Daniel Boring
Vox Ama Deus' Rhythm Man
Who Plays That Amazingly Huge Guitar
Down Front & Just Right of Center
Although most musical ensembles have a rhythm section of some variety, it seems that this term is more often associated with popular music groups and most especially to that most ancient, ubiquitous and enormously numerous instrument family-percussion. These instruments help propel the music forward, often providing amazingly exciting, or profound expression without the need of melodic instruments. Nor is the rhythm section confined to drums and other beaten instruments. And this is where Dan Boring and his colleagues in the continuo section of the Vox Ama Deus orchestras come in.
Defining Some Musical Buzz-Words
Percussion: Middle English, from Anglo-French percussioun; from Latin percussion-, percussio; from percutere to beat; from per- thoroughly + quatere to shake. First Known Use: 15th century. [Source: Merriam-Webster On-Line Dictionary]
Continuo Section: The English word continuous is derived from the Italian, continuo and it in turn from the Latin, continuus. The most common form of the complete musical term is basso continuo (Italian for continuous bass). This refers to the lowest (i.e., bass) line of music which is often played by the keyboard or lower-stringed instruments. Basso continuo, also known as figured bass or thoroughbass, was especially featured in Baroque ensemble music; the term entered into common usage during the 1720s. As a member of the Vox Ama Deus audience, you will recognize the continuo section as comprising (generally) Bronwyn Fix-Keller at the harpsichord, Vivian Barton Dozor, cello, and Dan Boring on the theorbo (an instrument not seen in many other Baroque orchestras). If you ever get to look at Bonnie's or Dan's music, you'll see that it usually features only a long line of bass-part notes. But there is a complex code of numeric figures to indicate the required chords they perform (the above mentioned figured bass). Occasionally special instruments are added, as for example, a Cymbalom for the just completed April 22nd concert, which was such a treat for the Vox audience in the full capacity seating at the Kimmel center!
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A. J. Merlino playing the Cymbalom |
RAS: Dan, during the Rebels in Paris concert on April 22, Valentin Radu afforded you the rare opportunity to debut on an instrument with which we generally do not associate such a distinguished artist as yourself. And, if I understood a comment made by one of your Vox Ama Deus orchestra colleagues, this performance took great personal courage because it could have led to the ruination of your flourishing career as a serious, virtuoso multi-plucked stringed and continuo artist!
DB: Shades of Deliverance! You mean my Kimmel Center debut about 10 days ago on the banjo?!?
RAS: Sí, signore!
DB: Hopefully many of our E-newsletter readers were fortunate enough to attend what was truly a totally different Vox Ama Deus musical experience. The April 22 concert during the Philadelphia International Festival for the Arts focused on music related to Paris from 1910 to 1920. In the spirit of the festival, Valentin Radu programmed music by George Gershwin and the Porgy and Bess selections called for the banjo. So as Vox Ama Deus' "strummed- and plucked--string" guy, I finally got a chance to play on one of my first loves in a major theater! I don't think my career has come to a grinding halt...I hope not!
I was raised in up-state New York-Wellsville, which is a town that lies at the end...or beginning...of the Appalachian Mountain range- where banjo and mandolin were very popular. So I as a kid I learned to play this all-American instrument before I branched out to classical guitar and then to the guitar's earlier family members.
RAS: Such as?
DB: The lute-which was an immensely popular home instrument. You see lutes in lots of movies about Tudor and Elizabethan England. The lute is often mentioned in Shakespeare plays...
RAS: Ah yes-as when Richard III scoffs about his pleasure-seeking brother, King Edward IV, "He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber to the lascivious pleasing of a lute." DB: Lutes were beautifully constructed works of art. For centuries their warm, soft tone accompanied hundreds-thousands-of beautiful love songs, ballads, ribald drinking songs and lots of other music, both composed and popular. And then we come to the giant guitar that more recently has become my trademark-the theorbo.
RAS: OK, Dan...explain.
DB: The theorbo is an ancestor of the guitar and amember of the lute family-on steroids. 
All members of this general family are string instruments that are plucked or strummed by the player's fingers. Throughout Europe it was also known as the chitarrone, which is Italian for "large guitar." And when you see it, you cannot mistake it for anything else. The first thing most people notice is its very long neck-about 6 feet going out to my left. And it has 14 to 18 strings, while most guitars have 6 strings.
RAS: What are the origins-the evolutionary history-of this unusual looking beast?
DB: Theorbos were developed during the late 1500s in response to a demand by composers for an instrument that had a deeper bass range than was generally available. This was especially useful in the "pit orchestras"-to use a modern term-that accompanied the "new" art form of "opera." As the radio slogan goes, Remember all music was once new! The long neck of the theorbo, and the long strings on it, produced the lower notes composers craved-such as its lowest "G" that was used as a sustained note called a "drone."
RAS: As a music history student and young professional singer many years ago, I was involved in regional staged and concert premiers of a few Baroque operas, like Handel's Agrippina and Serse, Cavalli's L'Ormindo, as well as Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. We had the usual continuo section in these early'ish Baroque revival orchestras, but I do not recall a theorbo. But lately I have heard recordings of staged performances that prominently feature several strummed-or is the term plucked-continuo instruments in the pit. The sound was very exciting; it added to the drama. What has happened?
DB: When you were performing these operas the revival in plucked continuo had not begun, and there were several reasons for that. First, it was really not until the late 1970s that James Tyler and especially Julian Bream began the lute revival. Until then the lute was not considered a serious instrument; even P.D.Q. Bach poked fun at it!
RAS: You know, I had heard the same thing said about Andres Segovia and the classical Spanish guitar. When I became aware of classical music, Segovia and his guitar were fully established; no one I met questioned their position. Much later I learned that it had taken Segovia a massive effort to gain true respect for his instrument, its music and his skills.
DB: The little lute not only had to overcome similar musical snobbery, but there were very few highly trained players. It took the artistry and drive of Julian Bream to prove that the lute had something to say to the world. He proved it in concerts throughout the world and in recordings. Bream diligently studied the wide range of repertoire for the lute. Further adding to the lute's acceptance problem was the lack of high-quality reconstructions-not many originals were around or in good enough condition to be played. It took some time for craftsmen to be able to produce a sufficient number of fine instruments. However, over the past twenty years this work has been advanced by the use of x-rays, MRI scans and acoustical science!
RAS: But the work has paid off in the form of new sonic dimensions coming from the strummed continuo section-sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun!
DB: Yes we are! I've played operas when we've had three or four of us in the orchestra. The great early Baroque opera composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) often called-for Baroque guitar, lute and theorbo in the pit. We are an integral part of the orchestra's sound-melodically, harmonically and rhythmically. We can help propel everything along; or we can be soft and melodic; or we can be heroic or comical. Any musical expression you can think of, we of the Plucked Continuo Rhythm Section can deliver it. And I am so very pleased that Valentin Radu has added me to the continuo section for the majority of his Vox Ama Deus concerts.
RAS: I think everyone in the audience, and your colleagues on stage, agree.
