A clip of a performance of a work by Johann Herman Schein.

While the German Schein (1586-1630) is generally considered a baroque composer along with his contemporary, Heinrich Schütz and while they both began an era that would climax with Bach and Handel, many of the elements heard in their works are distinctly Renaissance in flavor.  Schein’s magnum opus, Banchetto Musicale or loosely, banquet music, is comprised of 2o suites unified by mode and theme.  For years I’ve reflected on my introduction to these fabulous works during my Storrs Collegium Musicum sojourn under the direction of Dr. Bruce Bellingham.

By A Route Obscure is the perfect opportunity to revisit music by the great Schein.  We will be performing excerpts from Banchetto’s Suite X with an interesting mixture of winds accompanying a small fife ensemble.  Join us on February 28, 2009 at The Company of Fifers and Drummers in Ivoryton, Connecticut.

The clip at the top of this post exhibits a quartet of sackbuts, predecesors of the modern trombone.  The next clip shows a very unique recorder quartet performing another of Schein’s Banchetto suites.