And now for something completely different. Books can teach us much about the life of the earliest colonial settlers, but there are some things they can’t do. Sine Nomine sets out to explore a question that is rarely asked: What did this world sound like? What sounds were in the air that the early Pilgrims and Puritans breathed? The Sine Nomine Choral Ensemble will be performing “The Sounds of the Settlers,” the sound world of the 17th century as heard by our nation’s founders.
Sine Nomine presents some of the earliest music written in America during this period, some music that crossed the Atlantic with the settlers, and some music that they chose to leave behind. With new scholarly reconstructions by Joseph Fort, the group recreates the sounds of the famous Bay Psalm Book, demonstrates ways of singing that fell from favor in the eighteenth century, and performs a psalm in the Massachusett language, as the Puritans often attempted to do. The rest of the program ranges from the sacred settings of Byrd and Tomkins to the (almost) profane, popular ditties by Ravenscroft.
$20, 7:30pm, Saturday, May 17th, St.Pius Church, 55 Elmhurst Avenue