A broadside ballad for the 21st century
Artists: Aldeburgh Young Musicians, The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments
Series: Aldeburgh Young Musicians
Ideas explored: developing new work, old music reimagined
Exploring Early Music at Snape Maltings
Over the week 21-25 October 2019, 15 members of Aldeburgh Young Musicians collaborated with members of The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments to explore a diverse palette of music and sound. Exploring 15th century English dances, melodies from the Middle East, consort tunes and traditional ballads, AYMs were able to gain a comprehensive insight into this vibrant and diverse world which has fundamentally influenced the music we engage with today.
For this residency, AYMs worked alongside professional musicians Clare Salaman, Jon Banks, Vivien Ellis and AYM alumni Imogen Ridge. Supplementing the diverse instrumentation of the AYMs, including violins, electric guitars, flutes and piano, the artists brought along period instruments such as trumpet marines, the hurdy gurdy, nyckelharpa and santouri.
Pavanes and Galliards
On Tuesday, the group were introduced to the Pavane and the Galliard: two renaissance dances that were often paired together. After exploring other Pavanes and Galliards, AYMs started to create their own. By Wednesday, these had been explored and rehearsed to a standard where we could perform them, and on Thursday, we performed our completed Pavanes and Galliards in the retail space at Snape Maltings as a ‘pop-up performance’. The final works were also presented at the Open Session on the final day of the residency.
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