Two exciting and innovative events featuring music from the Renaissance come to St George’s Church Hall, Dumfries, this month.
The first is a second Early Music for All event – a follow-on from last year’s very successful day in Castle Douglas. This free family-friendly event is part of the outreach programme by The Early Music Forum of Scotland which seeks to encourage and educate the public about music, instruments and repertoire particularly in pre-Bach times.
There will be five specialist groups performing a rolling programme on diverse instruments from 12pm to 5pm and will include many sizes of recorder in different combinations, several sizes of viol, a mixed ensemble of curtal, recorder and renaissance guitar and a Klezmer Band. All the musicians will be happy to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with their audiences.
Early Music for all takes place on Saturday, 27 May, and everyone is invited to drop in.
On Thursday, 1 June, a concert of early music with the Border Waites ( main image ) will take place at 7.30pm.
Entitled Shipwreck: A Renaissance Happenstance, the music relates to an incident of stormy seas, kings, musicians and their instruments. Playing a large variety of renaissance instruments, including shawms, viols, recorders and bagpipes, the Border Waites perform music describing a dramatic event, a shipwreck that led to a chance meeting between Henry VII and Philip the Fair, and their large musical entourages. Travelling with Philip was the Venetian ambassador whose letters form the textual basis for the programme, along with extracts from the annals of the Tudor court.
The Border Waites is a group of professional specialist early wind and string players from Wales. The group has performance experience with many of the UK’s most prominent ensembles, and gather in Dumfries to perform a repertoire they all love.
The group will be playing some of the music on a set of Renaissance viols made by Richard Jones in Powfoot in his seaside workshop.
Both events are part of this year’s Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival. Tickets to the concert from the Midsteeple Box Office on 01387 253383 and further information from www.dgartsfestival.org.uk
