Ars Antiqua
In 1957 Dorothy Amarandos, graduate of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, visionary, cellist and viola da gambist, founded the remarkable performing group, Ars Antiqua in Rochester, NY. Ars Antiqua was dedicated to the re-creation of moments of the 12th through the 18th centuries…through the performing arts. Its local performing home was the beautiful and resonant Fountain Court of the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery. Its mission was to bring the rich experience of earlier periods into the lives of the people of modern times. Its great strength was its ability to draw upon the variety of highly skilled musical and theatrical performers, dancers, artists, and researchers available in that cultured city.
It’s been recently discovered that amateur tape recordings, made during live performances staged over 40-45 years ago, have revealed a previously unknown treasure trove of 17 (out of 22) different Ars Antiqua concert-productions. After the recordings were restored to a digital format, the highest quality reproductions were selected and arranged in four CDs. The selections, which highlight the expertise and versatility of individual players and singers as well as the variety of productions, are presented in an eclectic and pleasing mix that deliberately shifts back and forth across the centuries, reflecting the wide-ranging contrasts of musical styles performed by the group over those years.
The original Ars Antiqua productions themselves offered a renaissance of all-but-forgotten treasures of early music, some silenced for nearly 200 years due to lack of interest and the unavailability of authentic instruments. Ars Antiqua brought these pieces to life again, along with the words of sages and poets and authentic dances of ancient festivals, all set with beautiful costumes and staging and heralded by collector-quality programs, which were themselves masterpieces of art and design. Many of the productions have been lost forever, but the CDs offered here give new life to some of the best performances.
Audiences in many cities throughout the world are now enjoying the revival of madrigal, troubadour, and sacred singing, and the playing of viols, recorders, harpsichords and other early instruments. But during the decade between 1957 and 1967 Ars Antiqua offered a unique synthesis of the history and arts of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Each production represented a tradition, a development, a specific historical event, or the influence of an individual, crossing the social and cultural currents during a particular period. Examples of the 22 Ars Antiqua productions presented during those years included: “Lorenzo dei Medici”; “A Look at Shakespeare’s England”; the medieval church dramas “Herod” and “The Legends of St. Nicholas”; “The Love Song”; “Theatre de la Foire”, to name a few. The core repertory group of performers included six instrumentalists, each a virtuoso player on instruments of antiquity, and five expert solo or ensemble singers, with the addition of other narrators, actors, dancers, and instrumentalists as each program demanded.
Since neither the equipment nor the production of these tapes was of professional quality originally, they provide an informal but delightful glimpse of what it was like to be part of the enthralled audiences at Ars Antiqua pageants and productions, complete with extraneous sounds, coughs, chuckles, outright laughter and generous applause. It was a time to savor and remember.