Music in the Flesh: Book Launch

An unorthodox celebration of the publication of Music in the Flesh, with music, chat, bubbly and bean bags. The event aimed to bring to life some of the historical insights from the book in the moment of live performance.

Programme

Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Mensa sonora: Sonata No. 1 in D Major: I. Grave – Allegro
Reinhard Keiser, Croesus: ‘Liebe, sag, was fängst du an?’
Johann Sebastian Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier I: Fugue in B Minor (BWV 869)
Georg Philipp Telemann, Burlesque de Quichotte: ‘Ses soupirs amoureux après la Princesse Dulcinée’
Johann Sebastian Bach, *St. Matthew Passion*: ‘Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder’
Heinrich Schütz, *Symphoniae Sacrae I*:  ‘O quam tu pulchra es’

Margaret Faultless, violin and direction
Alana Mailes, soprano
Harry Gant, tenor
Henry Montgomery, bass
Stephane Crayton, violin
 Rachel Stroud, violin
Leon Sturdee, viola
Max Todes, cello

Selected Feedback

Bettina’s work is revelatory - I’ve already shared her approach in sever professional contexts to the great delight of other musicians. This is a historical approach that quite literally gives heart and body to the music - it’s liberating yet completely natural to play like this.

I loved being encouraged to move and breathe with the music. Fabulous!

I have never been taught how to listen to music and it was really eye (ear!) opening to be guided by you.

The event reframed a traditional format according to the theory it argues - to experience the event was to engage with its fundamental argument.

The event transformed and expanded my sense of an entire bodily experience of performing and listening. I’m longing to take these ideas further to generate a different way of rehearsing and performing that invites a whole new set of parameters to discover what this repertoire might be about.

It was lovely to be encouraged to sigh with and through and in the music. I’ll certainly play things differently, through listening to myself differently. It was inspiring!

I was physically moved - and allowed to be.