Wondrous Beasts
Songs of the Bestiary
Alkemie joins forces with composer Elliot Cole to craft new arrangements of stunning music from 14th-century Italy and newly-composed repertoire inspired by the medieval bestiary. Vielles, harp, recorders, percussion and voices evoke soaring birds, slithering reptiles, wondrous creatures, and the goddesses Diana and Venus. Serving as both mythology and Christian allegory, these fantastic visions of the animal kingdom continue to provoke the modern as well as the medieval imagination.
PROGRAM
A poste messe (Lorenzo da Firenze)
Hedgehog (Elliot Cole)
L’aspido sordo (Donato da Firenze)
Canta lo gallo (Anonymous, 14th century)
Alquil’ altera – Creatura – Ucel de Dio (Jacopo da Bologna)
Una fera gentil (Paolo da Firenze)
Unicorn (Elliot Cole)
Dolphin (Elliot Cole)
Una panthera (Johannes Ciconia)
Basilisk (Elliot Cole)
Sovra la Riva (Lorenzo da Firenze)
Alba Colonba (Bartolino da Padova)
Era Venus al termin del suo Giorno (Paolo da Firenze)
Passando con pensier (Niccolo da Perugia)
Stag (Elliot Cole)
75 minutes of music (including 10 additional minutes that will be composed this year) - this concert is about 90 minutes with readings, tuning, and talking
ARTISTS
Tracy Cowart (voice, harps, percussion)
Madeline Healey (voice, percussion)
Ben Matus (voice, recorders, medieval bagpipes, percussion)
David McCormick (vielle)
Sian Ricketts (voice, recorders, douçaines)
Niccolo Seligmann (vielles, viola a chiavi, percussion)
PAST PERFORMANCES