(bright music) (performer singing in foreign language) - [Announcer] This week on "Expressions," we go back in time with a classical performance from Mignarda.

(bright lute music) (performer continues singing in foreign language) - [Announcer] Support for this program is provided in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(audience applauds) - Hello and welcome to "Expressions."

I'm your host, Adara Alston.

For tonight's classic episode, we travel back to Renaissance Europe with a 2011 performance from Mignarda.

With Ron Andrico on lute and Donna Stewart on vocals, this group's performances span back centuries in time, illuminating the vibrant mingling of Renaissance music and poetry.

Later, we will hear from Ron and Donna about their unique partnership, but we opened the program with their rendition of a French poem written about the beauty of a rose.

(gentle lute music) (Donna sings in French) (gentle lute music continues) (gentle lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in French) (gentle lute music continues) (Donna sings in French) (gentle lute music continues) (gentle lute music continues) (audience applauds) - The lute is actually pretty well-considered to be derived from the Arabic "ud."

In fact, the word lute is derived from the term "al 'ud," which means "the wood."

It's considered to have been brought into Europe by crusaders, but we have no idea.

We have no way of knowing that.

Just by looking at the iconography, we can judge that it entered Europe at a pretty early age.

It was a, a very popular instrument for hundreds of years in European history.

- A lutenist was a very intimate, sort of part of the royal household, and they were there, you know, you can't just switch on the CD player or the radio and listen to music.

If you wanted music, you had to have a person playing it to you.

(gentle lute music) (gentle lute music continues) (gentle lute music continues) (bright lute music) (Donna singing in French) (Donna continues singing in French) (bright lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in French) (bright lute music continues) (audience applauds) (gentle lute music) (gentle lute music continues) (Donna singing in foreign language) (gentle lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in foreign language) (gentle lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in foreign language) (gentle lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in foreign language) (gentle lute music continues) (audience applauds) - The thing that that drew us to this music, both of us to this music from different directions, is really sort of the, the quiet and sensitive and subtle aesthetic of the music.

It's music from a different age, when things weren't quite so hectic, there wasn't quite so much industrial noise happening, hence the very quiet presentation of the music.

- Because this music was so much about the text and the poetry and the rhetorical devices of the 16th century.

Some people will respond to it on that level, and they'll be completely into the form of the poetry and the language.

- We think that's actually a great thing, and it's a rare opportunity right now for people to actually experience something that requires attention span and focus.

(bright lute music) (bright lute music continues) (bright lute music) (Donna singing in Italian) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (bright lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (bright lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (bright lute music continues) (audience applauds) (bright lute music) (Donna singing in Italian) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (bright lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (bright lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (bright lute music continues) (audience applauds) - Thank you.

You may have noticed that most of this music is fairly sedate, and we have to take a nap after a song like that.

(Donna and audience laugh) So we'll do the next best thing, and we'll play another sedate piece.

- We've been trying not to burden you with every single poem of, you know, every single bit of text that we're singing, because this is not a graduate seminar; it's a concert.

But this one's particularly lovely.

"When love bends her lovely eyes to the ground and with her own hands gathers together her wandering breath into a sigh, then loses it in a clear, soft, angelic, divine voice, I feel my heart sweetly stolen away and my thoughts and desires so change within me that I say 'Now comes the final plundering of me.

If heaven reserves for me so virtuous of death.'"

(audience murmurs) This was pop music.

(gentle lute music) (gentle lute music continues) (gentle lute music continues) (pages flipping) (gentle lute music) (Donna singing in Italian) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (gentle lute music continues) (Donna continues singing in Italian) (gentle lute music continues) (audience applauds) - Thank you.

- What a performance from Mignarda, here on "Expressions."

In addition to their live performances, Ron and Donna have released over 15 albums, and you can find out more information by visiting their website at mignarda.com.

If you wanna see even more of this classic performance, then head over to wskg.org/expressions.

Thanks so much for watching, and until next time, this is Adara Alston.

Good night.

(gentle lute music) ♪ Oh, come, dear joy ♪ ♪ An ounce of my desire ♪ ♪ I wooed her ♪ ♪ I loved her ♪ ♪ And none but her admired ♪ ♪ Oh, come, dear joy ♪ ♪ An ounce of my desire ♪