Midsummer’s Music brings “A Renaissance Christmas” featuring the Chicago Early Music Consort back for a sixth straight year with a new program, “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
The Chicago Early Music Consort recreates the rich and diverse sounds of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque chamber repertoire with period-correct instruments in a historically-informed manner. Programs are built around historical and social themes to which modern audiences can easily relate. Members are Stephanie Sheffield, soprano; Gary Berkenstock, recorders, crumhorns, rackett, dulcian and shawm; Joel Spears, lute and theorbo; and Phillip W. Serna, vielle and viols.
Three performances are scheduled: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11, at Björklunden in Baileys Harbor; 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, at Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church, Ellison Bay; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13, at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Ephraim. The Dec. 11 concert includes a reception and dinner from Alexander’s restaurant in Fish Creek; tickets are $60 and reservations are required. Tickets are $20 for ages 18 and older for the other two performances, which feature post-concert receptions, and reservations are recommended.
Berkenstock, the consort’s artistic director, has focused this season’s program around the period between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi (Epiphany, Jan. 6). In Renaissance Europe, this period was a time for both religious introspection and unbridled merrymaking.
“The first half of the program will tell the Christmas story through the joyous carols and songs of the time,” Berkenstock said, “while in the second half, there will be songs and dances depicting the fun, feasting and frivolity associated with this time of year.”
The popular song “The 12 Days of Christmas” will be performed. This celebration of the Christmas season with imagery of gifts and dancing and music was first printed in the 1780 children’s book, “Mirth without Mischief,” but Berkenstock said it’s much older than that, and of French origin, to boot.
Being introduced this year is the song “In Those 12 Days,” which dates to at least 1625 and assigns religious meanings to each of the days. Berkenstock said this and the well-known “the 12 Days of Christmas” are likely related.
“Both songs may have begun as a 12th night ‘memory-and-forfeits’ game, in which the leader cited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake and consequently had to pay a penalty, such as a kiss or a sweet,” he said.
For tickets or more information, call 854-7088 or visit www.midsummersmusic.com.
