Car 54, Where Are you?

We sort of feel like the guys in Car 54: We know exactly where we are, but it doesn’t feel like it’s where we’re supposed to be, which is on stage, performing in front of our audiences. And our audiences don’t know where we are, either, because…well, you know.

We have been releasing our weekly Musical Tacos, and it has been fun and will continue to be, although on less of a weekly basis, because we have serious bidness to take care of! We’ll be back to normal!! Well, except we can’t see you. You can be watching us from the coziness of your own home, which is great, except we can’t converse after the show, shake hands, and hug’n’stuff. But, we’ll be back to normal in the sense of providing some necessary artistic musical love for you. The program may not be exactly what we wanted to do in March for our live concert, but there is so much diversity in the repertoire from Medieval France that we quickly found even more wonderful music to offer.

Even though we won’t be able to see you during our video, it will wonderful knowing that you are there. And many won’t be left out due to geographical distance. Howdy, stranger!

See below for more info on our upcoming Ah, Sweet Lady Video Premiere, including our trailer!

À Bientôt!
-Danny

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AH, SWEET LADY: PASSION IN MEDIEVAL FRANCE
A Video premiere

Premiere for subscribers and prior ticket holders:
Thursday, September 10, 2020, at  7:30 pm

Premiere for the general public:
Saturday, September 12, 2020, 7:30 pm

After the Premiere for subscribers and prior ticket holders on Sept. 10, the video link will close and then will be available again from Sept. 12–17.
The video will be viewable until Thursday, Sept. 17 at 11:00 pm. Tickets must be purchased by 9:30 pm on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Admission: $5 Student/Supporter; $15 Fan; $25 Friend; $50 Patron

The general admission price is the Fan category, $15. If you're struggling due to the Coronavirus situation, take advantage of our lower-priced Student/Supporter offer. If you’re able to pay a little more, and can help someone else pay less, please do so with the Friend and Patron prices. 

Tickets available in advance online. After the purchase of a ticket an email with video access instructions will be sent to you on September 11.

Subscribers to the 2019-2020 Season and those who purchased individual tickets to the March concert will receive an email about your tickets; you will not need to purchase tickets to view the concert video.

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

TEMP returns from its pause after the onset of Covid-19 to present a pre-recorded video featuring music from the 13th–14th centuries in France. This music takes us back to days of yore with knights, monks, and poets, with songs of unrequited love, daily trials, melancholy, exuberance, and even blissful love.

The Montpellier Codex contains early polyphonic works in France and was likely compiled around 1300. While many of the texts deal with some truly tender variations on love themes as well as more jovial ones (“I love B. but C. loves me and I don’t know what to do because B. loves D. who loves C...”), there are others about country kids visiting the big city (Paris) with Medieval versions of the still popular trope. We also feature music by Guillaume de Machaut, the greatest and most important composer of the 14th century, who composed wonderful, whistle-able melodies as well as striking and complex polyphony.

Early Music Now Host and Producer, Sara Schneider will also present a personally crafted lecture during the video, interspersed between sets of music. The video will also contain art from the 14th and 15th centuries and evocative photography.

Sixteen of TEMP’s singers and players recorded this music live in Austin in late June and early July and remotely from New York. Our production team has worked since then to create a seamless video of music, speech, and art ever since, a path that would have seemed impossible just a few months ago, but is now the wave of the (temporary) present.

Please join us as we reconnect with you through the magic of music.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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The Long and Winding Road: 2020-2021 Season Update

The long and winding road back to live concerts with our normal group of singers, instrumentalists, and guest artists seems to become longer and more winding, rather than closer.

Many of you would have already purchased season tickets for the 2020-2021 Season, but we are still finalizing (and changing and re-finalizing) our plans for the 2020-2021 season due to the COVID-19 impact on all of us: musicians, audience members, volunteers, venues, and everyone who makes our concerts possible. For this reason, we found it necessary in May to cancel spring ticket sales for our upcoming 2020-2021 Season. We are letting you know now because we finally have a little bit of good news!

We will release two video concerts, one in late August and one in late September. Stay tuned for details! The 2020-2021 season (and ticket sales) will launch with another video in early November and with a newly recorded video of our Christmas concert in early-ish December. Details to follow as soon as we have concrete information on completing the 2019-2020 season and presenting the 2020-2021 season.

The fine arts are in a difficult situation. Symphonies and opera companies with long and esteemed histories have had to shutter due to the Covid-19 impact. Smaller, more flexible ensembles like TEMP have their challenges as well, but rest assured, we will be offering a continuation, of sorts, of our unique repertoire that we love so much.

Stay safe. Stay caring. In the meantime, we hope you are enjoying our weekly musical Tacos!
-Danny

Enjoy a tasty musical treat every Tuesday: Sign up for our Taco Tuesday Newsletter! Click on the image below to sign up!

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Giving Tuesday Now

#GivingTuesdayNow is a worldwide day of giving and unity on Tuesday, May 5 that aims to meet the urgent needs of nonprofits created by the pandemic. In central Texas, this is being hosted by I Live Here, I Give Here as an Amplify Austin event. Many of our local nonprofits are struggling as funding sources, ranging from ticket sales to City of Austin support, are plummeting. Please consider giving generously to support nonprofits of your choice by going to www.amplifyatx.org.

Texas Early Music Project is participating in this event, and if you wish to help support TEMP and its artists please go to TEMP’s page at www.amplifyatx.org/organizations/texas-early-music-project.

The pandemic has been devastating on so many levels for us as individuals, as families, as businesses, and as artists. But Texas Early Music Project, as an arts organization, is not throwing in the towel. We are working out what we will be doing to continue giving you, our audience, the experience of joy and beauty that music can bring, and finding ways that we can support our artists while we are on a performing hiatus. Please stay with us as we work out exactly how we are going to do this!

And meanwhile, while you are staying healthy in mind, body, and spirit, please enjoy our TEMP Taco Tuesdays, which provide you just the musical snack you need to carry you through these challenging times.

Danny Johnson, Artistic Director
Anthony Toprac, Board President

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

Strange days have found us...

Remember the good old days? The big question was, “Now, is it the night to set out the recycling or the night to set out the trash?”. I used to chuckle at myself for even having to think about it, but now we are mindful of absolutely everything we do.

We are also mindful of what we can’t do and what we really want to do: We want to gather together, rehearse, and present concerts for you (and for ourselves—we wouldn’t present the music if we didn’t love it!). As I mentioned in the previous blog from March, we were preparing to present music by a composer (Machaut) who was seminal in my "career path” before plans were derailed.

Our current plans, subject to change by the ever-fluid situation, include extending our 2019-2020 season for several months so that we can more safely gather to present the two postponed concerts: Ah, Sweet Lady: Passion in Medieval France, previously scheduled for March, and The Student Becomes the Master: Monteverdi & Cavalli in Venice, previously scheduled for May, We will let you know as soon as we have more details and we will, of course, honor purchased tickets at our rescheduled concerts. If we are not able to safely include audiences, we will come up with other plans, including live-streaming or videotaping the concerts.

There are many wonderful writers who have waxed eloquently about the human situation during these strange days, so I know I don’t even have to attempt to do the same other than to hope for your continuing health and safety.

In the meantime, I hope you are able to catch our Tuesday Musical Tacos. We’re trying to offer a variety of “flavors” so we can appeal to every palate! For additional audio samples, please visit our Recordings page and enjoy past videos on our Gallery page.

All the best,
-Danny

Sign up for a free audio “taco” every Tuesday!

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Found My Groove

So, speaking of the past, and we often are, when I was a sophomore at Texas Tech, we studied Medieval music as part of the music history survey, and I was introduced to the music of Guillaume de Machaut. He was not only a poet of high regard, but also a composer of both miniatures and larger musical works; for me, this introduction was yet another life-changing experience. The New York Pro Musica released their 1967 album, Ah Sweet Lady: The Romance Of Medieval France, with works by Machaut and others and it was—and still is—amazing.

This was yet another disc (of many) that I listened to so much that I created grooves in the album…. (The triple canon Sanz Cuer M'en Vols – Amis, Dolens – Dame, Par Vous especially affected me. How much fun it was to be able to sing it in the first Texas Tech University Collegium Musicum concert!) The discovery of all of the ars nova repertoire was another of the key events that directed my future interests.

Anyway … Our upcoming concert of music from Machaut and earlier is entitled Ah Sweet Lady as a tribute to the trailblazers of the NY Pro Musica.

And also: Love's Illusion: Music From the Montpellier Codex was released by Anonymous 4 in 1994, and they presented their concert of that album at UT in Bates Hall in 1996, sponsored by TEMP and the Handel-Haydn Society. In honor of those friends, we named our 2019-2020 season Love’s Illusion, fitting in many ways but also because our upcoming concert will be featuring several pieces from the Montpellier Codex as well. You can read more about our Ah, Sweet Lady concert below.

So history begat history?

And thanks for Amplifying TEMP! We will use it to bring more inspiring music to central Texas!

À Bientôt!
-Danny

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Ah, Sweet Lady:
Passion in Medieval France

Saturday, March 28, 2020, at  7:30 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive
Sunday, March 29, 2020, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

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 sponsoring a concert!

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

The music from the 12th through the 14th centuries in France takes us back to days of yore with knights, monks, and poets. Songs of unrequited love, daily trials, melancholy, exuberance, and even blissful love are a natural reflection of the society at that time. Like the original troubadours in Southern Occitania, the trouvères in Northern France continued their poetic and musical tradition and extended the influence of the early singer-songwriters long after the troubadours were dispersed in the early 1200s. The songs often revolve around idealized treatments of courtly love, observations of nature, stories about loss due to death from wars or jousting. 

The Montpellier Codex contains early polyphonic works in France and was likely compiled around 1300. Guillaume de Machaut, who died in 1377, was the greatest and most important composer of the 14th century. Machaut’s compositions reveal skilled treatments of polyphony while invigorating the solo song with more subtle and adroit poetry, almost always on the topic of courtly love. 

This exciting, exuberating, sometimes experimental music in France from about 1175–1375 will be performed by a small ensemble of 16 singers, including soloists Jenifer Thyssen, Shari Alise Wilson, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Tim O’Brien, and more, along with our period orchestra of vielles, rebec, oud, gittern, harp, hurdy-gurdy, and psaltery. Our special guests are Ryland Angel (tenor & countertenor), Peter Walker (bass & also Medieval bagpipes), percussionist Peter Maund, and vielle master Mary Springfels.

Join us for some sweetness, a few giggles, toe tapping and joy,
melancholy and empathy.
BYO Armor.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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Unknown Facts

1960 Fender Concert Amplifier

So, it’s generally unknown, but pretty true, that I was in a band in high-school in Big Spring. Our name was the Summits, which was picked by going through the phone book and doing the closed-eyes and point technique and whatever the street name was, that was the selection. It was about the 3rd attempt. I don’t recall what the first ones were, but they were probably something like 18th street or Nolan or some other street that was nowhere as good as Summit Street. Anyway: I was the singer (I played bass a little) so since I didn’t have instruments to carry, I wound up carrying the amplifiers, which were, you know, necessary to a fledgeling rock band doing covers of the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Dylan, Monkees, etc etc … Wow. I miss the Summits. Good times. There was that time that … well, more later.

And here it is is, &$^&$#@%&%$@ years later, and amplification is still necessary for music groups, even relatively fledgeling [compared to some] or established [compared to others] early music groups. So please help me amplify TEMP later this week: March 5–6!  Read all the deets below. And prepare yourself for some covers of Medieval French hits by Anonymous, Anonymous, and Machaut later this month.

More soon!
-Danny

AMPLIFY TEMP!
6 pm March 5 – 6 pm March 6

Our organizational goal is to raise $10,000 for our general operational expenses (especially for musicians’ compensation) and our educational outreach. TEMP is actively creating educational outreach programs to join forces with Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Austin Independent School District. To make this program free for our partners, we need to raise funds for instruments, instructors, and performers. 

Please visit our Amplify page to read more about it.

Here’s how you can help:

Please consider donating $25 (or more!) on TEMP’s page on Amplify Austin. Any Amount Helps! Here are some suggestions:

• $25–$199 Helps with office supplies and program printing 

• $200–$499 Helps cover venue rental costs 

• $500–$999 Helps our educational outreach programs with TSVBI and AISD

• $750–$999 Assists with artist compensation

• $1,000–$4,999 Assists in Director compensation 

• $5,000 + Sponsors a concert

NO NEED TO WAIT: donate NOW!

Enter #LoveTitos and $5 will be added to your donation!

You don't have to wait until March 5 to participate in Amplify Austin! You can donate now! Just click on the "Donate now" button on the TEMP campaign page.  And if you enter the hashtag #LoveTitos when you check out, Tito’s Handmade Vodka will add an extra $5 to your donation!

BE A FUNDRAISING CHAMPION!

You can also become an individual fundraiser for TEMP by creating your own campaign page on the Amplify Austin website and inviting family, friends, and colleagues to donate to your TEMP campaign. Go to the TEMP campaign page and click on the "Fundraise"  button in the top right of the page next to the Donate button.

BE A MEDICI - BUT NICER! AMPLIFY TEMP AND AMPLIFY AUSTIN!

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

She loves, but when she confesses...

…it gets really interesting!

 Sometime in the 17th century, or maybe a little earlier, someone wrote these words about love:

My shepherdess, with no fickleness in loving, causes me to find good things every day. But you must manage your time carefully: For it flows away and is lost hour after hour.
Whoever wishes me to fall in love, let him at least tell me, with what: Broken hope, eternal faith? Better a thousand times to die, then for to live thus still tormented.

Crying is my only pleasure; I nourish myself only with tears. Grief is my delight and moans are my joys.
The heavens are raining disasters on me every hour. What can I say? My tears, why do you hold back? Why not give vent to the proud sorrow?
The sun refuses to show his light, and day shall then be turned to night; Then lose no time, for love hath wings, and flies away from aged things.

Your contempt each day causes me a thousand fears, My treasure, I would find torment with you that would be sweeter than happiness with another. My beloved, I suffer... O my sweet love!

Granted, no one poet wrote all of those lines: They are one-liners plucked from each of the songs (in Italian, French, and English) that we are performing in a couple of weeks as part of the cavalcade of “love songs” performed during the Valentine season. We are attempting to give you a pretty full gamut of the emotions involved in 17th-century love songs, but they anticipated Joni Mitchell’s “comfort in melancholy” line in a big way. (I did omit the blatantly ‘happy’ lines in my hodge-podge teaser above... but there are actually a few!)

 Beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Robert Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier).

There are eight soloists and seven instrumentalists; it will be intimate and intense. Maybe we will supply the hankies...

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

Happy Valentine’s Day(s) - Why limit it to just one day?
-Danny

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She Loves and She Confesses:
Love Songs from the Baroque

Saturday, February 22, 2020, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue
Sunday, February 23, 2020, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

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 sponsoring a concert!

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

The metaphysical English poet Abraham Cowley, who wrote the text of our title song, with music by Henry Purcell, also wrote this:

A mighty pain to love it is, And ’t is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain it is to love, but love in vain.”

Joni Mitchell wrote that there’s a sort of comfort in sadness; both classical and popular composers have long relied on tearjerkers with angst and melancholy to exhibit their powers of expression, and many seem most comfortable when composing in this vein. Barbara Strozzi, John Dowland, and others fit very comfortably into this mold, with music that is passionate and powerful and exquisite.

We will also feature a few wonderful songs about the delights of blissful love, and their exuberance and enthusiasm set them apart from their less happy cousins.

Enjoy these audio teasers from past concerts:

Our 21st season, Love’s Illusion, continues with beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Frescobaldi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, Boësset, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier). Our soloists, accompanied by a small band of lutes, harp, harpsichord, and strings, are Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Jenny Houghton, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Brett Barnes, and special guests Ryland Angel, countertenor and tenor, and Donald Livingston, harpsichord.

Join us for a few tears, a few giggles, toe tapping and joy, melancholy and empathy. Oh, and some scary jealousy.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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December needs another week!

So that we can all go to all the concerts we want to go to, perform in all the concerts we want to / need to, and still have a little time for, oh, I don’t know, maybe shopping/eating/visiting and the occasional nap! I know I’ve seen this idea proposed on other forums but no one seems to do anything about it. C’mon! Someone do something!

Because, as it turns out, we have our very own Christmas concert(s). NEXT WEEK. Three days in a row. So I’m too busy and having too much fun to start the 5-week-December campaign.

An Early Christmas is, by all accounts, one of our favorite concerts, because we cover so much territory, historically speaking, that we change the parameters of what early music is and even what Christmas music can be, and yet still tug at the heartstrings. So join us next week. And then, maybe after the New Year, get into gear with the 5-week-December campaign.

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

See ya! It’s multilicious!
-Danny

Tickets for Saturday and Sunday's concerts are selling fast. Guarantee your seat by purchasing your tickets in advance. There is still plenty of room on Friday!

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AN EARLY CHRISTMAS

Friday, December 13, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. John's United Methodist, 2140 Allandale Road
Saturday, December 14, 2019, at  7:30 pm
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Avenue
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive

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 sponsoring a concert!

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

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of Christmas music through the ages. Different cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous English and French carols, magnificent motets for 8 parts from Italy and France, and lively Celtic songs, dulcet Dutch carols, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

Enjoy these audio teasers from our most recent CD, In dulci jubilo: Early Music of the Season:

Enjoy more selections from Gaudete: An Early Christmas, Swete was the Songe, Noël: An Early Christmas and Stella splendens: An Early Music Christmas.

Brett Barnes, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Jenny Houghton, Gil Zilkha, and Jenifer Thyssen are featured soloists, and acclaimed harpist Therese Honey, countertenor Ryland Angel, and Karelian chromatic kantele player Viktoria Nizhnik are featured as special guests.

Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. And you can use our new word, multilicious!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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