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Musicians’ Musings

by Richard Duckett
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Published 5:04 a.m. ET April 12, 2024 Updated 5:04 a.m. ET April 12, 2024

Musicians of the Old Post Road intend to evoke “earthy” musical themes for the final concert of its 35th anniversary season on April 21 at the Worcester Historical Museum.

The Boston area classical music ensemble promises that the concert, titled “Earth: Rustic Classical,” will be "rollicking chamber music with a Bohemian flair for flute and strings." "It's fun. Down-to-earth," said Suzanne Stumpf, Musicians of the Old Post Road co-founder and co-artistic director with her husband, Daniel Ryan, about the program. "It's boisterous. Toe-tapping," said Ryan.

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by Suzanne Stumpf

This famous quote comes from Stravinsky, right? Or was it Picasso? T.S. Elliot? Or all of the above? (stealing this quote from each other, of course!!) Much earlier, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”

Sources of creative inspiration and the processes of learning itself are subject to influences from experiences across one’s entire lifetime. So much is subliminally processed or assimilated that it cannot always be ascertained if creative borrowings truly cross the boundaries of plagiarism or fraud or are instead just a kind of psychological disorderliness.

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By Sarah Darling

It’s a question whose answers are many and nuanced, especially in a location like the Boston area. The past surrounds us in so many ways, large and small, that not being affected by it is not an option. What is very much an option is what we choose to do with its presence. Do we center it or treat it as a support?

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We hope you are all keeping well and safe. As we enter our fourth month of necessary social-distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, we remain committed to keeping our connection with you as strong as possible despite the mandated safe distance we must maintain. We hope you have been able to take in and enjoy our educational video podcasts and short concert excerpts as a relief from new stresses or as touchstones to a cherished cultural experience.

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While prepping for our "Lure of London" concerts, we have learned about a trendy venue for public concerts in Baroque London known as "Hickford's Room." Not much is known about the venue's founder—John Hickford—except that he was a dancing-master.

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The opening program of our 31st season “Harmony at Home” celebrated two talented women composers who have been unjustly neglected: Fanny Mendelssohn (the older sister of Felix), and Sophia Corri Dussek (wife of Jan Ladislav Dussek). We performed two little-known instrumental duos from among their oeuvre together with piano trios by Felix Mendelssohn and Jan Ladislav Dussek offering a window on domestic music-making in the early 19th century. 

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The musician/astronomer Caroline Lucretia Herschel was a younger sister to William Herschel, one of the featured scientist-composers for our “Stars in Their Eyes” program. Like her older brother, she was also an accomplished musician, playing harpsichord and performing as a vocal soloist for the oratorio concerts her brother organized in Bath.

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