Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival - Canzona, Sonatas and Suites 1600-1700

“Canzonas, Sonatas and Suites” features Marlisa del Cid Woods on baroque violin, William Simms on both theorbo and baroque guitar, and Jeffrey Cohan playing renaissance and baroque transverse flutes in an exploration of the central period of transition between Renaissance and Baroque instrumental styles, featuring notable composers of the early 17th century, followed by baroque flute, violin and theorbo performing music from Italy and France by high baroque composers Corelli and Lully. Please see chcmf.org/baltimore.

The canzona, having appeared in the 1570’s as a more vocally inspired instrumental form from the earlier ricercare, evolved into the familiar sonata as it became ever more instrumentally idiosyncratic and virtosic, as is heard this program with music by Merula, Uccellini, Legrenzi, Castello and Buonamente. Along came wildly different instrumental colors in the later 17th century, greatly influenced by vocal music, with intense discussion and disagreement between proponents of the diverging Italian and French styles, as illustrated here with music by Archangelo Corelli and Jean-Baptiste Lully.

The Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival returns to Baltimore on September 8, 15 and 20 for the first time since the pandemic with three programs of early chamber music from four centuries performed on period instruments, co-sponsored by St. Ignatius Catholic Church, with performances also in Washington, DC and in Annapolis. Please see www.chcmf.org.

These programs illuminate an evolving 17th century musical perspective in Italy and France and throughout Europe in the context of the music of earlier and later centuries. “Renaissance” and “Baroque” instrumental colors were very much in flux and existed side by side, reflecting an evolving musical taste, with striking contrast as they diverged through French and Italian styles with an exchange of ideas between the two. Some instruments such as the transverse flute of the Renaissance were slower to respond to trends in vocal music as their qualities continued to suit the requirements of the instrumental composers of the day, before undergoing a rather drastic evolution physically somewhat later in the 17th century, in response to the new expectations of vocal expression.