Alloys and Alchemy: Music of the 16th and 17th Centuries with Rook

Rook, a mixed-instrument ensemble will present free, public master classes and a concert on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, in Sebring-Lewis Hall, Bucksbaum Center for the Arts.

The ensemble explores this music with an unusual combination of brass and string instruments that, while popular 400 years ago, creates colors that are missing from modern music making. The core of the ensemble is comprised of accomplished musicians from Chicago’s new generation of period style performers and collaborates regularly with vocalists and other instrumentalists to present this exciting music to modern audiences.

Rook will perform an evening concert at 7:30 p.m.

The afternoon master classes are free and open to the public. The master class presentations will include:

1-1:50 p.m. — Lecture/demonstration: Introduction to Historical Musical Performance 

Will introduce audience members to the concept of historical performance practice and discuss issues like improvising in baroque style and the advantages of using historical instruments.

2-2:50 p.m. — Workshop: Reading Early Music from Original Notation

Will introduce musicians to the differences between modern music notation and early music notation, discuss the advantages of the latter, and give audience members a chance to try their hand at reading from original sources.

3-3:50 p.m. — Baroque String Masterclass (violin, cello)

Designed for string players to learn how to incorporate historical performance ideas into their performance on modern instruments.

Rook members will spend Saturday morning coaching students the Grinnell Collegium Musicum, preparing them for their fall concert to be held 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, Sebring-Lewis Hall. Collegium Musicum is directed by Associate Professor of Music Jennifer Williams Brown.

Rook plays historical instruments, which differ somewhat from modern instruments. The most unusual one is the cornetto, a wind instrument that is like a cross between a trumpet and a recorder. One of the most difficult instruments to play, the cornetto flourished in the late 16th and early 17th century, when much virtuoso music was written for it. Other instruments in the ensemble include baroque violin, bass violin (an early version of the cello), sackbut (an early version of the trombone), harpsichord.

In Chicago, Rook has performed in many diverse venues including the Chicago Cultural Center, the Morton Arboretum, Northwestern’s Alice Millar Chapel, and St. John Cantius Church, as well as live on WFMT. Rook has presented concerts at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, the Boston and Madison Early Music Fringe Festivals and a series of concerts with pioneering 16th and 17th-century violinist David Douglass.

In March of 2012, Rook was selected as one of three ensembles to participate in the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop to work with L’Arpeggiata. Rook presented a mini-residency in 2014 to Oberlin Conservatory’s Historical Performance Department, giving concerts and masterclasses on virtuoso 17th c. performance practice, string band techniques from Zanetti, and a survey of historical trombone style. Recently Rook collaborated with the Chicago-based chamber choir Bella Voce to produce a series of concerts featuring the polychoral music of Schütz, Scheidt and Schein.  In the fall of 2014, Rook released its first album eleven.

Rook’s visit is sponsored by the Department of Music.

Grinnell College welcomes the participation of people with disabilities. You can request accommodations from Conference Operations and Events.

Important: The College welcomes the presence of minors at all age-appropriate public events and for informal visits, with the understanding that a parent, legal guardian, or other responsible adult assumes full responsibility for their child’s safety and behavior during such visits or events. In these cases the College expects that an adult responsible for the visiting child takes measures to ensure the child’s safety and sees that the child complies with directions of College personnel. Grinnell College is not responsible for supervision of minors on campus.