Renaissance Revels turns back the musical clock

It’s springtime and tonight Festival City Winds teams up with Edmonton Sackbone Express to escape back 600 years for a night of Renaissance Revels.

The Festival City Winds Intermediate Band, a musical bastion since 1995, has developed a groundbreaking presence in the community.

However, Edmonton Sackbone Express, with only three years under its belt, is still new to most audiences.

As Sackbone’s musical director Dr. Eila Peterson explains, “We are a group of trombone players that play the sackbut, the ancestor of the trombone.”

Peterson founded the early music group after digging into the history of the sackbut, an instrument played largely from the Renaissance to Baroque period.

“One of our players, Larry Knutson, who plays in Festival City Winds, is a true patron of the arts. He purchased and donated 16 sackbuts so we could start the ensemble. The sackbut itself is not part of a contemporary ensemble. They’re all replicas of period instruments.”

Peterson also plays other early instruments such as the recorder, crumhorn (capped reed instrument) and a rackett (double reed wind instrument).

“Early music appeals to me because the character is different. I like the style, especially the greatest dance hits of the 1500s. It seems as if it was such a big part of the culture with troubadours and minstrels. It was a romantic view of real life at the time. People lived a hard life and music was what made life bearable.”

Sackbone partners with the Festival City Winds Intermediate Band, which includes St. Albert’s Rob Hutchinson (bari sax) and Sara Vanveen (bass clarinet), to perform the 17th century title composition Renaissance Revels.

“We’ve arranged it for 21st century band so you can hear the difference between today’s sound and the 17th century sound.”

Sackbone performs additional works starting with the Medieval Swedish Bagpipe Tune, a 13th century folk piece from Sweden’s central farmlands.

“It has a single melodic line with a drone part underneath. We take turns playing the melody line and drone part.”

Turning to sacred music, the eight-member Sackbone Express performs a Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus mass composed by Giovanni de Palestrina.

Veering away from the solemn, Peterson has programmed a bourĂ©e dance traditionally performed with quick, skipping steps. And Michael Praetorius’ Terpsichore is a suite of dances Peterson discovered on YouTube played by a rackett ensemble.

Finally, Patricia Gauci gives a fluid display in That Pesky Sarpent, playing a sackbut serpent, a hybrid brass and woodwind instrument shaped like a snake.