Neil will be presenting a paper on the performance practice of improvised preludes as informed by early 19th-century guitar methods. The practice of improvising a prelude before a significant work was employed well into the 19th century.  It was done by soloists (including guitarists) and ensembles.  Neil will be presenting what we can know of the characteristics of these preludes, and how we can compose/improvise our own, from existing sources in the early 19th-century guitar literature. He will present the paper at CWU on May 12, at Eastern Washington University in Cheney on the 19th, and at the Musicking Conference at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR on May 26th.

We just dropped off a guitar built in Germany around 1850 with master builder Scot Tremblay for repairs.  We are very excited to get it concert-ready again. We also picked out woods for a “Terz” guitar that we commissioned Scot to build for us.  A “Terz” was a smaller guitar that was tuned a third higher (in G rather than E). There is a tremendous number of duets for regular guitar with the “Terz” from the early 19th century, as well as concerti and duets with forte piano. Ours will have a European spruce top, bird’s-eye maple back and sides, and an Indonesian Macasar Ebony fret board.  We are very excited about these instruments and could not be more pleased with Scot’s work. Pictured is Scot holding our German instrument that’s in need of repair.

The Willamette Heritage Center is a particularly apt place for a performance of early nineteenth-century music on guitars from the period.

Located across from Willamette University at 1313 Mill St SE, in Salem, Oregon, the Willamette Heritage Center preserves buildings that date from the 1840s when Euro-American missionaries and immigrants settled in the Mid-Willamette Valley, home of the Kalapuya. It is likely that these settlers would have brought guitars with them very similar to the ones we will be playing on our concert!

The concert will take place in the Pleasant Grove Church, built in 1854 by Oregon Trail immigrants. The Heritage Center includes many other historic buildings and the 1896 Thomas Kay Woolen Mill (where Neil’s mother shopped for fabric for her sewing projects well into the 1960s!).

The mill is a National Park Service-designated American Treasure, vividly telling the story of industrialization of the Mid-Willamette Valley. Concert-goers are encouraged to stay and visit the rest of the Willamette Heritage Center to experience the life and culture of early Oregon and the era in which the Caulkins’ music would have been heard.

The concert is Free to the Public. Donations to the museum will be gladly accepted.

Join us for a concert of early nineteenth century music on period guitars at Central Washington University, Department of Music, Jerilyn S. McIntyre Music Building Recital Hall, Tuesday, January 10, 2017, 7:00 PM. Admission is Free to the Public.

PROGRAM

Grand March, Op. 21  –  (Benigne) Henry (fl. 1818)

The Polonesi Concertanti, Op. 137  –  Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829)
No. 1 Allegretto/Trio in D major
No. 2 Allegretto/Trio in A major
No. 3 Allegretto/Trio in E minor

Duet Op. 34, No. 3  –  Antoine de Lhoyer (1768-1852)
Allegreto Moderato
Andante Sostenuto
Rondo Allegro

Ich Denke Dein  –  Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856)
Mazurka

 

Thank you to everyone who came out to our Redmond House concert on Saturday, November 12! It was an honor to have so many knowledgeable aficionados of the guitar in the audience and a pleasure to meet many of them afterwards.

Merci to our gracious hosts, Matt & Cathlyn!

Thank you to everyone who came out to our noon concert on November 11th at Gallery One! It was a privilege to play to a packed house on Friday. The lively acoustics and natural light of the Eveleth Green Gallery proved to be a splendid place to play guitar duets. And what a wonderful and attentive audience! We feel so blessed to live and play music in this community. Merci à tous!

Friday, November 11th at Noon upstairs in the Eveleth Green Gallery at 408 N. Pearl St., Ellensburg, WA.  Admission is free but donations will be accepted to benefit art classes for adults with disabilities. Neil and Tamara will perform a recital of delightful early 19th century guitar duets on a pair of historic instruments.  Neil plays a reproduction built by Scot Tremblay. It is a 7-string instrument modeled after one built in Mirecourt, France in 1830 by a builder named Aubrey-Marie.  Tamara plays an original French instrument built around 1830.  They will perform works by Lhoyer, Henry, Giuliani, and Mertz.