Norman and Greenberg Meld the Scottish Baroque, Maritime Canada for CSEM
by Christopher Greenleaf
Ever in quest of repertoire and performers to enliven its nearly 60 years of concert presentation, the Cambridge Society for Early Music recast its tenets regarding performance authenticity to invite Maryland-born adoptive Canadian David Greenberg (violin, octave fiddle, Estey pump organ) and Nova Scotia native Chris Norman (flutes, Lowland bellows bagpipes, voice, Estey pump organ) to give the Society’s third five-concert series this season. The last of these evenings took place in the Weston Congregational Church on Friday, February 26. [continued]
The CSEM program, entitled “Let Me In This Ae Night”, established the powerful ties between Scots tunes and songs a century either side of the 1746 Battle of Colloden (“The Forty-Five”) and their angular, rhythmically incisive cousins in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and eastern reaches of New Brunswick. [continued]
To further entwine the Maritimes, Scotland, and the Baroque, Norman and Greenberg dropped in two movements from a Telemann Duo in E and two movements each from Bach solo partitas for their instruments. [continued]
David Greenberg explained the origins of his round-bouts octave violin, by present-day Alabama luthier Shep Jones. Some 16 decades ago, William Sidney Mount unveiled his Cradle of Harmony, a baritone violin, now known as the octave violin. The octave fiddle speaks quickly, so Greenberg’s agile partnering of Norman and his various sizes of flute left listeners with the impression of two lithely vocal lines with sweetly complimentary harmonics and interlocking, subtle fundamentals. This was magical, in fact. The other pleasantly spry survivor of an eclipsed era was the small, portable 1950s melodeon by the once furiously busy Brattleboro organ firm of Estey. Norman and Greenberg alternated at it, pumping cheerfully away. [Click title for full review.] [continued]