Ornamenti Baroque - established 2025
Who are we and where did we come from? We formed in Dallas over the last several years, but migrated to Houston as fast as we could. A spin-off of the award-winning filmmaking early music ensemble Lumedia Musicworks, core members steered south to team up with local virtuosos. Our mission is to embellish Houston’s arts scene with treasures from the baroque chamber music repertoire.
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Our pilot concerts in the Spring and Summer of 2025 titled “French Tunes & Fireworks”, featured fiery works by Marais, Forqueray and Royer. We realized French music is something of a rarity here in the U.S., but that we were too Texan to be intimidated by it. Houston Symphony cellist Louis-Marie Fardet joined the band to play viol and speak in his native tongue. Fortunately for Houstonians, we promise “beaucoups” more masterpieces to come, complete with all the fancy ornaments.
Scribbling in the Margins
These scribbles prepare the audience for the Ornamenti experience. In some cases, they offer a glimpse into the lives and times of composers whose works we’re living with right now. Read on.
Thanksgiving Leftovers 2025
’loaded with basses’
We’re cleaning out the playlist and serving up pleasures for viol, cello and a handful of harpsichord solos.
A post-holiday gathering of baroque entertainment
This concert is more relaxed, tailored to those who accept the invitation to the table. Think ‘salon’ without the fussy manners. Members of the continuo section (i.e. the basses) shine as soloists, presenting works that deserve a more regular place in the concert tradition. Vary your taste with Italian, German and French composers, organized neatly into courses, or sets.
The aperitifs:
Benedetto Marcello
Giorgio Antoniotto
The familiar mains:
J.S. Bach
George Frideric Handel
The indulgences:
Louis de Caix d’Hervelois, Jean-Philippe Rameau
Marin Marais, Antoine Forqueray
Oktoberfest 2025
Bach, Buxtehude & a Bohemian
And that famous meeting of J.S. Bach and Buxtehude:
While their music often achieves immortality, composers were people too. They went to school, secured employment, raised families, dealt with politics in the workplace, and hung out at the local pub, all while doing extraordinary things.
The Saxons:
Johann Rosenmuller (1619-1684)
Educated at the University of Leipzig, this organist/composer landed a position at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice following accusations of scandalous behavior back home. Rosenmuller is known in musicology for bringing the Italian style back to Northern Europe, to which he returned later in life.
Johann Caspar Kerll (1627-1693)
A well-connected composer throughout Europe, Kerll was a student of Giovanni Valentini and teacher of Agostino Steffani. Influenced by Schutz and Frescobaldi, he himself influenced Pachelbel, Handel, and J.S. Bach, all of whom studied his compositions. His career included positions in Vienna, Munich and Brussels, and proved anything but boring. Serious quarrels with Italian singers cost this acclaimed composer his court position in Munich, and while working in Vienna he survived the Turkish invasion of 1683.
The Moravian:
Gottfried Finger (1655-1730)
Born in Olomouc, Moravia, Finger studied and worked in Munich before migrating to the English court chapel of King James II. Following the king’s exile, he is known for failing to win a composition competition there. Hence his return to Germany to various other court appointments. A viol virtuoso, his compositional skill shines in his works for the instrument.
The Bohemian:
Samuel Capricornus (1628-1665)
The music of this mid-17th century composer is a pleasant discovery. We were not familiar with him, but we do love chaconnes and his is no exception. While Capricornus was well-networked and enjoyed a fruitful career, his life wasn’t without drama. The son of a Protestant minister in Catholic Bohemia, he and his family fled to Bratislava to avoid religious persecution. He went on to study languages and theology in Silesia (spread over parts of what is now the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany) before landing a position at the imperial court in Vienna. Ultimately, he became Kapellmeister in Stuttgart, where he tangled regularly with the musicians under him.
Spring/Summer 2025
French Tunes & Fireworks, lyrical to theatrical, sublime to ridiculous
Music of the French baroque is rare to encounter on the American concert stage, owing largely to its unique style and performance practice in contrast to music from the rest of the European continent. French music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is noted for its grace, pomp, and ornateness, all influenced heavily by dance and the theater. The repertoire of the time was curated by centralized musical institutions and performed for elite circles. These institutions were associated with the royal court at Versailles - especially the Académie Royale de Musique (which later became the Paris Opera) and Musique de la Chambre (Music of the Chamber), specifically the private quarters of King Louis XIV. Among the best musicians employed by the court were harpsichordist François Couperin, viol players Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray, and theorbist Robert de Visée.
Beyond the centralized court, French music flourished in a different way. Works that branched out into the salons of Parisian life often demonstrated fantastical and whimsical qualities. Composers known for these pictorial effects include Jean-Phillippe Rameau, Pancrace Royer and Jacques Duphly.
“I don’t often have the opportunity to play basso continuo in a baroque ensemble, and have found this project to be a uniquely satisfying challenge. I appreciate my American-born friends taking on this great music of my heritage and bringing it to Houston audiences.”
– Louis-Marie Fardet