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Texas Early Music Project

PO Box 301675

Austin, TX 78703

(512) 377-6961

For ticket and concert venue inquiries, email the Box Office

 

PO Box 301675
Austin, TX 78703
United States

(512) 377-6961

Founded in 1987 by Daniel Johnson, the Texas Early Music Project is dedicated to preserving and advancing the art of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical music through performance, recordings, and educational outreach. 

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Filtering by Tag: John Dunstable

My Dinner with Antoine

Danny Johnson

 
 

Welp, even though good ol’ Ben Franklin said “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days,” that wasn’t the case with the visit from my friend Antoine. When he found out that we were featuring movements from the mass he’s recently written in our first concert of the season, he decided to come on over from “Yurp” so we could confab about it before we started rehearsals.

He had never been to AusTex before, so we did a little sightseeing and he just had to go to Antone’s—partly because he thought they had misspelled Antoine’s–and partly because he wanted to hear some blues. He dug it, needless to say, but couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t be interested in having a little sightreading session on stage since he had brought along the manuscript of a new motet that he’s been working on [he carries it everywhere— I’m surprised it fit in the overhead]. He really didn’t understand that members of the general public wouldn’t be able to read the kind of music notation that he’s used to.

Mobile Pumpkin Spice motor oil.

He got over it after we drove around a little bit more. We had to stop for oil when the warning light came on in my car, but luckily we found some seasonal 10W-40. Then he wanted to go to another iconic Austin restaurant, so went to Fonda San Miguel for some of that interior Mexican food he had heard so much about. He dug that, too, and we stayed there for hours discussing musica ficta, modes, motets, and margaritas. The margaritas led him to unload tons of gossip about Josquin and the reasons he really left Italy, and also about his pranksterisms: leaving lots of scores unsigned and/or putting the wrong name on others. Antoine said that Jos joked, “Ha! In 500 years they’re gonna be pulling their hair out trying to figure out which pieces I really wrote!”

Sadly, the visit came to an abrupt end when he was summoned—rather, ordered—to get back to Ferrara asap because Lucrezia Borgia wanted to preview the mass she commissioned for her husband, the Duke. (It’s the same mass we are performing in a few weeks, and even though we didn’t really get a chance to confab on it, duty called in no uncertain tone of voice. So to speak.)

On the way to the airport, he was thrilled to see a local coffee place, hoping against hope that they would have his favorite coffee to sustain him for that long flight. He took a selfie with the only pumpkin spice latte he’s likely to have this season, unless he comes back for another visit! Oh, there’s info below about that concert I’ve been mentioning. That mass is really quiiite special; I’m sure Duke Alfonso I will get all shaken up over it! See the details below, including audio excerpts.

-Danny


 
 

A Cry of many voices:
British Isles & The Lowlands

Saturday, September 20, 2025, at  7:30 pm
&
Sunday, September 21, 2025, at 3:00 pm

St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, 606 W. 15th Street

Admission (with fees): $53 VIP general; $38 general; $48 VIP seniors (60+);
$33 seniors (60+); $5 students with ID
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

For more information, email boxoffice@early-music.org.

Welcome to our 2025–2026 Love Letters concert season in which we will explore the timeless love of agape, the joy and pain of eros, and a dash of philia and storge. In our opening concert, we explore these themes in the music of the British Isles and the Lowlands (or Low Countries, corresponding to modern-day Belgium, The Netherlands, and parts of northern France), particularly during the transition from the late Medieval style to that of the early Renaissance.

The cry of many voices, 26 a cappella voices in this case, will sing both as individuals and as members of a unit while performing some of the most sublime, moving, and exhilarating music imaginable: The ultimate effect is greater than the sum of its parts. There is magic in the interweaving voices, in the hypnotically static harmonic rhythms alternating with florid vocal lines full of both subtle and obvious virtuosity, and in the architecture of starkly transparent solo lines alternating with thickly colorful choral sections. This is the world of the Eton Choirbook in England and the Scottish composer Robert Carver, who was greatly influenced by the Eton Choirbook. It is also the world of the Franco-Flemish composer Antoine Brumel, whose powerful Earthquake Mass developed uniquely on the continent. In order to further the experience of “many voices,” the featured piece from the Eton Choirbook by Robert Wylkynson is for 9 voice parts and the movements from Brumel’s Mass are for 12 parts. But wait—there’s more! Robert Carver’s O bone Jesu is for 19 parts! All three composers build magnificent pillars of sound using different compositional techniques.

As a contrast with these relatively massive vocal works, our consort of viols will offer more transparent timbres with pieces by English composers Robert Fayrfax, John Dunstable, and Hugh Aston, and continental (Lowlands) masters Josquin des Prez as well as Alexander Agricola and Antoine Brumel.

Enjoy these audio teasers from our CD Sacred: Music of the Divine from Medieval to Baroque:

Join us for a beautiful and moving concert that will illuminate the passage from the late Medieval to the early Renaissance with passion and beauty.

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Do you remember this scene?

Danny Johnson

You know the one from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which the peasants are all muddy and working in the field are generally, you know, oppressed? I always think of that scene when we’re preparing a concert from that time period in England. As luck would have it, that’s what we’re doing now, because this weekend we have our first concert with real, actual humans in our vicinity since February 2020. Huzzah, y’all!

This season’s ‘theme’ is gathering again. Because, you know, we are. And for this concert, which is partly in Middle English, it’s gaderen: gathering again. (Jonathan Riemer has some of The Best ideas.! You can download our season brochure here.)

However, we are gathering again safely, following the protocols: We will be encouraging distancing, so that you and your pod of friends can sit with a little distance among other pods. We will also be strongly requesting that you wear your masks during the concert. We will have some special masks for you, as well. Please read our Covid Information below and on our 2021-2022 Season page.

Also, we are releasing a reissue of the CD of the concert that was the inspiration for this concert. Mirie it is! Early Middle English Songs was part of our “3rd Annual Mid-Winter Festival of Music” in 2001 and was based on the research that Judith Overcash Acres conducted during her studies at Case Western Reserve University, where she earned a Doctoral degree in Historical Performance Practices in 2001. So, you can take home a companion volume, as it were, to this weekend’s concert. (Seven of the eighteen pieces on our new concert were also in the 2001 concert, so it’s not a direct copy.) You can visit the Mirie it is! CD page to listen to audio samples and purchase the CD now for $21, shipping included! We hope that you will also want to get the Mirie it is 2021 concert recording when we release it as well! 🙂

We hope to see you at the concert on either Saturday, Oct. 2 or Sunday, Oct. 3. We will not be quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail and will reference it only 1 or 2 times at the most.

Gaderen!
–Danny


 
 

Mirie it is!
Medieval English Music

Saturday, October 2, 2021, at  7:30 pm
&
Sunday, October 3, 2021, 3:00 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by buying season tickets!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

For its first in-person concert since February, 2020, TEMP is presenting music from really olde England in the 12th century through around 1450, well into the early Renaissance. There are only a handful of Middle English songs from before 1350 that have remained extant, and TEMP is performing eight of them. The music and texts in the Medieval repertoire of the concert deal with daily life, faith, the turning of the seasons—especially the joyful arrival of Spring and Summer and the specter of the advancing dreariness of Winter.

The Renaissance portion of the concert includes works by two of England’s most important composers, Leonel Power and John Dunstable, as well as anonymous motets in honor of famous individuals like St. Augustine of Canterbury and the martyr priest, Thomas à Becket. Most early Renaissance polyphony is for three parts, and it was just awesome enough to be all the rage on the Continent as well, and it even had its own name: the contenance angloise, or the English manner.

Our “return” concert has the single lines of the Medieval repertoire, the rich harmonies of the contenance angloise, and a couple of delightful Medieval English dances, performed by vielles, harps, recorder, and psalteries.

Our special guests are tenor Christopher LeCluyse, who is one of TEMP’s founding members, and frequent guests Ryland Angel (tenor and countertenor) and Mary Springfels (vielle and citole). They are joined by ten singers (including soloists Cayla Cardiff, Gitanjali Mathur, and Shari Alise Wilson) and four instrumentalists.

Hosted by Arts on Alexander on the campus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Ave,
Austin, TX 78722

COVID Protocols

TEMP will be adhering to all State and City regulations, as well as guidelines from the CDC concerning masking and social distancing, as well as the requirements of our venue. We urge you to buy your tickets in advance, as the audience size will be limited so that the audience can be safely distanced. The audience is strongly requested to be masked at all times; we will have masks available for your use as well. Please feel welcome to contact us with questions or concerns.

Join us as we are gaderen: gathering again!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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