RESEARCH TEAM
Katharina Haun
was born in Austria and studied recorder and music pedagogy there. Afterwards her love for Renaissance Music and the cornetto led her to Switzerland to study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Learning about music before 1600 made her realize how many hidden treasures are still to be found in this section of music history, especially in the history of the Habsburg emperors. So much music is still unperformed, unknown and so many of the practices that we read about in sources are still out of reach for us or have not been tried out to the full extent by musicians and ensembles. This is the work that Katharina aims to do.
As instrumentalist, music teacher, conductor and researcher her every-day-life is filled with the idea that music is so much more than practicing an instrument by yourself. As a singing instrumentalist she enjoys that she can discover the Renaissance world through sources and with her colleagues from many perspectives. It is clear that we can never have the same thorough education that a choir boy in the 16th century would have had, but it is also clear that we should never cease to try to push the limits of what is possible and try to see beyond set performance practices, that were formed in the 20th century and try to look beyond them.
In ensembles and as a soloist she is regularly performing in many different settings. Her own instrument, the cornetto, has also given her the opportunity to discover unknown territory. The cornetto as an instrument that came up in the late 15th century has still many performance contexts to claim for itself and really enjoy the at least 200 years of music in which it was one of the most popular instruments for the church, the chamber and outside events.
Through The Habsburg Project Katharina sees the possibility to discover and experiment with a genre and in a context that she is truly excited about and that will hopefully make us rethink our current performance practice standards for music of the Renaissance.
Ivo Haun
My first contacts with music as a child in Brazil have been through the guitar (both electric and classical) and keyboards, as well as singing and playing in a rock band with a few teenage colleagues. The classical guitar became my main subject of studies when I entered the university, while choir singing took only a minor role at first. I eventually came to realize that my future (as well as my personal pleasure) as a singer was more promising than as a classical guitarist and soon joined professional choirs in Brazil before moving to Basel, Switzerland, where I currently live.
At the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis I had contact with a repertoire that was previously unfamiliar to me and became particularly interested in the music between the 15th and 17th centuries. Studying historical sources made me realize how fascinating the skills of the musicians at that time must have been and simultaneously how far our current practice and understanding of this music still is.
My passion lies particularly in the highly virtuosic singing style that is documented in 16th and 17th century sources. Through the years I have come to acknowledge the major role that the improvisatory practices used to have among the cultivated musicians of that time. Additionally, practices like memorisation, the use of original notation and the study of rhetorical techniques can help us grasp this music and its place within the cultural life of the Renaissance in a much deeper and more meaningful way.
Therefore I believe that our role as performers in today’s society is crucial in showing our audiences how moving Renaissance music can be.
Phillip Boyle
My long and windy road to early music started at 15 with Bach's "Jesu Joy of Mans desiring" in the Kvam & Sellanrå school band in Molde, Norway. I found it boring and much preferred playing the themes from the Simpsons and the Muppet show. Much later, as a modern trombone student at the University of Stavanger, playing music from Purcell's Abdelazer in an arrangement for trombone octet was a bit more fun, but I was still starting to get a feeling that there might be a way to do better justice to this music. Picking up the school's old Meinl sackbut, a new world opened up, and through Gabrieli, Bertali, Gabrieli, Tuma, and some more Gabrieli and other fun 17th century brass music, I got a peek into the style of the early baroque music. Some lessons with a visiting professor who happened to be a baroque violinist instilled great inspiration in me with her passionate but zen-like teaching style, and diminutions on "Twinkle, twinkle little star". That was when my journey to Basel started.
As an eager exchange student at the Music Academy in Basel, I soaked up as much as I could from this huge sponge of knowledge called Schola Cantorum Basiliensis; taking on as many theory subjects as they would let me do. Through alta cappella and renaissance notation classes, my interest for renaissance music was awakened, and as I committed myself to more and more years of studying at the Schola, I've been constantly active in alta cappellas and other renaissance ensembles, including several projects involving singing from choir books (with and without instruments), and projects focused on improvised counterpoint.
As a trombonist, I am (perhaps unsurprisingly) interested in the origins, development and role of the trombone through history, and how the renaissance wind player learned and performed his craft. I find it very fascinating that much of what they played was not written down, and that they probably relied heavliy on memory and improvisation; with most wind players possibly even being musically illiterate. For me, it's unfortunately too late: there is no way back from musical literacy, so instead I use my intellectual efforts in trying to understand and acquire at least some of the skill set of the versatile renaissance wind player.
It also fascinates me how quickly after its conception the trombone gained popularity, and soon took on different roles in musical society, being used for as varied purposes as a loud countertenor instrument with shawms, to doubling voices in church choirs together with the cornetto. The Habsburg project, with its collaborative work model and colleagues that I have great respect for, is a great opportunity for me to further deepen my knowledge –especially regarding instrumentation,– to share it, and to learn from others.
Juan Díaz de Corcuera
I began my musical training at the age of eight in the residence town of my family, but shortly after I was sent to the Escolanía de la Abadía de la Santa Cruz (San Lorenzo del Escorial - Madrid) where I stayed for three years. It was there that I first came into contact with renaissance polyphony and Historically Informed Performance. At twelve years old, it was an incredible idea that you could study how music was interpreted in other times and that there were people who were dedicated to reconstructing the way it was interpreted. In the following years my desire to learn more about Historically Informed Performance was the driving force behind my entire training until I finally arrived at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis where I did my degree. Throughout this journey I performed polyphony from the 15th and 16th centuries more and more assiduously until it practically became the repertoire that I exclusively perform. During that trip I was also discovering my passion for musicological research.
