William Waters, the lutenist on this album, is a professor of early plucked instruments at the Vila-Seca Conservatory of Music in Tarragona, Spain.
Compositional Technique
Reusner is significant as the first German composer to write for the French 11-course lute in D minor tuning and to utilize the 'Style Brisé' (broken chord style).
Compositional Technique
The 'Style Brisé' involves varying original material in repeats so that melody, bass, and inner voices rarely coincide within a continuous arpeggiated texture.
Composer Biography
Reusner's father, also named Esaias, was a renowned lutenist, and the family moved to Wroclaw to escape the horrors of the Thirty Years' War.
Instruments
The lute used in this recording is an 11-course instrument made by César Árias in 2015, modeled after a Hans Frei lute from circa 1540 that was later converted to 11 courses.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Despite being a celebrated child prodigy and virtuoso, Reusner's music avoids virtuosic display, focusing instead on 'the soft and sweet sonority of noble music'.
Historical Context
Esaias Reusner, the composer, was born in 1636 during the Thirty Years' War, a conflict that devastated his hometown of Löwenberg in Silesia.
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