’ page. When you book, you will create an account which allows you to access all tickets, live and online. Payment is through Stripe and no payment details are kept on your account.
AT THE DOOR Tickets are available at the door of concerts, either card or cash. We ask that you come early if you are buying tickets at the door.
CONCESSIONS Concession prices apply citizens 65+, and unwaged.
to
senior
STUDENT TICKET A special price of €6 applies to fulltime students for the Friday & Saturday evening concerts. €10 for the Sunday concert. Student card required.
CONTACT GALWAY EARLY MUSIC galwayearlymusic@gmail.com +353 (0)83 461 9039
ABOUT GALWAY EARLY MUSIC Galway Early Music was founded when a group of Galway musicians travelled to the Lismore Early Music Festival in 1994. It was there that the idea was born: why not bring this rich and sometimes exotic music to the medieval city of Galway? Our first festival was in 1996 and has been held annually ever since. Past festivals have featured outstanding international musicians and ensembles such as Jordi Savall, Andrew Lawrence-King & the Harp Consort, Red Priest, Ensemble Unicorn, Sequentia, François Lazarevitch and Alla Francesca, plus outstanding Irish artists such as Siobhán Armstrong, Malcolm Proud, The Gregory Walkers, Mark Duley and Resurgam Chamber Choir, amongst many others. The Festival is known for its lively programming and its attention to the place of Irish music and musicians in the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque European music scene. Galway Early Music is run by a voluntary committee and is a member of REMA, The European Early Music Network. www.galwayearlymusic.com / galwayearlymusic@gmail.com Facebook: Galway Early Music / Twitter: @gwy_earlymusic / +353 83 461 9039 GEMF STAFF 2022 FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: PRODUCTION MANAGER: AUDIO & VIDEO: GEM COMMITTEE:
Maura Ó Cróinín Gemma Trimble Staunton Media Maura Ó Cróinín, Jacopo Bisagni, Kimberly LoPrete, Nicola Murphy, Lise Carrel
LOCATION OF VENUES
1. St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Lombard St, Galway, H91 PY20 2. The House Hotel, Spanish Parade, The Latin Quarter, H91 X309 3. The Hardiman Hotel, 14/15 Eyre Square, H91 NFD2 4. Nuns Island Theatre, Nuns Island 5. Red Earl’s Hall, Druid Lane