SFEMS Baroque Workshop • Bruce Dickey • The “Beautiful and Strange” Monteverdi Vespers

Presented by San Francisco Early Music Society

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Listen to an illustrated lecture by Bruce Dickey about the modern performance history of the Monteverdi Vespers as a mirror of the progress of the HIP movement. Play and sing along at the end as a joyous dessert..

The Monteverdi 1610 Vespers have moved into the mainstream and even into popular culture in a way that no other piece from the 16th or 17th centuries can even approach. Learn about the performance history of this music in the 20th century, seen as a mirror of the history of the HIP movement. We will go back to the beginning of the 20th century to examine the publication history of this music and its first modern performances. We will listen to some fascinating recordings from the 1950s trying to understand the origin of many of the traditions that continue today in performances of this music. We will look at size and disposition of musical forces, clefs and transposition, choice of instruments and instrumental doubling and even at the question of whether this is a unified musical work. At the end of the session we will invite anyone and everyone to sing and play along with a recording of the iconic opening versicle and response, Deus in adiutorium meum intende / Domine ad adjuvandum me festina.

Pitch: A=440
Format: Lecture / Play and Sing Along Dessert
Audience: Anyone
Duration: 75 minutes
Materials will be provided in advance

SFEMS nationally renowned series of summer workshops, first held in 1980, are now online while we remain socially distant.
Visit our website for all the offerings: www.sfems.org/workshops

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$21–25