The Ancient Orchestra
The project was carried out at the Centre for Theatre Practices from July 2001 to March 2004, under the supervision of Tomasz Rodowicz and Maciej Rychły:
- The study of the ancient musical treasures, their reconstruction, development and arrangements to meet the performing needs of the Orchestra
- Reconstruction of ancient instruments based on the iconography, in collaboration with ancient instruments experts, musicologists and traditional musicians,
- Work on vocal techniques from different traditions of singing based on the developed musical material
- Development of playing techniques for the reconstructed string, brass and percussion instruments
- Public presentations in the form of concerts
- Collaboration with traditional musicians and musicologists from southern and central Europe, Central Asia and North Africa in order to study the relationship between the contemporary music and the traditional ancient music
- Documentation of research and work of the Orchestra and the studio recordings of the developed music
- Educational activities – pajdeia – a program promoting the rudiments and sources of European music among the university and high school students.
In the years 2003/2004 the Ancient Orchestra pursued the international project known as the unknown sources of European music – the Ancient Greece, as a part of the Culture 2000 programme of the European Commission.
Timeline:
27 October 2001, Gardzienice; the first concert of the Orchestra, as a part of the festival OFF-Confrontations
4 – 5 December 2001, Gardzienice; concerts featuring Bulgarian musicians Theodossi Spassov and Stoyan Yankulov
6 June, 2002, Warsaw, Poland; concert with Theodossi Spassov and Stoyan Yankulov
15 June 2002, Gardzienice; concert with Theodossi Spassov and Stoyan Yankulov
18 August 2002, Jaroslaw; theatrical concert (inauguration of the Festival Song of Our Roots)
20 December 2002, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
9 January 2003, Gardzienice
15 – 16 May 2003, Krakow; concert, seminar, book promotion of J. Landels’ Music in Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Homini and the Centre for Theatre Practices GARDZIENICE
23 – 24 May 2003, Brzezinka, near Wroclaw, the concerts
6 June 2003, Slupsk, the concert (Art Festival Greece 2003)
13 – 14, 19 September 2003, 17 – 18 October 2003 – concerts as part of the Ancient Greece – GARDZIENICE Cosmos programme
29 September – 1 October 2003, Vienna; concert and seminars at the International Symposium on Ancient Music – meetings over two millennia. Contemporary performance of the music of Ancient Greece – in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute in Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences
20 – 23 November 2003, Atlantic College, Wales (UK) – a performance Hode Galatan realized in collaboration with The Earthfall Dance Company from Cardiff, and workshop sessions.
14 -18 January 2004, Ancient Warsaw – Hode Galatan. Sketches from the Delphic Hymns – Ancient Orchestra performance in collaboration with The Earthfall Dance Company (dir. J. Ennis, J. Cohen, T. Rodowicz); promotion of a book by Martin West – the Music of Ancient Greece; seminars and workshops.
5 – 7 April 2004, Poznań – the Museum of Instruments, seminar the perspectives of research on ancient music and the promotion of books: Martin West’s Music in Ancient Greece and John Landels’ Music in Ancient Greece and Rome; opening of the exhibition of the reconstructed instruments, many concerts and workshops.
Coordination of the project: Tomasz Rodowicz
Musical direction: Maciej Rychły
Since March 2004, the programme operates outside the Centre for Theatre Practices in the Theatre Association CHOREA (chorea.com.pl) appointed by Tomasz Rodowicz, Dorota Porowska and Elżbieta Rojek.