May 2020 I've always loved the viola da gamba and have collected recordings of its literature for donkey's years.  I also owned a bass viol for several years and enjoyed playing it although I never reached a particularly high level of accomplishment.  I managed to perform in concert Telemann's sonata for recorder and viola da gamba from Der Getreue Musikmeister (TWV 42:F3) holding forth on the solo viol part -- that was the highest peak I [...]

April 2020 The Renaissance is a thing of many splendors.  This post focuses on Renaissance composers whose works have come to mean something special to me over the course of my lifetime of involvement with music.  When I think about the world of Renaissance music I see that my awareness of it in the early part of my life was skewed both by the limitations of the canon -- no, Bridget, Palestrina wasn't the only [...]