The Justice

Brandeis' Slosberg recital hall is covered with photos of musicians and their instruments-a trumpet here, a violin there-but most passersby who see them never guess that the building also contains virtuoso players of such unconventional instruments as the lute, the vielle and, most obscurely, the rauschpfeiff, a 400-year-old ancestor of the bassoon. This antiquated instrument, sounding like the unholy love child of a bagpipe and a crumhorn, has such a loud and strident sound that it takes a dauntless person to play it-and an audience game enough to listen.

Luckily, Brandeis has both of those, thanks to the Early Music Ensemble, a group of nine students and community members who continue to perform the daunting task of ably and cheerfully bringing to life melodies and texts older than Shakespeare. At its semester concert Sunday, under the guest direction of recorder expert Roy Sansom, EME breathed life into pieces from two continents and in five languages.

One of the distinctive features of Early Music Ensemble is that the members are required to move outside of their comfort zones and perform in an arena that they aren't used to; all of the vocalists are required to play an instrument, and all of the musicians have to sing. Indeed, most members of the ensemble performed in three or more different roles, with the versatility awards going to Al Hoberman '09, the courageous rauschpfeiff player, and Koren Wake, a community member , who both sang solos and played three instruments.

This particular concert focused on music inspired by Old Testament texts, which were briefly explained throughout the concert by Sansom, who offered this memorable summation of the story of Susanna and the Elders: "This girl was bathing and these two old bastards saw her and wanted to sleep with her." Sansom's freewheeling style kept momentum going between the pieces and provided the audience with insight and, occasionally, laughter.

The high point of the concert's first half was the haunting "Triste Estaba el Rey David," sung with palpable feeling by Megan Bisceglia '07, whose voice floated over the intricate accompaniment provided by a harp and two lutes, recounting King David's grief at the death of his son.

The concert picked up energy after intermission, beginning with a set of four takes on the story of Susanna and the Elders, which benefited from much improved tuning among the viols. The ensemble moved on to a set of traditional Sephardic pieces, whose Middle Eastern feel made for an exciting departure from the more standard European repertoire.

The concert ended with a set of choral pieces about the Promised Land, with all nine members joining in. For those ensemble members who had never sung in performance before, it must have been nerve-wracking, but each and every face was smiling, and, at the end, the audience applauded wildly-which goes to show what 400-year-old music can do when musicians are brave enough to play it and audiences open-minded enough to appreciate it.

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