Just as interpreters breathe life into the past at Colonial Williamsburg, the music resonating from a harpsichord makes the halls of historical buildings come alive as they would have hundreds of years ago.
Visitors can partake in the sensory lesson at the foundation’s Early Music Festival. It starts Tuesday and runs through Friday with a mix of concerts, lectures and a fully staged musical.
Jane Hanson, supervisor of music and dance for the foundation, said the festival is a way for 21st-century guests to connect with 18th-century ancestors.
“’That the future may learn from the past’ is the motto for Colonial Williamsburg, and I often think that music is just one of many ways to teach about the past,” she said. “It’s a way that people can emotionally experience the past, they can audibly experience the past.”
This is the fifth iteration of the event, which started as a celebration of Handel and the next year expanded its musical scope. In the years since, Hanson and other organizers have learned what helps make the festival most successful.
One of those lessons was to market to a local audience. Hanson remembers trying to generate interest in the foundation’s music programs and not finding local enthusiasm in years past. While small venues limited residents’ access to concerts and other events, she has seen a recent influx of activities to connect locals with the living history museum.
“I think local people for a long time have somehow figured that Colonial Williamsburg was for outside people,” Hanson said. “Maybe we’re beginning to bridge that.”
Also new this year is a connection between afternoon and evening programs. They were unrelated in the past, but now lectures earlier in the day will give guests insight into the people and time period of the music they hear at night.
In this year’s programming, Hanson is most looking forward to Wednesday’s viol concert and the show “Thomas and Sally” on Thursday.
The viol, or viola da gamba, is a predecessor of the violin that was popular in Renaissance and Baroque music. This week’s program at the Capitol will feature four of the instruments being played at once, a sound hitherto unheard in Colonial Williamsburg.
Hanson said this is also the first time in 30 years the foundation has mounted a full musical production. The piece is an hour long and completely sung, with accompaniment provided by the foundation’s resident early music ensemble, The Governor’s Musick.
“It is a hoot,” Hanson said of the show. “It is a rollicking comedy. It’s got very little plot, lots of fun little songs.”
The play’s first documented performance was in 1770 in Williamsburg, and Hanson said George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were in attendance.
“It’s allowing the visitor to put themselves in a seat that was a seat that might have been sat in by Thomas Jefferson,” Hanson said.
Festival Events:
Peter Pelham and Cuthbert Ogle: Rivals or Colleagues?: 2 p.m. Tuesday at Hennage Auditorium.
Colonial Williamsburg harpsichordist Michael Monaco explores the relationship between London concertmaster Cuthbert Ogle and contemporary musician Peter Pelham. Ogle is believed to have arrived on the ship carrying the Bruton Parish organ, but died suddenly six weeks later.
Monaco will perform selections from the inventory of Ogle’s estate.
Museum admission is required.
Palace Concert: From the Collection—“The Ogle Inventory”: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Governor’s Palace.
The Governor’s Musick, Colonial Williamsburg’s resident performing ensemble, will perform an opening concert on 16th- and 18th-century instruments. Selections will come from the surviving inventory of music teacher and London concertmaster Cuthbert Ogle, followed by a question and answer session with the musicians.
Tickets are $25 each.
Music of Virginia: The First 100 Years: 2 p.m. Wednesday at Hennage Auditorium.
Sarah Glosson, of The Governor’s Musick and The College of William & Mary, will present a talk on the musical life of early Virginia. She will use information from letters, inventories, and archaeolgical excavations to describe the musical landscape, as well as perform on viola da gamba.
Museum admission is required, and the event tickets are $5 each.
Music for Viols in Concert: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Capitol Hall of Burgesses.
Multiple viola da gambas will sound in performance, accompanied by a harpsichord. Performers will include Wayne Moss, Sarah Glosson, and Ulysses Kirksey of The Governor’s Musick.
Tickets are $25 each.
Thomas Arne’s Thomas and Sally and Theater Music in 18th-century America¨2 p.m. Thursday at Hennage Auditorium.
Dr. Sterling E. Murray will speak on how Thomas Arne’s “Thomas and Sally” fit within the context of 18th-century theater.
A professor at the College of William & Mary, Murray will consider how colonial audiences might have experienced the major hit of London’s 1760-61 season. The show quickly made its way to the colonies with traveling theater troupes.
Museum admission is required, and the event tickets are $5 each.
Thomas and Sally; or the Sailor’s Return by Thomas Arne: 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kimball Theatre.
“Thomas and Sally,” the first fully sung English play performed on the American stage, returns to Williamsburg where it was first documented performance was in 1770. Historically, it would have followed a full five-act comedy or tragedy.
Tickets are $19 for those ages 13 and older, $9.50 for children ages 6 to 12 and free for children younger than 6.
George Washington: Music for the First President: 2 p.m. Friday at Hennage Auditorium.
David and Ginger Hildebrand, nationally renowned specialists in early American music, will sing and perform on harpsichord, violin, English guitar, Spanish guitar and hammered dulcimer a program of 18th-century music. The concert will include works performed in Washington’s honor, songs heard at Mount Vernon during his lifetime, tunes he danced to and military ballads.
Museum admission is required, and the event tickets are $10 each for those ages 13 and older, $5 for children ages 6 to 12 and free for children younger than 6.
Palace Concert: The 1766 Concert in Fredericksburg: 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Governor’s Palace.
The Governor’s Musick will create a concert presented Dec. 30, 1766 in Fredericksburg which featured the largest ensemble advertised to perform in 18th-century Virginia. The 10 musicians include full strings, oboe, horn and harpsichord.
A reception will follow the concert.
Tickets are $35 each.
For more information and to purchase tickets for events, visit the Colonial Williamsburg website.
