Access to Art Benefit Hosts Joseph Mayes on Oct. 30

CAPE MAY – At 3:30 p.m. on Sun., Oct. 30, at the Cape May Methodist Church, 635 Washington St., Joe Mayes, head of the guitar department and the Early Music Department at Rowan University, former scholarship student of the world famous Spanish guitarist, Segovia, will give a solo performance on the lute, archlute and classical guitar. The event is a benefit for Access to Art, who is raising money to do their second Cape May Renaissance Festival.
Joseph Mayes will perform on the lute, including an Old Spanish Pavan by Thomas Robinson from “The School of Musick,”, Fantasia Prima from Simon Di Molinaro, and dances from John Dowland including Sir John Smith, His Almain, the Right Honorable Fernando Earl of Darby, his Galliard, The Right Honorable Robert Earl of Essex, his Galliard, The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth, her Galliard. The Galliard was a dance preferred by Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII; it was also a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the l6th century.
On the Archlute, he will perform Augusta by Ronn McFarlane from the Indigo Road 2000″ and Prelude and Fugue from J.S. Back l685-1750. On guitar, he will perform Three Caprices by Luigi Legnani (l790-l877); Prelude and Dansa (Festiva) by Edin Solis (2010). Mr. Mayes plays an 8 course Renaissance lute after Heiber by Lawrence K. Brown, a l4 course archlute after Selas by Jason Petty, and a classical guitar by Joseph Mayes, which he built himself.
Like his beginnings on the guitar, Mayes was a do-it-yourselfer on the lute. “I went to Spain to study with Segovia, and a guy in the class had a lute, and I thought that I had to have a lute. So I saved up and bought a lute.” he said. There was one book in the Westchester library which I availed himself of, but it had a lot of mistakes. Thomas Robinson was designed as a lute tutor, but it had errors as well. I made mistakes, but I listened to other lutists and I learned. Mayes’ father was a principal cellist with the Philadelphia orchestra, so he came by his musical interests naturally. Mayes studied at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.
“In the late Renaissance, there was lots of chamber music. In the time of Henry VIII, Henry and his wives played the lute, Elizabeth I played the Lute, Martin Luther played the lute. Erasmus played the lute. Everyone played the lute. It was part of the culture.” Mayes said.
“We are raising money to bring another Cape May Renaissance Festival to the area, in October 2012, and we are hosting a number of events to bring people into contact with the music, art, and culture of the period.” said Barbara Beitel, Access to Art, Inc. Director. “We will be having Piffaro! the Renaissance Band as one of the events at the Festival, and we hope to have some Renaissance dance. Piffaro! performs in Europe and in the U.S. and is a Renaissance wind band.”
“We will also concentrate on the reign of Henry VIII, and some of the events and people from the European continent who made significant contributions to the period including Erasmus,” Beitel continued. “We are looking to develop some Renaissance dancing, which we hope area people will participate in, and area dance schools will join us in presenting.”
A committee to develop the festival is being developed now. Call (609) 465-3963 if you have an interest in joining it.
Tickets for the performance are $20 for adults, and $15 for seniors and students. A group rate of $12 per person for groups of ten is available. Tickets are available at the door or send checks to Access to Art, 4l7 E. Pacific Ave., Cape May Court House, N.J. 08210.