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From Ohio Valley To Old World

Photos by Nora Edinger Sean Maxwell moved from the Ohio Valley to Europe about seven years ago. A specialist in early organ and harpsichord music, he now performs for church events in Austria, the United Kingdom and Portugal.

WHEELING — An epic farewell to Britain’s longest-reigning queen, a prince with salacious legal issues, an ongoing drama over departed Prince Harry and his American-actress wife. Such stuff is pretty much par for the royal course, according to valley-grown musician Sean Maxwell.

A specialist in organ and harpsichord music from the medieval and Renaissance era who now lives and performs in Europe, Maxwell regularly unearths similarly juicy bits when researching the history behind the songs he’s putting together for a performance.

The vehemently Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, for example, pretty much harbored a favorite harpsichord composer who was Catholic only in a semi-secret kind of way. Did the possibility she may have used his music as a lively background while performing the morning dance routines that kept her fit influence her decision?

Perhaps, Maxwell suggested in between pieces during a September performance at St. John’s Chapel in Woodsdale.

The connection between the music of that evening and royal intrigue didn’t stop there, he noted. The music for one song — displayed on a tablet atop Maxwell’s own reproduction of a 1590 harpsichord called a virginal — was handwritten by one of England’s most notorious rulers, none other than King Henry VIII.

“He was a composer and a keyboard player — not a very good one,” Maxwell joked during the intimate close out of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church’s summer concert series. The event was also part of his own harpsichord tour that will wrap in England in December.

“Of course, if you told him that he should not give up his day job it would not have gone very well for you.”

LIVING HISTORY

The medieval and Renaissance periods — roughly the1400s through the 1600s — may have been on the perilous side for royals or anyone so much as standing nearby one. But, as Maxwell noted in a later interview conducted by email from his home in Austria, they surely gave birth to a wealth of music for harpsichord.

And, ironically, this was something he began to discover in his New Martinsville childhood.

“I grew up with a German translator and historian as neighbors, and they instilled in me an interest in research, music history and European culture,” Maxwell explained of what launched his interest in early music specifically. “Thanks to them, I became fluent in German.”

So while he enjoyed being part of the band scene at Magnolia High School, Maxwell said he was also playing the organ at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in New Martinsville by the time he was 14.

He knew early that his life dream involved both medieval music and music history. After a couple of years of study at Marshall University, he realized those interests would be best served by relocating to Europe.

In 2015, he moved to Austria and completed his studies at a conservatory in Linz. He also began to narrow his musical focus in order to have a viable career. “The European music scene requires many more specialists than allrounders,” Maxwell said. “It was necessary to define my niche as quickly as possible.

“The virginal, or the harpsichord family in general, is a major part of my work. In early music, an organist is expected to be a proficient harpsichordist as an accompanying and supporting and, sometimes, solo figure in period ensembles.”

It’s an unusual type of work and one that attaches him to specific venues at times.

For a while, he had a regular position with Baumgartenberg Monastery and continues to work with the orchestra of the St. Cecilia Association of Sacred Music Steyr.

He also has an ongoing, split appointment among churches in Austria, the United Kingdom and Portugal. This work involves combining “formal and historically significant sacred music” with traditional Latin Mass liturgy.

“In my free time, there are great opportunities for touring in Europe,” Maxwell said. “I have played concerts in Austria, Germany, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic and the UK, and next year I’ll add some new countries, such as New Zealand, Spain and Poland to the list.”

Being in Europe — the place where the early music was actually written — also means he has access to primary documents for his research, he added. He can visit state and monastic archives all over the continent. He can also secure digitized copies of scores in their original, handwritten forms from locations such as Cambridge University.

During the Wheeling concert, for example, Maxwell noted it was interesting to actually see the flourishes of pen and ink on a score handwritten by Henry VIII. Those details gave him an idea of how the piece sounded when the king played it himself.

“Further, because of the long history of Europe, original instruments for this music are often available,” Maxwell added. “My work at Baumgartenberg Monastery involved playing their Freundt organ from 1662, enormously important in understanding music of the period.”

While he was in West Virginia this summer, however, Maxwell wound up purchasing an American-made virginal in a full-circle moment. The reproduction of a 1590 instrument fit the bill for the local performance and was lightweight enough to travel to the land of its roots.

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