News of the week of January 17, 2012

Meeting report

We played:

• Morley,
  Il
  Grillo
• From the hymnal:
  • Mon Dieu, prete-moi l’oreille; from the Geneva
    Psalter
  • FARRANT
  • Ainsworth 97
• Byrd,
  From virgin’s womb, (Part I)
• Arcadelt,
  Je
  ne suis pas si sot
• Sermisy, Jouissance
  vous donnerai
• Sermisy,
  Tant
  que Vivray
• Josquin, Faute
  d’Argent
• Purcell, Cakes and Ale

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Other event

Trium, literally “of three,” is a trio of superb sopranos
who have dedicated themselves to the exploration and performance
of music of three equal voices. On January 22, 2012, they will
present Portraits in Miniature.  In the tradition of the
Renaissance miniature portrait, a tiny detailed devotion to a
beloved subject, Trium will explore, luxuriate and
celebrate bite-size portions of a variety of periods and styles,
from the Notre Dame school in medieval Paris to the sixteenth
century Flemish motet, to the English Madrigal style, with a
soupcon of turn of the century and contemporary.  The concert will
take place at the historic Loring-Greenough House, 12 South
Street, Jamaica Plain MA, as part of the Sunday Afternoon at
the Greenough House parlor concert series.
Trium was founded in 1997 to perform a benefit concert at
Emmanuel Church in Boston, but Shannon Larkin, Margaret Johnson,
and Susan Trout are well known individually for their work with
Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and Emmanuel Music.
Each of the voices has a distinctly unique quality, and when they
come together they make a gloriously blended sound that is even
greater than the sum of its parts. Margaret’s pure sweet tone and
stratospheric range surround each piece with a halo of brilliance.
Shannon’s clarion soprano weaves in with a shimmer and dips down
into mezzo warmth. Susan’s brilliantly radiant and richly warm
tone adds depth and beauty before carrying its strength to the top
of the staff. Whether they are singing a finely tuned dissonant
chord in a Renaissance motet or an exquisitely blended unison in a
contemporary art song, Trium makes music “of three” sound like so
much more.