2022 EMV Bach Festival - Scottish Baroque & Other Traditions at Early Music Vancouver

Early Music Vancouver's 2022 Bach Festival explores new territory by fusing Scottish traditional music with Baroque masters. It is well known that J.S. Bach employed instrumentalists for his church performances who often also played in taverns. We also know that Baroque dance-forms, such as the gavotte and gigue, were born in country dances which were reimagined by composers of the time for courtly circles. Scottish Baroque, a fusion of Scottish traditional music combined with the virtuosity and style of 17th and 18th century Italian music, began in a pub in Edinburghs medieval Old Town. Here the popular music of Corelli sat side by side with the rhythmic drive of local reels and jigs. The same musicians would play both repertoires, with the same enthusiasm for each, and using the same technique and instruments. At this years Bach Festival you will hear how traditional melodies weave throughout the concerts in locations as diverse as a botanical garden, a pub, a cathedral as well as in a concert hall.