Early Music Week at Pinewoods

Are you passionate about renaissance, medieval, and early baroque music, especially as revived and played on period instruments? Do you also love nature and being in community with others? If so, this is the week for you!

Early Music Week offers joyful opportunities and challenges to players, singers, dancers, and listeners at every level, from novice to highly experienced. As classes unfold through the week, we explore and discover the connections that lie behind some of the world’s most vibrant and compelling renaissance, baroque, and medieval music. And we dance together every day, connecting with dancers and musicians in a unique and spontaneous way, so different from a class or a concert hall — in the pavilions under the pine trees.

Work and Play

At Early Music Week, instrumentalists can focus intensively on their primary instruments, enjoy the opportunity to play with others in mixed ensembles, yet also find time to explore something completely new. Singers can delve into early music repertoire in small groups, sing in a chorus or collegium, or try an introductory instrumental class. Everyone is invited to enjoy English country dancing, with instruction during the day for all levels. The week also features an English dance band class, evening lectures in early music, a dedicated space for our LGBTQ+ community to meet and talk each day, an outstanding faculty concert, and various performing opportunities for our participants. The daily family-style meals are delicious!

Beasts, Fantasy, and Love

This summer our inspiration comes from composers who used their imagination to weave incredible tapestries telling of love and adventure. We will play and sing together, and dance throughout the day. A special feature this summer will be the Medieval Collegium—if this class interests you, come prepared to present a costumed drama on our last Friday, before the participants’ concert. Also, look for the engaging Nature Walk class led by Pinewoods Executive Director and biologist Chris Jacobs.

~Lisa Terry, Program Director

Arrival & Departure

Saturday Arrival Schedule:

Saturday Departure Schedule: 

Daily Schedule

Period 1

Instrumental and vocal consorts grouped by level (B to A)

Beginner to Advanced: recorder, viol, voice, strings, harp, louds, mixed instruments, medieval instruments. Beginning and intermediate voice classes will include rhythmic, interval and sight-reading exercises to strengthen the students’ musicianship.

Advanced Vocal Consort – Michael Barrett

The morning advanced consort with Michael Barrett may opt to stay together all day, working alone with Michael in the mornings and with strings and continuo in the afternoons.

English Dance Band: Making Dancers Move and Your Heart Sing (UI+, all instruments) – Jacqueline Schwab

Join us for this user-friendly class designed for those who would like to learn the little-known craft of making music dance-able. We will explore what, beyond a steady tempo, makes music dance-able and what inspires people to move. The journey of becoming a dance musician may help grow your sense of rhythm, melody, and harmony, improvisation, commanding sound and flowing ease in your playing, listening, ensemble playing and more! Open to all who love to play at a dance-able tempo.

Medieval for Beginners (B and up, all instruments, voice) – Niccolo Seligman

Learn simple medieval tunes in a relaxed environment. All voices and instruments welcome. Music literacy not required.

Continuo Playing at Every Level (open to all) – Frances Fitch

No matter where you are in your understanding of a figured bass line, there is room for you in this class. Even if you are not a keyboard player, you can benefit a great deal from understanding what is going on harmonically in a piece of music. Everyone is welcome, especially keyboard players and other chordal instrumentalists. Using a few innovative techniques, we will make it possible for you to overcome fears of improvising, learn not to freeze when you see figures, or learn to increase your mastery of voice-leading, arpeggiation, counter-melodies, and style

Period 2

Introduction to English Country Dancing (B and up)  – Susan Kevra, with Frances Fitch and Karen Burciaga

If you’re new to English Country Dancing or simply want a stronger foundation, this class is for you! We’ll start from scratch with basic vocabulary and the corresponding movements so you can gain fast fluency on the dance floor. You’ll build confidence through simple choreographies that leave room to focus on style and the pleasures of dancing well, dancing with each other, and enjoying each other’s company, while seeing how the music informs the choreography.

Experienced ECD (A):  The Breadth of the Genre – Bruce Hamilton, with Jacqueline Schwab and Emily O’Brien

English Country Dance has tunes and choreographies from five centuries, styles ranging from court to ceilidh, from extra-creamy to extra-crunchy. It has de­licious modal tunes. It has squares, lines, circles, and non-Euclidian shapes. It has dances three pages long. This magnificent collection needs us, its custodians, to keep dust from gathering on it, and we benefit from having our own horizons pushed outward. We’ll sample the collection, appreciating its range and the characters of individual dances. And who knows? New personal favorites may hide in unexpected places.

Period 3

Mapping your Musician’s Body (All) – Frances Fitch

This class can help any musician to achieve greater ease, fluidity and comfort in playing their instrument or singing. Through an understanding of the body’s structure and design, participants will find practical ways to make music more effectively with fewer limitations (pain, fatigue, or discomfort) and more joy. We will learn things you didn’t know you needed to know about balance, breathing, the spine, arms and legs, hands and fingers, awareness and attention.

Chorus: War Cries and Pageantry (All) – Joshua Overby

Nowadays, the only things sent to the battlefield are soldiers and their machines. However, they felt a little bit differently in the olden days! Kings would bring not only clergy so that they could hold mass, but also choirs to sing the Ordinary and Propers and to display majesty, might and wealth. Let us explore some of the music they might have been performing!

Lions and Tigers and Bears — Oh my! (I Recorders) – Eric Haas

A medieval and Renaissance bestiary of creatures fantastic, mythical, fierce, noble, domestic, and imaginary.

Fantastic Fantasias and Where to Find Them (I viols) – Lisa Terry

Let’s hunt through the repertoire of viol music from across Europe and find hidden gems of instrumental counterpoint: ricercar, tiento, fantasy, base danse. We will add the most interesting ones to our collection!

The Love Poems and Music of Machaut (I and up, All) – Benjamin Matus

Equally famous among fans of medieval poetry and medieval music, Guillaume de Machaut was a master of the pains and joys of courtly love. To make our declarations (and deplorations) of love, we will examine Machaut’s ballades, rondeaux, and virelais from both a textual and musical standpoint. Sing and play this beautiful music with new and deeper understanding. Open to all singers and instrumentalists. 

No Texting Allowed: Renaissance Instrumental Fantasies for Loud Instruments (UI louds) – Dan Meyers

While the majority of the music played by Renaissance civic wind bands was drawn from vocal repertoire, some Renaissance composers wrote music that was clearly instrumental, allowing wind players to show off their chops while exploring more abstract ideas. We’ll look at some of these pieces, which can often involve tricky leaps, rhythmic puzzles, and other challenges, and explore how to perform them with style and panache on Renaissance loud wind instruments.

Fancy Feast (UI+ to A, Renaissance viols provided) – Sarah Mead

A smorgasbord of early fantasies played on Renaissance viols. Experience a matched set of Brescian-style viols and discover the expressive possibilities afforded by an all gut-strung consort and Renaissance bows. Instruments will be provided, but your own Renaissance viols are welcomed as well. (Note: the provided instruments are all tuned to A or D; no G-tenors in the set, so be prepared to broaden your horizons!)

Renaissance Recorders (UI to A) – Héloīse Degrugillier

This class will meet for two periods, but you may sign up for 1st afternoon, 2nd afternoon, or both. Enough instruments will be provided for all who are interested.

Myths and Miracles (A voices, with continuo) – Michael Barrett and Jonathan Oddie

Telling ancient stories with not-so-ancient (Baroque) music, for advanced voices and continuo.

Flecha’s Ensaladas (A, recorders) – Miyo Aoki

For those who want to work in-depth on one or two heftier pieces, we will explore the delightful “salads” of Mateo Flecha.  These pieces are essentially quodlibets that have it all – sacred, secular, vocal and instrumental all rolled into one narrative work.  This is a great way to explore multiple styles and genres within one piece of music, with some fun rhythmic and time change challenges and an overarching storyline.

Style Chameleon (A, all instruments) – Niccolo Seligmann

When playing music from other traditions, do you ever feel like you sound “too classical,” and can’t figure out why? What makes musical styles sound like how they sound? This class takes a practical approach to musical style, focusing on what genre-signifiers need to be present (or absent) in order to best blend with other musicians in that tradition. Traditions covered include Arabic, Balkan, Irish, Old-time, Swedish, and more.

Period 4

Medieval Collegium (All levels, all instruments and voices)- Niccolo Seligmann and Benjamin Matus

Join voices and instruments in medieval song and fun! Bring costumes for this Pinewoods special medieval drama on our last Friday, before the participants’ concert. Instruments  of the medieval era welcomed, but not required.

ECD Explorations – Bruce Hamilton with Jacqueline Schwab

“And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” A singer gives life to a song, a musician gives life to a tune, and dancers give life to a dance. Old favorites can blossom under gentle, loving attention and reveal color, texture and fragrance we didn’t know were there — or sensed but couldn’t quite reach. We’ll give some dances that attention and see what happens.

The Eloquent Goat: Exploring the world’s most popular percussion instrument from Africa to Europe and beyond (B and up, tambourine) – Dan Meyers

Few instruments are more ubiquitous in world music traditions than the tambourine, and tambourines of various types were used from the Medieval through the Baroque periods in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and South America. There are almost as many different ways to play the tambourine as there are different variations of the instrument; we’ll learn the basics of classical North African tambourine technique and rhythms, as well as the approaches of various European folk music traditions, and explore how these different ways of playing can be used to accompany early music. No previous percussion experience required; some instruments are available to borrow. We will be playing our usual melodic  instruments in this class also!

Masques Requir’d (LI and up, all instruments) – Karen Burciaga

Dive into the wondrous world of Jacobean masques and encounter satyrs, witches, fairies, and other fantastical creatures. We’ll play music in 3-6 parts by Robert Johnson, John Coperario, Thomas Campion and more, with room for improvisation for those interested. Costumes encouraged.

Music in Arcadia (I to UI, recorders and strings) – Miyo Aoki

Visit the pastoral landscape of Greek mythology through music of the Renaissance. Along with musical settings of mythological tales, such as Daphne, we’ll play excerpts from Thomas Morley’s publication, The Triumphs of Oriana, which supposedly paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth I. She was referred to as “Oriana” in the song texts and each madrigal ended with the refrain “Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: Long live fair Oriana!”

A Mythical Sea Adventure (recorders/flutes, strings, UI) – Larry Zukof

Our featured work will be Telemann’s Water Music Suite Hamburger Ebb und fluth written for the 1723 centennial of the Hamburg admiralty. The suite contains dance movements portraying deities of the sea and wind. Our rep for the week will also include dance movements from the more famous Water Music by Handel. Violin family instruments welcomed, as well as viols, recorders and flutes.

Beyond the Page (UI+, all instruments) – Emily O’Brien

Getting out from behind the security of the paper can be intimidating, but practicing the skills you need for that will make you a better all-around musician, can help you perform more securely, and can even improve your sight reading! Memorizing, improvising, and playing by ear were basic components of a musical education in previous centuries. And you too can practice and improve at these skills more readily than you thought! If you’ve struggled to memorize, or have been convinced that only people with a special kind of brain could improvise, then this is the class for you.

Renaissance Recorders (UI to A) – Héloīse Degrugillier

This class will meet for two periods, but you may sign up for 1st afternoon, 2nd afternoon, or both. Enough instruments will be provided for all who are interested.

All Creatures Great and Small (UI+ to A Renaissance viols & voices)- Michael Barrett and Sarah Mead

Birds and beasts portrayed in secular songs and sacred psalms for voices and Renaissance viols. Renaissance recorders are also welcome. Players from the first afternoon Renaissance viols class are encouraged to stay and build on their experience. Explore how the rich timbre of 16th-century instruments and the details of vocal line and text enhance the polyphonic experience for all.

Extracurricular Activities

Midnight Viols, and more! – David Hunt

David will facilitate social playing in the afternoon and evening each day, in groups large and small, with room for pet projects, skill-sharpening, and merriments. BYOB – bring your own box – of music!

Queer Hangout Space – Niccolo Seligmann

This open-ended “class” invites queer & trans students to spend time in an Early Music/ECD space truly for queer people. We can share our experiences in Early Music/ECD, learn about each other’s lives, and explore ways to create more space for ourselves within the larger majority-cis/het early music/ECD communities. While all students are welcome, non-queer students are encouraged to take a listening-oriented role.

Nature Walks – Chris Jacobs

Pinewoods Camp Executive Director and resident biologist, Chris Jacobs, takes us on walking tours of Pinewoods Camp to learn about the incredible flora and fauna of eastern Massachusetts. One walk will be before breakfast, and another just after lunch.

The fee for this session is $1,120.

Camp fees cover all accommodation, meals from dinner on the arrival day to breakfast on the departure day, and all of the various dance, music, and song events in the program.

You can find more information about the registration process here. If you need financial assistance in order to attend, please go to our scholarships page.