Musica in Camera Gustaviana
Via Sonora


IMAGEN

new-renaissance.eenet.ee

1997
Tartu Ülikool UT CD 002

september 1997
Tartu Ôpetajate Seminari aula




1 - anon, ed. John WALSH: Divisions upon "Faronells Ground"   [7:21]
2 - John DOWLAND: Ayre, "Come away"   [4:43]
3 - Tobias HUME: A Souldiers Galiard   [3:35]
4 - Tobias HUME: Ayre, "Sir Humprey"   [1:15]
5 - Tobias HUME: Ayre, "Touch me lightly"   [2:24]
6 - Tobias HUME: Dvke John of Polland his Galiard   [2:04]
7 - Tobias HUME: A Pollish Vilanell   [2:09]
8 - Tobias HUME: A Pollish Ayre   [2:27]
9 - Tobias HUME: Ayre, "Loues Farewell"   [3:40]
10 - John DOWLAND: Ayre, "Away with these selfe louing lads"   [2:48]
11 - John DOWLAND: Ayre, "Go christall teares"   [2:54]
12 - Pierre ATTAINGNANT: 2 Gaillardes   [3:39]
13 - John DOWLAND: Ayre, "Now, O now I needs must part"   [5:25]
14 - anon, ed. John WALSH: Divisions upon "Pauls Steeple"   [4:20]





Via Sonora

Lilian Langsepp • gothic harp and baroque arpa doppia
Raho Langsepp • soprano recorder; alto, tenor and bass transverse flutes
Janno Mäe • percussions
Jaanus Roosileht • viola da gamba
Toivo Sõmer • renaissance lute
Tarmo Tabas • tenor


IMAGEN




Musica in Camera Gustaviana
Domestic music-making from the early years of 'Academia Gustaviana', Tartu University


Tartu Ülikooli ajaloos on nüüd aastaid niisama palju kui ühes aastas päevi – 365. Oma algusaegadel oli ülikool vaimuelu keskuseks nii nagu praegugi. Ülikoolis kirjutati ja trükiti raamatuid, peeti dispuute, tehti ja kuulati muusikat.

Kui tollased sônalised tekstid pakuvad üksnes ajaloolist huvi, siis tollane muusika – vastupidi – on nüüdki nauditav. Tähistagem oma sünnipäeva muusikaga, nagu see kôlas ülikooli algaastail.

Peeter Tulviste, Rector
Tartu Ülikool




Improvised Music is created ex tempore, it is the music of the present moment: a moment later it's gone, leaving only its effect in those who heard it. Historical music on the other hand is fixed, something from the well-documented and unchangeable past, written down or printed hundreds of years ago by monks and ministers, court composers and town pipers, carefully preserved against the destructive forces of mice and military men, alongside paintings and sculptures, tools and trinkets – the "fine knacks for ladies" of Dowland's song.

Actually it's not like that at all. From before the eras of sound recording and mechanical instruments, there is no historical music there are only historical notes, from which we can make music which sounds at the moment of its creation, possibly its re-creation but certainly its new-creation. Hundreds of teachers wrote thousands books – some printed, many transmitted in handwritten copies – which tell us very clearly how musicians thought and felt and did, how much of their music was written down and how much improvised, what replicable effects they created in their listeners, how they taught and learned a craft which every educated person could practise and theorise on, music as a creative Art, yes, but music as a systematic Science, too: on top of that, archival documents tell us who was paid how much to do what and when and where, how many musicians played for a Medici wedding, what they did with the rest of their time, what their instruments were like, what their values were – and so much more...

One way to reconstruct the musical life of a young Baltic University is by looking for positive evidence of surviving notes in Baltic sources: much has passed beyond our reach, but what has survived has delighted the ears of today's Tartu on many occasions. But Via Sonora’s solution is another, the "why not? " approach. From backgrounds as varied as the Catholic church and the jazz club, the music school and the symphony orchestra, their music is a celebration of integrated diversity. The lives of composers like John Dowland and Tobias Hume are well-researched today: whether as soldier or spy, wandering student or cultural ambassador, we know they were in France and Italy, in Germany and Sweden, that the notes of their music are found in all those places, and that the merchants, the nobility and academia in the Baltic area shared a common culture with the rest of Greater Sweden and northern Germany: so "why shouldn't they have been heard here too?"

David Kettlewell