Excerpted from Andrew Moulton's IDS Review

BLEMF gives new life to old music

"The third annual Bloomington Early Music Festival filled the city with medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Hindustani sounds over the Memorial Day weekend. IU students, alumni, and other msuicians worked together to give a contemporary audience a connection with some ancient music, and they did so with a great deal of humanity and charm...

"Altramar:
"The ensemble Altramar presented some of the oldest music at the festival, with a program of medieval Latin song titled "Fabulae Latinae: Tales in the Common Tongue." The lyrics ranged from the most sacred to the most vulgar, and Altramar's members took full advantage of both.
"Far from the stodgy, restrained performance one might expect from classical music scholars, the members of Altramar were extremely expressive and lively.
"One of the selections, "Quisquis dolosis," was from the "Cambridge Songs," one of the oldest collections of medieval songs. The Latin lyrics relate the tale of a youth who has sold his soul to the devil to win a woman, and ensemble member and IU doctoral student Angela Mariani's performance was full of dramatic intensity.
"More jovial numbers from the 12th-century collection "Carmina Burana" featured tenor David Stattleman [sic] and IU doctoral student Chris Smith, who sang and burped their way through songs about the merits of food and drink.
"It's refreshing to see people sing with such expression in Latin and to have the results of music scholarship bring such delight to an audience."

Another review of the same concert.

Anndd...Another.

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