- Date
Music frequently employs repetition as an organizational principle, seen in forms like the canon, fugue, and chaconne, where a musical idea is reiterated and transformed. A canon is a contrapuntal technique where a melody is imitated by another voice entering usually at the same pitch and later time, playing against itself. A fugue is a more complex form built on a main theme (the subject) that is introduced in different voices and different pitches and then developed harmonically and structurally. A chaconne is a form of variation, favoured in the Baroque period, that presents a repeating bass line or harmonic progression, over which melodic variations occur.
In this workshop, we will be exploring these "repetitive" forms through the compositions of Gabrielli, Telemann, J.S. Bach, Johannes Mattheson, Caspar Jager and their contemporaries.
The workshop will look at and play numerous examples of music "that repeats itself" in different forms including canons, passacaglias and fugues. We will play music by Bach, Frescobaldi Jager, Mattheson and Purcell to name a few.
Bill McMillan completed his undergraduate and postgraduate music studies at the University of Toronto, studying violin and voice. Membership in numerous ensembles included studies in early music with Andrew Hughes. During his professional career in music performance and music education, Bill has held positions of Director of Inter-Provincial Music Camp, Principal of North York Summer School, conductor of the Halton and Sheridan Youth Orchestras, the Pickering Philharmonic, and Havergal College and Crescent School String Orchestras. He has also served as Principal Viola of the Oakville Symphony and Principal Viola of York Symphony. Together with colleague Michele Frensch (also a recorder player), he is Co-Music Director of String OrchestraTO, founded last year for string players who enjoy exploring the wealth of Baroque and Classical string literature.
During his career as a teacher and Curriculum Leader with the TDSB, Bill incorporated recorder instruction and ensembles into his string curriculum, subsequently studying recorder with Susan Prior. He currently explores chamber music for recorder ensembles, and has led workshops on literature and performance practise.