Sonnambula: Passing Fancy — Beauty in a Moment of Chaos

PROGRAM
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729): Overture to Céphale et Procris (1694)

Richard Dering (1580–1630): Fantasia No. 6 (VdGS No. 2)
Salomone Rossi (1570–1630): Gagliarda detta La Norsina,
from Il primo libro delle sinfonie et gagliarde (1607)

Leonora Duarte (1610–1678): Sinfonia No. 5
Alfonso Ferrabosco I (1543–1588): In Nomine à 5, VdGS No. 1
Rossi: Sinfonia à 5, from Il primo libro delle sinfonie et gagliarde (1607)

William Byrd (1543–1623): The Bells, MB 38

INTERMISSION

Rossi: Elohim Hashivenu (Psalm 80)
Duarte: Sinfonia No. 4
Byrd: My Lady Nevell’s Ground, from My Lady Nevell's Book of Virginal Music, MB 57, c. 1591

Dering: Fantasia No. 4 (VdGS No. 1)
Duarte: Sinfonia No. 7 (Keyboard transcription by James Kennerley)
Rossi: Sonata Undecima detta la Scatola,
from Il quarto libro de varie sonate, sinfonie, gagliarde, brandi, e corrente per sonar due violini et un chitarrone o altro stromento (1622)

Enric de Paris (“Enrrique”) (fl. 1460s): Mi querer tanto vos quiere


SONNAMBULA
Jude Ziliak, Violin
Toma Iliev, Violin
Elizabeth Weinfield, Tenor viol/Direction
Amy Domingues, Tenor viol
Matt Zucker, Bass viol
James Kennerley, Harpsichord & Tenor

Brief Note
This program features music written by composers forced to hide their identities — social, religious, ethnic, racial, or otherwise — during their lifetime. We will consider the beauty of William Byrd (1540–1623) and Richard Dering (c. 1580–1630), two Catholic composers writing illicit church music in Protestant England; Leonora Duarte (1610–1678), a Jewish woman composing in the home while forced to live as a converso, or New Christian, in 17th-century Antwerp; Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729), whose lost works reemerge with a vengeance in our own time; and others.

About Sonnambula
Praised as “remarkable” and “superb” by Alex Ross in the New Yorker, Sonnambula is a historically informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. Sonnambula recently held the position of ensemble in residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the group curated a site-specific series at The Cloisters. Performances and collaborators have included The Madison Early Music Festival, Early Music Texas, The Boston Early Music Festival, Teju Cole, Barnard College, PERFORMA, Bard Graduate Center, Princeton University, and many others. The ensemble has a strong commitment to working with museums and in this capacity has worked closely with The Hispanic Society of America in New York to curate a season of music by women with connections to the Iberian Diaspora as well as American premieres of 18th-century Cuban sacred music and Spanish zarzuela. Sonnambula has also been a featured guest at The National Gallery of Art, The Detroit Museum of Arts, The Frick Collection, and other notable American museums. Their award-winning recording of the complete works of 17th-century composer Leonora Duarte was released on Centaur Records and in 2024 they will release their second recording, Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos, highlights of which you will hear today.

(Photo: Tatiana Daubek)

Live from St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University.