Studio member, Nik Divall, began his exploration of Baroque continuo on the theorbo last winter, so at this point it’s been about ten months. The frequency and variety of his performances, though, indicate a deep-dive worthy of special notice. There are a range of challenges in this project, including but not limited to the instrument’s extraordinary physical dimensions and shape; it’s large number of strings, their new tuning scheme and special challenges in tuning them; it’s special notation—both the numeric indicators for continuo and the tablature notation used for lutes generally; the stylistic tradition of improvising much in the manner of a jazz player comping from chord charts; the need to follow a conductor; and the normal chamber music challenges of interacting productively with your musical partners.

The instrument Nik has been using, a Michael Schreiner theorbo owned by the Conservatory, is one of many such instruments. See a detailed post on these instruments, all available for students to borrow, here.

This is a brief photographic rundown of Nik’s performances this semester. (This activity all took place concurrently with his primary work on the classical guitar.)

1) ST. JAMES, LAKEWOOD, OCTOBER 22

2) MONODY FOR GUITAR ENSEMBLE, NOVEMBER 5, KULAS HALL

3) BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (EARLY MUSIC STUDIO), FAIRCHILD CHAPEL, DECEMBER 10 (photos by Michael Lynn)

4) BAROQUE CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT, FAIRCHILD CHAPEL, DECEMBER 12 (Photos by Michael Lynn)

The quartet played The Plainte from The Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell and Medee (Recitatif, Lentement, Air) by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault.

This busy semester’s experiences were an auspicious start to Nik’s corollary musical activity, and are sure to lead to more such outings in the future. Congratulations, Nik, on a meaningful investment in some of the western tradition’s most beautiful music. We look forward to seeing what’s next!!