Final Program for Thursday Concert

It’s one of those jobs that expands to fill the time allotted
to it. But I just emailed the program to the director of the
series, who will print it, so it’s now cast in wax, if not
concrete.

We needed another round of cuts, which took some negotiating,
since all three of us had our agendas for this program, which
were close enough that we work together pretty well, but
different enough that deciding what to cut took some
discussion. One person objected to cutting any country dances,
but had no trouble cutting Christmas carols. Another person
thought cutting verses on Christmas carols would make the
program more esoteric for the audience. I thought there was too
much serpent playing, but would rather have cut the country dance
playing than the one Morley Fantasia which I’d worked hard on.
But I think everybody’s reasonably happy.

I think it’s going to be a good program. We’re calling it “I
will laugh without that care: Music of Celebration and
Fellowship from Renaissance England.” The Cantabile Band will
play and sing madrigals, country dances and fantasias by Morley,
Weelkes, Ravenscroft, Ortiz and others on serpent, five-stringed fiddle,and recorders.

If you can come, it’s
at 2 PM on Thursday, December 17, at the Boston Public Library,
700 Boylston St., Boston, MA, USA. The library is at Dartmouth Street T stop
on the Green Line. The concert will be in the Rabb Lecture
Hall.

Here’s the program,
and these are the lyrics
to all the vocal numbers. Most of the music is at SerpentPublications.org,
if you want to play it.