Keeping Time: New Jersey Musical Clocks

Описание: Step back in time for a timely musical evening featuring the popular music of 18th and 19th century New Jersey tall case clocks. Join the Practitioners of Musick as they explore the history and design of these musical timepieces accompanied by members of the vocal ensemble Mostly Motets performing the melodies discussed.

The first exhibition of its kind, Striking Beauty celebrates the ingenuity of New Jersey clock makers and features over 50 tall case clocks from private and public collections. Clocks are on view from New Jersey cities and towns such New Brunswick, Elizabeth, Newark, Trenton, and Princeton. These freestanding pendulum clocks, all marvels of exquisite cabinetry, are as functional as beautiful with faces made of intricate brass work or painted designs of objects like ships, suns, and moons.
Internally, their complicated workings are mechanical masterpieces. Some in the exhibition chime with contemporaneous melodies drawn from sacred and secular vocal and instrument sources with the tune selections recorded on the clock face dial. For example, the clock made by Silas Howell in New Brunswick circa 1797 performs four tunes with the titles painted in the dial arch “Bunker Hill”, “Norwich” , “Williams Town” , and “Newton”.

Hear these compositions and more by joining us for Keeping Time: New Jersey Musical Clocks.

About the Practitioners of Musick
The Practitioners of Musick ensemble was founded to survey the musical riches of 17th - and 18th - century Great Britain & Ireland, and the Colonial and early Federal periods in America. The ensemble has presented or supported scholarly programs under the auspices of the National Park Service, The New Jersey Council for the Humanities, The National Trust of Great Britain, Historic Deerfield, The Holland Society of New York, Ireland House of New York University, Princeton University Library, Crossroads of the American Revolution, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Museum of the American Revolution, among many others.
John Burkhalter studied the performance of early music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston under Daniel Pinkham and the performance of Baroque Music at Harvard University under noted Dutch recorder virtuoso, scholar, and conductor Frans Bruggen. In addition, he received instruction from the distinguished Swiss Baroque oboist and recorder virtuoso Michel Piguet. Mr. Burkhalter also performs with Brandywine Baroque, Les Agrements de musique, and Early Music Princeton. He has lectured on various Baroque music topics for The Princeton Festival, The American Handel Society, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities , and the Horniman Museum (Dolmetsch Collection) in London amongst many others.

Donovan Klotzbeacher studied organ at the University of Minnesota under Heinrich Fleischer and continued his musical studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. He has performed throughout the Northeast as harpsichordist and appeared in an acclaimed series of New Jersey Network [NJN] broadcasts featuring period music in 18th century houses and taverns in the state. For many years he has been Director of Music at the historic First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury, New Jersey. As composer, he has written numerous anthems, service music, and cantatas with instruments that have been performed by members of the New Jersey Symphony.

About Mostly Motets
Mostly Motets is a small vocal ensemble in existence since 1996 when several local choral singers joined together to sing Renaissance polyphony. The group now numbers about a dozen singers and the repertoire has expanded to include music from the Medieval to Post-Modern eras and secular as well as sacred texts. This program’s group is a quartet taken from the larger group.

Image credit: Silas White Howell (1770–1818), New Brunswick, NJ. Tall case clock, 1797. Collection of Mr. & Mrs. James B. Hawkes. Photo courtesy of Gary R. Sullivan Antiques.