Hesperus
8 Centuries & 4 Continents of Music
by Dan Willging

Renaissance to ragtime, Baroque to blues, medieval to Cajun, old-timey and American folk with recent excursions into the roots of American Colonial and Celtic music – for the past two decades, Hesperus has been performing (and recording) eight centuries and four continents worth of music. Not only has the Arlington, Virginia-based group, led by the husband and wife team Scott Reiss and Tina Chancey, compiled a repertoire that spans Western civilization, they've also managed to give new meaning to the term "roots musician." An incredible concept indeed; yet, what ties it all together is none other than gut strings.

For the uninitiated, gut strings are constructed from sheep intestines, dried and cured until they're hard and leathery. They're not as shimmering bright as today's steel strings but do provide a contrast with their subtler colors. Medieval and baroque musicians used them, as did early American musicians. For the first few years of their existence, Hesperus was a baroque chamber music ensemble consisting of harpsichord, recorder, and a pair of viola da gamba (a fretted cello-like instrument that's actually closer to a guitar). It wasn't until a few years later, when they were hanging out with old-timey musician Mike Seeger, that they realized the affinity medieval music had with early American folk music.

"Tina and Mike were talking about using gut strings on a vielle and a banjo," Reiss recalled. "He [Seeger] was talking about when you play outside, and it's humid and the gut strings get clammy and out of tune. We realized at that moment that, yeah, the instruments do have a certain similarity, and playing this stuff on reproductions of the old instruments does in fact make it seem more like folk music."

From there, Reiss and Chancey began exploring the similarities of the two musics (medieval and Appalachian old-timey) that they consider the folk musics of their day, just separated by hundreds of years. "There is a lot of droning in old-timey with the banjo and fiddle — the same type of droning in medieval music. We got very interested in the similarity of textures, modal tunes, and the ways that people use instruments. We weren't trying to make a statement that our Appalachian music really comes from 13th-century Europe. I think that is pretty far-fetched. There is just an ethos, a similar way of approaching music. We found we felt more affinity between folk music and medieval music than we've found between classical music and medieval music."

Along with old-timey multi-instrumentalist Bruce Hutton (who's part of the nationally known Double Decker String Band), the joint venture led to the mining of medieval music juxtaposed with traditional American tunes. Similarly, the early and modern instrumentation was also juxtaposed, symbolizing a major concept of Hesperus – not only does their music span centuries, but so does their array of instruments from both sides of the classical music era. Though hardly a complete list, Hutton plucked everything from banjos, mandolins, and dulcimers to ukuleles and guitars, while Reiss played recorders, dulcimers and percussion. Besides viola da gamba and recorders, Chancey covered all the other early and traditional strings, like the medieval vielle and rebec and modern folk instruments such as the lyra and the Balkan kamenj.

The concept proved successful from the outset and met with the approval of audiences, who had never imagined that such a blending could be so palatable. "We just found that it works, whatever audience we play for. Lots of people on both sides of the fence, the folk side and the classical side, will say that's kind of crazy," Reiss said. "But we don't talk about it. We just play it for an audience and people come to us and say, 'You know, I never thought that would work but, boy, it works great.'"

This is an excerpt from Dirty Linen #85 (December '99/January '00)