Piva: We’re pleased to be coming back to the MET too! The Measure for Measure show has proved to be our most popular show to date. Expect all the same great music we normally play – all popular dance and ballad music from the late 16th century performed on a wide range of instruments. Some of the instruments you’ll be familiar with – such as violins and recorders but others may be new to some of the audience, such as curtals (early bassoons), shawms (early oboes), bagpipes and hurdy gurdy.
A Piva show is more than just music though – we will be telling tales and stories about William Shakespeare and life in and around the theatres of Elizabethan London. They’ll be lots of interesting and fun snippets such as the advice on how to get yourself noticed as a member of the audience or how the pickpockets operated within the theatre.
SGT: What inspired you to do a show based on the music from the Shakespearean era?
Piva: We specialise in playing music from late 16th century Europe. This was also the time that Shakespeare was in his prime so, for us, it seemed the obvious thing to build a show around him and the world of the theatre! Even if people haven’t heard of our music, they have heard of Shakespeare! Shakespeare wove lots of music and musical references into his plays and in Measure for Measure we show how important music was to people in their everyday lives. In fact, Measure for Measure is a musical pun – a measure is a phrase of music or a dance step sequence.
SGT: You have perfomed to sell out audiences every time you have been here, what is it that makes the historical music that inspires your shows still resonate with audiences today?
Piva: We always appreciate the audiences at the MET and it’s such a great space to play in as we are so close to the audience. Although the music we play is around 500 years old, it resonates with today’s audiences. We often say that we play the “roots of roots music”!
Some of the tunes will be familiar to today’s folk fans and the basis of baroque and classical music was born in this period – so people can recognise the musical links. It’s also great music, whatever period you’re in!
SGT: What’s your favourite thing about playing live?
Piva: What makes everyone in Piva buzz is the audience reaction to what we do. It is such a great feeling when we know that the audience is right behind us. One of the pieces we play is very quiet and still and we can sometimes feel the audience breathe a sigh at the end and in another piece they will spontaneously clap – those are great moments. We also love it when they actually laugh – or groan – at Jane’s jokes!
SGT: Can you tell us a little more about the group and your backgrounds?
Piva: The group was founded in 2002 by Eric Moulder, the group’s director. He really wanted to explore the popular dance repertoire of the period, a genre that’s often overlooked because, on the page, it appears to be quite simple. However, the Elizabethan musicians would have taken the basic outline of the music and improvised upon it and that’s exactly what we do – a bit like jazz musicians do.
All the instruments we play are reproductions of the type of instruments that would have been familiar to someone from the 16th century – and when they’re not playing them, three members of the group are making them! Eric and Jane work together making renaissance double reed woodwinds and Tony makes wooden flutes. Jane is also a researcher and freelance writer and she is the group’s resident bookworm always searching out little snippets of information that can be built into the show. Jude and Anne are both professional musicians and teach music.
All members of the group have varied musical backgrounds from classical, folk, folk-rock and jazz, as well as renaissance, and it’s this combination of influences that makes Piva just that little bit different.
SGT: What’s next for Piva after the September show?
Piva: We have a busy time in October and we are playing a few concerts down in the South West. After that it’s going to be planning our Christmas season. his year is going to be really exciting as we have invited a storyteller, Tom Hughes, to join us. Christmas is a time for stories and we believe the combination of music and tales from the Twelve Days of Christmas will be a perfect way of showing the madness and mayhem enjoyed by the Elizabethans during this period. We will be bringing this show to the Stafford Gatehouse on 18th December and we hope to see our old friends there as well as meeting some new ones!
Piva perform in the MET this Friday (11th September) Tickets are just £10 / £8 concessions and you can book yours here or by calling us on 01785 619080. Tickets for their December show are also available by clicking here.
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