Lost and Found

The Rose Ensemble began in 1996 with the honorable mission of keeping some all-but-forgotten ancient, medieval, and Baroque choral music alive. Now, however, the Rose Ensemble is expanding the traditional definition of early music (music of Western Europe written before 1750) by rediscovering the forgotten music of various cultures. Founder and artistic director Jordan Sramek investigated his own Czech heritage for a program of Slavic music that will be the subject of a European tour later this year. Following the same impulse, ensemble member Kim Sueoka, a native Hawaiian, inspired a program of her traditions that led to an upcoming CD, Na Mele Hawaii.

The Slavic program expands the geographic boundaries of traditional early music. “The focus is almost exclusively on Renaissance and medieval Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England,” Sramek says. “The modern sense of Eastern Europe blinds us to how in the Middle Ages the Slavs were major players in the music scene.” The program includes Polish, Russian, and Bohemian compositions.

During the Renaissance, there was a great connection between Poland and Italy. Many Polish composers worked in Italy and wrote in the Italian style. While lovers of early music might find forms such as double choir motets familiar, “there is something essentially Polish in the music,” Sramek says. “It is more austere, with a deeper and more resonant sound than people might be familiar with.”

There is also a wealth of undiscovered music from Baroque Moscow. Commissions from Czar Peter the Great were the beginning of the Russian choral sound. “That low bass sound that you think of in Russian choral music doesn’t begin in the nineteenth century,” Sramek says. “This is where it comes from.”

Sramek is particularly excited by the music of his Czech heritage. The unfamiliar pieces were instrumental in establishing a strong Bohemian national identity. The culture of Bohemia, an early region of central Europe, was lost in political upheaval.

Cultural annihilation is also part of Hawaii’s story and, according to Smarek, resulted from what he describes as U.S. imperialism’s effect on a sovereign nation. Before the nineteenth century, Hawaii was a sovereign nation with a multicultural society that included Portuguese ranchers, Japanese plantation workers (Sueoka’s ancestors), Filipinos, and Norwegians, as well as native Hawaiians. The concert celebrates that diversity with ancient chants and hulas; art songs written by the final monarch, Queen Lili'uokalani; migrant worker songs called paniolo (a pidgeon version of Spanish); 1820s Calvinist missionary hymns translated into the native tongue; and even 1920s glee club music.

The popularity of the program and the recognition of the Hawaiian people’s 200-year struggle to keep their musical traditions alive led to the CD. “It is a historical document—an act of preservation,” Sramek says proudly.

The Rose Ensemble is taking its unique perspective on the road this fall when it performs at the prestigious Concurso Coral de Tolosa singing competition in Spain. “We are the first North American ensemble to have been invited in ten years. We are quite proud,” Smarek says. The ensemble was immediately invited to three other festivals around Spain, making this its third international tour in as many years. CD-release party, Sept. 23. Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul. European Concert Preview: Slavic Wonders, Oct. 20–21. Various locations, 651-225-4340