Author: Laura Conrad

Report on the February 12 meeting

We played:

  • Gervaise XII Bransles de Champagne
  • Weelkes:
    • As Deadly serpents lurking
    • Strike it up tabor
    • Four arms, two necks, one wreathing
    • O now weep now sing
    • Come, Sirrah Jack, ho
    • The Nightingale, the organ of delight
  • Senfl, Wohl kumbt der Mai
  • Mouton, Qui ne regrettoit le gentil Févin
  • Ravenscroft, To Portsmouth
  • Purcell, Cakes and Ale
  • Heurteur, Quand je bois de vin claret

Schedule

Regular dropin rehearsals on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place until some time in March. At that point we will switch to real rehearsals for the Walk for Hunger, and any other spring events we can find to play at.

Please remember that I need to know by the beginning of March who will be performing at the Walk for Hunger. So far, I haven’t heard anyone commit themselves. It’s kind of a long time to play solo recorder music, so I hope I get some company.

Report on the February 5 meeting

We played:

  • D’Estrees, Pavane Lesquercade
  • Anonymous, Fortuna Desperada
  • Clemens non Papa, Ich stuend an einem Morgen
  • Senfl, Fortuna — Ich stuend an einem Morgen
  • Anonymous, [Pavana] Desperada
  • Anonymous, Seconda Desperada
  • Anonymous, Pavana Marquese
  • Smith, Slaves are they that heap up mountains
  • Purcell, Down with Bacchus

Schedule

Our regular dropin rehearsals will continue on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place. At some point in March, these will become non-dropin rehearsals for the Walk for Hunger program. Please remember that I need to know by early March who will be performing at the Walk for Hunger.

Additions, February 1, 2008

Hayne van Gizeghem, De tous biens plaine. I was at a concert where they did a full set of pieces written on this tune, and felt I would have enjoyed it more if I’d known the tune better. The great jazz improvizers always used tunes that the great jazz vocalists had put across to the audience, but the early music crowd thinks you should learn the tune in your recorder group. This was the first setting they played, so I had my group play it. The hard part is finding where the next verse is.

There are also some minor underlay fixes to Come, gentle swains.

Report on the January 29 meeting

We played:

  • Campian, Though your strangeness frets my heart
  • Charlton, Suite on French Folk Tunes
  • Morley, Farewell, Disdainful
  • Gizeghem, De tous biens plaine
  • Cavendish, Come, gentle swains
  • Weelkes, Hark, all ye lovely saints above
  • What a queer bird the frog are
  • Purcell, Cakes and Ale

Schedule

We have been invited to play again for the Walk for hunger. I’ve been informally assured that we’ll have our usual place and time. The Walk is on Sunday, May 4, and we usually fill the time (alternating with another group) between 10 AM and 3 PM.

For those of you who haven’t done this before, this means that sometime in March we will stop having dropin meetings and start having regular rehearsals. For a dropin meeting, you expect the leader to provide the music, and you don’t worry if you end up coming late, or needing to borrow instruments, or even end up not showing up at all. For a real rehearsal, you show up on time (or rather, early enough to do setup and tuning before the official start time), with your music in an order where you can find things easily, and with the instruments you expect to play in performance. If you turn out not to be able to come, you let the director know as much in advance as possible.

I’d like to know who wants to play by early March. There are 5 Tuesdays in April, so we may not need more than one or two March Tuesdays to be real rehearsals. But please don’t sign up to play if you aren’t going to be able to make most of the rehearsals in late March and April.

I will attempt to have a fairly firm playlist by early March. Of course, it’s hard to make a real playlist until I know who’s playing, but I understand that the playlist may influence how much you want to play. So discuss probabilities with me if you have issues.

Until the end of March, I expect that we will have our regularly scheduled dropin meetings every Tuesday at 7:45 PM at my place.

Report on the January 22 meeting

We played:

  • Sermisy, Aupres de vous (2 voices)
  • Sermisy, Aupres de vous (3 voices)
  • Morley, Canzonets for 3 voices:
    • God morrow, fair ladies of the May
    • Whether away so fast
  • Campian, Never weather-beaten saile
  • Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce Cigno
  • Vecchi, Il bianco e dolce Cigno
  • Isaac, Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen
  • Harrison, Give me the sweet delights of love

Schedule

Regular dropin meetings will continue for the forseeable future on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Report on the January 15 meeting

We played:

  • Campian, Though your strangeness frets my heart
  • Johnson, Full Fathom Five thy father lies
  • Heurteur, Quand je bois du vin claret
  • Ravenscroft, He that would an alehouse keep
  • Isaac, Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen

Schedule

I’m home now, so we’ll resume our regularly scheduled dropin meetings next week, Tuesday, January 22, at 7:45 PM at my place.

The Walk for Hunger is closer than you think. (May 4). If there’s anything you especially want to learn for that performance, we should be starting to play it regularly, so let me know.

Report on the January 1 meeting

We mostly played pieces from the Christmas party book, and Bruce’s West Gallery Christmas handout. We did also do a new round, Give me the sweet delights of love.

It sounds like there won’t be a meeting next week, January 8. Tobi Hoffman invites everybody to come play with her group in Framingham.

The following week, January 15, Stuart Solloway has offered to host if I’m not yet able to. He will be emailing the list with information.

Additions, January 4, 2008

I’ve actually been transcribing at the usual rate, but not
putting things up on the site. So I decided to make a start on catching up.