Early-Music Missionaries

by Joseph Dalton, November 30, 2007

Joel Cohen became a missionary for the cause of early music nearly 40 years ago. With his ensemble, the Boston Camerata, Cohen worked to build an audience for music from the 15th and 16th centuries, as performed on the lute, viola da gamba, sackbut (a kind of Renaissance trombone), and other period instruments, and sung by singers who eschewed operatic grandeur in favor of a more intimate, often haunting sound.

As with missionary work of the religious kind, the magic and pageantry of Christmas was an enticement that lured listeners to Cohen’s cause. In 1971, the Boston Camerata first performed “A Renaissance Christmas,” and in the ensuing years that breakthrough concert of sacred music and Gospel readings has been repeated many times around the world, and twice recorded. Cohen followed it up with “A Baroque Christmas” and “A Medieval Christmas,” introducing listeners to the music of the periods before and after the Renaissance.

Today, early music is no longer on the fringes of the classical music world, but has become an influential scholarly movement as well as a form of entertainment and discovery for audiences. Capital Region concertgoers caught on to early music early on, thanks to the Boston Camerata’s annual holiday concert at Union College, now in its 20th year. This year’s performance will be a departure from the past, however. Cohen will not be in attendance, and gives over conducting duties to his wife and artistic collaborator, Anne Azéma. (Azéma, born in France, has long contributed her ethereal soprano to Camerata performances.) Next season, Cohen goes into semiretirement from the Boston Camerata, to start an education and research institute to explore connections among Christian, Jewish, and Muslim musical arts.
The Boston Camerata will appear at Memorial Chapel on the campus of Union College in Schenectady on December 16. Tickets for the 3pm concert are $25. (518) 388-6131; www.union.edu.