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| HOME PHOTOS VIDEOS HILDEGARD VONBINGEN MEDIEVAL COLLECTIVE WORKSHOPS VOCAL LESSONS BIO CONTACT & LINKS |
sometimes performing as THE HILDEGARD PROJECT The Medieval Collective is a group of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists that perform the sacred and secular repertoire of the middle ages whose forces vary from concert to concert but may include: Krystina Lewicki -vocalist, Tibetan singing bowls, frame drums www.omusic.ca Ann-Marie Boudreau - multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and sound healer www.annmarieboudreau.com Silvana Bozzata - tenor viol Simone Desilets - bass viol Gaven Dianda - rebab, hand drums, percussion, voice www.saffronsect.ca Linda Falvy - vocalist Michael Franklin, woodwinds, Tibetan bowls, percussion, voice Billy Gekas - violin, voice www.omveriditas.com Kathleen Gillis - percussion and hand drums Ekaterina Pyatkova - voice, frame drum Repertoire incluces Hldegard von Bingen, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, El Llibre Vermell, Troubadour and Trouvere Songs, Italian Lauda, and Early Medieval Pilgrimage Music. Recent concerts inlcude Metropolitan United Church concert, the Toronto Early Music Fair, Hildegard Feast Day and Labyrinth Walk Concert, Crux Books booklaunch, Catholic masses including the music of Hildegard von Bingen. HILDEGARD VON BINGEN Krystina performs and speaks at concerts/workshops about topics relating to Hildegard's music and teachings. The goal is to bring enlightenment from Hildegard's timeless views that have a particular resonance with the modern world and contempory issues. Some recent performances and lectures involved York University Music Deparment, the Institute for Consciousness Research (ICR), Modern Herbalism with John Redden (founder of Viriditas), Wonderworks (Religious historical context of Hildegard's time and Ecological Theology), the Toronto Early Music Fair and Crux Books (Creation based Theology). PERFORMANCE PRACTICE: RE INSTRUMENTS Two of the most vexing questions concerning music from this time arise from the fact that the only written record we have are single lines. Melodies. So the music of Hildegard is often performed like that, sung as a women’s solo or unison voices. However, Hildegard writes of the harp and the ten stringed psaltery. She wrote about “clashing cymbals and cymbals of jubilation as well as other musical instruments which men of wisdom and zeal have invented, because all arts pertaining to things useful and necessary for mankind have been created by the breath that God sent into man’s body”. Sadly, we’ll never know for sure. When I perform Hildegard I almost always use musicians; wood flutes, drones on viols, violin, sruti, swar sangham, and occasionally subtle hand drums for the sole purpose of bringing the cosmic meaning to life with world instruments. The rehearsal experience is a collective collaboration with instrumentalists and vocalist. First, the rhythm of the Latin words and poetic phrases are practiced to bring out the natural flow of the text within the melodies. Instrumentalists play tonic or reciting tone, preludes, interludes at the endings of verses, and postludes. They also can ornament or decorate within the phrase when the singer takes a breath, or play in perfect 4th, 5ths or unisons with the singer on important word phrases. The tonal centre can move at cadences using the subtonic or supertonic. Decisions are usually made and practiced during rehearsals. The text is the guide, the mode is the color and the phrases flow in circular or wave like motion, reflecting the poetic ideas. In some cases a regular pulse is heard, but in most cases Hildegard’s compositions are in free rhythm. I sometimes treat Medieval scores as something similar to jazz lead sheets: melodies and modes that can have some instrumental improvisation based on the thematic material of the chant. |
NEWS
& UPCOMING
EVENTS '"Meditation
in Motion"
Hildegard von Bingen Feast Day Concert & Labyrinth Walk Sponsored by the Toronto Community Labyrinth Network  8:00pm
on Friday, Sept.17, 2010
Holy Trinity Church, Toronto Tickets in advance for $15 (cash) at Wonderworks (www.gowonderworks.com) or $20 at the door. Five Performance Videos Recently Uploaded to YouTube ....Link to Videos Four Podcast Soundfiles Krystina was recently part of the team which posted four music files designed to enhance the experience of walking a labyrinth: Earth, Wind, Fire & Water. Also suitable for meditation, each file is approx. 10 min. long, available as free download to iPods or to listen to on your computer: Click or Left Click the name to isten - Right Click and choose "Save as" or "Download as" to downloatd. EARTH : Nature soundscape with birds, frogs, drum and flute WIND : Desert winds with mallets, flute and voice FIRE : Symphony of Tibetan bowls and metallic chimes WATER : Gentle waves with plucked drone, flute and voice Musicians: Ann-Marie Boudreau, Michael Franklin, Krystina Lewicki Producer: Robert Lewicki ©2010 RECENT EVENTS "...you were otherworldly, magical and immensely talented, sending out waves of Hildegardian energy that I will never forget." -Michael Kramer, Classical 96.3FM Host  -WholeNote Magazine, Sept.2009 Issue Past CONCERTS: -May'10-Miracles Concert & Labyrinth Walk, Metropolitan United Church -Sept'09- Hildegard Feast Day Concert & Labyrinth Walk: Church of the Holy Trinity -Wonderworks Fleishman Gallery Concert Series: May'08, Dec'08, April'09 Hildegard, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Llibre Vermell de Monserrat Past HILDEGARD MASSES -Nov'09- St. Vincent de Paul Church -Sept'09- St. George-the-Martyr Church Past PERFORMANCES -Sept'09- Toronto Early Music Fair Libre Vermell, Cantigas de Santa Maria -Feb/March'09-Toronto Opera Repertoire Carmen (Bizet), Cenerentola (Rossini), Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck) -Sept'08- Toronto Early Music Fair Hildegard von Bingen |
| Copyright ©2010 : OMusic : Krystina Lewicki |