It's About Time!TRS Spring Workshop Saturday, March 23, 2019 First Presbyterian Church 305 East Main Street Durham, NC 27701 (directions) |
with special guest
Eric Haas
and local faculty
Stewart Carter, Holly Maurer
Patricia Petersen, Kathy Schenley, Douglas Young
Jennifer Streeter
Eric Haas
and local faculty
Stewart Carter, Holly Maurer
Patricia Petersen, Kathy Schenley, Douglas Young
Jennifer Streeter

Special guest faculty: Eric Haas and local faculty Stewart Carter, Holly Maurer, Patricia Petersen, Jennifer Streeter, Kathy Schenley, and Douglas Young March is national Play the Recorder month, and what better way to celebrate than by joining us for our annual workshop in Durham, NC. We’ll be exploring the concept of TIME in music: seasons, rhythm, tempo, practice time management, and more.
Our special guest teacher this year is Eric Haas. Eric has taught at New England Conservatory, Tufts University, Brandeis University and Wheaton College, and is a popular coach at early music workshops, including Amherst Early Music, the Long Island Recorder Festival, Pinewoods, and the Mideast Workshop. He served for more than 15 years as Music Director of the Boston Recorder Society and manages the retail division of the von Huene Workshop. The Triangle Recorder Society knows him best for the anthology of his recorder arrangements he graciously provides us with each year.
Join us for a great TIME of music-making!
Class descriptions and registration below.
This workshop is intended for beginner to advanced recorder players. Voices, strings, early reeds & brass are welcome in various classes, as noted in the class description.
Tentative Schedule:
Class descriptions:
Early morning classes
Late morning classes
Early afternoon classes
Late afternoon classes
Our special guest teacher this year is Eric Haas. Eric has taught at New England Conservatory, Tufts University, Brandeis University and Wheaton College, and is a popular coach at early music workshops, including Amherst Early Music, the Long Island Recorder Festival, Pinewoods, and the Mideast Workshop. He served for more than 15 years as Music Director of the Boston Recorder Society and manages the retail division of the von Huene Workshop. The Triangle Recorder Society knows him best for the anthology of his recorder arrangements he graciously provides us with each year.
Join us for a great TIME of music-making!
Class descriptions and registration below.
This workshop is intended for beginner to advanced recorder players. Voices, strings, early reeds & brass are welcome in various classes, as noted in the class description.
Tentative Schedule:
- 9:15-10:30 Specialty & repertory classes
- 10:30-11:00 Coffee break
- 11:00-12:15 Specialty & repertory classes
- 12:15-1:00 Lunch
- 1:00-1:30 Large group
- 1:45-3:00 Specialty & repertory classes
- 3:15-4:30 Specialty & repertory classes
Class descriptions:
Early morning classes
- Beginning Recorder Essentials: A great introduction to workshop playing for the new recorder player. Lots of individual attention.
- Time to Play Together: Have you had the experience of playing in an ensemble and realizing that your beat is not the same as the person playing next to you? We'll learn some techniques to use to help an ensemble internalize the same tactus and play together. Recorders only; low intermediate and up.
- Recorder Consort: Varied consort repertory led by various faculty.. Recorders only; low intermediate and up. We divide you by skill level.
- Renaissance Recorder Consort: Doug Young will lead a one-on-a-part consort for advanced players willing to learn different fingerings, playing a matched set of recorders tuned to A=466. Class size limited; be sure to give 2nd choice!
Late morning classes
- Beginning Recorder Ensemble: New recorder players, here’s your chance to get your feet wet playing in your very own recorder ensemble!
- Time to Dance: Baroque dance informs much of the music from that time period. We’ll explore tempo, characteristic rhythmic figures, forms, and other elements from the dance that will help you play minuets, sarabandes, gavottes, and others with confidence. Recorders and viols; intermediate and up.
- Time to Celebrate: Motets of praise and celebration of music, composers, and events, from the 14th century to Dufay, Josquin, and beyond. Recorders only, intermediate and up.
- What Strikes the Clock?: Time depicted through the hexachord and other musical devices, including”Perslis Clocke,” Gibbons' “What strikes the Clock,” Farmer's hexachord madrigal “Take Time,” and Senfl's “Fortuna ad voces musicales.” Recorders, viols, voices; high intermediate and up.
- Keeping Time: Rhythmically challenging music from the late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance. Recorders, viols, sackbuts; high intermediate and up.
- My End is My Beginning and other delights by Guillaume de Machaut. We'll play Machaut's rondeau “Ma fin est mon commencement” with retrograde in all parts, as well as other polyphonic songs by this French master. 8' recorders and viols; high intermediate and up.
Early afternoon classes
- The Clock on the Leaning Tower of Pisa: What Good Is the Inclination if You Don't Have the Time? Italian Music of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries. Recorders, viols, sackbuts; low intermediate and up.
- Time for a Song: Madrigals and chansons celebrating day, night, months, seasons, and the passage of time, such as Lassus's “La nuict froid et sombre,” Morley's “April is in my mistress' face,” the anonymous “O Lusty May,” Dowland's “His golden locks,” and more. Recorders, viols, voices; intermediate and up.
- Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler (Let the good times roll): the French were (and still are) very particular on how they wanted their music played. We’ll delve into the Baroque concepts of playing inégale, agréments (ornaments), and other flavors that make French Baroque music unique. Recorder and viols; high intermediate and up.
- What a Difference a Few Years Can Make!: We'll play several settings of the Advent hymn “Conditor alme siderum” composed over the course of 250 years, starting with Dufay and ending with Praetorius. 8’ recorders and viols; high intermediate and up.
- Fascinatin’ Rhythm: no, not Gershwin, but 6 centuries earlier! In the late 14th century, composers who flourished between Machaut and Dufay pushed hard against the bounds of notation, creating pieces in mixed meters, tricky “tuplets,” and twisting rhythms. This subtle art (ars subtilior) has fascinated and bedeviled both amateurs and professionals ever since! Dexterity is not an issue, but solid counting skills are required. Recorders only, high intermediate and up.
Late afternoon classes
- Happy Hour: Time travel to join a Renaissance pub crawl featuring drinking songs, catches, and lively tunes of the common folk. Recorders only, low intermediate and up.
- Time to Pass with Goodly Sport: Music from Henry VIII’s Tudor England. Recorders, viols, krummhorns, sackbuts, etc.; intermediate and up.
- Time to Sleep: We'll play madrigals by English composers with texts that speak of sleep. Recorders, voices and viols; intermediate and up.
- Say it in Ragtime!: Sleepy Lou and other rags by women composers, Scott Joplin, and other giants of the ragtime craze of the Roaring Twenties. Practice your accidentals! Recorders only (who don’t flinch at the sight of a d#); high intermediate and up.
- These Are Difficult Times: Renaissance and contemporary works in asymmetric time signatures (5/4, 7/8, etc.), including villancicos by Anchieta, Encina and others, Christopher Tye's “In nomine Crye,” Osbert Parsley's “Spes nostra,” Picforth “In nomine,” and others. Advanced recorders and viols.
Registration and other information
$10 discount for registrations received by March 11.
Lunch orders must be placed by March 18.
Fees refundable until March 20.
•Lunch: There is not time to go offsite; please bring your own, or order a catered lunch (sandwich assortment, side salad, cookie), for $9. Beverages will be provided. Lunch orders must be placed by March 18.
•Fees:
- Full-day workshop – TRS members: $95; non-members: $105
- Half day – $50
- $10 discount on full-time enrollment for applications received by March 11.
- Fees refundable until March 20.
- For financial aid or student work-study rates, contact Jennifer (919) 802-5586, [email protected]
$10 discount for registrations received by March 11.
Lunch orders must be placed by March 18.
Fees refundable until March 20.
•Marketplace/Flea Market: Bring instruments and music that you would like to sell. Faculty CD's may be available.
•Accommodations: We will put you in touch with locals offering hospitality as available or send info on local motel accommodations.
•Information: Jennifer Streeter, (919) 802-5586, [email protected] or Pat Petersen, (919) 683-9672, [email protected]
•Emergency phone on day of workshop only: (919) 614-1272 (Kathy Schenley’s cell), (919) 536-8922 (Pat’s cell), (919) 802-5586 (Jennifer’s cell)
•Registration COMING SOON: Please fill out the online registration form below. BE SURE TO CLICK THE GRAY "SUBMIT REGISTRATION" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM!
Apply early as this workshop often fills up, and PLEASE give 2nd choices!!!
Class offerings & faculty are subject to change, depending on enrollment & class choices.

TRS Thanks YOU!
Thank you for joining us for the TRS Spring Workshop!
Thank you for joining us for the TRS Spring Workshop!