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| Allison Edberg and the "head" of the viola d'amore |
And it looks back at her with a pirate’s eye patch.
No, there hasn’t been a privateer pointing a pistol at her (although, she says, the pressure of learning new music sometimes makes it feel as if there’s a gun at her head).
It’s the "eyes" of the new instrument she’s been learning for the IBO’s upcoming concerts in Greencastle and Indianapolis.
“For these concerts I have been asked to play the viola d'amore, a seven stringed instrument about the size of a viola,” Edberg explains. “The maker carved a lady's head instead of the traditional scroll. The last guy to work on the instrument surprised the owner by putting a pirate's eye patch on her with black duct tape. It gave us a good laugh when we spotted it.”
That lady may have been winced once or twice in recent weeks. “One of the trickiest things has been the length on the instrument. I keep bonking into the music stand with the beautiful carved head,” she says. So far, the instrument remains unscathed.
Meanwhile, Edberg has been falling in love with the sound of the instrument, whose name literally translated is “viola of love.” “It has a set of sympathetic strings that vibrate as you play on others, and give the instrument a wonderful resonance.”
The concert features works by the beloved “red-haired priest,” Antonio Vivaldi, who during his lifetime was known as a wild and dramatic violin virtuoso as well as a prolific composer. “This concert is full of the fast and fiery music Vivaldi is famous for. The violins are really having to work!” says Edberg, who has red hair herself. “We are starting the concert with a concerto for two violins and cello with string orchestra. There is plenty of wild fiddling in this, particularly by the cellist! It has a fugue and a lovely slow movement in which I get to ornament or add decorative notes to what Vivaldi has written. This is a practice that took a long time for me to get comfortable with and used to make me blush!”
Blushing or not, Edberg will be joined by fellow violinist Martha Perry, violist Brandi Berry, cellist Christine Kyprianides, and harpsichordist Tom Gerber.
The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra began in 1995 when a group of area musicians entranced with “period” instruments gathered to read through music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. “The instruments we hear in most concerts today have evolved significantly from those used at the time Vivaldi and Bach were composing. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, numerous changes were made to make instruments louder and brighter as large concert halls developed,” explains Eric Edberg, the DePauw music professor who organizes the festival at Gobin. “Groups like the IBO are dedicated to playing ‘early music’ using playing techniques and instruments as much like the composers would have heard as possible.”
From its informal beginning, the IBO has become one of the top professional period-instrument ensembles in the country, with residencies at both the Christel DeHann Fine Arts Center at the University of Indianapolis and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Internationally-known flutist Barthold Kuijken is the group’s artistic director.
On Sunday June 10, Wednesday’s players will be joined by others, including Ronn McFarlane on lute, as the IBO performs a 7:30 PM performance (Viva Vivaldi: The Compete Works for Lute and Strings) at the Indiana History Center as part of the 45th Indianapolis Early Music Festival.
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