Lectures & Special Events
Below are currently scheduled lectures and special events for MEMF 2013. All concerts except the MEMF Participant Concert will be preceded by an expert lecture, free and open to the public, to be held in Room 2650 of the Mosse Humanities Building (map) unless otherwise indicated. Some special events have additional admission fees as indicated below.
Pre-Festival Arts Council of Edgerton Benefit Concert
Friday, July 5, 7:30 pm; Wartmann Prairie, 7356 Caledonia Road, Edgerton, WI
Piffaro, The Renaissance Band
Sponsored by William Wartmann. Tickets are $10 ($5 students). Purchase at the door or in advance through the Edgerton Chamber of Commerce, 608-884-4408; the Piggly Wiggly in Edgerton; or the Edgerton Pharmacy. Not included in the 2013 Festival Concert Pass.
Pre-concert Lecture presented by John W. Barker
Professor Emeritus of History, UW-Madison
“The Germanies in 1616, and How They Got to be That Way”
Our Festival's culminating program evokes a lavish celebration at a modest example of the many principalities into which German lands were divided at the time. The story of that situation of division is a long one, reaching back to the early Middle Ages and culminating in the "re-unification" of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The German world of 1616 will be viewed within that broad context.
Saturday, July 6, 6:30 pm; Room 2650, Mosse Humanities Building
Lecture is free and open to the public.
Pre-concert Lecture presented by J. Michael Allsen
Professor of Musicology, UW-Whitewater
“More than a ‘Theater of Instruments’: The Syntagma Musicum of Michael Praetorius”
The prolific composer and organist Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) was among the most influential musicians of his age. This talk will briefly touch on Praetorius's life and music, but will focus on his Syntagma Musicum. This huge treatise, his unfinished magnum opus, is well known for its information on the musical instruments of the day, but is also an invaluable source of information on music and musical performance in early 17th-century Germany.
Sunday, July 7, 6:30 pm; Room 2650, Mosse Humanities Building
Lecture is free and open to the public.
Lecture-Recital presented by Ensemble SDG
Edith Hines, violin, and John Chappell Stowe, harpsichord
“Biber and German Violin Playing in the Late Seventeenth Century”
A performance by Ensemble SDG of several of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's partitas on the Mysteries of the Rosary, supplemented by an overview of late-seventeenth-century German violin technique and repertoire.
Monday, July 8, 11:30 am-12:30 pm; Morphy Recital Hall, Mosse Humanities Building
Lecture is free and open to the public.
Handel Aria Competition
Monday, July 8, 7 pm; Morphy Recital Hall, Mosse Humanities Building
Emerging young singers exploring the repertoire of Handel compete for cash prizes. The contestants will perform for an audience and a distinguished panel of judges drawn from the MEMF faculty—and the audience also chooses a favorite! Dean and Orange Schroeder, MEMF supporters and enthusiasts of G. F. Handel, make this competition possible. Complete info»
Free and open to the public.
Pre-concert Lecture presented by Catherine Sawinski
Assistant Curator of Earlier European Art, Milwaukee Art Museum
“The Illustrated Festival Book in Context”
The development of the printed image in the 15th century allowed ideas and knowledge to spread quickly throughout Europe. Prints were not only a way for artists to share concepts with each other and to sell their work to a greater public; they were also a tool for kings and nobles to make and strengthen their claims to power. This lecture will explore how the pageantry of the Renaissance and Baroque combined with the power of the printed image to create fabulous illustrated books.
Thursday, July 11, 6:30 pm; Room 2650, Mosse Humanities Building
Lecture is free and open to the public.
Lecture presented by Anna Mansbridge
Historical dance scholar
“Reconstructing Dance History: Why Bother?”
This lecture demonstration focuses on the dances described by Fabritio Caroso and Cesare Negri in their treatises describing dance practices published in Italy between 1581 and 1602. Anna Mansbridge and Peter Durham will perform selected dances from this repertoire, and discuss the relevance of these old dances to contemporary performance practice both in dance and in music.
Wednesday, July 10, 11:30 am-12:30 pm; Room 2650, Mosse Humanities Building
Lecture is free and open to the public.
Pre-concert Lecture presented by David Crook
Professor of Musicology, UW-Madison
“Bible Reading and Musical Exegesis in Sixteenth-Century Germany”
The many lists of Gospel and Epistle readings for Sundays and major feasts of the Church year that we find in sixteenth-century vernacular bibles remind us that these passages played a central role in not only corporate worship but also the domestic reading of lay persons. For preachers and theologians, there was no higher calling than the exegesis of this core scriptural repertory. And that high calling, as the research presented in this lecture reveals, was one to which musicians also sometimes aspired.
Thursday, July 11, 6:30 pm; Room 2650, Mosse Humanities Building
Lecture is free and open to the public.
Masked Ball
Wednesday, July 10, 7-9 pm; Great Hall, Memorial Union
Join us for a delightful masked ball featuring dances of the German Renaissance. Dance instruction is by European court dance specialist Anna Mansbridge. MEMF instrumental faculty artists present dance music from an eight-day international festival that took place in Stuttgart in March of 1616. Costumes are welcome, and a mask-making station will be available. Light hors d'oeuvres and cash bar. Come to dance or just enjoy the fantastic music!
Open to the public; free for MEMF workshop participants—others $10 at the door.
Pre-concert Lecture presented by Robert Wiemken
Co-founder and director of Piffaro, The Renaissance Band
“The German Hofkapelle in the Early 17th Century: Musical Magnificence at the Stuttgart Court”
The celebratory mass for the baptism of Prince Frederick of Württemberg took place in Stuttgart in March of 1616. The musical forces garnered for the event were said to have been lavish, both for the ceremony and for the accompanying festivities, evidence of the wealth, prestige and opulence of the Stuttgart court. Vocal and instrumental forces combined to create a musical/liturgical event of international political and social import, displaying a broad palette of ever-changing aural textures and colors, typical of a German court Hofkapelle for such festive occasions at this time.
Friday, July 12, 6:30 pm; Room 2650, Mosse Humanities Building
Lecture is free and open to the public.