Meet Sonus, BUA’s Early Music Ensemble

On Wednesday evening, Boston University Academy hosted its first-ever Early Music Concert in the spectacular Marsh Chapel at the heart of BU’s campus.

The concert featured our Early Music Ensemble, Sonus, with special guests Vox Caeli, Polytropos, and our very own Dr. Kristin Jewell. The program comprised music from the 1st century AD through the early 1700’s, and was performed on historically accurate instruments such as recorders, cornetto, sackbut, harpsichord, lute, aulos, and more. According to music teacher and concertmaster Dr. Brett Abigaña, Sonus is the only early music ensemble in the country performing on historically accurate instruments.

BUA singers performed madrigals from three different centuries and regions in their original dialects, and Dr. Jewell led a stunning performance of the Seikilos Epitaph, the oldest fully notated piece as yet discovered. We even heard a Colonial American tavern song popular in Boston during the American Revolution! The audience enjoyed a more intimate gathering than our usual large-form concerts in the Tsai Performance Center, and Sonus looks forward to continuing to explore early music in the future, with many more concerts of rarely heard masterpieces on rarely played instruments.

As for the genesis of BUA’s early music program, Dr. Abigaña reflects: “It’s only a couple of years old, and came about because we have a student who is an excellent recorder player, and I wanted to give him something specifically for his instrument. So we started buying historical instruments, beginning with the harpsichord, cornetto, and sackbut. The lute, bodhran, and the recorders that I played are actually my own instruments, donated to the cause when we need them, but I intend to expand our holdings in the near future. Having an ensemble like this opens up a wealth of historical performance. Our modern instruments were only really made to perform music from about 1800 until now, leaving 18 centuries of music that they were never meant to play. Now, we can do all of that music, and do it in the right way, which will hopefully encourage us to take a more hands-on approach to learning musical history and performance practice. And it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play!”

In case you missed it, watch the full recording of the Early Music Concert here.

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