Jackson Free Press

"Early music" in Mississippi really started with a birthday party. Dr. Ernst Borinski, a professor of sociology at Tougaloo College since 1947, threw elaborate annual birthday parties throughout the 1970s to bring together many of the progressive elements in Jackson. Until his death in 1982, Borinski inspired and helped train many social activists and attorneys, and hosted a forum series during the 1960s that brought many of the nation's leading thinkers and activists to Tougaloo and contributed to the college's leading role in the Civil Rights Movement. In the late '70s, at an ACLU auction, Borinski purchased an evening of music by organist John Paul and intended to have him perform at his annual party.

Paul had grown up in England where he attended the Royal Academy of Music and later immigrated to Jackson in 1965 to become organist and choirmaster at St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral. There, he has since been responsible for all service music and the Wednesday at St. Andrew's noontime Baroque concert series begun in 1971. Last year Paul won the Governor's Excellence in the Arts Award for Artist's Achievement. Under his direction with what was to later become the Mississippi Camerata, Paul brought several of his singers with him to perform at Borinski's bash. Richard McGinnis and Max Garriott were among these singers and following the success of that party they founded the Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music.

Early or ancient music usually designates the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods of European music prior to classical music, best known for pieces written in the 1700s and 1800s. Early music is typically thought to have started about 900 A.D. with the monophony of Gregorian chant. It spans through the end of the Baroque period in 1750, with the death of J. S. Bach. The music is generally performed on period instruments such as the harpsichord, lute, harp, fiddle and many precursors to today's horns and strings. You'll find distinctive vocal differences from liturgical sacred music in Latin to the secular poetics in common tongue of the troubadour, minstrel or bard. The early music crowd isn't just the "black bread, sandal-toed set," as Newsweek once described it. Its audience is often comprised of fans of traditional world music, the Public Radio of Mississippi classical crowd as well as contemporary connoisseurs of folk and jazz. Its music tends to be more humanistic, without the high-church reservations that keep many from the symphony.

On Thursday, March 6, the Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music will present Fortune's Wheel. They will perform a vocal and instrumental program, which will feature French medieval troubadour music. The troubadours were the first to create a tradition of vernacular poetry in the Middle Ages. Their energetic performance combines a meticulous attention to vocal sonority and instrumental virtuosity with an engaging sense of theater and improvisation. Their deep experience, personal warmth and creative programming have won them rave reviews wherever they perform.

The event will be held at St. Philip's Episcopal Church (5400 Old Canton Road) at 7:30 p.m., $12 at the door. Call 852-4848 for details.