Group performs in the community.
By V.L. Roberson
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The Early Music Makers ensemble will present a recital 7:30-8:30 p.m. May 4 in the auditorium of McAllister Fine Arts Center.
The recital will feature medieval and Renaissance music with instruments of the time period.
“The concert is the final exam for the course,” said music Professor Madalyn Blanchett. “It is presented each semester.”
The course is MUEN 1134, Early Music Ensemble.
The ensemble features various sizes of recorders, crumhorns, hurdy-gurdy, tambourine de bearn, instruments used in medieval and Renaissance music-making, she explained.
“The ensemble does community service, playing for groups at the Landa Branch Library, nearby schools and senior centers,” she said.
Students dress in period costumes for the performances.
During the Middle Ages or medieval period A.D. 500-1400, musical notation began as well as the birth of polyphony, a style of musical composition employing two or more simultaneous but relatively independent melodic lines, according to music education expert Espie Estrella at musiced.about.com.
The Renaissance period followed from 1400-1600. The music of this period was influenced by the developments that define the Early Modern period. From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, according to the website.
Video recordings of the ensemble and other music department group ensemble performances can be seen on the college website at http://sacms.alamo.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/catalogs/default.
This ensemble course is not limited to music majors and may be repeated for credit, according to the course catalog 2014-15.
For more information, contact Blanchett at 210-486-0257 or mblanchett2@alamo.edu.