February 12 1999
Sunday, Feb. 21, in Swarthout Recital Hall. The concert will include English music from the 16th and 17th centuries, an especially fertile period for the composition of instrumental chamber music, according to Paul Laird, associate professor of music history and director of the Collegium.
Composers such as Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Lupo, John Ward and Peter Philips drew upon the rich contrapuntal technique of the Renaissance and wrote music for between two and six instruments in which no single part is dominant, Laird said.
"All musical lines in the piece must be played melodically, each adding to the total effect and texture," he said. "In a fantasia, a composer introduces a musical motive in one instrument and that motive then appears in turn in each instrument's part. A fantasia includes several such motives, which are then combined inventively throughout the piece. In this concert, fantasias for between three and six different parts will be interspersed with light dances and songs, like a meal that alternates between heavier and lighter courses."
Members of the Instrumental Collegium Musicum include Zechariah Goh, Singapore senior; Thomas Heilke, associate professor of political science; Ann Stowe, Lawrence; Ali Tonn, Hutchinson senior; and Robyn Whitehouse, Shawnee junior, all recorder; Jennifer Barron, Lawrence; Carol Mitchell, Lawrence graduate student; and Laird; all viol; Darcy Prilliman, Bartlesville, Okla., graduate student, harpsichord; Julia McLaren, Lawrence doctoral student; soprano; and Ken Anderson, Lawrence graduate student, lute.
The concert is free and open to the public.