This year, the exhibition is in a different hotel, around the
corner from where it’s been the last few festivals.
Unfortunately, it’s still on two floors, so you have to take
elevators. But they work better than in the former venue and don’t have muzak.
Not everybody brought everything on their website, so there’s no alto
cornetto to try, and Andrea Breukink only brought the Eagle, and
not her Renaissance recorders.
But for most of us, hardware isn’t really the point — it’s all
about the people you can talk to. So here’s a brief summary of
what I accomplished in the first three days:
- Bought a book of recorder exercises I’ve been playing from
xeroxes. - Cleaned out all the 16th century madrigals from the AR
Editions scratch-and-dent box, for $10 each large and heavy
volume. - Bought an attractive, lightweight, folding wood music stand
at the Early Music Shop. - Bought an alto cornet mouthpiece that might help the tenor
serpent fulfill its mission of playing the parts that are too
low for cornetto and too high for serpent. - Discussed the state of early brass education with a couple
of people who organize summer workshops. - Got an offer to have a table for Serpent Publicaations at
the Amherst Early Music Festival instrument fair. - And of course saw and talked to lots of people I haven’t
seen for some time and would like to know what they’re doing.
What you accomplish will be different, but if you’re at all
interested in anything people do at BEMF, you will find ways to
see it and talk about it if you go to the exhibition.
So if you’re reading this before the exhibition closes at 5pm
on Saturday, June 13, get over there.
LayMusic.org 