James Strecker: To begin, thank you so much for Scaramella’s recent Hamilton concert of music by William Lawes, in the series created by Hammer Baroque. It was a night of revelations and of constant musical surprises and one certainly had to pay consistent attention to the creative mind of Mr. Lawes in action. It was delightful and fun and poignant for me, so what musical qualities and methods in his music do you respond to as a musician?
Joëlle Morton: The music of William Lawes is particularly appealing for musicians to play – perhaps even more so than for an audience to listen to – because of the melodic and harmonic twists and turns that he takes, and how he passes material back and forth among the various voices. It’s a little bit like an ‘inside joke’ and as a player you hear instantly when someone else quotes your line, or takes it away from you. In rehearsal I commented to our fabulous violinist Paul Zevenhuizen that it felt like we were an old married couple, because we kept ‘finishing each other’s sentences!’ Lawes is tremendous fun in that regard and, of course, when you enjoy your colleagues’ company as I do, these exchanges are particularly meaningful.
JS: I find that baroque music is very playful in its complexity, and dense with creative riches, and it often can transport me to an elevated and almost ethereal world. What is it about baroque music that fuels you as a baroque specialist and as a human being?
JM: What we nowadays define as the baroque era spans a period of close to 200 years (c1580-1760), so there is of course a huge amount of variety to the music that was produced during that period. The period started, and ended as most phases do, with rebellion against pre-established forms. But it’s more than just the ‘newness’ and ‘forms’ and ‘language’ of this 200 year period since, at that time, there was additionally great variety between different countries and cultures. Each region had its preferred instruments and combinations of instruments, as well as a vogue and taste for specific genres of music. So a program of music from the baroque era is as much an exploration of culture and style as it is a bringing to life music that has not been heard for several centuries. Of course, the fact that much of the music we play is not well known is also an added component to the ‘adventure’ and it’s very stimulating to blow the dust off a manuscript and come up with an interpretation for something you haven’t already heard many times!
JS: What can baroque music offer to a modern audience? Could you perhaps suggest three or four compositions that an uninitiated listener might give a go in order to become eternally seduced by baroque?
JM: As I mentioned just now, there is so much variety to the music of this period, that I believe there is surely something for everyone. I guess it’s a little like going to an art museum: you may not like every picture that you see equally well, but there’s surely something that will speak to you if you allow it the opportunity. By way of illustration, here are six vocal pieces from the baroque. Some people are pre-disposed against vocal music, but I hope even they might find something in this selection that appeals. Some of these performances are presented in a very historically pure way, as true to the original as possible, but others have playful elements, or add modern instruments, making them representative of our own time.
Claudio Monteverdi – Sì dolce è’l tormento: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6y6VToRwkw&spfreload=10
anon – Ciaccona del Paradiso e del Inferno (Milan, 1657): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ-VsKB_tNw&spfreload=10
François Couperin – Leçons de tenebre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RE3hy6PJaQ
Johann Sebastian Bach – Erbarme dich from the St. Matthew Passion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEHIgjoueeg
George Frideric Handel – Author of Peace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGXXLlvQXvM
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Stabat Mater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2zc0wTORSI&spfreload=10
JS: Please tell us about the instruments you play, their unique features and demands and what delights they offer to you as a musical interpreter.
JM: My areas of specialty are historical double bass instruments, and members of the viola da gamba family. My first musical training was as a modern double bass player, and so, when I discovered early music in grad school, I was first drawn to ‘large’ historical instruments, those that were either part of the violin or viol families. But increasingly I began to specialize on viols. The viol family is made in many sizes, from tiny through huge, and most people who play viols play more than one size. In fact, for many of us, that is part of the appeal. By changing what size instrument you play in an ensemble, you get to change what kind of ‘musical persona’ you embody. I of course still enjoy playing bass lines, but it’s also very satisfying to play melody lines on a treble instrument. And truthfully, in much viol consort music I find the best parts to be the inner lines! So this ‘keeps things fresh’ for me.
JS: Tell us about your musical background. What were the key points in your life as a musician?
JM: I was very serious as a modern double bassist, and for a long time expected to make a career as an orchestral player. In fact, I did play as a member of the Toronto Symphony for a short while, and I also studied ‘solo’ and ‘chamber’ double bass in Europe on a Chalmers fellowship. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that I discovered early music, and it came as a revelation. Everything was chamber music oriented, and I found that the intellectual approach of this field –from preparing my own musical edition of a piece to reading about how instruments were played, and thinking about all kinds of questions of interpretation and presentation– was really appealing. I’ve never looked back.
JS: What makes a group of musicians function well together? How does fluid interaction work as it did in the group you had for the Lawes concert? What does a musician contribute and what does a musician receive back from the others?
JM: The beauty of chamber music is that it is so much more than the sum of its individual parts. Each musician practices at home and gets their part to the highest level of their ability. But it’s really in rehearsal with others –and also in performance, responding to an audience– that the ‘magic’ happens, learning from others’ insights and responding to different musical lines. In baroque music there is additionally an accepted level of individuality that is expected and necessary in bringing the music to life. Early music performers are expected to personally interpret the music, and to inflect it according to their own personal mood and taste. As a result, the piece can be quite different from one day to the next, because the performers themselves are different! And an audience gets something that is truly one of a kind.
JS: Scaramella is ten years old this year and I wonder how you have managed to keep it running. What problems have you had in drawing an audience for music that many do not know and in finding funding from sponsors and government bodies? I would assume that government bodies would be very supportive, or am I wrong to thus assume?
JM: Over the course of Scaramella’s ten-year history we’ve been extremely fortunate to draw the support of a loyal audience and private donor base. Much of our audience genuinely values the unusual programming and approach that Scaramella takes, one that is not available elsewhere in Southern Ontario. Our ticket purchasers have also been extremely generous with private donations. We are truly grateful for it, since public funding to Scaramella is negligible or non-existent. We have been consistently shut out of funding from the provincial granting agency and, though initially supported at a nominal level, we have also been denied the last two seasons by the municipal one. Our perception is that increasingly, taxpayer dollars are not being used to subsidize traditional European art music projects, and that large organizations are generally prioritized more highly than smaller ones. This is a huge challenge to us since even with maximum attendance, ticket sales cover only approximately one third of what it costs us to produce these events. For the past eight years Scaramella’s budget has remained constant, but it is increasingly harder and harder each year to raise the funds we need at this minimal level, and there is seemingly no opportunity for growth.
JS: The creation of Scaramella meant major changes for you, I assume, as a professional musician. What were they? Any regrets? For one, I imagine that you must coordinate a great number of people as well as maintaining your own career.
JM: A career in early music is necessarily quite different from an orchestral one, but I have no regrets. As a free-lance player I am able to work with many different ensembles and colleagues and that has proven a great joy in my life. For example, the recent Lawes program was inspired by my dear friend, Julia Seager Scott. Lawes’ Harp Consorts are truly a showcase for the harp, and I couldn’t/wouldn’t have programmed them without knowing that my very accomplished and hard-working colleague was willing to tackle them! In a similar vein, our talented theorbist Madeleine Owen was someone whose playing I’ve admired from recordings for many years, but we had never worked together before. This was the perfect opportunity to get to know her, and at the same time to introduce her to a Toronto audience.
JS: What’s up for Scaramella in 2015 and, since your musical activities are many, what will you yourself be doing for the coming year?
JM: There are two more shows programmed for Scaramella this season. On January 31, we’ll be doing a concert of German late 17th and early 18th century music, for the yummy combination of countertenor, two viols and organ. And on March 7, we’re welcoming American baroque flutist extraordinaire Kim Pineda to Toronto for the first time, for a program centered on Telemann’s flamboyant Paris Quartets, and pieces by the four 18th century French musicians who first performed them and made them so popular. Outside of Scaramella and other free-lance performing, I am also active as a teacher and writer. In 2015, I will be traveling to Australia and Germany for viol workshops. And early in 2015 I am also expected to finally see the fruits of several years of research, with a groundbreaking scholarly article about the viola bastarda due to be published in the Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society (GB), and two very sizable scholarly performing editions, of music by Orazio Bassani and Bartolomeo de Selma y Salaverde.
JS: What kind of person must one be to survive nowadays as a classical musician?
JM: As is mentioned frequently in the news these days, the face of classical music performance is currently in flux. I don’t really know where we are headed, but it seems to me that for free-lance musicians to be successful these days, they have to be fairly versatile and adaptable and keep an open mind. Above and beyond the ‘practicality’ of that approach, in my experience, most of life’s greatest pleasures emerge serendipitously, and if you’re not keeping yourself primed to spot those moments, they will pass you by.