This article was originally published in The Bastion, currently under renovation.
The theorbo, at first sight, is an impossible instrument. It looks like a kind of otherworldly sitar—large-bodied with an extraordinarily long neck and 14 strings—playable only by a ten-foot space creature with tentacles for hands. Introduced in 1580 to be the “perfect accompaniment for voice,” it still holds the title as the largest member of the lute family, and provides the high, sprightly notes typically associated with strummed instruments, while also contributing the deep basso continuo sections usually provided by a double bass or organ.
While the theorbo’s unwieldy size lends itself easily to the spotlight, it’s far from the only curious, bygone instrument to appear at any given show produced by the Early Music Society of the Islands (EMSI): be prepared for crumhorns, shawms, cornetts, vielles, sackbuts, and hurdy-gurdies.
At EMSI’s next performance, Concert of the Birds (April 22, 2023, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church), one can witness the theorbo being mastered first-hand—by a typically sized human, no less—and hear the powerful intonations of these largely forgotten, but once incredibly popular, instruments.
The program will be performed by La Rêveuse, a leading early-music ensemble from Orléans, France, featuring a selection of baroque works inspired by nature’s chirpy choir, the birdsong. This subject has informed their choice of instrumentation: theorbo, flutes, viola da gamba (a six-stringed predecessor of the cello), and a recorder and flageolet (both members of the fipple flute family). It’s a rare opportunity to experience the sounds of these far-out instruments in the hands of some of the world’s leading musical authorities.
Even to a fan of classical music, some of these contraptions may seem alien. Contemporary orchestras use essentially the same collection of tools, changing the number of pieces from each family—strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion—according to the work at hand. But limiting an orchestra’s arsenal in this way is a relatively new restriction. As EMSI artistic and executive director Bill Jamieson says, “There was a huge amount of instrumental experimentation up until the nineteenth century, but then things kind of got petrified.”
Simon Ogden 