I wanted to get together with a friend this past weekend, and she suggested we go to a concert at the Washington National Cathedral. The Folger Shakespeare Library actually organized the event, but the concert was held in the cathedral, probably for the acoustics! I believe the Folger Consort organized the event, and two founders, Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall, both performed in the concert. Some of the pieces performed were written by Renaissance women, so that was pretty cool!
The performing choir was Stile Antico, a British vocal ensemble that specifically focuses on music from the Renaissance time period. Several of the songs were accompanied by period musical instruments played by members of Tesserae Baroque, which was pretty cool. Here's what the instruments looks liked:
This is Christopher Kendall with a theorbo, which is like a large lute. Image found here.
These instruments, called cornettos, were cleaned by pulling a rope with a flag on it through the tube. Image found here.
Sackbuts are like REALLY big trombones. You can see the guy in the back has a special handle on his because his arm isn't long enough to reach some of the notes! Image found here.
Alex Opsahl was very talented and played both the cornetto and recorder (seen here). Image found here.
The music and singing was so beautiful! It's unlike anything you listen to day-to-day, so it felt really special. It reminded me of the singing you hear in the background during the library scene in Ever After. I also thought that the music from the movie The Last Unicorn included some of these old instruments (you can hear that soundtrack here).
Here are some videos from Stile Antico to give you an idea of how great their singing sounds:
And here's a video of the instruments:
This concert was so different than anything I've seen before. I loved it! I'll have to keep an eye out for other events like this!
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