Sonnambula Makes Philadelphia-Area Debut With Piffaro

Sonnambula, ensemble-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, joins Piffaro for its first Philadelphia-area performances March 15-17, 2019. They will perform a program drawn from famed renaissance composer Michael Praetorius' vast 1610 compendium of dance music, Terpsichore.

Sonnambula is a historically-informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for various combinations of early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. The ensemble currently holds the position of Ensemble-in-Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they have designed a site-specific series at The Cloisters Museum. The group is the first historically-informed ensemble to hold this position. Alex Ross credits the ensemble (amongst others) with "the dizzying democratization of baroque music" (The New Yorker, Feb. 8, 2019).

The viol (also called a viola da gamba, because it is played "on the leg") was made famous by Jordi Savall and reached wider awareness through the 1991 film Tous les Matins du Monde, starring Gérard Depardieu as the composer and musician Marin Marais. The instrument loosely resembles a modern violin or cello but is related to neither - the only member of the viol family still encountered in mainstream classical music is the double bass. Most viols have six strings, versus the violin's four, and are played with a convex bow, held underhand, which allows the player to control the tension of the horsehair with his or her fingers. Sonnambula artistic director Elizabeth Weinfield notes in her description of the instrument for the Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History that “sometimes viols feature superbly carved scrolls in the form of human or bestial heads.” The viol's voice is more mellow and intimate than the violin, and well suited to the domestic and courtly rooms in which it would have been played.

March's program of music from dance music from Michael Praetorius' Terpsichore is the perfect illustration of one the scenarios in which one would have encountered the viol. These weren't instruments to mark grand occasions of state, but rather to ornament and enliven daily life. Terpsichore - named for the Muse of Dance - is a snapshot of the music that moved European feet around 1612 - a vast compendium of over 300 examples of pavane, passameze, gaillarde, bransle, courante, ballet, gigue, volte, bourrée, gavotte, and more, gathered and arranged by the famous composer & theorist.

Concerts take place March 15-17 in Philadelphia and Wilmington, and June 1 at The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Tickets are $29-$49 (youth & full-time students free with ID) and are available at www.piffaro.org or by calling 215-235-8469.