Primal Winds: The Whole Noyse

The Santa Cruz Baroque Festival presents:
PRIMAL WINDS: The Whole Noyse (Concert V)
Featuring The Whole Noyse (16th & 17th century cornets, sackbuts, and curtal)

The Whole Noyse derives its name from medieval England, when a group of loud wind instruments was called a ‘noise’. One of the finest early music bands in the world, the group was founded in 1986 and plays the instruments and music of professional wind bands in the 16th and 17th centuries. The members of Whole Noyse are Stephen Escher (curved cornetts), Richard Van Hessel & Sandy Stadtfeld (sackbuts, an ancestor of the trombone), and Herbert Myers (curtal, an ancestor of the bassoon). At the cusp of Renaissance and Baroque, their repertoire includes rousing dances and canzonas by Josquin Desprez, Giovanni Gabrieli, Girolamo Frescobaldi and others.

Concert V takes place on Saturday, May 14, at First Congregational Church (900 High Street, Santa Cruz) beginning at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased through the UCSC Ticket Office (http://www.santacruztickets.com, 831-459-2159), the Civic Center Box Office, and the SC Baroque Festival (http://www.scbaroque.org, 831-457-9693). Ticket price range: $3-23 ($23 general, $17 senior, $6 college student, $3 K-12).

PHOTO: The Whole Noyse (contributed by the ensemble, taken June 29, 1999 in Gorizia, Italy)

BIOGRAPHY:

The Whole Noyse performs on modern reproductions of 16th century instruments. Stephen Escher plays curved cornetts; Richard Van Hessel and Sandy Stadtfeld play sackbuts; and Herbert Myers plays the curtal, ancestor of the bassoon. The Whole Noyse derives its name from a musical term dating from medieval England, when a group of loud wind instruments was called a "noise." Later, the word came to refer to sets of wind instruments in general: in 1584, an English town band called the Norwich Waits considered a set of five instruments as "beeying a Whoall noyse."

Herb Myers -- Richard Van Hessel -- Stephen Escher -- Sandy Stadtfeld

The Whole Noyse had its first concert together in 1986. The group, based in the San Francisco area, plays brass and wind music from 16th and 17th century Europe. Performances by The Whole Noyse both in Europe and North America have been enthusiastically received. Their recordings include "Lo Splendore d'Italia" and collaborations with various ensembles of music by Bach and Praetorius, as well as early Italian opera and 17th century Italian sacred music. The Whole Noyse performs on modern reproductions of cornetts, sackbuts and curtal; instruments that made up the primary professional wind group of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Whole Noyse is celebrating its 25th year as one of the country's leading early brass ensembles. The group, based in the San Francisco Bay area, plays European instrumental music from the 15th through 17th centuries, and in their concerts can be heard performing on cornetts, sackbuts, curtal, recorders, flutes, crumhorns, shawms, slide trumpet, gittern, violin, and viola.

Performances by The Whole Noyse throughout Europe and North America have been enthusiastically received. The group has collaborated with some of North America's most respected early music ensembles, including Magnificat, The King's Noyse, The Newberry Consort, and Sex Chordae Consort of Viols, as well as a number of choirs, including the Vancouver Cantata Singers, Pro Coro Canada, San Francisco Choral Artists, and AVE.

This year, the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, The Whole Noyse is scheduled to participate in more than a dozen performances of the work in cities all over the US and Canada, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Vancouver, Calgary, and Honolulu. They participated in a staged performance of Monteverdi's Orfeo in Edmonton and premiered a composition, "Marina," written exclusively for them with the San Franciso Choral Artists by local composer Ted Allen.

The Whole Noyse has a solo recording, Lo Splendore d'Italia, and can be heard on recordings by Magnificat, the San Francisco Bach Choir, and the Vancouver Cantata Singers. The Vancouver Cantata Singers' CD Venetian Vespers of 1640 was nominated for a Juno award and won the "Outstanding Choral Award" from the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors.

Website (Whole Noyse): http://homepage.mac.com/rvh13/index.html
Website (SC Baroque Festival): http://www.scbaroque.org