Altramar medieval music ensemble: Bio/Info

Altramar - Group bio

Altramar, in the Occitan language of the troubadours, was the name given to the Near Eastern lands that lay “over the sea;” the lands where Crusade and trade resulted in the rich cultural interchange of East and West. Altramar is an ensemble specializing in music of the Medieval Era, sharing historical repertory in the context of human experience, and evoking the vibrant tapestry of medieval culture. Altramar combines a process of collaborative partnership with a commitment to scholarship and expression. Since 1991, Altramar has been presenting their unique blend of song and story, drama and rhetoric, and voices and instruments to audiences throughout North America and Europe.

Altramar’s members arrived at their medieval meeting place by way of diverse musical paths: Jann Cosart plays bowed string instruments from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. She serves as Assistant Professor of Musicology and Director of the Early Music Ensembles program at Baylor University. Chris Smith is a multi-instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist, specializing in performance traditions of the British Isles, the Near East and the African Diaspora. He is Associate Professor of Musicology and Director of the Vernacular Music Center at Texas Tech University. David Stattelman, a native Iowan, received his earliest musical training through participation in the Roman Catholic liturgy. He is currently Assistant Choral Director at St Mary Cathedral in Lansing, MI. Angela Mariani is a specialist in the performance practice of medieval music, whose career has included experience in rock, folk, and traditional styles. She produces the nationally-syndicated early music radio program Harmonia, and serves as Assistant Professor of Musicology and Director of the Collegium Musicum at Texas Tech University.

Altramar performs on a matched set of instruments especially designed for them by luthier Timothy G. Johnson.

Altramar performances have spanned a wide range of venues; appearances include the Boston Early Music Festival, Milwaukee's Early Music Now, St. Paul Early Music, Musica Sacra Maastricht (Netherlands), the Monterey World Music Festival, the Bloomington Early Music Festival, Festival Music Society of Indianapolis, Early Music Vancouver, the Kalamazoo International Congress on Medieval Studies, Tage Alte Musik (Germany), Alte Musik Feldkirchen (Austria), Galway Early Music Festival (Ireland), Houston Early Music, ZoukFest, and Organisatie Oude Muziek (Holland). The ensemble has presented lectures, demonstrations, and workshops throughout North America and Europe, is a founding member of the Research Association for Medieval Music in the Celtic Regions, and has contributed to panel discussions, conferences and publications on many aspects of music and performance.

Instruments - Information

Altramar uses instruments appropriate to the times and places of their repertoire. Most of the information about medieval instruments comes from iconography, because very few of the originals survive. By studying paintings and sculptures, one can discover which instruments were played when and where. Also, clues can be found which suggest construction techniques of medieval craftsmen. Luthier Timothy G. Johnson has created a matched set of instruments using this type of research.

The gittern is the ancestor of the guitar, but it often resembled the medieval fiddle: two identical instruments were commonly shown together, one plucked and the other bowed. However, gitterns more frequently had frets, flat fingerboards, and flat bridges.

The ‘ud, an Arabic lute, was popular in Southern Europe, especially Iberia. Johnson has designed an instrument for Altramar combining Arabic construction techniques with characteristics of the earliest European lutes.

The Gothic harp played by Altramar is based on a twelfth-century mosaic. It is a small instrument, held on the lap. This simple, triangular shape was common throughout Europe from Carolingian times into the Gothic period.

The Irish harp played by Altramar is based on period illustrations and the Brian Boru harp held at Trinity College Dublin.

The rebec is a small fiddle with only two or three strings. Its one-piece, gourd-shaped body gives it a characteristic sound. Altramar’s rebecs were inspired by eleventh-century sculptures in the French cathedral of Gargilesse.

The vielle is the ancestor of both the violin and viola da gamba families. It had three to five strings, optional frets, and a flat or curved bridge.

Variants of the dumbek or darabukka, a goblet-shaped drum, are widely depicted in sources across Europe and throughout the period.

For Altramar’s Celtic projects, Tim has created two additional one-of-a-kind reconstructions of medieval Celtic instruments.

The cruit is a Celtic lyre similar in design to early lyres seen across Europe in the early to high Middle Ages. Medieval stone carvings depicting a rounded, rectangular lyre are found today throughout Ireland and serve as models for Altramar’s instrument.

The crwth is a bowed lyre, constructed very similarly to the cruit. Altramar’s instrument has six strings, four strung over a fingerboard and two resonating openly off the fingerboard. The crwth was played in Welsh traditional music into the nineteenth century.

In addition to their consort of Timothy G. Johnson instruments, Chris Smith also employs a lavta (long-necked plucked lute) by Samir Azar of Homs, Syria.