The Early Interval to focus on music by nuns of 17th century and earlier
Throughout the months of November and December, Greater Columbus has been awash in holiday concerts.
The Early Interval has one more in store for devotees of early music.
The longtime early music ensemble — a genre referring to groups that feature repertoire and instrumentation from centuries ago — will perform its annual “Twelfth Night” concert on Friday at St. Joseph Cathedral.
“Doing something right after the first of the year kind of puts the end cap on that holiday season of holiday concerts,” said Early Interval leader Jim Bates. “It’s the last one of the holiday performances, and . . . kind of the endpoint of Christmas.”
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For this year’s “Twelfth Night” concert, the group — consisting of Bates on treble and bass viols, Sean Ferguson on theorbo and tenor viol, David Stefano on recorders and tenor viol and Alexandra Vargo on violin and treble viol — will turn to music composed by nuns in Italy in the 17th century and earlier.
As it turns out, entering a religious community was one of the few opportunities women at the time had to write music that had a chance of reaching a public audience, according to Bates.
“Many women from wealthy families did have extensive musical training, but there was no real outlet for that musical training once they entered adult life,” Bates said. “So, if a woman was really serious about continuing to compose or perform music at a highly developed level, (the church) was about the only place that they could do that.”
Most of the music composed by the nuns is religious in nature and was intended to be performed during church services.
“The nuns were expected to sing all of the psalms each week, so singing was a very big part of their lives,” Bates said. “We also have records that it wasn’t just singing, that they had extensive collections of instruments in some of the convents.”
Friday’s concert will feature both instrumental and vocal pieces. For the latter, sopranos Elizabeth McConnaughey and Emily Noel will join the Early Interval.
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One particularly prolific nun was Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704). She will be represented with such pieces as “Stelle Belle in Vestro Gyro,” “Sonata Terza” and “Sonata Nona.” Other composers whose works will be performed include Bianca Maria Meda and Vittoria Aleotti.
Alert listeners will find traces of Renaissance-era music as well as what Bates characterizes as “early experimental baroque music.”
Maybe it’s a Christmas miracle that compositions written in convents centuries ago have survived all these years later.
“All of this music was at the time . . . published in some print format, not just manuscripts that were only in the monastery,” Bates said. “They found their way into the world.”
At a glance
The Early Interval will perform “Ecstasy and Devotion: Twelfth Night from the Convents of Italy” at 8 p.m. Friday at St. Joseph Cathedral, 212 E. Broad St. Tickets cost $35, or $28 for senior citizens, $15 for students. For more information, visit earlymusicincolumbus.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: The Early Interval to play music by nuns of 17th century and earlier
