Devotional dialogue: Exploring the Musical Repertoire for Solo Voice and Clavichord from Reformation Europe
Summary
If one was to make a map of Lutheran Europe from
the Thirty Years’ War to the Industrial Revolution
and place it over a map of the European distribution
of the clavichord (that most intensely personal and
devotional of keyboard instruments) from the same
time period, one would find that the two
geographical areas overlap almost exactly. The
clavichord was J. S. Bach’s favourite instrument for
his most refined and personal thoughts, but it was
also the traditional dialogue partner in the singing
of devotional songs in the home. Christina Ekström,
who has done original work with song collections in
the archives of the Moravian Church in
Christiansfeld, Denmark, began to explore this
repertoire together with Joel Speerstra in a concert
for solo voice and clavichord at the Theological
Centre at Løgumkloster in 2013. Here we propose
to go deeper into this dialogue and make a musical
map of singing with the clavichord in Lutheran
Europe, showing how the tradition focuses perhaps
less on music as domestic entertainment so much as
on music as a sharing practice that reflects and
performs Lutheran faith. With a selection of
repertoire from this tradition our lecture-recital will
attempt to illuminate more of the instrumental,
vocal and interpretive aspects of this repertoire
when these songs are embodied in a dialogue with
the clavichord. Repertoire explored will include
Olof Kolmodin’s songbooks Andelig Duwforöst
(1734), J. H. Roman’s arrangements of psalter
psalms as well as songs from the Moravian Church.
Type of work
Konstnärlig forskning
Published in
Göteborg International Organ Academy 2017
Link to web site
http://www.organacademy.se/programme/
Other description
Presentationen skedde tillsammans med Joel
Speerstra.
Date
2017-10-22Creator
Ekström, Christina
Speerstra, Joel
Keywords
Singing, Clavichord, Luther, Moravian church, Spirituality
Language
eng