IU PRESENTS 49th ANNUAL MADRIGAL FEASTS - December 1997

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's 49th annual Madrigal Feast celebration will be held Dec. 5-7 and 11-14 in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union. The Sunday feasts (Dec. 7 and 14) will begin at 4 p.m. All other performances will begin at 6 p.m. with a reception in the South Lounge.

IU was the first American university to produce a madrigal feast in the Renaissance tradition. When IU choral teacher Wayne Hugobloom and IMU director Lymon C. Smith decided to create "something different" for the holidays in 1947, they never guessed that the event would become a magical tradition emulated around the United States.

The original Madrigal Feast was intended to be a vehicle for Hugobloom's best students to perform older, somewhat obscure musical numbers. Clad in tuxedos, the original 12 singers entertained about 200 guests at the first Madrigal Feast as they enjoyed an English "roast beast" dinner. It wasn't until 1950 that Madrigal Feasts at IU developed into the Elizabethan splendor offered today.

The event became so successful that seven feasts are now held to meet the demand. At each, the traditionally prepared and adorned boar's head (actually a large Indiana hog) is carried into Alumni Hall by a procession of IU madrigal singers in Renaissance garb -- following a fanfare by the Brass Quintet

The vaulted ceilings and Gothic arches of Alumni Hall reflect the flickering candlelight from the revelry below, and the combination of world-class vocal artistry from IU School of Music singers, period music, and traditional English holiday foods adds an element of authenticity that for many of the "guests" truly opens the holiday season.

The Madrigal Feast transports participants to an age when English royalty welcomed their subjects to the Great Hall of a castle or estate for an evening of holiday celebration. IU's Memorial Union, the largest university union in the United States, certainly fits the bill.

Based on medieval and Renaissance traditions, the feast features period costumes, representative historical figures such as the manor lord and his wife, a chamberlain and St. George, and traditional English victuals from wassail to flaming plum pudding.

Interestingly, just as the revelers at each dinner have changed over the years, so has the menu. The calorie/cholesterol-packed meal of the early 1950s that included barley broth, Yorkshire pudding and baconized green beans has evolved into lighter and healthier selections -- although the decadent flaming plum pudding with rum sauce still serves as the capstone of the dinner.

Since the first 1947 feast, a total of nearly 115,000 people have gathered in Decembers at the IMU, consuming more than 22 tons of roast beef and nearly 12,000 plum puddings. So what began as a gastronomic event in merry old England was resurrected in the American Midwest, and is now copied in some fashion or another around the United States each holiday season.

Musically speaking, the madrigal is actually a 16th-century Italian form for a group of four or five unaccompanied voices. Songs sung were generally secular, dealing with themes of love or nature. The madrigal came to England with a collection called Musica Transalpina in 1588 containing madrigals with texts translated into English. English composers adapted the form, and it has been associated with feasting and holiday revelry since.

For more information about IU's Madrigal Feast, or to inquire about tickets, call 812-855-3911.