Copy as art?
Weimar students play historical and new baroque music at the ‘Güldener Herbst’ festival in Gotha
Students from the Department of Early Music at the Weimar Music university will be performing an unusual project at the ‘Güldener Herbst’ festival. On Saturday, 28 September at 4:00 p.m. in the Augustinerkirche in Gotha, they will perform historical and new Baroque music in the ‘Young Podium’ format.
They will juxtapose Italian cantatas from the Anton Ulrich Collection of the Meiningen Museums with several new compositions in the same style, which were composed especially for this concert by Weimar music theory students.
At the Centre for Music Theory at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, students under the direction of Prof. Jörn Arnecke are trying to decipher the codes of historical music. In the course of artistic research, new works are created that are orientated towards historical models, but in some cases also consciously deviate from them.
Are they mere stylistic copies of old masters or postmodern art that can claim aesthetic value in its own right? The concert in Gotha is intended to provide answers, with the audience being asked to guess which compositions are historical and which are new.
Three short cantatas for chamber ensemble from Meiningen will be performed, as well as three works that were newly composed by students on the same text ‘historically informed’. This was preceded by an intensive stylistic analysis of the music, which the later Duke Anton Ulrich had brought back to Meiningen from his stay of several years in Vienna.
The students received special support from Dr Maren Goltz, head of the Meiningen Museums' music history collection, who opened the doors of the archive to the young academics and introduced them to the collection.
Early music expert Gerd Amelung also played a major role in the development of the project. Thanks to his many years of experience with the Italian style of the early 18th century, he was able to advise and support the students in both composing and practising the works. Amelung, who himself once studied early music in Weimar, will hand over the artistic direction of the ‘Güldener Herbst’ festival to singer Alice Lackner after the next edition.
This is the third time that ‘Güldener Herbst’ has performed in Gotha since developing its residency format. From 27 to 29 September, the festival for early music in Thuringia invites you to very special venues under the motto ‘Music.Innovation’: the unique baroque Ekhof Theatre, the magnificent ballroom at Friedenstein Castle and the Augustinian and Margaret Churches.
Tickets for all events are available via the festival website or Reservix and at participating tourist information centres as well as at the box office.
Further information and tickets:www.gueldener-herbst.de
[28 August 2024]