Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is doing something interesting: tossing out the sheet music. The Globe and Mail reports on the experience:
The musicians are standing, without chairs, music stands, or sheet music; liberated from this architecture, their bodies sway and their eyes sparkle, infusing the old music with an impressive new energy. It’s as though the complex 18th-century composition were being played by a band of East Coast fiddlers. In these hands, Bach’s music feels more alive than ever.
According to the Globe and Mail, this is the third time the orchestra has tried this technique. The performances often include multimedia elements, and Alison Mackay, who plays double-bass player and programs the concerts, told the paper: “I had the feeling if we didn’t have music stands we would be forced into a new relationship and that, at a performance level, it would just bump us up.”
Read more at the Globe and Mail here.