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In a singular musical orbit
[Publicity photo]
The Ensemble Galilei performs its music on the viola da gamba, fiddle, Scottish small pipes, oboe, recorder, pennywhistle and harp. |
By JOHN FLEMING
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 2001
The all-woman Ensemble Galilei achieves a harmonious fit of Celtic and early music.
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Ensemble Galilei is neither fish nor fowl. Even in the crossover-crazed classical music industry, where opera singers warble pop songs and Yo-Yo Ma is featured on the soundtrack of a martial arts movie, the five-woman group doesn't fit conveniently into a category.
"What we're generally called is Celtic/early music crossover," says Carolyn Anderson Surrick, founder of the group, and its viola da gamba player.
The group, which also includes fiddle, Scottish small pipes, oboe, recorder, pennywhistle and harp, is sometimes labeled as playing world music, but Surrick describes it as falling between a classical string quartet and the Chieftains.
"There will always be a place for great string quartets who do just classical repertoire," she says, "and there will always be a place for straight-ahead Irish bands. The Chieftains have something that is just stunning and wonderful. Neither of those things are what we are."
Friday, Ensemble Galilei performs a typically eclectic program in Tarpon Springs, ranging from Irish airs and dances associated with the legendary blind harpist Turlough O'Carolan to music from the Renaissance to compositions by members of the group.
"I think that what makes it work is you end up having dance music from the Renaissance and dance music from Ireland, and both are modal," she says. "You have the same musical vocabulary of notes you're working with, so it doesn't come as a shock. If you were to put Irish music next to, say, Schubert lieder, you might end up with people feeling like they'd been in a musical earthquake, but Renaissance and Irish dance music have a nice fit."
The group, formed in Annapolis, Md., in 1990, was named for Vincenzo Galilei, father of Galileo. The intent of the name is both musical and scientific.
"Vincenzo was a composer and music theorist," Surrick says. "He and his friends decided that the Renaissance had gone on too long, and music no longer had the passion it used to have. They wanted to reinvigorate music. We were also created in the year when the Hubbell Space Telescope went up, and I was sure that it would change our vision of our place in the universe the way Galileo had changed it."
The suggestion, of course, is that groups like Ensemble Galilei are changing the face of serious music. In February's Chamber Music magazine, the group was one of many cited in an article by Anne Midgette on world music.
"Gamelans and urhus, kodo drumming and salsa are moving into territory where only string quartets and symphonies had gone before," Midgette wrote. "Dead white European males are finally loosening their iron hold on classical music before an inexorable influx of influences from Asia and Africa, traditional and indigenous."
Ensemble Galilei has put out seven CDs, including the latest from Telarc, From the Isles to the Courts.
Along with its distinctive repertoire, Ensemble Galilei's all-woman membership is an important aspect of its identity, though percussionist Steve Bloom is guest artist in the Tarpon engagement. A workshop the group holds, "The Road Home," is for women in transitions in their lives.
"When we do a concert, generally speaking, there are people there who love Irish and Scottish music, and there are people who love early music, and then there are people who are just curious about what a band with five or six babes looks like," Surrick says.
PREVIEW
Ensemble Galilei plays at 8 p.m. Friday at Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $11 and $13. (727) 942-5605.
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