Author: Laura Conrad

Gabrielli two-choir piece

Gabrielli two-choir piece

[publishing] Gabrielli two-choir piece

When I started the Renaissance band, one of the things I advertised
that we were going to do was Gabrielli, that being the
Renaissance music that brass players are most likely to wish
they had a lot of brass players to play with.

Unfortunately, the group never really attracted a lot of brass
players, so we didn’t really end up doing a lot of Gabrielli.
But one of the group members (Bonnie Rogers) played a two choir Gabrielli with a
(mostly) recorder group, and transcribed it for the group.

We did actually have nine people once at the Renaissance band, and
did it with a recorder choir and an “other” choir (we had me on
serpent, a fiddle, an oboe and a singer), and it was lots of
fun. So if you’re in the mood for Gabrielli two-choir pieces in
unbarred parts, here’s one to try: Canzon
Septimi toni a 8, from from Sacrae Symphoniae (1597).

I seem to be getting some energy for putting up the stuff we’ve
been doing that doesn’t quite fit the normal scripts I run to
get things into the database and onto the site. This one is
abnormal because the two choirs got transcribed separately and
combined manually.

Laura Conrad



Last modified: Sat Feb 18 16:28:01 EST 2006

New printing of Morley Canzonets for two voices

New printing of Morley Canzonets for two voices

[publishing] New printing of Morley Canzonets for two voices

New stuff hasn’t been appearing here at the usual rate, because I’m
behind in redesigning the database and the supporting code. But
I did find two transcription errors in the oldest major project
on the site — the Morley Canzonets for Two
Voices, so those are fixed.

Laura Conrad



Last modified: Fri Feb 17 09:12:02 EST 2006

Converting PDF files

The only thing I actually use the Zaurus for in real life is as an
ebook reader. It’s a really good screen that works well in a
wide variety of lighting conditions, so I put everything I can
onto the SD card and read it on the Zaurus.

A lot of the reading matter that’s available electronically is in
the form of PDF files. There are pdf viewers available for the
Zaurus, but none of them seem really suitable for ebook reading.

So I’ve been converting them to html via
pdftohtml. The problem is that this is a fairly naïve
conversion that uses <br> for both the end of a line and the end
of a paragraph. So I’m experimenting with simple scripts that
will remove the <br>’s that are just the end of a line, and
translate the ones that are between paragraphs into <p>’s.

The best thing would be if pdftohtml would put two <br>’s
for the ones that are paragraphs, the way we do when we’re
typing, but it doesn’t. But it does seem to put those at the end
of a line, whereas the ones in the middle of a line are just
line breaks.

So the approach I’m trying now is to change any <br> that’s
at the end of a line to a <p>, and then delete all the
<br>’s. I just did that in emacs last night, but if it
works well, I’ll write a script.

Laura Conrad



Last modified: Fri Feb 17 09:59:30 EST 2006

Report on February 14 meeting

Report on February 14 meeting

[cantabile] Report on February 14 meeting

We played:

  • Heurteur, Grace et vertu
  • Ingalls group:
    • Fellowship
    • Channel of Mercy
  • Mundy, My prime of youth (see wikipedia
    for the rest of the poem, and a brief biography of the lyricist.)
  • Dowland:
    • Silly bees
    • O sweet woods
    • Can she excuse my wrongs
    • Earl of Essex Galliard
Laura Conrad



Last modified: Fri Feb 17 11:38:12 EST 2006

Plans for the February 14 meeting

Plans for the February 14 meeting

[cantabile] Plans for the February 14 meeting

We’ve now sung all the suggested Ingalls at least once. There are
still a few more that should be transposed before we start
working on them, but there’s no hurry. I’m doing
Fellowship for this week; anyone who gets ABC
transcription energy is welcome to do Millennium,
Judgement, or Experience. So we’ll be
doing two or three of those a week until we get our program
decided on.

We pretty much proved last week that this group as currently
constituted can’t just bomb through the Dowland
Lacrimae. I think we should learn Flow my tears
and Lachrimae Antiquae for the June gig, and try
the others again in a year or so.

Another Dowland group I’d like to put together is the Essex group.
We have the silly bees, and didn’t do too badly on O sweet
woods last week, so we’ll be trying Can she excuse
my wrongs The Earl of Essex Galliard.

We can do any Valentine’s Day requests tomorrow. I understand
that some people do things as a couple on Valentine’s Day, so if
you’re one of them, either convince your partner that this is
what you want to do as a couple, or we’ll understand if you miss
this week. There are enough of us who aren’t in couples that
I’m sure we’ll have a good time.

We will also be trying out other dream music and spring music.

Schedule

I don’t know of anything to interrupt the normal Tuesday drop-in
for the next month or so, so:

  • February 14
  • February 21
  • February 28
  • March 7

The performances we have scheduled are:

  • May 7, Walk for Hunger. If it’s the way it’s been the last
    few years, the group will be playing from noon to about 3 (with
    breaks), and people who want to do solo or small group sets in
    the morning will be welcome
  • June 21, Dream music at Bridgewater State College.
  • July 22, Ingalls music in Vermont

There’s also tentatively a Boston Recorder Society Play the
Recorder Month event sometime this spring, but as far as I know,
nobody’s found a time and place for it.

We will be aiming to put together a program for the Walk for Hunger
by the end of March. Then I expect that the April rehearsals
will be limited to the people who want to play that program.
I’d like to include as much music from the dream program and the
Ingalls program as we can, without completely crowding out the
spring music and the Rivers of Watertown.

Laura Conrad



Last modified: Mon Feb 13 11:27:35 EST 2006

Bread Machine

I was toy-deprived last year, so when I got some money for Christmas,
I went on a toy-buying spree. The latest item is a Bread
Machine. I got a used one from eBay, on the theory that lots of
people get them and turn out not to use them, so an eBay one would
be a savings and likely to be fine.

It arrived Tuesday afternoon, so I threw in the ingredients for a completely
whole-wheat, one pound loaf. It was a little low and misshapen, but the
flavor was good, and almost all of it disappeared after the
Renaissance Band rehearsal.

So Wednesday, I tried another version. This time I followed the
directions for adjusting the consistency at the
bread machine digest. In my case, the dough was too gooey,
so I added an extra tablespoon of flour. It’s definitely the
best all-whole wheat bread that I’ve ever baked. Well-risen
(almost but not quite fluffy) and
not at all dry.

So now I have the ingredients for a loaf of French Bread, which I’ll
take (assuming it isn’t a disaster) to the friends I’m having
dinner with tonight.

I also bought some barley flour and some carrots at the store last
night. There’s a carrot cake recipe I might take to the
homebrew club meeting tomorrow. The barley flour is for the
next whole-grain bread experiment.

Laura Conrad



Last modified: Thu Feb 2 11:24:42 EST 2006

Report on January 24 meeting

Report on January 24 meeting

[Cantabile] Report on January 24 meeting

We played:

  • Thomas Morley
    • I should for grief and anguish
    • Rondinella
    • Il Grillo
  • Jeremiah Ingalls
    • Friendship
    • Channel of Mercy
    • The Weary Traveler
    • Danville
    • Experience
  • Morley, April is in my mistress’ face
  • Holborne
    • Fairie Round, with words
    • Galliard, Hermoze
  • Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno
  • Vecchi, Il bianco e dolce cigno

Schedule

We’ll be doing our usual drop-in sessions every Tuesday until late
March/early April, when we’ll have a play list for the Walk for
Hunger and will be restricting meetings to people planning to
perform.

So:

  • January 31
  • February 7
  • February 14

In spite of all the work we’ve been doing, we still have
eight Ingalls
pieces to try, as well as several that we’ve already tried and
need to do in different keys or with different arrangements of
parts. But we do have both Friendship and
Hope in the form we’ll probably sing and play them
in.

In addition, everyone’s welcome to suggest spring music for the Walk
for Hunger or dream music for the June performance.

Laura Conrad



Last modified: Wed Jan 25 09:19:11 EST 2006

Report on the January 17 meeting

Report on the January 17 meeting

[cantabile] Report on the January 17 meeting

We played:

  • Ingalls
    • Hope
    • Harmony
  • Bruce Randall’s Haverhill
  • Morley April is in my mistress’ face
  • Holborne Fairie Round, with Daffodil words
  • Dowland
    • Come Heavy Sleep
    • Come, ye heavy states of night
    • It was a time when silly bees could speak
  • Purcell, I gave her cakes and I gave her ale

Schedule

Regular drop-in meetings until further notice. So:

  • January 24
  • January 31
  • February 7

We’ll be continuing to read through the Ingalls that Tom Malone has
suggested we try, so those who have the book are encouraged to
bring it. Anyone who doesn’t have one and would like one should
talk to me or Ishmael. They cost $16.

We’ll also be working on Spring music for the Walk for Hunger and
Dream music for the June 21 gig; suggestions are welcome.

In
addition to the already announced performances, the Boston Recorder
Society is planning a Play the Recorder Month event sometime
in March or early April.

Meeting announcements

I had been sending regular announcements only to people who were
coming, or at least telling me why they weren’t coming. But
we’re getting better attendance the last couple of meetings when
I was sending them to the whole list, so I’m going to resume
doing that. If it’s a problem, let me know, and we’ll work
something out.

Laura Conrad



Last modified: Wed Jan 25 10:33:59 EST 2006