Tacoma a kickoff point for early music concerts this spring

In the calm, resonant space at Christ Episcopal Church in Tacoma, a low voice rises out of nothing. Dusky purple, it weaves haunting lines at the very edge of hearing, joined swiftly by two others in wistful, ornamented harmony. It’s a flute, but a very unusual one: a copy of one played by Jacques Hotteterre, court musician to Louis XIV of France, and its carved ebony and ivory joints produce lush sounds more than two half-tones below modern pitch. The flute, the pitch, the other instruments and the baroque music played Monday night at Christ Episcopal are part of the four-month-long Salish Sea Early Music Festival, which includes concerts all around Puget Sound, with Tacoma as the starting point.

“We’ve been playing these concerts as the group Concert Spirituel in Seattle since the mid-1980s,” explains flutist Jeffrey Cohan, the festival organizer. “Almost the only regular place apart from that was Tacoma.”

Cohan has played flute music from the Renaissance through to ultra-contemporary compositions in 25 countries around the world, winning prizes and gaining accolades such as “expressive spontaneity” and “stunning mastery.” He began performing in Tacoma years ago when he discovered the Fritz organ at Grace Lutheran Church, then the Brombaugh organ at Christ Episcopal, as well as the good acoustics in both churches. For pre-1900 instruments and music, these two things are vital: many chamber works need an organ with the right historical sound, and all early instruments rely far more than their modern counterparts on a good resonance to highlight their unique timbre.

When Cohan moved to Skagit Valley a few years ago, he discovered similar venues in the San Juan islands and Bellingham, and the Salish Sea Early Music Festival was born: a series of concerts repeated in venues from Tacoma to the San Juans. This is the festival’s second year. It kicked off last Monday in Tacoma with a concert of 17th-century French music featuring Cohan’s Hotteterre flute, plus baroque guitar played by John Lenti, and Joanna Blendulf on viola da gamba and the sweet, five-string pardessus de viole. Four more programs range from Renaissance trio music to Bach family flute sonatas, early 19th-century chamber music, and works written for Frederick the Great’s sister Wilhelmine.

There are many reasons to celebrate an early music festival in Tacoma. Two are purely practical: Though the Seattle early music scene is established, concerts here are fewer. Because they’re usually in churches, they feature international-standard musicians at a fraction of the price of big-theater shows.

But it’s the music and the instruments that are the real stars of early music concerts. The Salish Sea festival offers a smorgasbord of sounds you might not have heard before. Cohan’s Hotteterre flute is one example, with its fruity low tone. At next week’s concert of Renaissance music for broken consort (a mixed group of instruments), Cohan will play tenor and bass Renaissance flutes: Made with cylindrical bore and only six finger holes, they also are at a lower pitch (A is equal to 400Hz) and have a lighter sound. Playing with him will be Shula Kleinerman on Renaissance violin, an American copy of a 16th-century Gasparo de Salo, which is played off the shoulder and with a lighter bow for a more relaxed, delicate sound. John Lenti will play continuo on Renaissance lute and theorbo, the teardrop-shaped lute with a long neck supporting low bass strings.

Future concerts feature later instruments: “The Bach Family” in late February pairs Cohan on the seven-keyed baroque flute with German harpsichordist Jan Weinhold and the Christ Episcopal organ; “1820: Guitar, Flute and Viola” showcases an eight-keyed flute; and “An Evening with Wilhelmine” features baroque music written for the family of Frederick II of Prussia.

Delving with Cohan and his colleagues into these concerts is like peering briefly into another world. Early musicians have to be their own historians: researching music in libraries like the Bibliothque Nationale de Paris, deciphering old notations and handwriting, studying old paintings for how instruments looked, recreating the life of the royal court for which so much of this music was composed.

And, of course, collecting old instruments or their copies: Cohan has 30 flutes from all periods. For him, playing early music is a process of discovery.

“(The music in ‘The Broken Consort’) is a new exploration,” he says. “I don’t know anyone else in the U.S. who’s doing Renaissance chamber music like we’re doing. ... It’s really exciting to be able to give a concert like this in all these different locations.”

Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568 rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/arts