By Kelsey Joachim
Western Herald
The Collegium Musicum will be presenting a free concert, entitled, “Mostly Monteverdi: Musical Gems of the Italian Baroque,” at the Dalton Center Recital Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 8:15 p.m.
Western Michigan University is one of the few schools in Michigan to offer an early music program, and, according to Matthew Steel, Ph.D., director of the WMU School of Music, one of the most successful.
To showcase this early music, the WMU School of Music has concerts highlighting all styles of music, from English to Spanish to German to Italian.
This concert consists of 18 singers and 17 instrumentalists.
“Students, particularly music majors, professors such as myself and professors from other schools of music, make up these two groups,” Steel said.
There will be performances of madrigals and ballet by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and sonatas by Torellli, Locatelli, and Fontana.
Orchestral strings will be played using baroque technique. Steel will be providing the string players with authentic baroque bows, and they will be playing without shoulder pads to get the full effect of the Italian baroque style.
To help the strings, an expert, Edith Hinez, Ph.D., came to some school of music classes.
Other period instruments include viols, harpsichords, chamber organs, cornetti, recorders and baroque flutes.
Although this is not a very familiar music style to most, it is easy to appreciate with its beautiful melodies and harmonies, Steel said.
This concert is purely music, there will be no costumes worn or dance accompaniment. The ensemble believes the music speaks for itself.
“The music is so beautiful that it doesn’t need gimmicks,” Steel said.
“Although I have never been able to make one of these concerts, I would love to go to one. It isn’t music that people are used to, but it’s interesting and new, even though it’s old,” WMU student Jennfier Dziedzic said.
According to Steel, this isn’t the first Italian Baroque concert that the Collegium Musicum has performed, about a dozen others have been held, with attendance averaging between 150-200 people.
