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Ayreheart is Ronn McFarlane, lute; Willard Morris, fretless bass, violin & colascione;
Mattias Rucht, percussion. Photo courtesy of Ayreheart.
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This post is from an excerpt of Out & About magazine's April 2018 issue...
Market StreetMusic keeps its vibrant music roster going into spring with the return of
Renaissance-and-modern music trio Ayreheart. The ensemble — Ronn McFarlane, lute; Willard Morris, fretless bass, violin and colascione (a kind of bass
lute); and Mattias Rucht, percussion —
brings the lute and related period instruments into the 21 Century
with all the energy of a traditional rock band. The Friday, April 20, 7:30pm concert is the second appearance for the group in Market Street Music’s lineup.
“Ayreheart
returns to Market Street Music because they are simply remarkable!” says Market
Street Music Director David Schelat. “These musicians, who all have backgrounds
in rock and jazz, create a level of energy that jumps off the stage and into
the audience. It really is a bit like a rock concert, except the music is from
the 14th to 17th Centuries.”
So, let’s back up. What’s
a lute, exactly? It’s a stringed instrument (similar to a guitar,
although it is plucked rather than strummed) with a long neck of frets, a round
body and flat front. Descended from the Arabic oud, the lute was the most
popular instrument in the Western world during the Renaissance.
The Ayreheart ensemble
was founded in 2010 by Grammy-nominated lutenist McFarlane,
who had long been writing and performing music for solo lute and found many of
his ideas were more expansive than for just a solo instrument.
“It was a natural evolution to expand into an ensemble that
could play all the parts,” says McFarlane. “There’s also an exchange of ideas
and energy with an ensemble that becomes more that the sum of its parts.”
In addition to original music, Ayreheart performs
Renaissance music, “…from the time when the lute was considered the ‘Prince of
Instruments,’” as McFarlane notes. “There’s a tremendous amount of music that
exists from that period…that appeals to us very much.”
The last time
Ayreheart played at Market Street Music, they presented an all-Renaissance
music show. This time around, McFarlane says they’ll offer up a generous
helping of Celtic music as well as his original music in the mix.
“I want audiences to come away happy and uplifted by our
music, but also to hear the lute as an expressive instrument for modern as well
as Renaissance music,” says McFarlane. “It’s exciting to break new musical
ground for the lute, combining Renaissance and modern instruments, and creating
a new body of music that blends elements of folk, Celtic, bluegrass and
classical,” he says.
See www.marketstreetmusicde.org.
