Ayreheart

Ayreheart grew out of my desire to write new music for the lute - the most popular instrument of the Renaissance - and make it accessible to a wider audience. My first compositions were originally conceived as solos. But soon, I found myself writing music that could not be fully expressed on a solo lute. The music of Ayreheart reflects elements of the many kinds of music I love: Folk, Classical, Jazz, Bluegrass, Celtic and others. The combination of lute, fretless bass, and a variety of percussion instruments, blends the old and new to create the unique and timeless sound that is Ayreheart.

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Renaissance artists, wishing to evoke the magic power of music, placed a lute in the hands of Apollo and Orpheus. Also at times the choice of King David, the lute appeared on the scene in late Medieval Europe as one of many cultural treasures brought back to the continent by the Crusaders (to whom it had been known in Arabic as al oud). Its association with royalty and divinity, both Pagan and Christian, and with the idea of celestial harmony in the measuring of notes on its strings, was well deserved, for by the time its long reign ended in the late 18th century, it had inspired a written repertory of 40,000 pieces. Depicted in art for three centuries before the first preserved lute tablatures appeared around 1500, it must have been the medium for many thousands of instrumental improvisations.

Over the past century, the lute has come to be heard once again. Musicians, especially guitar players, have found their way to the lute because of the beauty of its historic repertory and the ineffable charm of the instrument itself. Indeed, after several years as a guitarist, I was led to play the works of Dowland, Francesco da Milano and others on the instrument of these great composers.

My own first two decades of playing the lute were spent exclusively performing music of the past. As my own love and respect for the lute deepened over the years, I realized that the lute is an instrument capable of communicating in a variety of musical languages. Its natural ability to express emotional nuance, and its fine palette of tone colors make it an ideal vehicle for musical expression in our own time. Historically, the lute player and the composer of lute music were one and the same – there was no gulf between performer and composer. For the past several years I have devoted myself to reviving the old tradition of the lutenist- composer. As in lute music of the Renaissance, many of these new pieces tread the line between popular, folk and classical music. Some of my works draw heavily on Renaissance and Baroque styles, while others are expressed in a completely modern musical idiom.

Ronn McFarlane