First known performance recorded live and unconducted by Cantores Musicæ Antiquæ and an
Instrumental Brass Ensemble. Prepared by
Anthony Rooley and Jeffery Kite-Powell and performed in Opperman
Music Hall on the
FSU College of Music campus on April 17,
2005.
Members of the ensembles:
Cantores Musicæ Antiquæ:
Christine Keene and Lyndsey
Thornton, first sopranos
Erin Martin and
Paige Carpenter, second sopranos
Tim Galloway,
Reginald Mobley,
Jennifer Hamilton, altos
William Southerland and
John Spilker, tenors
Wayne Adams,
Aron Bederson, Tim Bengford, Rainer Weissenberger, basses
Brass Ensemble:
Joshua Crook and
Robert Carter,
French horns
Tom Dougherty and
David Jackson, flugelhorns
Jared Adams and
Sara Gover, baritone horns
Christopher Lair, tuba;
David Wells, bassoon
Michael Rittling, double bass;
John Mason III, organ
transcribed into modern notation by
Eric Harbeson
Cantores Musicæ Antiquæ [
Singers of
Early Music] was formed in the fall of
1989 with the intent to perform music from 1200-1650 in a historically informed manner. The group consists of eight to twelve singers, often one on a part, and includes undergraduates, masters, and doctoral students. Some students are voice majors, while others study music education, choral conducting, theory, or musicology.
After our inaugural concert, my friend and colleague,
Douglass Seaton, sent a letter to
Dean Bob Glidden praising the ensemble, as seen in this excerpt:
"There is no question that this was by far the best early-music performance I have heard since I came to
Florida State. Indeed, it was perhaps one of the best three or four musical experiences I have had in
Tallahassee, and having recently been to
England and heard some of the finest early-music choirs in the world, I would have to say that the Cantores Musicæ Antiquæ last night were as fine as any of them."
Following our performance at the
Florida American Choral Directors Association at
Rollins College,
Winter Park, in
1994, the
Director of Choral Activities at the
University of Miami (
Jo-Michael Scheibe), and the
Artistic Director of the
Miami Bach Society (
Donald Oglesby) co-wrote the following lines to Dean Jon Piersol about our performance:
"It was truly an outstanding performance of the highest professional caliber, worthy of comparison to groups like the
Tallis Scholars. The standing ovation accorded the group by the members of
ACDA testifies to the strength of the ensemble's performance. We [
. . . ] hope you can make it possible for these singers to be heard on recording and in concert throughout the nation. They bring credit to the choral music activities of FSU and our state."
Indeed, the ensemble is often referred to as Tallahassee's "Tallis Scholars," one of
England's premiere vocal ensembles. Our local newspaper, the
Tallahassee Democrat, has referred to the group as "FSU's heavenly
Renaissance choir."
Two full-length concerts per year are common for this group of singers, and they have performed for the
American Musicological Society regional conventions in
Lafayette, La.,
Tuscaloosa, Al, Tallahassee,
Palm Beach, and
New Orleans (twice), the
National Theory Society convention, the national convention of the
Society for Seventeenth-Century
Music, the
International Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel Conference, the International conference on "
John Eccles and His Contemporaries:
English Theatre and Music in
London circa
1700," and for the opening of the exhibition from the
Victoria & Albert Museum at the
Norton Museum of Art in
West Palm Beach; twice they were broadcast on
National Public Radio's
Millennium of Music.
Many of the singers from earlier years are currently professors, performers, or administrators at colleges and universities around the country and abroad, including (those of which I am aware)
Alabama,
Arkansas,
Connecticut,
Florida, Indiana,
Kentucky,
North Carolina,
Oklahoma, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina,
Tennessee,
New York,
Wisconsin,
Australia,
Iceland, and
Norway.
JEFFERY KITE-POWELL, professor emeritus of
The Florida State University College of Music and director of the Early Music
Program (1984-2013), edited and contributed to "A
Performer's
Guide to
Renaissance Music" (
IUP,
2007), edited and translated
Michael Praetorius's "
Syntagma Musicum III" (
OUP, 2004), and edited the second edition of "A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth-Century Music" (IUP,
2012). He served as president of Early Music
America (1998-2001) and was awarded the
Thomas Binkley Award for
Outstanding Achievement by a Collegium Director (
2003). On his retirement, colleagues and former students from across the country contributed to a book entitled "Hands-On"
Musicology: Essays in
Honor of Jeffery Kite-Powell (Steglein
Press, 2012).
- published: 11 Jan 2014
- views: 1995