Local musical group Consort of All Sorts brings Baroque back

Published 5:33 am Wednesday, April 24, 2013

ASTORIA In true Baroque fashion, the Consort of All Sorts brings together an unlikely group of instruments for a concert of Baroque and Celtic music at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, at Grace Episcopal Church, 1545 Franklin St.

This group of local musicians is the latest addition to the Astoria music scene and features an assortment of instruments and voices that may seem odd today but would not have been uncommon in the Baroque era. The Consort of All Sorts includes Judy Woodward on cello, Hannelore Morgan on recorder, Charles Schweigert on baroque flute, Barbara Bate on piano and Drew Herzig as the percussionist and lone singer in the group. Ray Lund will join the group on harpsichord for future concerts when he is not off playing chamber music in London, where he and his wife live part time.

Fridays concert will offer a mixture of Baroque trio sonatas by Telemann, Quantz and Naudot and a suite of contemporary arrangements of Celtic and English folk songs. The Celtic pieces date to the 18th century and earlier, while the Baroque pieces stand squarely in the Baroque period, which ended around the time of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach in 1750. It was not at all uncommon for music in the Baroque era composed for a specific group of instruments to be played on whatever was at hand. In this case, a tenor recorder and the Baroque flute substitute well for violins in a few of the original arrangements.

The name for the group comes from the title of a book by Canadian author and painter Emily Carr, who wrote a memoir of her life in Victoria, B.C., in the early years of the 20th century. The book is titled The House of All Sorts and it chronicles the daily life at a rooming house she ran for all sorts of zany characters. In the realm of music, consort is a somewhat antiquated term for a group of similar or dissimilar instruments or voices, a good match for this group of musicians, and a name that allows for the addition of other instruments as they are needed. It also leaves open the possibility of exploring music from other periods in addition to the Baroque.

This concert by the Consort of All Sorts is free to the public, and anyone wishing to do so may make a financial contribution to the Food Pantry operated by Grace Episcopal Church, which has graciously agreed to let the Consort use its sanctuary for this event.

For more information, contact Schweigert at 503-325-1895 or schweigertstudio@yahoo.com