Shira Kammen Has a

The Bay Area early strings specialist talks with Elizabeth Dobbs about her repertoire, her in- struments, and the rich mix of experiences that make for a fascinating life in music.

Shira on Disc The Almanac. A musical journey through the seasons and the year. Cantigas de Amigo, Visions and Miracles Love songs and instrumental dances from Medieval Spain with Ensemble Alcatraz. The Castle of the Holly King (Bright Angel Records) Secular songs and tunes for the Yuletide. Music of Waters (Bright Angel Records) Recorded in the wild and beautiful side canyons of the Grand Canyon. Wild Wood (Evil Twin Records) Tunes and songs from Celtic cultures around the world, featuring Shira Kammen and Pamela Swan. World’s Bliss (Archetype Records) Middle English and traditional songs of love and death with John Fleagle accompanied by Shira Kammen.

CDs available ($15 plus $3 S&H) by writing Shira Kammen at 725 Pomona Avenue, Albany, CA 94706. Many other discs are may be found by using search engines at Amazon.com, Public Radio Music Source (www.prms.org), and other web services, or by visiting www.geocities.com/shirakammen/. Thing for Strings

I’d been hearing about Shira Kammen for Liz: Why do you hold your vielle low and my dad sang in choruses, so there many years as one of the best vielle players on your chest? was music around all the time. I remem- and all around musicians anywhere. She Shira: There are different ways to ber the Schumann piano quintet made a sings in a voice infused with complex, dark hold the vielle. The position will depend big impression on me. It was so heart- colorings of sound, and when she plays the on the size and shape of the instrument felt, dramatic, happy, and sad, all at vielle, the music that emerges has power, and the background of the performer. once. clarity, and life. Margriet Tindemans usually holds hers Liz: What made you choose music Shira Kammen was born in 1961 and between the knees, gamba-style, but she as a career? grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She will also turn it and play it violin-style as Shira: I think of music as one of the is the daughter of a professional violinist, and well. I play the vielle most often in a elements or one of the senses. I don’t a singer who is also a scientist. After receiv- very relaxed violin style. It is easier to think I ever really chose music, that is, I ing her music degree from UC Berkeley, hear my own sound with the instrument didn’t set out to make something hap- Shira studied vielle with Margriet Tinde- a bit farther from my ear. Surface noise pen. I was just doing what I enjoyed and mans, a specialist in early music who has that is inaudible to the audience – the was lucky enough to get work doing it. been Shira’s greatest musical influence. sound of the hair on the strings or fin- As I like to say, it sure beats working for Over the years, Shira has been a member gers moving on the fingerboard – can a living! of Ensembles Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova, distract a musician. Liz: When you first felt the desire to Fortune’s Wheel, and Medieval Strings. She play music, what instrument did you se- has performed with Sequentia, Hesperion lect and why? How did you make your XX, the Boston Camerata, The King’s way to the vielle? Noyse, and with Medieval singers John Flea- Shira: Sometimes I think of myself gle and Anne Azema. Among her television as a professional dilettante. I like so many things. I first played piano, then and film credits are the documentaries A cello, violin, viola, viola da gamba, and World Inscribed, about illuminated manu- finally found the vielle. My musical pref- scripts, and Radiant Life, about the life of erences kept getting earlier and earlier. I the mystic abbess Hildegard von Bingen, and still like playing lots of different instru- she played the Medieval fiddle in the sound- ments and singing. Some musicians re- track for the motion picture O, a version of ally fall in love with an instrument and Othello. Recently she founded Class V want to live in the sound of it, but I am Music, an ensemble that performs on river more the kind of musician who loves a rafting trips. (David Douglass, violinist and director of type of music and will shamelessly bang Shira’s tiny Bay Area cottage is stuffed the The King’s Noyse, has been researching this away on whatever will get me to that with music, instruments, music stands, and topic since 1975. When I consulted him about kind of music. photos. During my visit, she played an exper- how members of the string family were held, he Liz: What kinds of music projects imental instrument commissioned from said, “One of the hallmarks of playing early excite you the most? builder Jim Wimmer, which she calls a “vio- bowed-string instruments is that there were no Shira: I love doing music for theater lin d’amore.” Beneath the standard four schools of technique. One simply did what or in collaboration with other kinds of strings of the violin is another set of strings. worked best, and for many reasons that often arts. Medieval storytelling and music is a As Shira drew her bow across violin involved relatively low placements of the instru- great combination. I’d love to do a se- d’amore’s playing strings, these sympathetic ment against the body. Shira is a free thinker ries of recordings in national parks. Do- strings took up the sound and sang the notes and a brilliant one. She plays the way she does ing straight concerts is fine, but I feel back as an after-shading. Mozart described simply because it works, and that is the most really excited by projects that dissolve the sound of the viola d’amore as sweet, and solid common ground with early music that we the lines between performer and audi- the experimental violin’s voice has that sweet- have.”) ence. ness colored with a sad, lovelorn inflection. Liz: What is your earliest music Liz: You specialize in early music Shira put the violin d’amore aside and memory? and folk/ethnic music. What do you like took a vielle from its case. Rather than tuck- Shira: Probably listening to chamber about these forms? ing the instrument under her chin, she rests it music on the record player with my Shira: There is something very direct lower, just below the collarbone. folks. My mom is a professional violinist and powerful about them. Of course,

Early Music America Fall 2003 27 Shira: I do love playing Medieval Shira Kammen Has a Thing for Strings music, almost all kinds of Medieval mu- sic, but I also love singing early Renais- sance music in a small ensemble. I love those terms cover a lot – many hun- est ensemble, you couldn’t phone, fax, playing Breton folk music for dancers dreds of years of music and styles as or e-mail. You would tailor-make the and playing Celtic tunes and singing bal- varied as North Indian ragas and Irish music for what you have at hand. It is lads. Oh, and playing Eastern European step-dancing music. The musical lan- not prescribed music, like classical mu- tunes in weird meters. guage of the Medieval style is some- sic. The page in classical music tells you Liz: What is the most challenging thing I find very poignant. It is a play of all the measurements for the recipe – and difficult type of music for you to consonance and dissonance, always a get louder here, softer here, play this play, and why? How do you overcome tension and a resolution. All music is line on such-and-such an instrument, some of the difficulties? that to some extent, but with Medieval etc. Medieval music is so much more Shira: The music I am most techni- and other modal music, it happens in a like cooking without a recipe. It’ll be cally removed from would be something remarkably clear, almost physical way. tastier if you use what you happen to like the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. I think of Medieval music as ex- have with skill and wit. That would take a lot of re-focusing tremely local. I imagine a world where, Liz: Is Medieval music your favorite and exercise! But playing a contra-dance in order to communicate with the clos- music to play and why? tune twenty times really fast is difficult in a very different way. It requires a dif- ferent kind of stamina, a complete com- mitment to rhythm, and a very relaxed, un-stressed technique. Playing an eso- teric troubadour song, starting with no musical notes at all, with a poem that is heady and contextually hard to under- stand, poses great difficulty because it requires making decisions and compos- ing a part. I think playing jazz would be very challenging. Overcoming the difficulties – I’m not sure if one ever does – but the more you immerse yourself in a style, the more of it you will under- stand. It is like any language: you can get as far as asking where the central bus station is or you can make beautiful poetry. It depends on your relationship and affinity for the language, your en- thusiasm for the culture, and how cheeky you are. You can make poetry with only a few basic words if you dare... Liz: I love the sound you get from your vielle and fiddle. It’s very strong, clear, and powerful. How did you go about developing your sound? Shira: Thanks for saying that! I want my sound to be like a voice, with all the nuances and colors of language. It is an ongoing process, trying to discover one’s musical voice. If you can imagine the sound you want, the sound you de- sire to hear, you have more of a chance of making it. I’ve never been particu- larly disciplined at practicing. I love to play, and I think the more one listens to other musicians and other sounds, the

28 Fall 2003 Early Music America sounds of water or birds or car horns, for example, the more of a palette you Shira’s Vielle have in your imagination. Liz: The bow you use with your The vielle is a stringed instrument that looks brings out the best in whatever she plays. vielle is much more curved than a stan- something like a boxy violin. While the term When we first spoke about making an in- dard violin bow. It looks like a small vielle has been applied to a number of differ- strument for her, she was looking for greater archery bow strung with horsehair. ent instruments in West- projection and had Does your bow help you get the sound ern musical history (includ- heard an instrument I ing the hurdy-gurdy in had made for Robert you hear in your head? France), it is most com- Mealy. The aim was to Shira: Yes, definitely! I like a bow monly associated with a have good projection that has direction in its shape and feel, a four or five-string, slightly along with the reedy bow that has character. The very curved “waisted” Medievel fiddle, warmth that makes the bow I have, made by English bowmaker in which the lowest string vielle voice distinctive. Bernard Ellis, has a dance-like feel in sometimes acts as a I’m very happy to see the wood. I don’t do well with weighty drone. The instrument was that this vielle has been bows, and when I play with a modern praised at the end of the serving her for the past bow I always hold it up on the stick, 13th century by Johannes few years.” above the frog, like many traditional fid- de Grocheo as combining The bow Shira uses to dlers. I’d never be allowed into a sym- “in inteself the attributes play the vielle, made by of all other instruments.” English bowmaker phony orchestra any longer. Karl Dennis of Warren, Bernard Ellis, is much Liz: You have a lovely singing voice, Rhode Island, made a more curved than a too. Have you spent much effort devel- vielle for Shira in 1993. Says Dennis, “From a standard violin bow, resembling a small oping it? maker’s point of view, Shira is just the sort of archery bow strung with horsehair. The Shira: Thanks again! I think one of artist you want playing on your instrument. swath of horsehair is narrower than on a vio- the hardest tests of self-acceptance is She produces such a beautiful sound and lin bow and its tension is not adjustable. being able to really hear one’s own pays such attention to dynamics that it really voice. I haven’t achieved that ability yet. It is such a joy to sing and to play with sorts of activities, from leading a travel with a little Medieval harp, which poetry and languages. I’ve taken lessons singing class in rounds to teaching pri- my friend and colleague, John Fleagle at times, and that is really useful if you vate lessons, to playing parties, or con- made. After he made it, he realized it find a good teacher. Listening to differ- certs, recording, perhaps playing in a didn’t fit in an overhead bin, so he had ent kinds of singers and hearing what play or some kind of theatrical setting. to cut down one of the curves on the they do is a great way to learn, as is let- It really changes from month to month. harp to make it fit. I’ve encountered air- ting yourself pretend, say, that you are Recently, I’ve been interested in produc- line personnel who become angry and an opera singer, or an English ballad ing my own CDs with lots of other mu- won’t let you on with the instrument – singer, or a musical comedy singer. It in which case I usually cry, and not even can be revealing as well as humorous. on purpose. I’ve also encountered air- line personnel who are kind and helpful Trying on different personas makes Medieval music is like your voice sound different. and find a closet for my instruments. cooking without a recipe. Liz: Tell me what a typical month of Liz: You recently auditioned for playing/performing is like for you. It’ll be tastier if you use what Cirque du Soleil. What was that like? Shira: Well, I am probably the you happen to have Shira: I played the vielle and harp world’s worst businessperson. There are with skill and wit. and sang, and I improvised on the violin so many things one is expected to do to tracks from their shows. Then it got that musicians are completely untrained really scary because they had me doing to do, for example, things an agent theater games and movement. All my would do, like negotiating a fee, or sicians. That is a great challenge, and parody interpretive dances came back to scheduling, being a travel agent, and very absorbing. Of course, the problem me in an instant (Shira has been the life writing blurbs and little articles. is raising the capital in order to do it at of quite a few parties by performing hi- I am lucky to have a lot of different all. larious parodies of such dances). It was interests musically, so my musical life is Liz: You travel quite a bit. Now that hard not to be self-conscious. I had to quite varied. A month might include a airport security is so tight, do you have put all of that out of my mind and be- tour or two, maybe somewhere exotic any interesting travel/musical instru- come the exuberant seven-year-old, or maybe somewhere everyday, with ment anecdotes? transported by music, I’d been as a concerts and maybe kids’ shows or Shira: Oh, yowsa. Well, it is stressful, child. I’m not sure I pulled it off com- workshops, or some kind of recording, and I don’t carry as many instruments while the time at home would have all with me as I used to. I occasionally Continued on page 54

Early Music America Fall 2003 29 its nature changes each time you play it. Shira Kammen Producing a CD in an uncontrollable Continued from page 29 environment like the Grand Canyon was a great adventure. It held all sorts of pletely, but I felt stretched and chal- What is involved in producing your own obstacles and challenges, like the wind lenged in a really good way. CD? and weather and blowing sand, and try- Liz: Tell me about Class V, the music Shira: I have since produced a cou- ing to find just the right acoustics, hop- group you founded to play on river raft- ple of CDs in the more predictable en- ing that my colleagues and I wouldn’t ing trips and named for the degree of vironment of a recording studio as op- fall off any cliffs while climbing down danger and difficulty of a white water posed to the very unpredictable canyon. those dry washes with Medieval and rapid. I really enjoy the process of conceiving other instruments. It was a blast! Shira: Oh, it is so much fun! As of a program, of some mood or idea Liz: What approach do you take many as four times a summer, I organ- when you edit your CDs? ize musicians for 4-5 day river trips on I had a bad dream Shira: I like to go for some kind of the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. the other night, in which balance. I am not as likely to go for per- Usually there are two violins and cello, thousands of copies fection. I want more of a snapshot of a sometimes violin, flute or recorder, and of a CD I’d made good and soulful performance. Obvi- cello. The rafting company (James contained false starts ously, one doesn’t want big mistakes or Henry River Journeys) had a special and people swearing. cursing (I had a bad dream about that rubber waterproof cello-bag made for the other night, in which thousands of the occasions. Those river days are so copies of a CD I’d made contained false blissful, with music and good wine and that binds the project together. It’s very starts and people swearing). Most im- fine company, outrageous characters on absorbing, like a musical playground in portant is the spark and spirit in a per- a sparkling river running through lush a way. I also like the acceptance it re- formance, the coherency, and of course, green canyons where we see otters and quires, acceptance that where you are having pitch and rhythm solid and eagles and herons. It’s pretty great. that day musically is where you are. Also good. Liz: You produced Music of Waters,a I enjoy playing and recording music that Liz: You’ve performed all over the CD recorded in the Grand Canyon. isn’t meant to be frozen, music that by world. What is your favorite place to perform? 2003-2004 Series Shira: I’ve loved playing in Ro- manesque Churches and Gothic Cathe- drals in Europe, in the stairwell of Kroeber Hall at UC Berkeley, above Granite Rapid on the Colorado River, in Our 17th Season the bridge of a ferry at night between Juneau and Haines in Alaska, under Scholars of London Terra Nova Consort Anima some really big boulders up a side creek “Music of the “Renaissance en “Estrela” on the Rogue River, and in the High Sistine Chapel” Provence” Holiday Program Sierras and the High Desert. The October 11, 2003 November 1, 2003 December 6, 2003 strangest place I’ve played is in the ele- Saturday • 5:00 P.M. Saturday • 5:00 P.M. Saturday • 5:00 P.M. St. Joseph Center Schwann Concert Hall, All Saints’ Episcopal phant enclosure of the Jerusalem zoo. Chapel Wis. Lutheran College Cathedral Liz: What is your ultimate goal as a Wauwatosa Milwaukee Milwaukee musician? www.thescholars.de www.terranovaconsort.com www.animamusica.art.br Shira: I don’t know if that is clear to Red Priest Passacaglia Stadler Trio me yet. Of course, it would be very “Carnival of the “An Allegorical “Mozart, Stadler good to feel that my music contributes Seasons” Feast” & 3 Basset Horns” to the good of the world. I would like February 1, 2004 March 6, 2004 April 3, 2004 to be able to inspire a binding together Sunday • 3:00 P.M. Saturday • 5:00 P.M. Saturday • 5:00 P.M. Helene Zelazo Schwann Concert Hall, Sharon Lynne Wilson of community. I’d love to inspire some Performing Arts Center Wis. Lutheran College Center for the Arts kind of environmental feeling. Music is Milwaukee Wauwatosa Brookfield a language. I guess I’d like to explore www.redpriest.co.uk www.passacaglia.com www.kempisoft.com/stadler that. Also I want to have a really good Season subscription • 6 concerts • $160 time and promote bliss and joy and feel- General admission tickets • Single $25 • Student $10 ing and all that. I’d like to have more Early Music Now • 1630 East Royall Place confidence about it all.  Milwaukee • 53202-1810 • 414-225-3113 [email protected] • www.execpc.com/~emn

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