Noah
Greenberg and The New York Pro Musica: Medievalism and the Cultural Front
By Kirsten Yri
The New York Pro Musica's first performances of the medieval liturgical
drama the Play of Daniel during the 1957–58 christmas season
took New york concertgoers by storm. with audiences pleading for extensions
of the run, the Play of Daniel was destined to become an annual
concert event, no small feat for music that had previously been unknown
outside the university collegium. Praised in the New York Times
as superb, and pronounced a "rare conspiracy of imagination, scholarship,
and showmanship," the production was described in awe as the first complete
performance of the play since medieval times. Thereafter, the New York
Pro Musica and its musical director, Noah Greenberg, were credited with
putting "early music" on the map. In 1963, under Greenberg's tutelage,
the New York Pro Musica reconstructed, performed, and made famous the
Play of Herod—staging it, too, with colorful pageantry and enchanting
music. These medieval liturgical dramas became institutions in New York
City, with a performance of one of the works every season until the group
disbanded in 1974.
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