750 Years of Early Music: Lecture and Live Performances
Schedule: Fridays, October 23-December 4, 2009 (no session November 27); 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Location: UW Campus, Seattle (see maps)
Reg. # 105190

Course Description

Do we even know what music sounded like 400 or 800 years ago? The answer is no - and yes. There are no recordings from the time, but we do have texts and notation, pictures, and instruments that survive. We in the 21st century think we invented self-help books, but our Baroque fathers were verbose when it came to instruction. They left us literally hundreds of performance manuals. We think of the grandeur of Renaissance and Baroque castles and cathedrals, but the grandest orchestras and choirs in the 18th century were only about 24 people; and for centuries before that a consort of instruments might number 5 or 6. This course will explore the sounds of the last 750 years of western music, with live performances by members of Seattle's vibrant early music community and recommendations for upcoming concerts.

Instructor

Marty Ronish, Ph.D.
Ronish, came to Seattle in 2007 from National Public Radio in Washington DC where she was the Editor for the Music Unit. She currently produces the national broadcasts for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As a radio professional since 1994, she has interviewed thousands of musicians and actively supports getting live performances on the air. Trained as an educator and musicologist, Ronish specializes in early music and plays Baroque flute. She co-authored with Donald Burrows, A Catalogue of Handel's Musical Autographs (Oxford University Press, 1994) that won the Music Library Association's Book of the Year Award. Ronish was a Fulbright Scholar in England from 1980-82 and received her Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Maryland in 1984.