DESCRIPTION:
English Masque Dances (about 1600)

Markus Wuersch, trumpet
Peter Solomon, organ

Recorded at Catholic Church Stans, Switzerland
Cameras, Editing and DVD-Production: Juerg and Marianne Rufer,
Sound: Magnon Recording Studio, Paul Niederberger

A Dingo and Fox Production
© 2008, Markus Wuersch, Peter Solomon

Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB
www.hkb.bfh.ch
markus.wuersch(at)hkb.bfh.ch

Musikhochschule Luzern / HSLU
www.hslu.ch/musik
markus.wuersch(at)fhz.ch


Prof. Markus Würsch
The Swiss trumpet virtuoso Markus Würsch was born in 1955 in Emmetten, Nidwalden in the spectacularly scenic region of lake Lucerne. He studied trumpet and brass ensemble conducting at the Conservatoire in Zurich and Lucerne where he received his degree with honours. He won the coveted Migros competition, and subsequently received a grant which enabled him to spend a year at the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur in Paris. He also spent time studying with Charles Geyer at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester NY), with Vincent Cichowicz at Northwestern University of Chicago, and with Adolphe Herseth (principal trumpet of Chicago Symphony Orchestra). In 1981 Markus won the audition for principal trumpet with the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich, holding this prestigious post for fourteen years. In 1995, he spent a year studying at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, London. There he studied under Michael Laird and Crispian-Steele Perkins (Baroque-Trumpet), Jeremy West (Cornetto) and Phillip Jones (Ensemble Direction). He has performed as soloist at the Lucerne International Festival and with the Tonhalle Orchestra.
With the support of the Swiss National Fund and the Bern University of the Arts, Markus conducted extensive research and subsequently developed a reconstruction of a 19th century keyed trumpet, in collaboration with the instrument maker Konrad Burri. The original instrument, the focus of the research, was found in the private collection of Karl Burri, Zimmerwald, near Bern. With this reconstructed instrument, Markus went on to perform and produce a CD recording of the trumpet concertos of Joseph Haydn and Nepumuk Hummel in June 2013.
For some years now, he performs almost exclusively on historical instruments. He frequently appears with the ensembles “La Cetra” and I Barocchisti (RSI, Italian Swiss Radio) and continues to interpret the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concertos as soloist on the keyed trumpet.
Markus Würsch is professor of Modern, Natural and Romantic trumpet at Bern University of the Arts, and at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.


Peter Solomon
Biography
Peter Solomon was born in Plymouth, England in 1953. He studied piano, organ and harpsichord at the Royal College of Music in London, and achieved the highest honours for his degree. He was then awarded several grants, which made it possible for him to further his studies in Paris, London and Cologne. In 1979 he was a prize-winner at the international organ competition in St Albans, England. Peter Solomon has lived in Switzerland since 1980, and plays with many of the best orchestras. Since 1997 he has held the post as pianist/organist in the Tonhalle-Orchestra, Zurich. His orchestral experience ranges from chamber orchestras like "I Musici di Roma" to prestigious orchestras, such as the Vienna philharmonic and the Berlin philharmonic. As soloist he has played in Europe, USA, the far east and in festivals such as Salzburg and Lucerne. As a sought-after accompanist and chamber musician, Peter Solomon frequently plays in various formations with musicians such as Maurice Andre and Heinz Holliger. Peter Solomon has appeared in many TV, radio, theatre and CD productions as performer and arranger. He teaches at the "University of the Arts" in Zurich.


English Masque Dances
British Library contains the largest collection of dances from the early-seventeenth-century courtly masques to have survived, and it is thought that it was compiled by Sir Nicholas Le Strange of Hunstanton about 1624.
Masque dances tend to fall into a more regular patern most charcteristically of two duple strains followed by one in triple time.
According of various masques it clear that it was played by a collection of lutes and violins plus cornettos, spindels, timbells, rattels or other veneficall instruments "making a confused noyse" to get a "kind of hollow and infernall musique". A typical masque would have three elaborately choreographed masque dances which would be followed be Revels, in which the courtly masquers "took out" the audience to dance.
The masque was an amalgalm of diverse arts, and music and dancing made a vital contribution to its overall richness.