Example of music performed on the crumhorn

The music performed here was actually written for the viola da gamba, a family of bowed fretted string instrument with six strings (tuned in fourths with a major third in the center), including three common sizes (treble, tenor and bass), that were played holding the instrument between your legs like the modern day cello. This family of instruments was very popular throughout the Renaissance, but lost out to the violin family in the baroque due primarily to the greater expressive quality of the violin family (violin, viola, vello, and bass). (In fact, the bass violin can probably be considered more similar to the bass viol than to the other members of the violin family.)

This music originates in an instruction book by Diego Ortiz (ca. 1510?1570), a Spanish composer and musicologist, including examples used in teaching performance techniques for the viol and harpsiichord, but also useful for other contemporary Renaissance instruments.

The book is commonly known as Tratado de Glosas, but bears the full title of: Trattado de glossas sobre clausulas y otros generos de punctos en la musica de violones nuevamente puestos en luz.

This particular music is a short piece based on the famous chord progression known as el passamezzo moderno. This short sequence is repeated six times with increasingly complex and rapid ornamentation, in a common Renaissance variation technique, often referred to as the division. The title for this piece of music is: Recercada Segunda sobre el passamezzo moderno. Adaptation of the viol music for the tenor crumhorn was done by Dick Berg ca. 1976 for a concert commemorating the music that George Washington may have known; this was an example of music that George Washington probably did not know.

The crumhorn is a capped double-reed Rennaissance instrument, commonly played in a consort of four or more instruments and often including combinations of three or more soprano, alto, tenor, and bass crumhorns. Michael Praetorius (1571?1621), a contemporary German composer, organist, and musicologist, wrote that the crumhorn produced a "soft, buzzy sound." A number of capped reed intruments like the crumhorn existed in the Renaissance, but did not possess the expressive qualities necessary to adapt to Baroque performance practice. The performance here uses a tenor crumhorn.

The keyboard instrument used in the video is a Yamaha DX7s Digital Musical Synthesizer. We selected this instrument because our Physics Lecture-Demonstration Facility, like many such Facilities in other major American universities, does not own a harpsichord. To make it sound as much like a harpsichord as we could, we selected the clavecin voice.

Click here to view the full original score for the performance. Click here to view the music for the solo line as edited and adapted for the crumhorn.

Click here to hear the music. (This is a relatively long file, so please have patience.)

This performance took place at the University of Maryland Physics Lecture-Demonstration Facility on Tuesday, July 8, 2008. The performers were Dick Berg, tenor crumhorn, and Deni Foster, synthesizer keyboard. The video camera operator and recording engineer was Krishna Bhamidipati. Audio setup was by Krishna Bhamidipati and Dick Berg.