Born in Northern Italy, Maria Xaveria Peruchona (ca. 1652-after 1709) joined the Collegio di Sant’Orsola, a religious convent for women, in 1668. Contemporary accounts indicated that Peruchona was a fine singer and organist, and she no doubt studied with Isabella Leonarda who was one of the most prolific female composers of that time. Peruchona devoted … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: Winter Quarter 2013

Hailing from Verona, Evaristo Felice dall’Abaco was a baroque violinist and composer. Born in 1675 to a skilled guitarist, dall’Abaco received some of the best musical training available, and may even have been a student of Giuseppi Torelli. He spent most of his life composing and performing in his native Italy, but in 1715, he … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: Autumn Quarter 2013

Based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo has come down through history as one of the earliest operas to employ the full resources of the orchestra. Monteverdi’s use of polyphony, and especially his innovative orchestration, dazzled audiences at the 1607 Premiere. The original score called for about a dozen vocalists … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: Summer Quarter 2013

Jacquet de la Guerre Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre is best remembered as the first French woman to write an opera (Cephale et Procris in 1694). She was born into a family of musicians and performed upon the harpsichord for Louis XIV when she was just five years old. According to contemporary accounts, she was … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: Spring Quarter 2013

Working and living almost exclusively in early-eighteenth century Paris, Louis-Nicolas Clérambault was primarily an organist. While employed in the Parisian churches of Grands-Augustins and Saint-Sulpice, he honed his skills as a composer. While Clérambault was organist and choir director at the royal house of Saint-Cyr he developed the French Cantata form and was widely heralded … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: Winter Quarter 2012

Thomas Tallis was truly a Tudor composer. With a life that spanned most of the sixteenth century, Tallis served the royal court under Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Under Elizabeth, Tallis, along with William Byrd, was granted a twenty-one year monopoly on polyphonic music, as well as a patent to publish and print … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: November 2012 edition

Most of the information that we have regarding Giovanni Battista Fontana comes from the preface of a posthumously published collection of his compositions. Published in 1641, eleven years after his death from the plague, Fontana’s lone collection consisted of sonatas for one, two, or three parts. His own instrument was the violin, a fact that … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: October 2012 edition

During Antonio Vivaldi’s extended tenure at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, he composed two settings of the Gloria (he is rumored to have written a third Gloria, but this setting has been lost). These two sacred works were virtually forgotten upon the death of Vivaldi in 1741 and only returned to the repertoire in 1939. … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: September 2012 edition

Nicolas Bernier was an Italian-influenced French composer of motets and cantatas who lived from 1664 until 1734. Bernier is a lesser-known composer of the French baroque, who belonged to the generation that came between Lully and Rameau. Although he spent his formative years in Italy, he returned to Paris and held many different musical posts … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: August 2012 edition

By the late 17th century, the term “consort music” had given way to such now familiar terms as concert, concerto, and sonata. For the century prior, and especially in the Jacobean era, consort music was extraordinarily popular in England. It was in the twilight of consort music that the publisher John Carr compiled an anthology … Continue reading Ars Antigua Presents: July 2012 edition