Scott L. Edwards

Scott L. Edwards is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley studying 16th- and 17th-century music.

Articles by this Author

Enlivening a Legend - Review
June 10, 2008

I would have liked to see Davitt Moroney's reaction when it dawned on him precisely what that dusty box of partbooks in the Bibliothèque Nationale contained.

Big Thoughts - Review
February 26, 2008

History reserves an important place for composers who have left a monumental legacy. Bach’s cantata cycles and Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs are good examples. Among Renaissance composers, both William Byrd and Heinrich Isaac fit that bill well.

Chansons of Courtly Love - Review
February 19, 2008

It is hard to imagine a musical repertory of more astonishing refinement than the one cultivated at the 15th-century Burgundian courts of Philip the Good and his successor, Charles the Bold.

Singing Into the Light - Review
December 18, 2007

How to program something novel for the holidays is a challenge almost every choral conductor faces at year's end. Fortunately, there always seems to be an endless supply of untapped or little-heard repertory from which to draw and innumerable ways to combine music from a diverse cross section of centuries or cultures into a satisfying whole.

Sacred & Profane

Revivifying Liturgical Gems - Review
October 30, 2007

Liturgical reconstructions usually do not make for successful concerts. So it has been a relief to see this trend in early music performance diminish over the past two decades. The main problems, as performers learned through experience, are length and entertainment value. Polyphonic music was often reserved for the most important feasts of the year, which could last an ungodly number of hours. People who enjoy hearing early music live already spend a lot of time in churches, whether they like it or not.
Nor should liturgy be equated with musical entertainment.

Racy Paean to Love - Review
October 2, 2007

Despite its rare appearance in concerts today, it takes little effort to grasp why William Boyce's Solomon enjoyed such extraordinary popularity during the second half of the 18th century. Tuneful airs and imaginative instrumental writing brought accolades from British and Irish audiences alike, and the public clamor for editions of the score made multiple print runs a necessity even decades after its London premiere in 1743.
But surely the audaciously prurient text guaranteed its memorability as well as its controversy.