Output details

Sacred Garland: Devotional Chamber Music from the Age of Monteverdi, The Gonzaga Band (CHAN 0761)

Sacred Garland draws together some of the earliest examples of the sacred motet with independent obbligato instrumental part. If close imitation of the human voice (as espoused by, for example, Ganassi 1535 and Dalla Casa 1584) was the ideal of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century instrumentalists, the cornett came closest to fulfilling that ideal – hence its frequent use to support or substitute for voices in sacred and secular performance practices of this period. This research project investigated the potential for imitation between instrument and voice, in both a cantabile and a rhetorical sense. Alongside instrumental imitation of the voice, this also (conversely) investigated the reciprocal implications for singers in negotiating the virtuoso demands of the repertoire: perhaps uniquely among professional early music ensembles, the Gonzaga Band is constituted explicitly to address this question. A second, related question concerned the theorbo: although nowadays used predominantly as a continuo instrument, it also served as an independent bass instrument equivalent to violone, trombone or bassoon (as witnessed in numerous seventeenth-century sources). By extension, in adopting the function of independent bass instrument it was incumbent on the player to follow the same precepts as the treble instrumentalist in imitating the voice.

This project demonstrates originality of concept, and is significantly novel and creative in approach. Rigour is evident though historically-informed interpretation and technical mastery of the challenges of this repertoire. Savan’s roles in this project comprised: programme curation, including primary source research and preparation of performing scores; artistic direction, including arbitration of performance practice decisions (e.g. pitch, temperament, interpretation of tempo and rhythmic proportions, ornamentation); and, as a cornettist, developing an individual style of delivery which aims to reconcile the opposing demands of imitating a singing line and the clarity of textual declamation.