From Bingen to Bach with The African Renaissance Ensemble

Join Adam H. Golding for a lecture and demonstration on early music specifically aimed at Grade 10 – 12 music students and teachers with live performances by The African Renaissance Ensemble.

A unique opportunity for music students and teachers to experience the joys of early music live, in an engaging, entertaining, and informative presentation.

From the luminous music of Hildegard of Bingen to the brilliance of J. S. Bach, this live programme brings Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music to life.

Through performance, commentary and demonstration, Adam H. Golding and The African Renaissance Ensemble will take students on a hilarious, informative, and often gruesome journey, exploring key styles, composers, instruments and innovations connected to the music curriculum, providing a rich historical and listening context for the wonders of early music.

Hosted by St. Mary's School, Waverley

A great opportunity for students to

• Actively learn about early music in a fun and engaging way
• See how instruments developed over the centuries
• Experience different systems of tuning and intonation
• Learn about improvisation and baroque performance practices
• Build a foundation for a deeper understanding of later periods

A perfect PD opportunity for teachers

• See and hear period performance in action
• Reinforce understanding of earlier musical periods

The programme will cover topics including:

The Medieval Period

• Monody
• Early notation
• Organum
• The origins of polyphony
• Parallel writing

The Renaissance

• Church, dance and narrative music
• Advanced polyphony
• Mensural notation
• Modal writing
• Intonation and temperament
• Use of Consonance and dissonance
• Music, mathematics, and God
• Writing for consort
• Ground bass
• Continuo
• Figured bass

The Baroque

• The dance suite
• The trio sonata
• The birth of opera
• Pitch
• Countertenors and the Castrati
• Transition from modes to keys
• The concerto
• The birth of the orchestra

The ensemble includes a string consort, brass consort, wind consort, and continuo, as well as a full vocal ensemble and percussion.

You will see and hear some remarkable renaissance and baroque instruments including: Baroque Violins and Viola, Renaissance and Baroque Recorders, Renaissance Flute, Traverso, Crumhorns, Cornetto, Sackbuts, a Baroque Guitar, one of only three Theorbos in South Africa and the only Baroque Mandolino in South Africa.