Author: Laura Conrad

The next meeting of the Cantabile Renaissance Band is on Tuesday,
November 22, at 7:45 PM at my place. This meeting is limited to
people doing the Lowell
gig on December 1. We’ll go back to being a drop-in group in December.

Below is a less tentative playlist. Please feel free to make
suggestions for additions or deletions.

• Winter is icumen in (We’ll have to experiment with whether it
  makes sense to have one, two, or zero drones given four performers.
  We might start out with the serpent and rackett in canon, and then
  drop one or more of them.
• Three blind mice
• Drinking rounds from October 15 set:
  1. He that will an alehouse keep
  2. Five Reasons
  3. He that drinks is immortal
  4. I gave her cakes
  5. To Portsmouth
  6. Slaves are they
  7. Let us drink and be merry
• Death set:
  • Silver Swan (we can see if this makes sense given only 4
    performers. If it’s really Michal’s gallery, maybe she’ll want to sit
    in.)
  • Me, me and none but me
  • Stay time a while they flying (Dowland, Pilgrims’ solace) We can
    try it to see if we can learn it in three weeks.
  • Never weather-beaten saile
• Break sets:
  Anne might be willing to do an unaccompanied set. If she decides
  not to, we’ll split into groups of two, and do duets. If she wants
  to, Bonnie, Paul, and I will do a set of recorder trios while Anne
  takes her break. We’re thinking about either Pipers’ Fancy or the
  Charlton Gilbert and Sullivan arrangements.
• Madrigal set:
  • Fair Phyllis
  • Shepherd in a Shade
  • Fine Knacks for Ladies
  • Burst Forth my tears
  • Good Morrow, Fair Ladies of the May
  • Silly Bees
  • Come again

Note that I’ve left out the Morley 2-voice canzonets on the grounds
that they will probably be part of one of the “break” sets. If this
doesn’t happen, we’ll add Girandola and Miraculous Love’s Wounding (at
least) to
the Madrigal set.

I think this is enough music that we can dump anything that doesn’t
go well on the 22nd, and not waste time on it on the 29th. If (when) we turn
out to need more rehearsal time, I’m hoping that Thanksgiving weekend
has some unscheduled time in it. I’m certainly expecting the 10-15
minute break sets to be rehearsed outside of our normal rehearsal
time.

I had been thinking that if we split into groups of two, Bonnie and
I would be one group, on the grounds that we’ve done a lot of duets
together over the years, but on further reflection, that would put the
two best bass line players in one group, so I’m thinking that Bonnie
and Anne could do a really good ballad set with Bonnie on viol, and
there are a lot of things Paul and I could do, and I’ll probably be
going to Fall River sometime before the concert, so we could get
together for a southern rehearsal.

Schedule

We clearly needed more rehearsal time, so we will be rehearsing
both Monday and Tuesday. Please arrive by 7:45, with your music
in order. Frank, if you came at 7:30, we could run the Division Flute
thing.

I will be talking to Anne Russo about what the arrangements are. I
will ask about handicapped accessibility. We start playing at 5, so I
assume everyone will want to be there by 4:30, to make sure we’re set
up and ready to start at 5.

Playlist

Below are the adjustments to the playlist. I’ve attempted to list
part assignments, but I may be remembering them wrong. Please correct
me if what I have isn’t they way you remember it.

• Winter
  is icumen in Frank and then Paul (rackett) play the drone, and
  when it’s established, Anne, Laura, and Bonnie enter with the tune.
  Laura cuts off.
• Drive
  the cold winter away, pages 10 and 11. Laura (recorder) and Anne,
  top line. Paul and Bonnie middle line. Frank bottom line. Anne
  sings all verses except # two. Instrumental TBD.
• Three
  blind mice. Laura (serpent), Frank, and Paul (rackett) start the Ravenscroft.
  Anne and Bonnie enter and sing. Anne looks puzzled, then stops and
  waves her arms. Everyone stops. Anne starts modern version, and all
  join in.
• Drinking
  rounds from October 15 set. All 3 part rounds are Anne; Laura and
  Paul; Bonnie and Frank. All four part rounds are Anne; Paul; Laura;
  Bonnie and Frank.
  1. He that will an alehouse keep
  2. Five Reasons (has been cut)
  3. He that drinks is immortal
  4. I gave her cakes
  5. To Portsmouth
  6. Slaves are they
  7. Let us drink and be merry
• Death set:
  • Silver
    Swan Parts from top: Paul, Anne, Laura (serpent), Bonnie, Frank.
    No instrumental. Possibly two vocal verses.
  • Me, me
    and none but me Parts: Paul (instrumental) or Anne (vocal); Laura;
    Bonnie; Frank and Paul (vocal).
  • Stay time
    a while they flying has been cut, as has Come, Heavy sleep
  • Never
    weather-beaten saile Parts: Paul (instrumental) or Anne (vocal);
    Laura (cornetto on instrumental); Bonnie; Frank and Paul (vocal)
• Break sets:
  • Anne and Bonnie (maybe end with Daphne)
  • Paul, Van Eyck (Maybe Daphne)
  • Laura and Frank something from the Division flute, maybe Greensleeves
• Madrigal set:
  • Fair
    Phyllis Parts: Anne (vocal) and Paul (instrumental); Laura;
    Bonnie; Frank and Paul (vocal)
  • Shepherd
    in a Shade Parts as in Fair Phyllis.
  • Fine
    Knacks for Ladies Parts as in Fair Phyllis.
  • Burst
    Forth my tears has been cut.
  • Good
    Morrow, Fair Ladies of the May. Parts: Anne; Laura; Bonnie.
  • Silly
    Bees Parts as in Fair Phyllis.
  • Come
    againParts as in Fair Phyllis.

The next meeting of the Cantabile Renaissance Band is on Tuesday,
November 15, at 7:45 PM at my place. This meeting is limited to
peopld doing the Lowell
gig on December 1. We’ll go back to being a drop-in group in December.

Below is a tentative playlist. Please feel free to make
suggestions for additions or deletions.

• Winter is icumen in (We’ll have to experiment with whether it
  makes sense to have one, two, or zero drones given four performers.
  We might start out with the serpent and rackett in canon, and then
  drop one or more of them.
• Three blind mice
• Drinking rounds from October 15 set:
  1. He that will an alehouse keep
  2. He that drinks is immortal
  3. I gave her cakes
  4. Slaves are they
  5. Vive la serpe
  6. To Portsmouth
  7. Let us drink and be merry
• Death set:
  • Silver Swan (we can see if this makes sense given only 4
    performers. If it’s really Michal’s gallery, maybe she’ll want to sit
    in.)
  • Me, me and none but me
  • Never weather-beaten saile
  • Stay time a while they flying (Dowland, Pilgrims’ solace) We can
    try it to see if we can learn it in three weeks.
• Break sets:
  Anne might be willing to do an unaccompanied set. If she decides
  not to, we’ll split into groups of two, and do duets. If she wants
  to, Bonnie, Paul, and I will do a set of recorder trios while Anne
  takes her break. We’re thinking about either Pipers’ Fancy or the
  Charlton Gilbert and Sullivan arrangements.
• Madrigal set:
  • Fair Phyllis
  • Shepherd in a Shade
  • Morley (two and three voice canzonets. If Bonnie and I are doing
    duets, we’ll have a lot of two-voice ones in the break sets.
  • Country dances
  • Come again

We went through the playlist in order (below) and decided on some
details about when we’ll tune, etc. If I have any of this wrong,
please correct me.

Basically, I want to tune before a piece whenever anyone has to
change an instrument, or when we don’t mind having a break between the
pieces because of a change of mood.

We also expanded our country dance set, in case it’s necessary to
play longer before the play because of a delay in the curtain going
up.

Playlist

Before the play

• He that will an Alehouse Keep Drinking
  songs book (General tuning to A)
• Dulcina PDF
  (Stuart gives pitch to Anne)
• O Portsmouth Drinking
  songs book (Stuart gives pitch)
• Quand je Bois Drinking
  songs book (Tune last note; Ishmael starts)
• Vignons, vignons Drinking
  songs book (Ishmael starts)
• Country dance set. All of these will be started by Ishmael and
  Bruce, with Stuart joining on the second verse and Barney taking the
  lead on soprano recorder on the third verse. (Stuart starts the first
  verse when Bruce isn’t playing.) Others may join ad lib on voice or
  low recorders. I will work out a signal for when the play is about to
  start with the stage manager.
  • Newcastle PDF,
    MIDI.
  • Daphne PDF,
    MIDI
  • All in a garden green, in
    Playford for alto voice.
  • Dargason, in
    the renfaire book.
• Fanfare, TBD

Intermission

• Greensleeves, PDF.
  Note that this includes some things we won’t be doing, so you don’t
  have to print out pages 5 and 6. (General tuning, to first chord of
  Bransle de la torche). The route is:
  1. Bransle de la torche, all recorders, Stuart joining pizzicato on B
     section.
  2. Triple Greensleeves, Bruce (Ishmael when no Bruce) first verse
  3. Duple Greensleeves, Anne, Second verse
  4. Bransle de la torche, as above
  5. Triple Greensleeves, All sing 4-part arrangement, last verse,
     Stuart plays the pickup, and the singing starts on the downbeat.
• Fair Phyllis PDF,
  MIDI
  (All tune to last note; Bonnie starts)
• Silly Bees, PDF,
  MIDI.
  (All tune to first note)
• Shepherd in a shade, PDF,
  MIDI,
• Changeons propos Drinking
  songs book (All tune to last note; Ishmael starts)
• Vive la Serpe Drinking
  songs book (All tune to last note; Ishmael starts)
• Dance? I will discuss this with the stage manager — we may
  decide that it makes sense to just stop when we’ve gotten to the end,
  even if intermission lasts a couple of minutes longer. Or if there’s
  time, we may play the
  Greensleeves set again, or play some of the country dances.

Stage manager questions

I will be dropping in at the dress rehearsal for the play on
Wednesday at about 6:30 to discuss logistics with the stage manager.
Here are the questions I can think of at the moment that I’ve promised
to ask; let me know if you want me to discuss anything else.

• Parking, and handicapped parking.
• Arrival time, and whether a small amount of rehearsing would be
  appropriate.
• Signal to cut off before-play set, and intermission set.
• Area to store stands and other things we may feel OK about leaving
  between performances.
• Where to put stands, chairs, etc. at the end of the
  before-the-play set.
• Fanfare (whether there is one, where it happens in relation to
  moving the chairs and stands).
• End of the intermission set — should we attempt to go until the
  curtain rises, or just play our pieces and stop?
• Are they anticipating sellout of the Saturday (this Saturday?)
  performance.
• Publicity. Is there a flyer we could distribute, and where’s the
  blurb they promised us for e-publicity?

Schedule

Thursday’s rehearsal is at 7:45 at my place. Ishmael may be a bit
late, but everyone else should attempt to arrive on time. We used
half an hour of our extra 45 minutes last night on rehearsing, so two
hours and fifteen minutes is not an excessive amount of time.

I’m told we neglected to wish Bruce a Happy Birthday last week, so
we will make up for it this week.

I will discuss arrival logistics with the stage manager Wednesday,
but plan on arriving in time to be comfortably set up and start
playing at 7:40 for each performance.

We really need the Tuesday, November 15 rehearsal time for the
Lowell gig, so people who are not playing Lowell can plan on having
the evening off. People who have still not committed to playing
Lowell need to decide before then whether they can do it. Preferably
as soon as possible.

The next rehearsal of the Cantabile Renaissance band will be on
Thursday, November 10 at 7:45 PM at my place.

This is a dress rehearsal. Please try to be on time (I know Ishmael
may have a problem), with your
music printed and in order in a notebook. If you need help with the
printing part, let me know (Bruce already has).

We will try to get a complete runthrough, but since we did that on
Sunday, this will be secondary to:

• Finalizing the fanfare arrangements.
• Finalizing (or at least adding to) the dance set
• Making sure we’re all on the same page about how we’re getting
  things started, cues for endings, etc.

Playlist

Before the play. Tom is planning to open the doors to the audience
at about 7:45. We will be set up, and possibly already playing at the
time the doors open, and at any rate, ready to start the instant they open.

• He that will an Alehouse Keep Drinking
  songs book (General tuning to A)
• Dulcina PDF
  (Stuart gives pitch to Anne)
• O Portsmouth Drinking
  songs book (Stuart gives pitch)
• Quand je Bois Drinking
  songs book (Tune last note; Ishmael starts)
• Vignons, vignons Drinking
  songs book (Ishmael starts)
• Country dance set. All of these will be started by Ishmael and
  Bruce, with Stuart joining on the second verse and Barney taking the
  lead on soprano recorder on the third verse. (Stuart starts the first
  verse when Bruce isn’t playing.) Others may join ad lib on voice or
  low recorders.
  • Newcastle PDF,
    MIDI.
  • Daphne PDF,
    MIDI
  • All in a garden green, in
    Playford for alto voice.
  • Dargason, in
    the renfaire book.
  • When Laura Smiles, PDF
    (tentative)
  • There have been a couple of other suggestions; if someone brings
    copies of one of them we’ll try it.

  The cue for ending the set will be the closing of the doors between
  the box-office area (which the church labels the “Nursery”) and the
  theatre (church hall). We will be standing facing the doors, so it
  shouldn’t be hard to see. This is planned to be about 2 minutes
  before the action starts, so we’ll finish whatever we’re doing, but
  not start a new verse or piece after that.

• Fanfare. They are planning on us playing one, and we will be cued
  by the stage manager or sound director. I will look at the Gabrielli
  excerpt we’ve suggested before, and we can play with it, but I think
  it’s likely that Bruce or I will just play it on Bruce’s fanfare
  trumpet while other people go take their seats.

Intermission

• Greensleeves, PDF.
  Note that this includes some things we won’t be doing, so you don’t
  have to print out pages 5 and 6. (General tuning, to first chord of
  Bransle de la torche). The route is:
  1. Bransle de la torche, all recorders, Stuart joining pizzicato on B
     section.
  2. Triple Greensleeves, Bruce (Ishmael when no Bruce) first verse
  3. Duple Greensleeves, Anne, Second verse
  4. Bransle de la torche, as above
  5. Triple Greensleeves, All sing 4-part arrangement, last verse,
     Stuart plays the pickup, and the singing starts on the downbeat.
• Fair Phyllis PDF,
  MIDI
  (All tune to last note; Bonnie starts)
• Silly Bees, PDF,
  MIDI.
  (All tune to first note)
• Shepherd in a shade, PDF,
  MIDI,
• Changeons propos Drinking
  songs book (All tune to last note; Ishmael starts)
• Vive la Serpe Drinking
  songs book (All tune to last note; Ishmael starts)
• Dance. They will flicker the lights for the audience to return to
  their seats, so I think we should stop playing when they do that, as
  above for the doors closing.

Stage manager questions

Here are the answers I got yesterday. I have emails and phone
numbers to use if they turn out not to be adequate for anyone.

• Parking, and handicapped parking. There was lots of parking
  yesterday; I parked right across the street from the church. There is
  a handicapped space right in front of the door we’re supposed to use,
  which was free last night.
  Bonnie may want to check the one-way streets; Francesca Avenue is one way
  going into College Avenue.
• Arrival time, and whether a small amount of rehearsing would be
  appropriate. The house manager (Tom) is planning to be there with
  doors open by 7, so I’m suggesting we plan to arrive at 7:15 and be
  set up by 7:30. Tom doesn’t think there will be a problem with a
  little bit of playing before we officially start.
• Signal to cut off before-play set, and intermission set. As above
  — doors closing before the play and lights blinking for intermission.
• Area to store stands and other things we may feel OK about leaving
  between performances. They’re going to be leaving some stuff
  overnight in the Nursery/Box Office, with covers over it. For the
  week between Sunday and Thursday, they will have somewhere else, so if
  you want to leave anything Saturday, be sure and check with Tom.
• Where to put stands, chairs, etc. at the end of the
  before-the-play set. The current thinking is that we set up in front
  of the passageway between the kitchen and the stage, and just leave
  our stuff.
• Fanfare (whether there is one, where it happens in relation to
  moving the chairs and stands). As above.
• End of the intermission set — should we attempt to go until the
  curtain rises, or just play our pieces and stop? I think we wrap up
  when they blink the lights.
• Are they anticipating sellout of the Saturday (this Saturday?)
  performance. There is a way to make reservations on the website, so
  to be safe, you should make a reservation.
• Publicity. Is there a flyer we could distribute, and where’s the
  blurb they promised us for e-publicity? I just got this by email;
  will send it separately to you and to our lists.

Schedule

On Friday, I’d like everyone there by 7:15 promptly, and if possible,
set up and ready to play by 7:30, so we can start a few things and get
a feel for the hall. After that, we can probably be a little more
relaxed, and as long as everyone’s ready to play by 7:40 we don’t care
exactly when they get there.

I really need to know tonight who’s going to be playing Lowell.
Those people will be rehearsing on (at least) the remaining 3 Tuesdays
in November.

We played:

• Vignons, vignons
• To Portsmouth
• Fair Phyllis
• Silly Bees
• Vive la Serpe
• Shepherd in a shade

John made some suggestions:

• Everybody should be able to sing their own part without support
  from others.
• Practice regularly with a metronome
• Memorize the words
• Play the simpler things without the music.

Schedule

As there wasn’t a day when everyone could rehearse in the week
before the gig, we scheduled two rehearsals, with different people
missing each. So our schedule now looks like:

• Tuesday, November 1, rehearsal.
• Sunday, November 6, Dress rehearsal; no Bruce. We didn’t discuss
  the time for this — is 7 PM too early? I know some people (including
  me) will want to
  go to concerts in the afternoon, but meeting at 7 would get us an
  extra 45 minutes that we could decide whether we wanted to use it for
  rehearsing, drinking beer, or sleeping.
• Tuesday, November 8, Election Day. Please remember to vote. I
  won’t be available for rehearsal, but don’t let that stop you if you
  want to get together.
• Thursday, November 10, Dress rehearsal; no Barney, Ishmael
  probably late. The regular
  7:45 time.
• Friday, November 11, Merry Wives of Windsor performance, no Bruce.
• Saturday, November 12, Merry Wives of Windsor performance
• Sunday, November 13, West Gallery; we won’t be playing the Merry
  Wives of Windsor
• Tuesday, November 15, Rehearsal. If things are going well enough
  with the Merry Wives gig, we may decide to make this a rehearsal for the Lowell
  performance.
• Thurday, November 17, Merry Wives of Windsor performance, no
  Barney.
• Friday, November 18, Merry Wives of Windsor performance, no Bruce
• Saturday, November 19, Final Merry Wives of Windsor performance,
  strike party.
• Tuesday, November 22, Rehearsal for Lowell gig.
• Tuesday, November 29, Rehearsal for Lowell gig.
• Thursday, December 1, 5 PM, Lowell gig.
• Tuesday, December 6, drop-in rehearsals resume

If there’s anyone with scheduling problems that I don’t know about,
please let me know as soon as possible. Stuart, which day were you
planning to leave your cello at my place?

The next rehearsal of the Cantabile Renaissance band will be on
Tuesday, October 25 at 7:45 PM at my place.

This meeting is limited to the people planning to play our November
public performances. Those people should let me know in advance if
they won’t be able to come.

We’ll be having John Tyson coach us on our performance. Please
make an extra effort to be on time and ready to play at 7:45.

Suggestions for where we could most use John’s help are welcome. Here
are the areas where I think the program most needs work:

• Work on a tuning discipline.
• We need to work on getting “Fair Phyllis” started at the right
  speed for the group, and not slowed down after that.
• “Vive la Serpe” sounded solid last week, but not the week before
  that. So we definitely would like ot play it this week, and see what
  John thinks.
• The arrangements for Dulcina, Greensleeves, and Daphne (if we play
  it) need work.
• I think the Silly Bees are what would benefit most from John’s
  “Your’re telling a story here” rap.
• We need to get the dance sets under control, especially for the
  nights when Bruce won’t be there.
• I think there are still a couple of pieces Bruce hasn’t played
  recently, so it would be good to do those.

Here’s a slightly modified version of the last playlist we
published.

Before the play

• He that will an Alehouse Keep
• Dulcina
• O Portsmouth
• Quand je Bois
• Daphne?
• Vignons, vignons
• Playford set, probably including Newcastle
• Fanfare, TBD

Intermission

• Greensleeves
• Fair Phyllis
• Silly Bees
• Shepherd in a shade
• Changeons propos
• Vive la Serpe
• Another dance set, probably Playford, suggestions welcome. The advantage of Playford is that we have 3-part
  arrangements that some of us know pretty well. Since some of the
  people who can play can’t play every performance, we want to keep this
  as simple and fool-proof as possible.

Schedule

Please check your schedules for the week before November 11 to see
when you could possibly have a dress rehearsal. So far, nobody has
said that they couldn’t make Thursday, November 10.

We will be playing in Lowell on Thursday, December 1, from 5-6:30.
Anne, Bonnie, Ishmael, and Laura will be playing; Bruce is still
checking his schedule. This is a paying gig, so we need to be a
little more polished than sometimes. So we won’t be having drop-in
rehearsals until December.