UMS Concert Program, November 20, 1979: Syntagma Musicum --

Season: 101st
Concert: Twenty-eighth
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Syntagma Musicum
KEES OTTEN, Director
Kees Boeke Walter van Hauwe
Kees Otten
Toyohiko Satoh Charles Toet
Rita Dams and Marius van Altena, Singers
Tuesday Evening, November 20, 1979, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Anno Domini 1501
Compositions by masters from the Low Countries edited in Venice by Ottaviono dei Petrucci da Fossombrone.
Ave Maria.............Mabriano de Orto
(d. 1529)
Latura tu.............Antoine Bruhier
(dates unknown)
Gentil prince (instrumental)..........Anonymous
Pourquoy non............Piere de la Rue
(c. 1460-1518)
Mon mignault............Antoine Busnoys
(d. 1492)
Ma bouche rit...........Johannes Ockeghem
(c. 1430-1496)
Telejunken and Seraphim Records. 101st Season -Twenty-eighth Concert Seventeenth Annual Chamber Arts Series
Si dedero............Alexander Agricola
(c. 1446-1506)
Si ascendero in caelum..........Nicolaas Craen
(d. 1507)
La alfonsina (instrumental)........Johannes Ghiselin
(d. 1535)
Allons ferons barbe I
Royne du ciel i-...........Loyset Compere
Un franc archier (c. 1450-1518)
INTERMISSION
Ave regina caelorum Tandernaeken (instrumental) Rompeltier (instrumental) La Tortorella La Strangetta (instrumental)
La plus des plus
En lombre d'ung buissonnet
Domine ne in furore
La bernardina (instrumental)
El grillo
Jacob Obrecht (c. 1450-1505)
Josquin Des Prez (c. 1440-1521)
About the Artists and Instruments
Syntagma Musicum was founded in 1963 by a group of musicians who had specialized in early music performance technique, and who are devoted to the discovery and performance of unknown and long-forgotten works of art. Their name, Syntagma Musicum (meaning Musical Treatise), was taken from the title of a monumental work by Michael Praetorius, published between 1615 and 1620, a four-volume treasure house of information concerning the history of Western music, music theory and practice, and musical instruments up to his day. In their attempt to infuse music of the past with life, Syntagma Musicum members have amassed a large collection of authentic manuscripts and instruments. Limiting themselves to a period of six centuries--between 1050 and 1650--they strive for historical accuracy and original style of interpretations in order to recreate the music as it would have sounded in those days.
Kees Otten, founder and director of the ensemble, is the Netherland's leading exponent of the recorder and of recorder music. He also plays the clarinet, saxophone, krummhorn, shawm, and cornetto, and has performed in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, and New York, and lectures and performs regularly in Germany, Scandinavia, and England. Both Mr. Otten and the Syntagma Musicum appeared in Ann Arbor in 197S.
Their collection of instruments is not only very extensive, but contains, to a large extent, virtually unknown reproductions of museum prototypes. These include the extensive recorder family, copies of Renaissance and Middle Age types, in addition to the more common Baroque types. There are also the shawm and curtal, precursors, respectively, of the oboe and bassoon. The members of the krummhorn family, namely the kurtholt and the shrill "Rauschpfiefe," had been completely for?gotten. Extremely popular were the cornetts which are very difficult to handle, in particular the quite straight cornett and the expressive curved cornett. The most primitive wind instrument was the gemshorn, with its quite enticing flute sound. Extremely important instruments are the portative organ (a small portable pipe organ with hand-operated bellows) and the spinet. Among the string instruments, the primitive medieval fiddle and various types of the viol family are used. The ex?tensive collection of percussion instruments contributes to the color and rhythmic variety of many of the Syntagma Musicum's interpretations.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Phones: 665-3717, 764-2538