From 1971 to 1984, Plantamura was active as a founding member, along with countertenor-composer John Patrick Thomas, cellist Marijke Verberne, and harpsichordist William Christie, of The Five Centuries Ensemble.[3] The group combined early music with contemporary works (many written expressly for the ensemble) in concerts and radio broadcasts throughout Europe and America and on tours in Australia and New Zealand. Plantamura appears in six recordings of 17th-century Italian vocal music that The Five Centuries Ensemble made for the Fonit Cetra/Italia label in Italy (including works by d'India, Monteverdi, Luzzaschi, Gagliano, Frescobaldi, and A. Scarlatti-other ensemble members on the recordings include soprano Martha Herr, countertenor Thomas, lutenist Jürgen Hübscher, viola da gambist Martha McGaughey, and harpsichordist Arthur Haas).
Plantamura joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego in 1978 and is currently Professor Emerita.[4] She also serves on the San Diego Early Music Society (SDEMS) Advisory Panel .
1978: Sigismondo d'India – Arie Madrigali E Mottetti, The Five Centuries Ensemble (Italia, ITL 70026). Never before recorded or performed in the last three centuries.
1978: Luzzasco Luzzaschi – Madrigali Per Cantare E Sonare, Due E Tre Soprani, The Five Centuries Ensemble (Fonit Cetra – ITL 70050), with the participation of soprano Martha Herr.
1979: Marco Da Gagliano – Musiche A Una, Due E Tre Voci; Sacrae Cantiones, The Five Centuries Ensemble (Italia – ITL 70060). Never before recorded or performed in the last three centuries.
1979: Alessandro Scarlatti – Quatro Cantate, The Five Centuries Ensemble (Italia – ITL 70065)
1979: Eclipse on: Roger Reynolds – Watershed IV / Eclipse / The Red Act Arias (AIX)
1980: Claudio Monteverdi – Madrigali sacre e profane, The Five Centuries Ensemble (Italia / [Fonit Cetra])
1981: Chanson de Gest on: Denis Smalley – The Pulses of Time (University of East Anglia Recordings, UEA 81063)
1982: American Graffiti by Leo Smit on: The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Lukas Foss, conductor (GRAMAVISION Records)
1983: Girolamo Frescobaldi – Musica Vocale e Strumentale, The Five Centuries Ensemble (Italia – ITL 70095)
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number of voices varies from two to eight, but usually features three to six voices, whilst the metre of the madrigal varies between two or three tercets, followed by one or two couplets. Unlike the verse-repeating strophic forms sung to the same music, most madrigals are through-composed, featuring different music for each stanza of lyrics, whereby the composer expresses the emotions contained in each line and in single words of the poem being sung.
The year 1607 in music involved some significant events.
The year 1608 in music involved some significant events and new musical works.
Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by many composers, including Ascanio Mayone, Giovanni Maria Trabaci, and Claudio Merulo. Girolamo Frescobaldi was appointed organist of St. Peter's Basilica, a focal point of power for the Cappella Giulia, from 21 July 1608 until 1628 and again from 1634 until his death.
Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century. He is also known for killing his first wife and her aristocratic lover upon finding them in flagrante delicto.
Luzzasco Luzzaschi was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority of his life in his native city. He was a skilled representative of the late Italian madrigal style, along with Palestrina, Wert, Monte, Lassus, Marenzio, Gesualdo and others.
Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome, Italy, in 1966. It is "something of an irregular institution, a band that has come together intermittently through the years". Its founding members have been reported variously as Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, and Frederic Rzewski; Rzewski, Curran, and Richard Teitelbaum; Curran, Phetteplace, Bryant, and Carol Plantamura; and Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Plantamura, Bryant, Phetteplace, Ivan Vandor, and Steve Lacy. Garrett List and George E. Lewis subsequently joined the group.
The concerto delle donne was a group of professional female singers in the late Italian Renaissance, primarily in the court of Ferrara, Italy. Renowned for their technical and artistic virtuosity, the ensemble was founded by Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, in 1580 and was active until the court was dissolved in 1597. Giacomo Vincenti, a music publisher, praised the women as "virtuose giovani", echoing the sentiments of contemporaneous diarists and commentators.
Vinko Globokar is a French-Slovenian avant-garde composer and trombonist.
John Bergamo was an American percussionist and composer known for his film soundtrack contributions and his work with numerous other notable performers. From 1970 until his death, he was the coordinator of the percussion department at the California Institute of the Arts.
János Sebestyén was a Hungarian organist, harpsichordist, pianist and journalist.
Giulio Castagnoli is an Italian composer.
Donald Harris was an American composer who taught music at Ohio State University for 22 years. He was Dean of the College of the Arts from 1988 to 1997.
The Five Centuries Ensemble (1971-1984) was an early music ensemble in Paris and Italy during the 1970 and early 1980s. It was one of the first groups preceding the revival of interest in early music and historically informed performance of baroque music in the mid-1970s and 1980s.
La Venexiana is an Italian early music ensemble founded and led by Claudio Cavina, an Italian countertenor and conductor.
Michele Marelli is an Italian clarinet and basset horn soloist.
Jan Williams is a percussionist, arts administrator, teacher, conductor, and composer who has championed avant-garde and progressive music in the United States. He is recognized as an important proponent of percussion performance and its literature.
Matthias Kaul was a German percussionist and composer of classical music.
Canti del Sole is a song cycle written by the British-American composer Bernard Rands. The music exists in two arrangements: one for tenor and orchestra and the other for tenor and chamber ensemble. The orchestral version was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and was first performed by the tenor Paul Sperry and the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta at Avery Fisher Hall on June 8, 1983. Canti del Sole is the second of Rands's "Canti" trilogy, preceded by Canti Lunatici for soprano (1981) and followed by Canti dell’Eclisse for bass (1992). The piece was awarded the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Michael Svoboda is an American composer and trombonist who lives and works in Switzerland.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
