Classical Candlelight Concerts: Parthenia Viol Consort

A program of poetry and music, inseparable as in the Elizabethan world, with poetry conceived as song and music taking form and phrasing from poetry. Parthenia, joined by actor Jonathan Richards and vocalist Ryland Angel, will intersperse dramatic readings spanning seven centuries among Renaissance and contemporary music for viol consort and voice.

The program will feature works by composer Martin Kennedy, including his song cycle, Tomb Sonnets, and the premiere of Kontakion for viol consort and tenor. Through music and verse, with poems by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) and others, the enduring themes of longing, loss and memory will be explored.

About the Artists:

The viola da gamba quartet Parthenia brings early music into the present with a ravishing sound and a remarkable sense of ensemble, animating both ancient and fresh-commissioned repertoire to critical acclaim. These “local early-music stars,” hailed by The New Yorker and music critics throughout the world, are “one of the brightest lights in New York’s early-music scene.” They bring their artistry to the candle-lit beauty of the 100-year-old First Reformed Church in Nyack for a spellbinding, one-of-a-kind evening.

Parthenia is Beverly Au, Lawrence Lipnik, Rosamund Morley and Lisa Terry.

Guest artists: Countertenor Ryland Angel and actor Jonathan Richards

About the Viol

The viol, or viola da gamba, is a family of stringed instruments celebrated in European music from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Today on both sides of the Atlantic, soloists as well as viol groups-known as “consorts”-have rediscovered the lost repertoire and ethereal beauty of this early instrument. The viol was first known as the “bowed guitar” (vihuela da arco), a joint descendent of the medieval fiddle and the 15th-century Spanish guitar. Unlike its cousin, the arm-supported violin (viola da braccio), the viol is held upright on the leg (gamba) or between the legs; its bow is gripped underhand; and its body is made of bent or molded wood. These characteristics lend a distinctive lightness and resonance to viol sound that have inspired a wave of new works by 21st-century composers and a growing enthusiasm on the part of international audiences.