Martin Erhardt
Musician, improviser, recorder player, harpsichordist, singer, music teacher and theorist
Martin Erhardt is equally dedicated to art and pedagogy, theory and practice, improvisation, composition and interpretation in the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods. He has been teaching historical improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig since 2009 and recorder and music theory at the conservatory in Halle since 2006. He also taught at the Hochschule für Musik Weimar from 2006 to 2024.
He has given masterclasses at institutes in Lyon, Strasbourg, Leuven, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Rheinsberg, Berlin, Linz, Vienna, Zurich, Basel and Geneva, among others.
He always endeavours to convey a comprehensive overall picture of music that goes beyond terminologically defined subjects and combines playing and compositional skills, musical imagination and creativity, aesthetics and knowledge.
In addition to his teaching activities, he performs as a recorder player, harpsichordist, organist, portative organ player and singer, including at the Festival Itinéraire baroque, Périgord; Fêtes de l'Âne, Sens; Festival de musique improvisée Lausanne; Zamus Festival Cologne and the Musikfest Eichstätt. He regularly performs at the Bachfest Leipzig, the Händelfestspiele Halle and the Heinrich Schütz Musikfest. He has released CDs with his ensembles all'improvviso, Nusmido and with Miyoko Ito.
Born in 1983 in Kronach, his most important teachers have been Prof. Myriam Eichberger (recorder, Hochschule für Musik Weimar), Prof. Bernhard Klapprott (harpsichord/historical keyboard instruments, same university), Prof. Maurice van Lieshout and Prof. Dr Rebecca Stewart (early modal music, Fontys Conservatorium Tilburg).
He is the author of the textbook ‘Upon a Ground - Improvisation on Ostinato Basses’ and director of EX TEMPORE (Leipzig Improvisation Festival for Early Music).
Download press photos
Photographers: Stephan Dietze, Thomas Peters, Tristan Vostry, Thomas Peters.
CDs by Martin Erhardt
The double CD was released in December 2022 by Tirando and can only be ordered directly from me at a price of 20 Euros.
Quinta vox. 16th century madrigals with self-made diminutions by Miyoko Ito & Martin Erhardt.
Most of the pieces on this CD were recorded in pairs with viola da gamba, recorder, organ and harpsichord. For some of the pieces we have strengthened our ensemble with the singers Anne Schneider, Marijke Meerwijk and Bram Verheijen. The booklet contains drawings of the madrigals by Miyoko Ito and translations of the madrigal texts into German poems by Eva and Martin Erhardt.
We were able to realise the recordings in July and August 2014 in the Johanneskirche in Halle (Saale).
Madrigals and chansons by: Cypriano de Rore, Luca Marenzio, Ihan Gero, Maddalena Casulana, Bartolomeo Tromboncino, G. P. da Palestrina, Perissone Cambio, Adrian Willaert, Jacob Arcadelt, Vincenzo Ruffo, Orlande de Lassus, Thomas Crecquillon and Pierre Sandrin.
The special feature of this CD is that all the diminutions (ornaments) and instrumental intavolations are our own, but stylistically they are precisely in the tradition of the diminution treatises of Ortiz, Santa Maria, dalla Casa, Virgiliano, Rognoni, etc.
The CD was released in November 2014 on the German label Tirando (TRD 342) and can be ordered directly from us at a price of 15 euros.
Video
Book, sheet music, papers
book publication
Upon a Ground - Improvisation on Ostinato Basses from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries
Translated by Milo Machover
A hands-on guide for use in class,
in a group or alone.
for all instruments
Including two play-along CDs in 415 and 440Hz
Edition Walhall Nr. 905, Verlag Franz Biersack, Magdeburg 2013
ISMN: M-50070-905-3
148 Pages, including 2 CDs
EUR 30,-
Sheet music edition
The Buxheim tablature book
(around 1460/70)
25 two- and three-part pieces
for (almost) all melody instruments or keyboard instrument
in practical playing score
with an extensive introduction edited by Martin Erhardt
Edition Walhall No. 1110, published by Franz Biersack, Magdeburg 2020
ISMN: 979-0-50265-110-7
EUR 22,-
Sheet music edition
Johann Sebastian Bach: English Suites
Transcription for recorder solo
by Martin Erhardt, 2022
52 pages, reproduction of the manuscript
EUR 15,-
Sheet music edition (forthcoming)
John Dunstaple: Missa da gaudiorum premia
Reconstruction of the fragmentary Kyrie and Gloria
by Martin Erhardt, 2023
‘Edited’ facsimile of the complete surviving Credo and Sanctus
(written in choirbook format)
John Dunstaple: O crux gloriosa & Crux fidelis
in intavolations in the style of the Buxheim tablature book
by Martin Erhardt, 2024
(written in older German organ tablature)
x pages
EUR
Papers
Historische Improvisation heute
in: Alte Musik heute, Geschichte und Perspektiven der Historischen Aufführungspraxis, S. 124-141, Richard Lorber (Hg.), Bärenreiter Metzler 2023
Jenseits von Theorie und Praxis - Wie alte Musizierprinzipien die Begriffe des modernen Fächerkanons überwinden können
in: Praktische Musiktheorie, S. 155-169, Jörn Arnecke (Hg.), Olms 2017
Improvisation und Komposition in der Vokalpolyphonie des späten 15. Jahrhunderts: Eine gegenseitige Befruchtung
in: Musiktheorie und Improvisation, S. 29-39, Jürgen Blume, Konrad Georgi (Hgg.), Schott 2015
Wie historisch kann "Historische Improvisation" sein? - Vier Stichproben aus Basso-ostinato-Stücken als Inspirationsquellen
in: Musiktheorie und Vermittlung, S. 289-302, Ralf Kubicek (Hg.), Olms 2014
"... denn das Ohr will immerfort betrogen seyn." Von Sirenen und anderen Verführungen
in: Von Brücken und Brüchen, S. 71-81, Jörn Arnecke (Hg.), Olms 2013
The laon project
In 2020/21 I worked on the neumes from the manuscript Laon 239 (9th century). The results of the project are sound recordings of 30 Introiti and Gradualia, which I sing from the manuscript. The recordings of these Gregorian chants are all uncut and were made in the Ev. Johanneskirche Halle (Saale).
Compositions (selection)
- Kyrie - Mensuration canon tres ex una (stylistic model: J. Ockeghem, Missa prolacionum & Prenez sur moy)
- Fuga supra Aus tieffer Noth & Christ ist erstanden a 4 (stylistic model: J.S. Bach, organ works)
- Quodlibet Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ & Nun komm der Heiden Heiland a 5 (stylistic model: Johann Walter, chorals)
- Primavera todesca, Istanpitta (stylistic model: London, British Museum, Ms. Add. 29987)
- Missa veni redemptor a 4 Kyrie - Gloria - Credo - Sanctus - Agnus (stylistic model: G. P. da Palestrina, the masses)