I've dallied elsewhere many times but I always come back to the joy I take in the sixteenth century ( Read more... )

With my references to my Italian-immigrant forebears, I've been fielding a lot of questions lately on my ancestry. Here's the long version (you've been warned ( Read more... )

For the past four years I've been exploring chamber music* from roughly 1530-1630, but right now I'm diving headfirst into the fifteenth century. Sonically it echoes rhythms and melodies of earlier music while foreshadowing the harmonies of my beloved baroque. Historically it lies in the convenient overlap between the academic Middle Ages (500-1500 ( Read more... )

I really enjoy taking as a performance persona what one friend called "Professor Vince". One of my life goals is to make history accessible, and I use storytelling to make up for our educational system's over reliance on easily tested dates and names. Similarly, my dulcimer playing isn't to duplicate period practice (although that's a fun sideline ( Read more... )

My goal for the week was to transcribe five 14th-century pieces that are appropriate for the 14th century dulcimer, and I have succeeded in four of those: the fifth turned out not to be playable on the instrument in question (but I may be able to fudge it). Still, those four are an excellent start, and I look to start working on the material itself ( Read more... )

One benefit to independent study is that I can follow my whimsy, so that when I get a craving to further specialize in the solo instrumental repertoire of the sixteenth century off I go. My biggest gaps are Germans and harpsichordists, and I may need to learn Italian and English court dancing to increase my familiarity with the musical forms that ( Read more... )

My biggest projects right now are playing note-for-note transcriptions of period music on a modern dulcimer and playing my arrangements of period music that would be playable on a contemporary dulcimer. One benefit of 17th century music is that there's a large overlap between the two, music that can be played exactly as written on a 17th C dulcimer ( Read more... )

It's been kind of a ludicrous week ( Read more... )

I'm really excited about my latest music project, arranging and performing 16th century lute music on dulcimer. The stuff I've looked at so far fits very nicely, though tricky to play, and I'm looking forward to hearing the finished products. The difficulty is even part of the charm, since medieval and Celtic music no longer challenge me the way ( Read more... )

There’s a standard way to go to grad school. You take the GRE and send your scores, along with your undergraduate transcript, to schools in order to apply. You then wait for an acceptance letter and choose among any schools that accept you ( Read more... )