Dances on Movable Ground Ciaramella Ensemble

• 1 Jacaras (version 1) 02:40
• 2 Sonata fantasia, L'eroica 04:00
• 3 Chiaccona in partite variate 02:46
• 4 Il primo libro di canzone - Batalla, Barabassa tenero de satan 03:47
• 5 Canario (17th Century) 02:46
• 6 Passacalle 05:26
• 7 Ciaccona a tre con il suo Balletto 03:06
• 8 Moresca 02:15
• 9 Fantasia sopra la gamba 04:28
• 10 Aria decima quarta sopra La mia Pedrina 04:00
• 11 Fresca ribera 02:18
• 12 Recercada No. 8 02:26
• 13 Recercada secunda (arr. A. Gilbert for chamber ensemble) 03:02
• 14 Greensleeves to a ground (arr. A. Gilbert for chamber ensemble) 03:11
• 15 The Fisher and Fox 07:48
• 16 Diferencias sobra Pavane d'Espagne 02:33
• 17 Spagnoletta 02:12
• 18 Sardanas (arr. A. Gilbert for chamber ensemble) 03:22
• 19 La Mantovana - Bobbing Joe - Aupres de ma blonde 02:50
• 20 Jacaras (version 2) 03:10
• Total Runtime 01:08:06

Info for Dances on Movable Ground

Ciaramella Ensemble ventures "toward modern times" with intoxicating dance melodies from musicians who lived from the 1500s into the Baroque era, and includes new compositions by Adam Gilbert as well. Ground bass patterns underlie all of this music; sometimes one can hear it clearly and sometimes the ground bass line is veiled within the polyphony. Ciaramella artistic directors Adam and Rotem Gilbert lead the ensemble, which includes music on theorbo, Baroque guitar, viola da gamba, drums and percussion, harpsichord, wind instruments (including recorders, Renaissance brass, shawms), and hurdy gurdy.

"...Ciaramella plays this music with conviction and expressiveness and makes it accessible for contemporary audiences. One certainly can’t ask for more.

"...Ciaramella makes it fun. They bring a sense of history to the works they play, but their concerts aren’t dry academic exercises. They bring the music of the renaissance to life. A concert by Ciaramella is a delightful and entertaining excursion to a bygone era.

"And the... members of the group obviously enjoy what they’re doing. For them this music is as much alive today as it was in Richard III’s time – and that attitude and approach are what set them apart from many other early music ensembles." Edward Reichel

“From the nobility of Europe, to the petit bourgeoisie reading Thonoit’s Arbeau’s Orchesographie, to the already pregnant bride in Brueghel’s The Peasant Wedding, everybody danced their way through the rituals of life…. Their music, like their dance, reflected a delicate balance between the restraints of culture and convention, and ingenious flourishes of improvisation….” (Adam Gilbert)

Ciaramella

Ciaramella Ensemble
Ciaramella are Erik Schmalz, Doug Milliken, Debra Nagy, Rotem Gilbert, Greg Ingles and Adam Gilbert. Ciaramella brings to life Medieval and early Renaissance music from historical events and manuscripts. Praised for performing intricate fifteenth-century counterpoint 'with the ease of jazz musicians improvising on a theme', its members are united by the conviction that every composition conceals a rich story waiting to be unlocked through historical research and speculative performance.

Founded on a core of winds: shawm, sackbut, recorder, bagpipe, and voice, Ciaramella takes its name from the Italian shawm and from a fifteenth-century song about a beautiful girl whose clothes are full of holes. When she opens her mouth, she knocks men flat. Ciaramella's members met as graduate students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. They first performed together on Christmas Day 2003, in Spoleto, Italy. There they collaborated with musicologist Gioia Filocamo to perform music from the manuscript Panciatichi 27, much of which had not been heard for centuries. In 2004, the group performed in a staged production of the first Hebrew play, A Comedy of Betrothal by Leone de'Sommi (c.1550) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Ciaramella has since performed for the Bloomington Early Music Festival, Oberlin's Baroque Performance Institute, the Lute Society of America, the American Musicological Society in Seattle, and on early music series in Cleveland, San Francisco, and San Diego. They have performed for Columbus Early Music in Ohio, Seattle's Early Music Guild, and continue to perform in Los Angeles for the Da Camera Society's music series, 'Chamber Music in Historic Sites'. Ciaramella was a finalist in the 2003 Flanders Festival International Young Artist's Presentation and in the 2004 Medieval/ Renaissance Early Music America competition in New York. The group made its debut appearance to sold out crowds at the Tage Alter Musik Festival in Regensburg, Germany in Spring 2007.

The group has performed at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Early Music Society of the Islands in Victoria, BC, made its New York debut at Music Before 1800 and performed for the Connecticut and Amherst Early Music Festivals.

Booklet for Dances on Movable Ground