BELESAMA

next performance: 22 November at 4:30 p.m., St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh (Baroque Ménagerie)

Belesama create inspired themed programmes combining reinventions of multi-voice pieces for smaller forces, thus accessing a wide range of musical styles & affects.

Based in Scotland, the early-music ensemble comprises voice, recorders, viol & keyboard.

Current and former programmes below, available with or without interval.

Photo credit: Campbell Parker

The Baroque Ménagerie

An exploration of animal and bird life in music from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Creatures in music vary from the literal to symbolic & they can also serve as moral inspiration for humanity. Whether it is the recognisable sound of the cuckoo or the lesson in cunning from the fox, animals have inspired musicians throughout the centuries. From Biber’s frogs through Clérambault’s oysters to Telemann’s canary, these vocal and instrumental pieces have their roots in the animal kingdom.

To include music by Purcell, Monteverdi, Gibbons, Biber, Clérambault & Telemann

April's Follies

If Folly is the opposite of Reason, then musicians throughout the ages have embraced this side of human behaviour & celebrated it through songs, dances & musical variations & more. Follies can be pleasant, painful & everything in-between.
This programme celebrates some of these musical depictions; the intense desires of the French chansons, the Mad songs of Restoration England, the enduring tune of ‘La Follia’ & all extremes of emotion & behaviour in music. To include works by Bernier, Rameau, F.Couperin, De Bailly, Janequin, de Rore, Purcell, Handel, Eccles & others.

The performers

Héloïse Bernard, Annemarie Klein, Angela Stevenson & Jan Waterfield (voice, recorders, viol & harpsichord) have between them a wealth of experience in the worlds of renaissance, baroque & classical repertoire, performing & teaching throughout the UK, Europe & beyond.