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“Improvisation in Baroque and Jazz,” March 1 and a pair of
By Peter Alexander Feb. 28 at 10:45 a.m.
Evanne Browne, conductor of Boulder’s Seicento Baroque Ensemble, is the daughter of jazz musicians—“jazz pianist mother and a bass participant dad,” she says. “There was numerous American songbook music happening in our home on a regular basis.”
It would appear to be a great distance from jazz and the American songbook to Bach, Monteverdi, and the opposite specialities of Seicento. However as a skilled early music performer, Browne believes the 2 musical kinds are nearer than you may suppose. And her subsequent live performance with Seicento will show that.
The live performance, titled “Embellish! Improvisation in Baroque and Jazz” (7:30 p.m. Friday in Longmont and Saturday in Golden; particulars beneath), options Baroque music by Couperin, Monteverdi and others, combined along with jazz by Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, and even some pops and Broadway numbers (see full program beneath). Along with the Seicento choir, performers might be violin and gamba participant Tina Chancey, a jazz ensemble led by bassist Mark Diamond, and Seicento apprentice artists.
The inspiration for this system comes from the truth that within the early Baroque numerous written music was sketchy, typically solely a bass half and one or two melody strains. Performances might differ, a lot as performances of jazz requirements very from one artist or combo to a different. There have been conventional bass strains and chord progressions for dances that had been crammed in in a different way by totally different composers, a lot as the normal 12-bar blues will be crammed in in a different way by totally different performers.
“I’ve been pondering for a very long time that if you have a look at charts for jazz and there’s melody and chords, and if you have a look at a basso continuo half for keyboard (in Baroque music) and there’s a bass line and chords, these issues are related,” Browne explains. “I simply type of began taking place the checklist of what else was related.”
Since jazz charts and Baroque scores—particularly for the early operas by Monteverdi and others—left lots to be crammed in by performers, in each circumstances followers of the music distinguish between totally different variations, or realizations, of particular items. One other parallel that Browne discovered was that rhythms are sometimes not performed precisely as they’re written, however are made extra “swingy,” particularly for dance music.
Within the Baroque period, there was a conference in France known as “notes inegales” (unequal notes), the place notes on the beat had been lengthened and the notes between the beats had been shortened, to make the rhythms extra pointed. This isn’t not like the jazz custom of “swinging” what are written as even notes. In jazz, Browne says, “you don’t play them ‘straight.’ Individuals would suppose you had been loopy if you happen to did that. It’s precisely what notes inegales are in French.
“In dance music, the necessity for motion is one thing that turns duple into triplets and makes that extra universally pleasing to us as listeners or performers.”
Because the music from the Baroque interval and from jazz and in style idioms alternate on this system, there’s one pairing that Browne significantly likes. “The Lamento della ninfa by Monteverdi and ‘Hit the Street, Jack’ are putting collectively,” she says. In Monteverdi, “we’ve got this four-note bass line that’s repeated, and this stunning lament. Then going proper into ‘Hit the Street Jack,’ it’s the identical bass line—it’s attention-grabbing how that chord development can be utilized expressively to emote what’s being stated.”
Browne has chosen different items that show similarities within the construction of Baroque arias and jazz songs, with a slower and explanatory introduction that units up the state of affairs, adopted by the primary tune that expresses feelings. They each characterize turning factors in music, one the rise of dramatic music and opera in early sixteenth century Italy, and the opposite the rise of jazz and extensively accessible in style dance music recordings in early Twentieth-century America.
Along with examples which have a severe level to make, Browne additionally chosen some parings on this system simply because they’re enjoyable. Among the many latter can be Monteverdi’s duet Bel Pastor dalcui bel guardo (Lovely shepherd from whose stunning gaze), which is a dialog between a shepherdess who retains asking a shepherd if he actually loves her, and that’s paired with a tune from Fiddler on the Roof the place Tevye asks his spouse Golde, “Do you’re keen on me?”
“So right here’s these two (items)—we haven’t recovered from two centuries of studying about humanity,” Browne says. “We’re nonetheless insecure in love! So I believed that was a enjoyable one.”
Actually, the phrase Browne makes use of most in describing this system is enjoyable. “It’s a enjoyable program,” she says. greater than as soon as.
“I believe the viewers might be laughing and tapping their toes.”
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“Embellish! Improvisation in Baroque and Jazz”
Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Evanne Browne, director
With Tina Chancey, viola da gamba and violin, and jazz ensemble led by Mark Diamond
- Louis Couperin: Prélude non mesuré (Unmeasured prelude)
- Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington: “Take the A Practice” (arr. Gordon Prugh)
- Marin Marais: Fantasie from the Suite in A minor, E-book III
- Anon: Madre, non mi far monaca (Mom, don’t make me a nun)
- Giralamo Frescobaldi: Missa sopra Aria della Monaca, Kyrie (Mass on La monaca)
- Thomas “Fat” Waller: “Honeysuckle Rose”
- Charlie Parker: “Scrapple from the Apple”
- Frescobaldi: Così mi disprezzate (So that you despise me?)
- Diego Ortiz: Recercada segunda (Second ricrercar)
- Claudio Monteverdi: Lamento della ninfa (The nymph’s lament)
- Percy Mayfield: “Hit the Street, Jack”
- Monteverdi: Come dolce oggi l’auretta (How candy is the breeze at present)
- Don Raye and Hughie Prince” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”
- Monteverdi: Si dolce è’l tormento (The torment is so candy) (choir, solo and jazz)
—Bel Pastor dalcui bel guardo (Lovely shepherd from whose stunning gaze) - Jerry Bock: “Do You’re keen on me?” from Fiddler on the Roof
- Jimmy McHugh: “On the Sunny Facet of the Road”
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 1
First Congregational Church, Longmont
7:30 p.m. Saturday March 2
Calvary Church, Golden
NOTE: The spelling of conductor Evanne Browne’s identify was corrected 2/28. The proper spelling of her final identify is Browne.
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