For this edition of ‘Unplucked’, our interview series celebrating the musicians who inspire us, Hannah chats with the Swiss-based Australian tenor Jacob Lawrence about finding his musical vocation, why he loves Monteverdi, and what Whitney Houston has in common with 16th century music!
Jacob performed in our very first concert in 2016—which featured Monteverdi naturally!—and has since become a regular collaborator, including for our most recent program, The Theatre of the Soul.
Tell us a bit about your musical life: what was your inspiration for pursuing a career in early music?
I grew up singing in choirs from when I was about six or seven years old. The story, as my mum tells it, is that I really wanted to join my dad's choir at Scots' Church when I was very young but was told I wasn't allowed until I could read (just words that is!). I found this MOST unjust but after a couple of years of primary school, I started standing next to one of the sopranos in the choir every week and she would point to each note as she sang it, until I eventually worked out how to do it for myself.
I studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with Anna Connolly, and after I graduated from my bachelor degree, I couldn't quite find any course to do that I had absolutely no qualms about. One day I was talking to Matthew Manchester, a great Australian cornetto player, and he mentioned to me that the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland might be a really great place to go. Just having a look at the course structure online was enough for me to be pretty sure that this was what I wanted to do next. When I saw things like improvised counterpoint, historical notation, historical dance, harpsichord lessons, and classes about tuning systems, I realised that there was a whole list of questions I had about music, to which one place might have all the answers. Now I'm finishing up my second degree in Basel, a masters in singing with a minor in historical improvisation. My professional life consists mostly of work with Vox Luminis, Profeti della Quinta, Le Miroir de Musique, and some other great early music ensembles, as well as the occasional solo recital and opera.
You perform music from the 14th—20th centuries but I know you have a real passion for music from the late Renaissance to early Baroque period. You recently performed the title role in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607) directed by Elam Rotem at the Trigonale Festival in Austria. What is it about this music that excites you?
There's absolutely no doubt that my favourite period of music to listen to and sing is the transitional period from Renaissance to Baroque. Of course I love Bach, Handel, Vivaldi etc. but there's something so perfect to me about how music from around 1600 is crafted. In pretty much any page of monody (or recitar cantando or whatever you want to call it!) from L'Orfeo, every note is written with a specific role in driving home the meaning and affect of every word of every sentence. If you understand what's going on in the text, it's hard not to become completely absorbed by it.
The most fascinating thing to me as a performer of this music is the huge range of levels of notated ornamentation. In L'Orfeo there are pages upon pages of plain minims and crotchets, followed by some of the most virtuosic passages ever written in opera. The more we learn about this period, the more tools we have to decide when a composer would have expected a performer to make their written music a whole lot more complicated, or when it's better left plain. Of course we'll never be able to fully answer these questions but it fascinates me trying to get as deep into it as I can!
The cancellation of concerts and musical life in general during the Covid-19 crisis has been hugely challenging for musicians. How have you been engaging with music during this period?
It was really difficult for me in the beginning of this period of isolation. I was totally overcome by the idea of having a diary completely full of performances for the next twelve months but not knowing which would be the first one that wasn't cancelled. For now it looks like things will start to pick up again in September but it's still very uncertain. This lull in constant performance has however had a positive effect in that it's really helped me to reconnect with the importance of doing practice for my instrument, rather than the music I have to perform with it. Strangely enough, after a few months of hardly any performances, I feel more in form vocally than I have in a very long time! Some organisations have also come up with really innovative ways of helping creatives stay creative and also potentially have access to some financial support. A great example is the Schloss Weissenbrunn Stiftung Bovicelli Competition. This is as far as I'm aware, the first ever competition focussed on the performance and invention of highly florid music from the early-seventeenth century, and it’s being held completely online!
This leads me to my next question: You have a particular interest in the 16th and early-17th century art of composing and performing diminutions, which is the focus of the 2020 Bovicelli Competition. Can you tell us more about this practice and why it inspires you?
As I mentioned previously with L’Orfeo, the most fascinating thing to me is the notes that the composers didn't write but still would have expected to hear. The most extreme end of the virtuosic scale can be found in the practice of 'diminution' which flourished in the decades around 1600. This was a practice in which the greatest vocal and instrumental virtuosos would expound their own inventions based on the most famous pieces of the day. The best analogy I can think of is if you went to a sports match in the US and everyone was waiting to hear how a great pop singer was going to sing the Star Spangled Banner in their own unique idiom. Just like today, different players and singers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had their own distinct styles of playing and improvising and it's really fascinating studying these, trying to mimic the old masters, and in the end perhaps evolving our own personal style of diminution. I love the idea of comparing Bovicelli and Rognoni improvising on Ancor che col partire with Marvin Gay or Whitney Houston showing us what they can do with the Star Spangled Banner.
Hear Jacob singing his own diminutions here.
What are you listening to? Any favourite recordings?
Honestly I haven't been listening to a whole lot of music recently. Listening to music is usually something I do when I'm travelling for work because when I listen to music I love I can’t focus on anything else, and obviously I haven't been doing much travelling in the last few months! Some recent albums that I've really enjoyed are 'A Consort's Monument' by L'Acheron, 'Toccata' by Andrea Buccarella, a really talented colleague who I studied alongside at the Schola, and 'Quattro Violini a Venezia' by Clematis.
What advice would you offer to young singers wishing to explore early repertoire and historically informed performance practice?
Good question! I would say don't look at things in black and white. A lot of people get hung-up on what's authentic and what we only do because of our modern perspective but the answers to these questions are never one hundred percent clear. A great example is the so-called 'vibrato wars'. Many people are convinced they've found the answer to "did people use vibrato in 1600!?" or "exactly how many hundredths of a semitone wide was the average vibrato in June of 1687!?", but in the end, no matter how thorough or detailed the research is, all it can do is inform our own personal taste in how a certain repertoire should sound. In my opinion, the most important things in the end are whether you were convinced by your performance, and if the audience was moved by it.
To find out more about Jacob’s work visit:
Jacob Lawrence YouTube
Schloss Weißenbrunn Foundation 2020 Bovicelli Competition