Quite frankly, nobody can even come near Shakespeare in his mastery of language. He is to English what Bach was to counterpoint, Tchaikovsky to melody, or Mozart to form and balance.

Anyone who sings in a choir knows the name John Rutter. He might be considered one of those “crossover composers” – writing music that is hard to place as purely “classical” or “popular”. Naturally, this has made him disliked by many elitist musicians who seek reasons to turn their noses up at composers who are actually successful during their lifetimes. But once you get over that bit of nonsense, you’ll find that he is a master composer with impeccable technique (solid & interesting vocal writing) who knows how to please his performers and audiences with honest, unpretentious music.

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind” is a song found in Shakespeare’s “As you Like It“. I am particularly fond of this text, and find comfort in it when I’m having a bad day. Rutter’s setting is perfect. It flows like a popular song, has a sweeping melody (with a couple fantastic 9-8 suspensions!) and some harmonic twists that give it a bite – like a winter wind: not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.

It’s only natural that humans compare their lives to the world around them – the birth (or rebirth) of life at spring, the fruits of summer, the autumnal decline, the unforgiving winter.

Composer Thomas Morley lived during England’s Elizabethan golden age and is best known for the secular Madrigals – choral pieces related to the polyphonic sacred music of the time, but with texts about love, death, and everything in between. Morley was probably friends with Shakespeare, and is one of only two composers whose music was used in Shakespeare‘s productions while the great poet was alive.

His short madrigal, “April is in my Mistress’ Face” compares his lover to … er … certain months of the year.

Ouch.

Since the end of World War II, there has been a renewed interest in the music of the renaissance era. Gradually, this music that was once considered ancient or irrelevant has risen back into the mainstream Art Music world. The problem was, musicians in the 1950’s played the renaissance music the same way they played modern music. Some musicians questioned the wisdom of this, and began researching the instruments and practices of the earlier musical eras. The result was like finding an old tarnished work of art, and polishing and restoring it to its magnificent luster. The modern, bright brass sound was traded for the older, mellow, rich sound of older instruments. Over-vibrating strings and voices were replaced by a softer, straight-tone style. Slow, ponderous tempos were replaced with agile dances. It wasn’t enough to simply play the notes from the old scores – much more research and effort was needed to make the music come back to life. This approach to playing old music became known as performance practice, and was firmly rooted in the Art Music world by the 1980’s. Nowadays, it is expected that any performance of older music follow at least some, if not all, of the principles of performance practice.

The 1950’s approach to old music is similar to walking through a historical city – you admire the buildings, read a few historical placards, maybe buy a souvenir. The performance practice approach would be a historical city where there are people, in costume, doing the things that were done centuries ago – like stepping back in time. It’s more than an amusement, it is an experience!

On of my first exposures to performance practice early music was through the work of Paul McCreesh, performing the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, also featured in this previous post.