Photographs courtesy of Desiree Cousineau
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New faculty synergize early music program in the UNT College of Music
By Julie West, UNT publications specialist, Office of Research and Economic Development
Sackbut. Shawm. Archicembalo. Bandora. These words, not commonly heard in everyday conversation, refer to musical instruments that date from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods — ‘early’ music eras that transformed music across Europe and remain at the heart of our Western music traditions. The eras they represent may be long past, but early music instruments such as these evoke a musical palette that’s new for modern audiences, with colors and a range of expression unique from their contemporary counterparts and untethered by time.
Early music flourishes in the present at the University of North Texas. On a daily basis it can be heard wafting from classrooms, rehearsal studios and concert halls. The Early Music Studies program within the College of Music has steadily transformed in the last decade, garnering praise and recognition from musicians and audiences worldwide. Its ensembles offer one of the largest and most active performance activities of its type in North America. With a collection of over 250 early music instruments, nearly any ensemble of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries can be assembled. Recently retired teacher and former director of the program, Lyle Nordstrom, built the Baroque orchestra and strategically shaped the collection during his ten-year term as director.
Nordstrom’s legacy continues with the hire of three prominent, musicians to the College of Music faculty. Each comes from very different parts of the world and brings broad affiliations, research approaches and expertise in both early and contemporary music that will collectively synergize strengths within the program as well as across the college. Paul Leenhouts was hired to direct the Early Music Studies Program and the UNT Baroque Orchestra. He joins UNT this year from the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam where he was professor for recorder and historical development. Richard Sparks is the chair of Conducting and Ensembles and directs the UNT chamber choir, Collegium. Richard joined the music faculty last year and, since 1999, served as founding director of the professional chamber choir Pro Coro Canada. Christoph Hammer, associate professor for harpsichord and forte piano, was hired last year, as well, and comes from Munich, where he founded and directed the Munich based baroque orchestra, Neue Hofkapelle München since 1996. All have lectured, recorded and performed with renowned orchestras, chorales, chamber ensembles and festivals around the world.
In a recent interview, the three men spoke with enthusiasm about the uniqueness of the UNT program and their vision to create a variety of rich, musical experiences while here. A huge draw in moving all the way to Texas is the opportunity for each to work with extraordinarily talented colleagues and student musicians, with access to a range of period instruments and world-class performing venues. According to Sparks, “There aren’t very many places that have the resources where we could just have done a Monteverdi Vespers, and last year there was a B minor mass … those kinds of things don’t happen very often with period instruments.” This advantage makes a difference in studying and listening to the music; the research and ideas that guide the compositions are more fully realized when heard with the period instruments for which they were intended.
Hammer adds, “And there’s so much to discover still in Baroque music — music which hasn’t been performed, music which has to be set up each time in a new way, with different musicians, different instruments, sometimes even, you perform it in a different way. So this is a very exciting environment for me.”
An additional asset to the program is the department’s proximity to other internationally outstanding areas in the College, such as the Music Composition Studies division and Jazz. Leenhouts expresses interest in the possibility for interaction between areas. “I’m also personally very happy to be in a place where there’s a lot going on and also learn that next to our own department, which is quite vibrant, there’s an interesting composition and jazz department.” He notes that what early music has in common with jazz and contemporary music is an emphasis on improvisation. “Because maybe half the notes are not written on paper … you have to come up with your own ideas. Certainly before the year 1860 we didn’t have specific notation, and it was absolutely up to the performer to give it your own personal stamp.” Sharing methodologies with colleagues from other programs broadens the research palette and facilitates innovation and exchange.
Sparks observes connections already happening across the College, which makes UNT interesting. Violinists in the Baroque orchestra also study modern violin and perform with NOVA, the contemporary music ensemble; contemporary concerts make use of early music instruments; modern pianists learn the harpsichord. Hammer adds, “Either you’re a musician who, in the best case, is educated to perform in different styles — in early styles, in modern styles, in classical romantic styles, or whatever — or you’re not a good musician. And I think this is the future; and this model here at UNT is very fit for that. You study modern instruments, but you get another qualification, also, in the early styles. This interaction between modern … and historical is very important, and I hope we can build more bridges here, even outside of the College of Music.”
One bridge the three look forward to developing are relationships in the region and the Dallas/Fort Worth area. They also discuss the importance of engaging diverse and younger audiences with approaches that could energize the early music and contemporary music experience. Performing in venues other than traditional concert halls and churches such as galleries, museums, and warehouses is one way to provide new ambience and attract different crowds. Combining art forms is another — whether incorporating photography, dance or other disciplines with instrumentation or blending early with modern instruments for a unique mix of acoustic and electronic elements in composition — a variety of unconventional devices are possible to heighten associations and keep the medium dynamic, and all three professors have pioneered new as well as traditional terrain.
But the sounds of early music instruments, themselves, bring reward and make fresh the listening experience. Throughout history, instrument makers experimented with sounds. “Two hundred years ago in Vienna there were 200 different piano makers. Just to imagine! There was always a search for a variety of sound, of shadows, of colors … and we want to hear those experimental sounds from 300 years ago or 200 years ago nowadays, still again.” Leenhouts nods and comments, “Instrument makers were always members of a family who run their business for at least 250 years. The experience from generation to generation was put into instrument making. After the Second World War, most instruments were mass-produced. So you can imagine the difference in quality, even the choice of material.”
Sparks muses on the way in which early music instruments influence musicians and composers. “Because the way the instrument is played, the way it responds affects the music they write … And it’s been one of the fascinating things, actually, to talk with a few of the modern piano teachers here at UNT who have experienced Christoph’s playing forte piano and are listening to that in an entirely different way. And my guess is … it will also change the way they play, because you start to hear different colors, different articulations and things. And when, for example, our singers sing with a recorder or a Baroque violin or a Baroque oboe or a shawm or a sackbut, it’s an entirely different color they hear and allows them to think, ‘What could I do (with my voice)?’
Musicians experiment with different palettes of sound, as do chefs with spices and food.
Reminiscing about playing an original harpsichord from 1750, Hammer grins and says, “I personally learn the most, not from teachers or professors, but I have to say, from original instruments. Playing those instruments and getting just a taste of it. There’s a certain magic about it sometimes.”
Given that Sparks, Leenhouts and Hammer are relatively new to UNT, they are still discovering this magic at UNT and how they might individually and collectively contribute. At the heart of their work is a love for introducing students and audiences to a variety of 16th, 17th, and 18th century music. Stay tuned for upcoming, masterful musical experiences from the UNT Early Music Studies program.
Listen to the podcast and read the transcript to learn more about these three faculty members and the Early Music Studies Program.