An Early Music Ensemble

Cambiata

610.691.6594

Cambiatamail@gmail.com

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Cambiata formed to bring the Renaissance to life through music in eastern Pennsylvania.  We have been introducing audiences of all ages to the sights and sounds of Europe's royal courts and rural hamlets since 1993.

How It All Started
Cambiata began as a recorder consort in the mid-1980s, performing concerts and at festivals for nearly a decade.  Ruth Maletz and Ilse Stoll Zinnes are founding members, and Sara Cox and Bill Thatcher joined in 1993 creating the ensemble of today.  Since creating the current ensemble, we have added a variety of colorful Renaissance instruments, such as lute, harpsichord, krumhorns, gemshorns, viola da gamba, vielle, and Renaissance guitar.  We continue to perform throughout the region at festivals, children's concerts, church services, weddings, and more.

About the Music We Play
Music has been a key component in human cultures throughout history, and the role music played in the lives of men and women in Renaissance Europe is no exception. In the royal courts, music made the pomp and pageantry possible; in the churches, it brought the beauty and serenity of the spiritual world to Earth.

But much of the music was made in the homes of regular folks who, unlike today, didn’t have CD players or MTV to entertain them. In 16th- and 17th-century Europe, cutting-edge technology was the printing press, an invention that prompted mass production and distribution of printed music. Armed with a shelf of music and a chest of instruments, families and friends in the newly emerging middle class could entertain themselves for hours and develop their musical skills in the process. Some of the music printed then and that still survives was a single melody line to which players improvised harmony and used whatever instruments were at hand. The resulting sound is as unique and fresh today as it was 400 years ago.