{"id":22879,"date":"2022-05-09T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T09:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22879"},"modified":"2022-05-03T08:18:35","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T12:18:35","slug":"stile-antico-leading-without-a-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/09\/stile-antico-leading-without-a-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Stile Antico: Leading without a Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

What multiple Grammy award nominee Stile Antico does is unusual enough that it\u2019s best to go right to the source for a description. \u201cWe\u2019re a 12-voice ensemble specializing in Renaissance polyphony,\u201d explains James Arthur, spokesperson and one of three bass vocalists in the London-based group. Stile Antico (pronounced STEE-lay an-TEE-co) was founded by a group of friends from Oxford and Cambridge who would get together for fun, singing during the between-term breaks at those universities. The group \u201cwent pro\u201d in 2005, Arthur says, after winning the Audience Prize at the York Early Music Festival and landing a recording contract with classical label Harmonia Mundi.<\/p>\n

The complex vocal polyphony of the group is applied primarily to works composed between the very late 15th<\/sup> century and the early years of the 17th<\/sup> century. Stile Antico features three singers in each of the broad voice types: soprano, alto, tenor and brass. That gives the ensemble a four-octave range.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But what really sets the group apart from other vocal ensembles is its egalitarian character. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a conductor,\u201d Arthur explains. \u201cNor do we have a leader in any sense. We\u2019re all individually and democratically involved in the artistic and business decisions. We\u2019re a partnership of equals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devising the individual vocal parts is a key component of that democratic process. Arthur explains that with 12 vocalists, the ensemble has the ability to double or triple-up some of the parts, displaying a richness that can\u2019t be achieved any other way. Conversely, when Stile Antico performs later works (and modern compositions commissioned expressly for the ensemble), each of the dozen singers has his or her own unique vocal line.<\/p>\n

Classical music is often thought of as rigid and highly structured, with musicians\u2019 individual parts clearly delineated. \u201cMozart, for example, has written in a lot of directions and tempo markings,\u201d Arthur says. \u201cThere\u2019s not an awful lot you can mess around with.\u201d But he emphasizes that when it comes to 16th<\/sup> century music, it\u2019s a very different story. \u201cThere\u2019s no direction marked in it at all,\u201d Arthur says. \u201cYou\u2019ve literally got [just] the dots on the page.\u201d That provides a great deal of creative latitude for the vocalists of Stile Antico.<\/p>\n

But with that freedom come challenges. Achieving consensus among a dozen highly creative individuals isn\u2019t always easy. \u201cOur rehearsal process is quite intensive,\u201dArthur admits, \u201cbecause we each have a say \u2013 literally \u2013 about how we think each measure goes.\u201d Not every member gets his or her way every time. \u201cYou can’t just say, \u2018It\u2019s my way or the highway,\u2019\u201d Arthur explains. \u201cOn the day of the concert, they just have to go along with it. Otherwise you’d derail the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the arrangements are fluid, ever-evolving, Arthur says. \u201cWe will do two or three performances of a piece, and then we might come back to it and say, \u2018Do you know what? This bit isn’t working! Let’s start again and undo it.\u2019\u201d For the leaderless Stile Antico, the collaborative process is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Arthur says that there\u2019s nothing magical about the number of vocalists in the group. \u201cIt\u2019s rather arbitrary,\u201d he admits with a chuckle. \u201cIt\u2019s just what works for us.\u201d He\u2019s being modest, of course: having a dozen supremely accomplished singers covering a wide range allows Stile Antico to break down into smaller ensemble pieces for performances featuring as few as four vocalists. \u201cThat sort of breaks it up, making it more interesting for the audience as well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The current lineup of Stile Antico includes five founding members, including three sisters: \u201ca set of twins on the soprano line, and their sister Emma on the alto line,\u201d Arthur says. Before the question can be raised, he smiles broadly and adds, \u201cProbably the most-asked question after the concerts is, \u2018Which ones are the sisters?\u2019\u201d (It\u2019s Helen and Kate Ashby.)<\/p>\n

The ensemble’s performances are exquisitely expressive, but they\u2019re also quite subtle and understated. The members communicate among themselves wordlessly. \u201cIt\u2019s down to a raised eyebrow or a slight nod of the head,\u201d Arthur says. \u201cWe may seem a little introverted in performance, because we don\u2019t project that much out to the audience.\u201d Instead, listeners find themselves drawn into the intimate vocal interplay of the twelve singers; the end result is not unlike a single, twelve-voiced instrument.<\/p>\n

At press time, the program for Stile Antico\u2019s April 28, 2022 performance at Brevard Music Center was still being finalized. But James Arthur provides a tidy description of what concertgoers can expect. \u201cA very relaxing evening,\u201d he says. The performance employs the human voice to explore color, tonal contrast and dynamic contrast. \u201cSomeone coming fresh to us would be able to shut their eyes and wallow in their thoughts,\u201d he says, adding with a smile, \u201cand then come away totally zoned out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What multiple Grammy award nominee Stile Antico does is unusual enough that it\u2019s best to go right to the source for a description. \u201cWe\u2019re a 12-voice ensemble specializing in Renaissance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,41,44],"tags":[4823],"class_list":["post-22879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classical","category-interview","category-live-shows","tag-stile-antico","cat-17-id","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22881,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions\/22881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}