The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra brings its multimedia show, J. S. Bach: The Circle of Creation, to the T. Gil Bunch Centre at Brentwood College for a sold-out show on Sunday, Jan. 27.
Conceived, programmed, and scripted by Alison Mackay, and directed by Elisa Citterio, this is a special event indeed. The music includes a tremendous variation of selections by Bach. Kevin Bundy is the narrator.
In Mackay’s program notes, she says, “J. S. Bach: The Circle of Creation is a celebration of the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach, with an emphasis on the instrumental music which he created for his family, his students and his colleagues. Using words and images, the performance also honours the artisans and trades people whose labour and expertise made the performances of Bach’s music possible, both in his own time and in the 21st century.
The concert begins and ends with poetry about the honourary patrons of Bach’s city of Leipzig, who are the Roman god of music, Apollo, and his brother Mercury. It all started with Mercury’s use of a tortoise shell and seven strings of sheep gut to make a musical instrument.
Two millennia later, the instrument makers of the 18th century still used materials from the natural world: bird feathers for the quills that pluck harpsichord strings, maple and spruce for the bodies of stringed instruments, and boxwood for oboes. Sheep intestines were still used to create strings for Bach’s instruments, and brass strings were made by hand for his harpsichords, Mackay says.
Centuries-old methods are still used today for the making of historical strings for period instruments.
The images seen in the concert portray artisans from Bach’s time as well as modern instrument builders who use historical techniques to create instruments for the Tafelmusik Orchestra.
Mackay says, “Film footage and still photographs created specially for this performance. Much of the music on the program is typical of the works which would have been performed in Leipzig. In 1695, the merchants’ guild of Leipzig had petitioned the town council for ‘street lanterns that would, as in Vienna and Berlin, burn all night to prevent incessant nocturnal crime’. On Christmas Eve of 1701, 700 oil-fuelled streetlights were installed in the city, making it safe for the first time for all citizens to walk freely at night, transforming coffeehouses into venues for recreation and music.”
Tafelmusik is renowned for its engaging performances, performing on instruments and in styles appropriate for the era of the music. Last season they welcomed new music director Elisa Citterio: only the second music director in Tafelmusik’s history. Citterio has recorded and toured, often as leader, with such ensembles as Dolce & Tempesta, Europa Galante, Accademia Bizantina, Accordone, Zefiro, la Venexiana, La Risonanza, Ensemble 415, Concerto Italiano, Orquestra del Monsalvat, Il Giardino Armonico, and Orchestra Academia 1750. Her discography includes more than 35 recordings of Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Corelli, Monteverdi, and Haydn.
Alison Mackay, who has played the violone and double bass with Tafelmusik since 1979, is active in the creation of cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary programmes for the orchestra. A number of her projects, which include The Four Seasons, a Cycle of the Sun; The Galileo Project; House of Dreams; and Tales of Two Cities: The Leipzig Damascus Coffee House have been made into feature documentary films and have toured extensively around the world.
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