Four stars

Music Society's Early Music Festival
Indiana History Center
June 27 and 29

The 42nd Indianapolis Early Music Festival began last weekend with a most pleasant “noise” — a nine-musician ensemble who call themselves The King’s Noyse. Directed by violinist David Douglas, the group performed on two violins, two violas, one “bass” violin (a diminutive cello, its bottom resting on a stool with its player standing), a lute, a harp and a small percussion set, with soprano Ellen Hargis adding a vocal dimension. Friday’s concert featured songs and dances of 16th century Paris while Sunday’s jumped to 17th century English ballads. Possessing a soft, pleasant voice, Hargis often was covered when accompanied by the entire ensemble. But when her fortissimos shown forth, she revealed a rich, vibrant voice. Many pieces on both evenings had anonymous sources, for which Douglas supplied the harmony and instrumentation typical of the style heard in that period. In fact, the five bowed-string players produced some of the most “perfect” harmony imaginable, by doing two things impossible in later, more familiar periods: playing with no vibrato whatever and using a “meantone” tuning (temperament) to bring the harmonic intervals closer to each instrument’s natural harmonic spectrum. These people are masters at playing in this way, making us realize the sacrifice later music underwent to enable complete freedom of key shifting.

Those who are math inclined are invited to visit http://members.iquest.net/~taldr/temperaments1.htm for a concise historic explanation of tunings, temperaments and their evolution.