PORT TOWNSEND — The Salish Sea Early Music Festival will present Italian Four-Part Canzonas with Renaissance transverse flutist Jeffrey Cohan, dulcian player Anna Marsh, violinist Courtney Kuroda and violist Stephen Creswell at 7 tonight.
The concert will take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1020 Jefferson St.
Admission is by suggested donation: $15, $20 or $25 (a free-will offering). Those 18 and younger will be admitted free.
The program will explore the expressive nuance of an all-but-forgotten musical arena, performed on instruments including the Renaissance transverse flute and the dulcian, or Renaissance bassoon, that are extremely different from those used just a few decades later and that bring this music to life, organizers said.
This quartet of flute, bassoon, violin and viola is representative of ensembles, made up of both stringed and wind instruments, which were commonplace throughout Europe between 1580 and 1628, when the Italian instrumental four-part canzona, inspired by vocal four-part songs, blossomed in print and performance, they said.
Among the composers to be represented are Giovanni Paulo and Andrea Cima, Giovanni Bassano, Girolamo Frescobaldi and Fiorenzo Maschera.
Tonight’s concert will be followed by:
• The Instrumental Air De Cour, featuring Susie Napper on viola da gamba and Jeffrey Cohan, at 2 p.m. April 15.
The vocal French air de cour inspired instrumentalists from the late 16th century and yielded trends that resonated into the early 1700s.
• The Capable Virtuoso at 2 p.m. May 19.
Johann Mattheson’s piece, published in Hamburg in 1720, sets the tone for a program of trio sonatas inspired by Corell.
The concert will feature Carrie Krause on baroque violin, John Lenti on theorbo and baroque guitar and Jeffrey Cohan on baroque flute.
• The 5th Brandenburg Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach and other works for flute, violin, harpsichord and string chamber orchestra are scheduled for 2 p.m. May 26.
Krause, Cohan, Jonathan Oddie, Courtney Kuroda, Stephen Creswell and Anna Marsh will perform on period instruments.
• The work of Slvius Leopold Weiss, who wrote sonatas for obbligato lute and flute from which this program branches out to explore music at the court of the flutist King Frederick II of Prussia.
Oleg Timofeyev on baroque flute and Cohan on eight-keyed flute will perform his work at 2 p.m. June 10.
Additional information is available at www.salishseafestival.org/port townsend.
