Doing the seguidilla in Pittsburgh

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of playing with El Mundo, a group run by Richard Savino, who plays lute and guitar with us frequently. The program, entitled Zarzuela y Opera!, was for the Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh: rbsp.org

The music -- by Sebastian Duron, Domenico Zipoli and others -- is full of infectious rhythms and melodies. For me, it was kind of a baptism-by-fire in Spanish Baroque, complete with improvised fandangos and seguidillas!

And on another subject: if you need a good laugh (at Pachelbel's expense), have a look at youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

Having just spent the weekend realizing such bass lines -- Spanish music has lots of ostinatos for the continuo players -- I can definitely relate, though I'm much fonder of Duron, Zipoli and all the rest than this guitar player is of poor Pachelbel!

"Love and War" review

If you haven't yet seen it, the Houston Chronicle's review of "Love and War" is up on their website:

blogs.chron.com/aboutlastnight/2007/11/ars_lyrica_makes_the_case_that.html

Bravi a tutti!