Alana Mailes

@alanamailes.bsky.social

Musicologist, classical singer, historian of extremely old-timey things 🎼🎵📚📜

LOL @ at this record from the early USC College of Music, 1917: “February 25: Los Angeles’ first harpsichord and clavichord recital was given by Frederick Schoenfeld; performing in late eighteenth century costume, Schoenfeld played works by J.S. Bach, Byrd, Couperin and Scarlatti.”

My second, short article on music and diplomacy in early modern Savoy came out today! Fantastical court ballets, dramatic stage accidents, people irreverently dancing to viols on city walls during a siege…What more could one want from 17th-century diplomatic documents?! 💃🏻🕺🏻🪩

rsj.winchester.ac.uk

It’s here! My book on music for the 1613 Palatine wedding masques! With nice blurbs by some very knowledgeable people (who really did read the book)! With lots of music and a full-color insert! Enjoy!

Cover of the book “Unmasked: Lost Music for the 1613 Palatine Wedding Masques” (OUP, 2025).Back cover with blurbs by Peter Holman, Peter Walls, Stephen Orgel, and Nadine Ackerman.

Big news from 400 years ago! Turns out the 17th-century English musician and composer Richard Dering secretly converted to Catholicism and worked at the Venerable English College in Rome. Proud to publish the research I’ve done to unearth all of this with Maurice Whitehead.

A Stuart Musician’s Conversion to Catholicism: Richard Dering and the Venerable English College, Rome

ABSTRACT. The English organist and composer Richard Dering (c.1580–1630) is recognized today for his key role in the transmission of Italian musical styles

doi.org