Piffaro

The blind musician Jacob Van Eyck rang the bells of the churches of Utrecht in the early 17th century, and played his little soprano recorder in the courtyards of those same churches. He held countless tunes in his head that he played and improvised on his recorder as he strolled the grounds of church and cathedral. Fortunately, for posterity, and countless recorder players, a scribe wrote down those tunes and the fantastic variations that he spun out.

Piffaro will honor "Eyckie" with a program drawn from his Fluyten Lusthof, both in his variations and in settings by other composers of the time. Philadelphia-based and internationally recognized carilloneur Janet Tebbel plays those tunes on the carillon, while Piffaro answers on recorders and lute. To honor the contribution of the local wind bands who also played outdoors in the public squares of Dutch towns and cities, Piffaro’s shawms, sackbuts and dulcians will resound in the courtyard of the Miraculous Medal Shrine in the historic Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, where we will film this program.