PIVA – The Renaissance Collective will perform a must-see concert of popular music from Shakespeare’s time at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake on Tuesday, June 6 at 7.30 p.m.
In Elizabethan England, music and theatre went hand in hand. With its reputation for loud and debauched conduct, playhouses drew large crowds eager to be entertained and have a good time.
Measure for Measure – Music from Shakespeare’s Time; blending music and historical anecdote, the six members of PIVA attempt to give audiences a ‘real flavour’ of theatre-going in late 16th century England, playing a range of popular dance, folk, and ballad music of the time.
PIVA is one of the UK’s finest early music ensembles, skilfully playing over 40 various period instruments such as shawms, viols, sackbuts, hurdy-gurdy, and many early forms of instruments we know today.
If audience members want to learn more about these instruments and the music, the ensemble will conduct a free pre-concert discussion at 6.45pm.
The members of PIVA – the Renaissance Collective have wide and diverse musical backgrounds and between them they have experience in playing renaissance, classical, baroque, folk and roots music. They bring all of these diverse musical influences together and fuse them with their knowledge of renaissance music and instruments. The result is a cohesive approach and attitude towards the renaissance repertoire: PIVA’s aim is to be faithful to the music of the period whilst adding their own innovative arrangements and interpretations.
About the name PIVA
The name PIVA originates from the north east of Italy. It has various meanings but they are all connected with music. A Piva can be a 15th century dance, the music for the dance, a small traditional shawm, a reed for the shawm and it’s also a northern Italian bagpipe. All in all, it’s about music, dancing and having a good time – we feel the name reflects our music, instruments and our approach.
Sometime after choosing the name, we discovered some facts about a family called Bassano who originated from Italy. We already knew that they were instrument makers (as are four of our group) as well as players and composers who were brought to England from Venice by Henry VIII. This family then remained in London as court musicians and instrument makers for 150 years. They called themselves “Bassano” because that is the town they originated from. However, we discovered that when they lived in Bassano, their family name was Piva – a remarkable concurrence!
