Viola da Gamba Society - New England

Viol sound is based on shaping resonance. Unlike the violin family, once a note begins we don't need to keep working to produce it, instead we guide it. This workshop explores the art of allowing the resonance to continue while using bow speed and interactive consonants and vowels to add rhetoric and line.

Why is this important? Because if we don't have to work so hard to make a sound, we've got more brain and more energy left to shape it. Also, it’s an unavoidable part of what we do. Once I asked Dom Zuchowicz to make me a less resonant viol for fast Irish tunes, but I couldn’t figure out how to play it without depending on that reverberant cushion of sound.

Since vocal music is such a perfect model of shaping sound with consonants and vowels we’ll play consorts songs, lute songs and vocal part music, as well as a variety of 16th-18th c. consort music; each genre with its own particular use of resonance and articulation. Some Dalcroze excersizes and improvisational games will help us focus on particular techniques.

Coaches for the workshop will include Sarah Cunningham, Laurie Monahan, and John Mark Rozendaal.

All levels welcome, singers also welcome. Preformed consorts may be accepted for one class and there will be a beginners’ class if there is enough interest.

Extra!!

Come hear Nota Bene Viol Consort with guest tenor Jason McStoots in a late-afternoon concert following the workshop;

This is a Free Concert as part of the New England Renaissance Conference;

Nota Bene Viol Consort Members
Joanna Blendulf
Wendy Gillespie
Sarah Mead
Emily Walhout
With guest, Jason McStoots, tenor

Program: "One Little Room an Everywhere: Voyages of Discovery in a Small Chamber"

A one-hour interactive program with wine and refreshment, capping a full day of scholarly discovery;