Stairways to Heaven: Hexachords, Ficta, and Pillars (oh my!)

Coach: Malachai Bandy

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: Last season, Malachai led a Play Day centered on Fauxbourdon and its many symbolic meanings in works by Dufay, Layolle, Morales, and Monteverdi. By popular demand, this Play Day continues our tour of compositional techniques from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, to bolster your understanding of early-modern counterpoint––both the musical tools themselves and the more symbolic/mystical “stuff” they pack onto the page. Thus, like its earlier installment, this session treats a variety of sacred and secular repertoire, both English and Continental, as a laboratory for examining compositional clues hiding potent symbolism for centuries (right under our noses!), that require some light initiation to decode. Specifically, two of the most foundational and widespread––yet often misunderstood––elements of composition will come into sharper focus: musica ficta (accidentals) and hexachords (six-note scales) and their solmization syllables (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la). After some practical exercises and a scavenger hunt through gorgeous repertoire, these ubiquitous symbolic elements will happily scurry out of hiding, ready to jump off the page to meet you in your future musical endeavors.

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Coach: Shanon Zusman

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: Rebirth in Florence, featuring the music of Heinrich Isaac, Philippe Verdelot, and Francesco Corteccia. In today's session, we'll play through madrigals, motets, and carmen by master composers hired to entertain the Medici family in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Florence. Our focus will be matching articulation in polyphonic settings, as well as pitch length/duration in homophonic passages. After lunch, we will break into smaller groups to work on consort repertoire with one-per-part. 

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Order of music is as follows:
Francesco Corteccia (1502-1571)
Madonna io t’aggi amat’ed amo assai
Le vecchie per Invidia sono pazze
Io vorrei pur fuggir crudel amore

Philippe Verdelot (c.1485-c.1530)
Con soave parlar, con dolce accento
Madonna qual certezza
I vostri acuti dardi
O dolce notte
Fuggi, fuggi, cor mio
Se lieta e grata morte 

Heinrich Isaac (c.1450-1517)
Adieu fillette de regnon
E qui le dira
Anima mea

Coach: Eva Lymenstull

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: Join us for a relaxed morning of festive music for consort by Holborne, Byrd, Praetorius, Victoria, and more! We'll enjoy a potluck lunch together, then reconvene for smaller group sight-reading in the afternoon. Feel free to bring your favorite dish, dessert, or beverage to share!

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Coach: Malachai Bandy

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: Holborne Hospitality: Music for Mixed-Consort Gatherings

As much today as in the year 1599, Anthony Holborne’s wildly popular Pavans, Galliards, Almains and other ſhort Æirs occupies a special place in the bookcases and hearts of viol enthusiasts everywhere: a collection as flexible as it is charming and accessible, viol players today often encounter it as a first gateway to consort playing at all levels of formality, and in mixed consorts, from living room to concert hall. Whether it is your first or 301st time meeting Mr. Holborne, this Play Day promises to both inspire and improve, via useful tips and tidbits on a detailed tour of this well-loved publication. As Holborne’s own advertisement suggests, we should master his music to be better musicians and better social hosts—indeed able to befriend and host any “Viols, Violins, or other Musicall Winde Instruments” who show up at our doorstep.

Note: All levels welcome! Please print (or bring on a tablet) the *full* PDF of your chosen line/voice, which is only ~12 pages double-sided for most lines. Malachai Bandy will coach the morning Holborne session, then the afternoon will be uncoached consort playing.

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Coach: Eva Lymenstull

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: Shall we Dance?

For the September playday, we'll spend the morning session exploring dance music for viols, including pavans, galliards, almains, corants, and more! We'll work on bowing patterns and techniques for the rhythmic characteristics idiomatic to each dance, while honing our ensemble playing skills in the process.

In the afternoon, we'll divide into two main groups: consort reading and technique clinic. Eva will lead our usual afternoon informal consort reading, while Malachai will offer a walk-in technique clinic for anyone with specific technical questions (or who wants to learn and work on left or right-hand exercises) in a small group setting. Feel free to move between reading and technique rooms as much as you like!

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Coach: Shanon Zusman

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: We will explore the polychoral repertoire of Venice and Vienna, including selections by Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, Giovanni Priuli, and Pietro Andrea Ziani. In the morning we will work on 17th-century sacred works from St. Mark's and St. Stephen's, playing in different seating arrangements in cori spezzati style. In the afternoon, we will either stay together to play through more works emanating from these cities (doubling parts), or we will break into smaller groups to work on other consort repertoire.

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Coach: Marylin Winkle

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: Jewish composers of the 17th century, featuring the music of Salamone Rossi and Leonara Duarte.

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Amor / Amar: Bee St(r)ings from Dufay to Monteverdi

Coach: Malachai Bandy

Location: St James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA

Description: Using sacred and secular works by Dufay, Morales, Monteverdi, Wilbye, and others as a playground, join Malachai for a tour of fauxbourdon and other counterpoint devices symbolizing unions, sweetness, wonderment, and cupid’s stinging arrow—buzzing away, in plain sight, in your favorite repertoire.

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Coach: Uncoached consort playing

Location: St James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA

Description: We will spend the day reading through our favorite consort repertoire in a few uncoached sessions, breaking for lunch. This is a potluck event, so please bring a dish to share with everyone.

Class Materials: TBD

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Coach: Lisa Terry

Lisa is an avid chamber music performer and soloist on viola da gamba and violoncello. From her home base in New York City, she performs with Parthenia, Dryden Ensemble, Lyra Consort, Pegasus Early Music, and TENET. She is principal cellist and viol soloist with Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia’s baroque orchestra. Lisa was a founding member of ARTEK, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Juilliard Opera Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Concert Royal. She has appeared to great acclaim as soloist in the Passions of J.S. Bach throughout her career, and she serves the Viola da Gamba Society of America as Past-President. She is often heard in dance bands for Country Dance New York.

Location: St James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA

Description: Follow the phrase: using texted Italian madrigals to help you phrase your line. Private lessons can be arranged while Lisa is visiting Pasadena. Please contact Shanon Zusman (spzusman@gmail.com) if you are interested.

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Coach: Elisabeth Reed

Elisabeth teaches Baroque cello and viola da gamba at the University of California at Berkeley and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she is co-director of the Baroque Ensemble. Recent teaching highlights include master classes at the Juilliard School, the Shanghai Conservatory and Middle School, and the Royal Academy of Music. A soloist and chamber musician with Voices of Music, Pacific Musicworks, Archetti, Sound Salon and Wildcat Viols, she has also appeared with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the American Bach Soloists and the Seattle, Portland, Pacific, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestras.  Elisabeth directs "Voice of the Viol", the renaissance viola da gamba ensemble of Voices of Music.  She can be heard on the Virgin Classics, Naxos, Focus, Plectra, and Magnatunes recording labels and has many HD videos on the Voices of Music Youtube channel. She is a Guild-certified practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method™ of Awareness Through Movement ™ with a particular interest in working with musicians and performers.  

Location: St James Episcopal Church

Description: Elisabeth will present some exercises based on the Feldenkrais Method™ of Awareness Through Movement™ to help you all feel more physically comfortable playing the viol. We will also work through a few of the exercises The Natural Violist by Thomas Baeté together and then apply the principles and concepts from the book to uncomplicated, mostly homophonic music.
*Private lessons can be arranged while Elisabeth is visiting Pasadena. Please contact Shanon Zusman (spzusman@gmail.com) if you are interested.

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Coach: Shanon Zusman

Location: St. James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena

Description: Challenging Rhythms: we'll spend our first period working on the advanced rhythmic patterns in Holborne's dance repertoire. We'll tackle syncopated rhythms and other challenging patterns in his pavanes, galliards, and allemandes while maintaining a steady pulse. For the second and third periods, we'll break into small groups with additional coaching support from Malachai Bandy.

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Coach: Eva Lymenstull

Location: Pomona College, Thatcher Music Building, 340 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711

Free parking is available on College Ave. and surrounding streets, and there are several parking lots (a bit farther from the street parking, still within two blocks) with free visitor parking as well. We’ll be in the rehearsal room called “Bryant,” with its own entrance to the building, on the north side. Malachai will be there to greet everyone, and for anyone with mobility concerns, there are not any steps going into Bryant from that entrance.

Description: The Byrds and the Bees: a Mayday Playday. Join us Saturday May 6th for SoCal Viols' first playday at Pomona College in Claremont! We'll be exploring music that celebrates spring and everything pastoral, including madrigals, songs, and favorites from the viol consort repertoire, by Byrd, Tompkins, Wilbye, Morley, and more. Come enjoy a day of delightful consort music, surrounded by Pomona College's beautiful green spaces and blooming flowers.

Class Materials: CLICK HERE

Coach: Malachai Bandy

Location: St James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA

Description: Joint event with Los Angeles Baroque. The morning session (10am - 12pm) will be a coached viol consort with Malachai Bandy. The afternoon (1pm - 5pm) will be Big Band - which viols are welcome to join - directed by Lindsey Strand-Polyak.

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Coach: Shanon Zusman

Location: St James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA 91030

Description: In our morning sessions, we will focus on building ensemble skills. We will work especially on these areas: intonation/tuning, breathing as a consort, rhythmic precision and bow direction, unity in articulation and dynamics, and general interpretation. We will spend some time as a class analyzing the scores and discussing possibilities and then try a few of our ideas out as we play with intention. Works by Bach, Praetorius, Josquin, Rore, and Gibbons will be featured.

Class Materials: Download here

Coach: Malachai Bandy

Location: St James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA 91030

Description: We invite everyone to bring a potluck dish for an early holiday celebration at lunch. We will have a coached morning session with Malachai Bandy, followed by small consorts in the afternoon.

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Coach: Julie Jeffrey

Location: Santa Monica College, Music Building, 1310 11st St., Santa Monica, CA 90401.
Note: Parking is free, and masks are required indoors.

Description: For our morning session I would like to share two of my current viol-related obsessions, one of which centers on repertoire, and one of which is all about technique.

For starters, we will look at some sixteenth-century settings of Dido’s lament, Dulces exuviae. Lifted from Virgil’s Aeneid, this text, spoken by Dido at the moment of her death, was a favorite with composers throughout the 16th century, including Josquin, Ghiselin, Orto, Arcadelt, Willaert, Lassus, and Handl, among others. We will play through a few of these gorgeous pieces as a warm-up for the second portion of the session, in which we shall move on to some more focused technical work.

My technique topic of the day: tips and tricks for how to get better at fast notes! Leaping forward into the 17th-century, we will explore ways to build courage and facility when faced with those sixteenth-note passages that inevitably pop up when you least expect them, and we will put it all to practice in a bracing 3-part fantasia by William Young.

Julie Jeffrey has been playing the viol since 1976. She has performed throughout the U.S., in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia, and teaches privately and at workshops in the U.S. and abroad. Ms. Jeffrey is a founding member of Sex Chordae Consort of Viols, Wildcat Viols, Antic Faces, and The Barefoot All-Stars, and she embodies half of the viol duo Hallifax & Jeffrey. Ms. Jeffrey is co-founder and co-director of Barefoot Chamber Concerts, and has served on the board of directors of The Viola da Gamba Society of America, The Pacifica Viola da Gamba Society, and The San Francisco Early Music Society.

Class Materials: Click here

Coaches: Shanon Zusman, Malachai Bandy

Location: St James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA

Description: We'll spend the day in small ensembles, one-per-part, joined by Shanon or Malachai as our coach, rotating groups and coaches in three periods. Consorts will be pre-selected and music distributed one week in advance. Our focus will be on improving ensemble playing, with an emphasis on articulation, dynamics, and phrasing. *Please note there is a strict registration deadline of June 11, so we can put the groups together and carefully select the best repertoire for the day in advance. We need to know how many coaches to have so each group will have a coach.

Shanon Zusman holds a doctorate in Early Music Performance from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he studied Baroque double bass and viola da gamba with James Tyler…Read more.

Malachai Komanoff Bandy graduated cum laude with Distinction in Research and Creative Work from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music with double bass and music history degrees…Read more.

Class Materials: TBD

Coach: Taylor Smith

Location: Virtual and In-Person at Cuyamaca College, El Cajon, CA (click here for map).

Description: Improvising and Listening Like A Real Renaissancer

Quite often, we look at books like Ortiz’s Trattado de Glosas or Simpson’s The Division Viol as sources of interesting and fun music, which they are. But, this misses a big part of why these books exist; they were written as how-to manuals on improvisation. So, let’s try it! Also, we will explore another side of music from the 16th and 17th centuries: the glorious writing of composers like Palestrina, Lassus, and Victoria. Nearly everything we play in consort settings has its roots there, and learning to listen to that style makes consort music come alive in ways we may not have experienced before.

Please note: This is a hybrid in-person/virtual playday. Select your preference at registration.

Class Materials: Click here

Coach: Eva Lymenstull

Location: St. James Episcopal Church, South Pasadena, CA

Description: In the morning coached session, we will read through madrigals and consort songs to explore the vocal side of the viol. We will have the option to break into smaller consort groups for the afternoon session.

Eva Lymenstull enjoys a diverse international career as a soloist, chamber musician, continuo player and orchestral musician, playing baroque cello and viola da gamba. She has performed as concerto soloist and principal cellist with Lyra Baroque Orchestra, guest principal with Atlanta Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, and Musica Angelica, and has also appeared with Tafelmusik, Voices of Music, Tesserae, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Holland Baroque. The winner of the 2017 Voices of Music Bach Competition, she has performed at the Carmel Bach Festival, the Utrecht, Boston, and Berkeley Fringe Festivals, and on the Gotham Early Music and Academy of Early Music series. In addition to performing, she teaches baroque cello and viol as a guest artist at the University of Michigan. She holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Rice University, University of Michigan, and a doctorate in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University.

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Coach: Bruce Bales
Location: Chapman University, Orange County, CA
Description: Nobody buys homegrown tomatoes: Six national movements that were founded by foreigners, featuring the music of Adrian Willaert, Josquin des Prez, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and George Frederic Handel. Bruce will coach us from 10-12pm. We will break for lunch, then 1-3pm for small consorts in separate rooms. **Masks are required at all times while at Chapman University.

Bruce Bales has directed the Early Music Ensemble at Chapman University since 2013, where he also lectures in Medieval/Renaissance/Baroque Music History. He is Professor Emeritus at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, where he served as Director of Choral, Vocal and Early Music from 1992 to 2018. 

Dr. Bales earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree at Chapman University and a M.F.A. in Choral Conducting at the University of California, Irvine. In 2001 he completed his D.M.A. in Early Music Performance at the University of Southern California. He regularly performs both as a baritone soloist and as an early music instrumentalist (playing viols, lutes, cornetto, sackbut, recorder, crumhorns and hurdy-gurdy).

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Coach: Joanna Blendulf
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Description: Playing with Time I: In our first 50 minutes, we will work through bowing strategies in both duple and triple meter (and when they are bound by tripla or sesquialtera proportion), with a focus on bow technique for clarity, beauty, and timeliness! Exercises adapted from selections in Petrucci's Odhecaton Canti A (1501) will be provided in all clefs. I will demonstrate first, then we will all play together! 

Playing with Time II: will involve creating simple and complex diminutions in both duple and triple meter, based on division examples from Diego Ortiz's Tratado de glosas (1553). Special attention will be given to playing these divisions with sprezzatura and using bowing concepts from our first session!

Joanna Blendulf is associate professor of music in baroque cello/viola da gamba at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Joanna has performed and recorded with leading period-instrument ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. She is currently co-principal cellist and principal viola da gamba player of the Portland Baroque Orchestra and has also performed as principal cellist of Pacific MusicWorks, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, and the New York Collegium. Joanna is an avid chamber musician, performing and recording with the Catacoustic Consort, Ensemble Mirable, Music of the Spheres, Nota Bene Viol Consort, Parthenia, and Wildcat Viols. She is also sought after as a teacher and chamber music coach and has served as a classroom and private instructor at the University of Oregon and the Berwick Academy. Joanna holds performance degrees with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Jacobs School of Music, where she earned a Performer's Certificate for her accomplishments in early music performance.

Class Materials: Click here to download

Coach: Shanon Zusman
Location: St. James Episcopal Church, Pasadena, CA
Description: First two by two, then three by three, together: We will explore repertoire for 2, 3, and 4 viols, doubled (tripled, and quadrupled) to get back into the swing of things. Selections will come from free, online sources of consort repertoire by reputable editors Allen Garvin and Maurizio Gavioli, and include composers such as Asola, Zarlino, and Rore, as well as more familiar works by Byrd, Lasso, and Ruffo.

Shanon Zusman serves on the faculty at the CSU Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, where he teaches music history and Baroque performance practice, in addition to general music courses at Santa Monica College and College of the Canyons. Since 2006, Shanon has taught at several national VdGSA Conclaves, and he has coached viol consorts and private students in southern California for nearly twenty years. He holds a doctorate in Early Music Performance and a master’s in Musicology from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he studied Baroque double bass and viola da gamba with James Tyler. A recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship to Austria, he became interested in early music while researching the history of the bass in Vienna and studying viola da gamba with José Vázquez. As a freelance musician, he has performed with Bach Collegium San Diego, Con Gioia, Concordia Clarimontis, Musica Angelica, and Camerata Pacifica Baroque.

Class Materials: Click here to download