Early Music With OLLI

By Tina Crowson, OLLI at TTU, Coordinator

Though music has always been a part of the human experience, the term "early music" has become synonymous with the medieval era. The term alone has many of us in this century forming pictures in our minds of cathedrals and royal courts filled with vocalists and musicians playing lutes, dulcimers and horns, as well as other stringed, percussion and wind instruments unique to that time; yet we can only imagine the kinds of sounds those voices and instruments truly made. On Nov. 2, Texas Tech University's Angela Mariani, D.M., will be presenting the "Early Music" class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She will take us back to the 13th century to explore the repertoires, performance practices and musical processes of much earlier times.

Medieval music – known in England, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany – was composed by kings, poets, and musicians. Troubadours and trouvères (singers and instrumentalists) sang of war, chivalry and courtly love. The music was both sacred and secular; heard in churches, towns and schools. The Crusades were certainly a subject often used, but there were also songs which cheered people as they went about accomplishing their more mundane tasks; their music was enlivening during unpredictable times.

In recent months, the members and staff of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute have certainly come to appreciate – more and more – the people, places, and things which are able to bring some cheer to our daily lives! We have found that classes, such as "Early Music," provided through the online Zoom platform, not only allow for engaging learning opportunities in a safe and healthy manner, but they also enable us to see the familiar faces of our friends again during our time of uncertainty. The OLLI community seems to have grown with our ability to simultaneously see and hear from members and instructors during class presentations hosted by each of the four OLLI at TTU sites (Abilene, Fredericksburg, Highland Lakes and Lubbock) throughout Texas. We have also seen new members join us from as far away as California!

Having instructors like Associate Professor of Musicology, Angela Mariani, makes the OLLI program an amazing asset to the Texas Tech University System. Mariani is the founder and director of the Texas Tech Collegium Musicum. She is a scholar and performer of medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque music. In 2009, she also established the School of Music's Graduate Certificate Program in Early Music Performance Practice. In 2017, Mariani received Early Music America's prestigious Thomas Binkley Award for "outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college collegium musicum."

Her main research area is medieval music, and in particular historical performance, a discipline that involves extensive inquiry into historical instruments, early notation, unwritten improvisatory and ornamental practices, and the historical context of particular repertoires. As in other areas of Arts Practice Research, these products of scholarship manifest not only in terms of scholarly writings, but also in the process of creating, producing and directing regular performances. As a recipient of TTU's President's Excellence in Teaching Award, she is a proven treasure within this university!

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Texas Tech University is looking forward with great anticipation to learning about the world of historical performance. We invite you to join us by registering for the fascinating "Early Music" class, scheduled for the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 2. Register online or call (806) 742-6554.

View the catalog for more classes coming up this semester.