This coming weekend Pegasus Early Music will celebrate two things for which the city of Rochester is deservedly famous: music and medicine. In a concert of eclectic and rarely heard works from various countries spanning the 16th to the 18th centuries, the musicians of Pegasus, sponsored by members of the University of Rochester Medical Center, will explore the many points of intersection that exist between these two magnificent arts, both so important to Rochester's cultural identity.

"There are several different aspects of how the two connect exemplified in the concert - the truly programmatic, the metaphoric, and the referential," says Pegasus Artistic Director Deborah Fox.

On the programmatic side are works that use music to describe, sometimes rather graphically, a particular medical condition or situation. Marin Marais' (1656-1728) "Le Tableau de L'Operation de la Taille" ("The Gall Bladder Operation") for example, narrates the patient's experience as he mounts the table, gets strapped down, sees the blood flowing, and eventually loses his voice from screaming. Less traumatic, but equally picturesque, are Marais' "L'Asthmatique" ("The Asthmatic") for gamba and continuo, full of wheezy rests and syncopations, and Nicola Matteis' (d. after 1714) "Allamanda ad imitazione d'un tartaglia" ("Allemande in Imitation of a Stutterer"), in which the solo violin melody is characterized by repeated notes.

Pancrace Royer's (c.1705-1755) "Le Vertigo," for solo harpsichord, offers a dizzying musical rendition of that Hitchcockian condition in perfect French Baroque style, complete with whirling arpeggios, sliding scales, and crashing chords, while Henry Purcell's (1659-1695) "Bess of Bedlam" takes listeners to the realm of insanity, depicting musically the experience of being driven mad by love.

Among the metaphorical pieces on the program are CPE Bach's (1714-1788) sonata "Sanguineus and Melancholicus," in which two of the four "Humors" believed to be responsible for creating a healthy stasis in the body during the 18th century (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm), fight for ultimate control. As Sanguineus (blood), the harpsichord argues for happiness against the darker spirit of Melancholicus (Phlegm), represented by the solo violin. Other works in this group include a group of songs in which illness is a metaphor for love or heartbreak, including Purcell's famous "I Attempt From Love's Sickness to Fly."

The referential works on the program, says Fox, "are pieces which simply refer to medicine or to medical conditions in general. John Dowland's (1563-1626) beautiful lute song "Come Heavy Sleep," for example, deals with themes of sleep and death in a way I think refers to depression."

On the other hand, Gabriel Bataille's (1574-1630) French air de cour "Qui Veut Chasser une Migraine" takes a much more positive tack, offering a dubious cure for migraine headaches. ("If you want to get rid of a migraine, drink!") The program features a few medical/musical puzzles as well, including two anonymous settings of "Sick, Sick and Very Sick," one from the 16th century and one from the 17th century. But, as Fox notes, "the one surviving text we have for the tune doesn't really have much to do with being sick, except for the first stanza. And there is nothing especially sick about the music at all, so why it was called that is a mystery lost to history."

Fox notes that her goal with this program - as with all Pegasus concerts, thematic or otherwise - is to collect and present a group of pieces that will form a satisfying musical whole. Still, the "Music and Medicine" theme has personal as well as professional resonance for her. "The idea came about because I have strong connections to Rochester's medical community", says Fox. "My husband is a family doctor with deep humanistic and musical interests, and we have collected musical/medical pieces over the years. We've often thought how much fun it would be to put together a concert featuring this music".

While acknowledging that some of this music is quite obscure, Fox is confident that her audience will enjoy the show. "I have noticed," she says, "that audiences here in Rochester are adventurous and interested in hearing unfamiliar music as long as they can trust the performers."

To that end, Fox has assembled an ensemble of well-known, expert, and much-loved Rochester-based performers. Christel Thielmann (viola da gamba), Boel Gidholm (violin), and Fox herself (lutes) all reside in Rochester, while James Bobb (harpsichord) and Laura Heimes (soprano) have strong professional and personal ties to the city.

Fox is certain that audiences will be interested in the medical theme of the concert, but equally sure that they will experience the strong emotions music communicates so well: sadness, joy, passion, and surprise at the unknown. "I think people will leave thinking about music, rather than medicine, in a new way," says Fox. "And since the concert is sponsored in part by local physicians and being held at the Academy of Medicine, perhaps we'll hand out free Band-Aids!"

Pegasus Early Music: "Music and Medicine"

Friday-Saturday, January 29-31

Rochester Academy of Medicine, 1441 East Ave.

Fri-Sat 8 p.m., Sun 4 p.m. | $15-$25 | 703-3990, pegasusearlymusic.org