Fierce Beasts and Gentle Creatures Who Play the Organ in Medieval Manuscripts from 1350-1500

When

Tuesday January 13, 2015: 7:00pm to 8:30pm  Add to Calendar /   Add to Google Calendar

Where

Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Description

Medieval Breviaries, Psalters and Books of Hours featuring images of animals playing the organ and pumping bellows ushered medieval readers into a world of sound, fantasy, and play.

Why do these curious animals make music in sacred text margins?

Join organist and medievalist Marijim Thoene for a musical and visually stimulating evening of medieval music. Marijim will play organ music from the Robertsbridge Codex, (c. 1360), the Faenza Codex (c. 1425) and the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, (1460s) illustrating late Medieval and early Renaissance music, and will also display images from medieval manuscripts (dated c. 1250-1500). of cats, donkeys, monkeys, rabbits, and even a double-headed dragon.

Marijim Thoene is an organist and medievalist. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan in Church Music and Organ Performance and has been on the faculty at the University of New Orleans and Our Lady of the Holy Cross College in New Orleans. She is currently Director of Music at the First United Methodist Church in Garden City, has played at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NY, and internationally in England, Germany, France, Poland and Venezuela. Her two CDs, “Mystics and Spirits” and “Wind Song” have met with critical acclaim and are available through Raven Recordings.

This event is cosponsored by AADL and the American Guild of Organists, Ann Arbor Chapter.