Transport back to winters past with a musical exploration by The Goliards
For most, Christmas music harkens back memories of "Jingle Bells," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Sleigh Ride." Hearing the trumpets roar on the latter seems to signal the beginning of the holiday season for most, but in their Sunday concert, The Goliards hope to transport you back even farther with a program of medieval and early Renaissance music.
"(The concert) is really an embouchure upon which we can hang anything we want. We can pretty much just add things that have a Christmas-y context to them," said John Hillenbrand, one of the members of The Goliards.
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Hillenbrand, who plays Vielle, said a lot of the pieces focus on the Virgin Mary. Some of the pieces are so ancient that it's difficult to attribute it to a composer. While Hillenbrand wouldn't say that any piece was composed at the time specifically about Christmas, he said the musical program allows for an exploration of any range of beliefs for those looking to drift away into the winter holiday spirit.
"I have to say that my my first inclination is purely musical and so because we perform in a church, it's a very suitable setting for a lot of this music which is liturgical or para liturgical, but it's not really all kinds of degrees of religious beliefs," he said.
"In fact, I'm not even sure what beliefs our members have that I've known for years. The setting is good at St. Paul's (Episcopal Church), it's really is lovely. It's beautiful and things sound good in there. They echo nicely because there's not a lot of carpeting and that's appropriate to the kind of music that we performed."
Because of that decision, the concert aims to have a more winter feel rather than tied to Christmas explicitly. Instead, it'll be a performance that allows listeners to experience old world music in as traditional of an experience as possible.
"This music in its day would have had a very Christmas context. For the most part, it would have been performed in the Christmas season and in fact the some of the pieces are liturgical would have been part of the mass," Hillenbrand said.
"The context of course is different because people don't listen to a lot of medieval music these days. I wish it were otherwise, but yeah. We are doing, I guess, it's a propaganda music show. It's just propaganda for many centuries and our interest is musical rather than rather than evangelistic."
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Still, the holiday ambiance should give people that romantic feeling towards the season and the non-traditional musical performance experience could give many audience members an experience that doesn't come too often around this time of year. Hillenbrand said the program was developed as a visceral experience of what would've been played at this time of year centuries ago.
"I don't know it's not like playing 'Jingle Bells' or anything like that, which you only hear at Christmas and everybody recognizes as that," he said.
"To set this (program) myself, and just trying to introduce things to the audience that I think will interest them."
The Goliards will perform their program, "Christmas with the Goliards," at St. Paul's Episcopal Church at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $10 at the door.
IF YOU GO
What: Christmas with the Goliards
When: Sunday at 3 p.m.
Where: St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 1802 Abercorn St.
Cost: $10
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA holiday events: Christmas with The Goliards concert
