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Mississippi Early Music Ensemble
The Masque of the Four Seasons
On April 21, 2008 at 8:00 PM, the Mississippi Early Ensemble (MEME)
will perform a concert of early music in Nutt Auditorium. The program
includes works in several styles from 1500 to 1700, and features the a
masque of the Four Seasons from The Fairy Queen (1692) a
semiopera by Henry Purcell. In this work, the four seasons appear with
offerings to the sun god who makes all seasons, and all life, possible.
Also featured are several French chansons from the 16th century, and
passionate works by Claudio Monteverdi. Soloists
include Debra Spurgeon, soprano, Cynthia Linton and Dasha Teelin,
mezzo soprano, Kevin Dyess and Christian Feazell, tenors, and instrumentalists
playing violins, recorders, viola da gamba, and harpsichord.
The Mississippi Early Music Ensemble, directed by Laurdella
Foulkes-Levy and David
Warren Steel, includes both students and faculty, and specializes in
the interpretation of European music before 1700. In addition
to choral and solo vocal music, the group performs on a number
of instruments, including recorders, crumhorn, harpsichord, organ,
viola da gamba, baroque guitar, and percussion.
Construe my meaning
On November 12, 2007 at 8:00 PM, the Mississippi Early Ensemble (MEME)
performed a concert of early music in the newly renovated Nutt
Auditorium in the Scruggs Music Building. The program included
works in several styles from 1690 to 1715, and featured the music of
Dieterich Buxtehude, the Danish-born German composer who died in 1707.
Highlights include a mystical cantata on the feet of Jesus, a motet by
Spanish composer Carlos Patiño, and an Alleluia for chorus, trumpets
and organ, and several songs that are puzzling or light-hearted. Soloists
included Debra Spurgeon, soprano, Kevin Dyess, tenor, and instrumentalists
playing violin, recorders, viola da gamba, oboe, flute and harpsichord.
A lieta vita
On April 25, 2007 at 8:00 PM, the Mississippi Early Ensemble (MEME)
performed a concert of early music in the newly renovated Nutt
Auditorium in the Scruggs Music Building. The program featured
works in several styles from 1400 to 1715, and includes an excerpt
from Stefano Landi's opera Il Sant'Alessio, a pioneering
work featuring some of the first comic scenes in musical theatre.
While the concert includes somber works--a ballade by
Gilles Binchois, a cantata by Barbara Strozzi, and a funeral motet
by Victoria--it also contains lighthearted music by Josquin, Gastoldi
and Morley. The soloists and choir are accompanied on recorders, crumhorns,
viol, baroque guitar and a newly installed pipe organ.
In Principio
On October 12, 2006, the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble, along
with Mockingbird, performed
at a concert of medieval music held for the annual meeting of the
Southeastern Medieval Association
(SEMA). MEME performed monophonic
sacred music, including a large segment of the Ordo Virtutum,
an allegorical play by Hildegard of Bingen.
Music the Time Beguileth
On May 1, 2006 the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble presented
a concert of seventeenth-century music in
Paris-Yates Chapel on the University of Mississippi campus.
The program included a variety
of vocal and instrumental works for dance, recreation, and worship.
Highlights included madrigals by Don Carlo Gesualdo and Thomas Weelkes
for soloists, "Zefiro torna," a famous springtime duet by Claudio
Monteverdi, and Orlando Gibbons's inimitable "Cries of London,"
evoking life on the city streets, in which vendors, criers and
beggars all sing their distinctive songs above an instrumental
fantasia.
Christmas in New Spain
The music of Latin America during the Renaissance and
Baroque periods was featured in a performance
by the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble, entitled "Christmas
in New Spain," on Tuesday, November 29 at 8:00 PM in the
Paris-Yates Chapel on the University of Mississippi campus.
Soon after the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru in the
1520s, Spanish missionaries introduced European music and
instruments in the effort to convert the natives to
Christianity. These colonies quickly developed a flourishing
musical culture combining European church music, dance music
and opera with the music of native Americans and African
slaves. Especially popular were songs for the
Christmas season, when European, Indian and African groups
competed in processional songs and dances representing
their distinctive ethnic cultures. Some dances combined
European and African influences, resulting in the very
first Afro-Caribbean popular dances, predecessors of the
mambo, rumba and lambada.
The program
features a Magnificat by Fernández,
a demonstration piece by Mexican-born musician Manuel
de Zumaya, and an Afro-Bolivian street processional by
Juan de Arauxo, along with organ and recorder pieces,
guitar dances, and carols in Spanish, Nahuatl and Galician.
A Spring Potpourri
Homeland security, ancient history, love and marriage were among the themes
in the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble's spring concert on May 4, 2005 in
Paris-Yates Chapel. The program featured instrumental
and vocal works from the 1600s that evoke war and love, including a wedding
motet by Heinrich Schütz, a song for synagogue worship by Salamone Rossi, a
lament for Prince Henry of England and a commentary on Julius Caesar's
reaction upon seeing his enemy's severed head. The featured work was
Henry Purcell's music for Bonduca, depicting a British revolt
against Roman rule in A.D. 62; Purcell's score, one of his finest and most
dramatic, was first performed in 1695, less than a month before the
composer's death at age 35.
Winter Concert, 2004
The Mississippi Early Music Ensemble (MEME)
presented a holiday concert on on Tuesday, November
30, 2004 at 8:00 p.m. in Paris-Yates Chapel on the
University of Mississippi campus. The concert
included a variety of vocal and instrumental
music from the Renaissance and baroque periods.
Featured seasonal works included a Magnificat by
Dietrich Buxtehude and a Christmas motet by
Michael Praetorius. Also included were madrigals
by Marenzio and Tomkins, a song with words by
Sir Walter Raleigh, and a variety of instrumental
works. Featured instruments included recorders,
viols, harpsichord, and pipe organ.
The Revels of Spring
On Sunday, May 2, 2004, the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble
presented The Revels of Spring, a program of dance music and
theatrical music referring to or incorporating dance. Selections
included instrumental dances, balletti (vocal pieces made
to accompany dance), and two theatrical works. The first act of
Monteverdi's L'Orfeo celebrates the marriage of Orpheus
and Euridice with a dance of nymphs and shepherds; Lully's famous
"Passacaille d'Armide" is an extended dance interlude celebrating
the joys of love.
The Play of Daniel: a 13th-Century Musical Drama
On Tuesday, December 2, 2003, the Mississippi Early Music
Ensemble presented Ludus Danielis (The Play of
Daniel), a medieval liturgical drama. Written by the choristers
of Beauvais for the unruly celebrations of the Christmas season,
the play employs acting, costumes and props, and
features both rich pageantry and musical characterization of
dramatic roles in two stories from the biblical Book of Daniel.
The play was staged in the Paris-Yates Chapel on the Ole Miss campus.
Spring Is For the Birds
The Mississippi Early Music Ensemble presented its annual
spring concert on April 30, 2003 in the Paris-Yates Chapel on
the Ole Miss campus. MEME's first all-secular concert, the
program had the theme "Spring is for the birds," and emphasized
the sounds of spring, especially those of the winged tribe.
Featured were "The Nightingale" for solo recorder, Le Chant
des Oiseaux by Jannequin, several English consort songs, and
"The Country Cries" by Richard Dering.
The University of Mississippi adheres to the principle of equal
educational and employment opportunity without regard to race, sex,
color, creed or national origin. This policy extends to all programs
and activities supported by the University.
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