Music Before 1800

Music before 1800

Twelve Days of Christmas music is taking place right now.  

Starting December 26, Trinity Church Wall Street is hosting 12 days of not just Christmas music.  

I caught up on New Year's Day for Handel's Music for Royal Fireworks commissioned by King George II.  The King himself must have listened to it with more than the couple-hundred people I did, with the same sound of real Baroque horns.  Schubert's Winterreise, written the year he died, and the Play of Daniel, written on vellum in the year 1200 in Beauvaise, performed in period costume in Latin with medieval instruments.  The Play of Daniel is the only performance with a charge and tickets in the roomier Trinity Church (which makes it a little more comfortable if you don't arrive early.)  There's a matinee and evening performance tomorrow.  

Trinity and St. Paul's share an endowment of $4 billion.  St. Paul's is the oldest continuously running church in Manhattan.  It survived both the fire of 1776 and the terrorist attacks on the Wold Trade Center directly across the street.  George Washington prayed there and the replica of his pew was the only place people weren't sitting to listen to these packed, though not-uncomfortably-so performances.  

Among the many groups that play Music before 1800 gathered through January 6th are Novus New York, the Clarion Music Society, Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS).

Today was a music marathon starting with living composer Gerald Busby at 1:00pm.  At 5pm,  Winterreise sung by Christopher Dillon Herbert, baritone, such beautiful lines in Getman as "every sorrow finds its grave."  

After the 7pm performance of Daniel, we skipped off the The Brooklyn Museum, which is a bigger scene than I remember.  There's a fun exhibit about Coney Island, with about as many people viewing it as at Coney Island.

Back at Trinity-St. Paul's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be Bach at One.  They recommend arriving at noon to get a seat.  

Tomorrow again, January 3 at 3 PM and 7 PM at Trinity Church the musical of Daniel will take place.  This was phenomenal.  I highly recommend everyone go and see it.  Tickets start at $25 or if you have student ID $15.  

Everyday until Epiphany there will be two or three different performances, so be sure to look at http:// trinitywallstreet.org for more information.