About Zweigulden
Zweigulden presents interdisciplinary concert programs featuring the Renaissance flute-and-drum duo, specialising in secular instrumental music from around 1500. It is directed by Holly Scarborough.
Ensemble Zweigulden has toured Switzerland and been invited to perform at the Greifenberg Music Festival (2024) and the Basel ReRenaissance Festival (2023), presenting engaging concerts with dramatic historical themes such as the deadly 1518 dancing plague of Strassburg (The Curse of St. Veit) and Emperor Maximilian’s tournament swordplay.
The ensemble began as a research exploration of functional music (including military, dance, and banquet music) provided by the historical flute and drum, such as the military duo shown in the Bern city chronicles of 1470 and the music of Emperor Maximilian’s Landsknechte. Holly Scarborough has presented lecture-recitals at different universities with drummer Philipp Wingeier, highlighting this once-prevalent instrumental combination that is still locally evident in the Basel Fasnacht tradition. Driving this academic research is the focus on recreating a repertoire to perform.
Scarborough and Wingeier have collaborated with historical dancers, historical fencers, and contemporary dancers and have sometimes performed in costume – all with a desire to make historical music alive in the imagination of today’s audiences.
Our Name
“Zweigulden” is an old-fashioned, fairy-tale-German way of saying
“two golden coins,” and it refers to the amount castle and court musicians would
get paid for an evening of entertainment.
For example, a payment record from Emperor Maximilian I lists two flute players and one drummer who earned four Gulden on March 13, 1500. This was fairly generous; a basic foot soldier’s monthly wage was the equivalent to this amount.
Anthoni pfeyffer ij guldin, anndres pfeyffer j guldin vnnd Jorgl trummelslager j guldin auf Ir livergelt, facit iiij guldin R[heinisch].
Interdisciplinary Concerts
With historical dancers: a suite of music and choreography inspired by sources and melodies of the late fifteenth century fit for a Habsburg emperor.
With contemporary dancers, “The Curse of St. Veit,” about the famous dancing plague of 1518, where hundreds filled the streets of Strassburg, unable to stop dancing.
A musical montage with historical fencers on Basel’s Barfüsserplatz at the 2023 ReRenaissance Festival
Apples and crossbows! Our William Tell kids concert spotlights the stories and music of a Renaissance hero
Presentations
Scarborough, Holly. “Kaiserisch: The Flute and Drum in the Art of Reformation Augsburg.” Musik-Stadt-Augsburg, University of Augsburg, 16 September 2024.
Scarborough, Holly. “Music of the Landsknechte (Lecture-Recital).” Mini Study Day about Military Renaissance Flutes with Boaz Berney, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. 13. March 2024. Invited Presentation, accompanied by Philipp Wingeier.
Scarborough, Holly. “Music of the 16th-century Landsknechte: Maximilian’s Military Flute and Drum (Lecture-Recital).” Hörsaal der Musikwissenschaft / Philosophicum (organized in cooperation with the Institut für Musik-wissenschaft). Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz. 20 November 2023. Invited Presentation, accompanied by Philipp Wingeier.
Scarborough, Holly. “On Battlefields and in Frauenzimmer: Contexts of Maximilian’s Flute-and-Drum Ensemble around 1500.” Poster presented at: Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference (MedRen) 2023; 24.–28. July 2023; Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich Residence, Munich, Germany. Awarded MedRen 2023 Poster Prize, 3rd place Poster link
Scarborough, Holly. “On Battlefields and in Frauenzimmer: Contexts of Maximilian’s Flute-and-Drum Ensemble circa 1500.” Donnerstag Akademie. Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Klaus-Linder Saal. 12 January 2023. Invited Presentation with Philipp Wingeier.
Wingeier, Philipp. “Basler Trommeln: zwischen Notation und Interpretation.” Donnerstag Akademie. Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Klaus-Linder Saal. 12 January 2023. Invited Presentation with Holly Scarborough.
Support
We are always ready to welcome contributions towards research, instruments, and concert planning. Donations can be made to our ensemble (a registered Verein / Organisation).
Ensemble Zweigulden
4001 Basel, Switzerland
IBAN: CH47 0900 0000 1630 7414 8
BIC POFICHBEXXX
Bank: PostFinance