When you think of oldies but goodies, do you think about Baroque music?
The Blakeman Gerber Indianapolis International Baroque Competition is on July 12 at the Indiana Historical Society. It is a celebration of early music and the young people keeping it alive. It happens every four years here in Indianapolis.
This year, five musicians will compete for a $15,000 prize. With a ticket, you can watch great performances and keep up to date with the latest of the oldest music.
To learn more about the festival and Baroque music, we talked to musician Robert Bolyard. He is a volunteer for the competition, a choral conductor and multi-instrumentalist who specializes in the viola da gamba.
If you go
The Blakeman Gerber Indianapolis International Baroque Competition
🗓️ 3-6 p.m. Sunday, July 12
📍 Indiana Historical Society, 450 W. Ohio St.
🎟️ $25-40
“What is a viola da gamba?” You might be wondering. We asked Bolyard this and many more things, including if he could play some music for us.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full interview in the July 8 edition of Play List.
You brought your viola today. What are you playing for us?
I brought my tenor viola da gamba. And this is one of Christopher Simpson’s “Divisions on a Ground.”
What is a viola da gamba?
I describe it as the step cousin of the loot. Or maybe, if you’ve seen a cello or a viola, it’s kind of like that, too. Like a cello, it’s held with the legs, which is what “gamba” means — gamba means legs. Viola means fiddle. So it’s like a leg fiddle if you will.
How did you first fall in love with music?
Oh boy. Back when I was in youth choir, when I was a little kid. Probably about 12 or 13 years old. I really decided “this is what I want to do with my life.”
That’s really impressive. How did you get into Baroque music? Or first, could you please explain to us what Baroque means?
With the Indianapolis Early Music Festival we do Baroque music, we do medieval music and renaissance music. So, basically, music before 1800. Baroque music would be right around 1600-1750.
Vivaldi, “The Four Seasons,” Bach — those are Baroque composers that many people have heard of — Handel’s “Messiah,” That kind of stuff.
Before orchestras were the big thing in classical music, a lot of music written in Western Europe was for singers, because that’s what the church needed, right? A lot of music before, say 1600, was primarily for singers.
And so, as a choir person, I ended up singing a lot of music that was very old, and I really liked that. And then, later, when I found the viola da gamba, I found a way to play that same music instrumentally.
It’s more of an intimate experience that you’re having with the people you’re playing with, as opposed to if you’re in an orchestra. In a choir or in a Baroque or renaissance ensemble, you’re really all equally making the music happen together, and so that’s the kind of music making that’s always really spoke to me.
When you’re playing or participating in a choir, do you feel like you are all going to the past together? Do you think that has something to do with creating that intimate experience?
Yeah, and there’s something really cool about it, especially with music that old. There’s a lot that we don’t know. But then, we kind of have to figure out how to make it work in a really interesting way. When we get together, we get to decide “How are we going to make this piece our own?”
Do you find that there’s an American way of interpreting early music?
There are a few places that are hot beds of early music. Switzerland is one, Germany for sure. Weirdly, Indiana was one. It still is, but it was one for quite a long time because the early music program at (Indiana University’s) Jacobs School of Music was so strong. They’ve recently gone through some changes, and it’s made it more difficult for them, but a lot of the really cutting-edge early music stuff was going on right here in Indiana
In terms of an American style, I think a lot of the young people are infusing a sort of gritty earthiness to it. I think people think classical music is very, you know, powdered wigs and the court, and a very like, highfalutin kind of thing. This might just be my own anecdotal experience, but a lot of the young people I see playing early music now are trying to infuse it with that kind of rugged “of the people” kind of feeling. I think it is pretty unique.
Blakeman Gerber Indianapolis International Baroque Competition laureates Cordelia Mutter, Josh Liu, Kaya Gür, Peter Lim and Pablo O’Connell. All finalists are recognized as laureates and receive medals, with additional awards presented to all except the first prize winner.
You are a father of a five year old. Are you teaching your son about early music?
The short answer is yes. There is an album of medieval street music that I have been playing for him since he was a little baby, and at first it was just kind of a little joke.
We haven’t listened to it in about a year and a half, but just a couple weeks ago, he said, “Papa. I want to hear that really high flute music.” He knew exactly what it was, and he was bopping along in the back seat.
I’m not gonna be super pushy about which instruments he plays, but he does know what a gamba is. I don’t know that he knows what a cello is yet.
So he’s not allowed to play football.
Well, we’ll see, we’ll see.
Want to give Baroque music a spin? The Blakeman Gerber Indianapolis International Baroque Competition made us a music playlist.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletters.
Jennifer Delgadillo is Mirror Indy’s arts and culture editor. You can reach her at jennifer.delgadillo@mirrorindy.org.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
