Laura Conrad

Why and how to transcribe Renaissance music

This article
by Luigi Lera
about how to transcribe early polyphonic music makes a lot of very
good points. Some of them are from a (to me) odd point of view,
for instance:

Our amateur choristers often do not shy away even from the St Gallen neumes of Gregorian chants or the obscurity of some twentieth-century writing. Is Renaissance notation really so different from ours as to justify transliteration into another system?

I don’t know those amateur choristers who read neumes or
obscure twentieth-century writing. And my impression is that the
motivation for putting barlines in where the composer didn’t is
different from what Mr. Lera states when he says:

In polyphonic arrangements, you often find a sort of
subtle premise where the editor has distanced himself from the
measures that he himself has used, trying to push all the
responsibility for any poor outcome onto the singers; it clearly
states that the bars had been added only to aid the singers and
that it really must not influence the rhythm of the piece. Aiding
the singers: could this be a good justification in support of all
the transcriptions into bars?

I don’t think editors add bars to directly aid the singers —
they add them so that conductors can aid the singers.

But a lot of what he says is exactly why I do what I do on the Serpent Publications
site, so I recommend you read it if you’re at all interested
in the subject.

Who won the Civil War?

Here’s an article
that puts the current state of US politics in the context of the
last 150 years. I have run into most of the points he makes, but
I think it’s a brilliant piece of writing putting them all together.

News of the week of January 5, 2016

Meeting report

We played:

Willaert: J’aime par amour and Ricercar Quinto
Byrd, O Lord my God
Campian, Babylon Streams
Farmer, Fair Phyllis

Schedule

We continue to meet on Tuesdays at 7:45pm at 233 Broadway,
Cambridge.

December 29’th meeting cancelled

[Renaissance Band]

There is not a quorum from the people who come regularly, so
I’m cancelling the meeting for Tuesday, December 29.

If I were to get an outcry from people who don’t come
regularly, who would find it easier to come this week, I can
uncancel it. But otherwise, I’ll see you all at the party on Friday.

News of the week of December 22, 2015

[Andrea Previtali, c. 1515-1520]

Meeting Report

We played:

Schedule

We continue to meet on Tuesdays at 7:45pm at 233 Broadway,
Cambridge. As long as there’s a quorum, this will include
December 29.

Remember to invite all your friends to the party at 4pm
on January 1, and to let me know whether you’re coming and what
you’d like to bring.

News of the week of December 15, 2015

[Plough Monday]

Meeting report

We played:

Schedule

We continue to meet on Tuesdays at 7:45pm at 233 Broadway,
Cambridge. As long as there’s a quorum, this will include
December 22 and 29.

Remember to invite all your friends to the party
on January 1, and to let me know whether you’re coming and what
you’d like to bring.

Letter from an artist about economics

[Hollis Frampton]

Letters of Note
published this
letter from a film-maker to the Museum
of Modern Art about a proposed exhibition of his work, which
they wanted him to participate in “…for love and honor and no money is included at all…”.

It’s not an easiliy excerpted letter, but here’s the last
paragraph:

I hope we can come to some agreement, and soon. I hope so out of
love for my embattled art, and because I honor all those who
pursue it. But if we cannot, then I must say, regretfully, however
much I want it to take place, that there can be no retrospective
showing of my work at the Museum of Modern Art.

[Donald Richie]

New theme on LayMusic.org

[bugs]

I got a notification that there was a new WordPress version
available, so I updated my blog. This is normally a good idea,
since WordPress puts a lot of work into fixing security bugs not
too long after the hackers find them.

In this case, it turned out that my theme was incompatible with
the new version, and none of the menus worked. This could
probably have been fixed, but my theme was a bit of homemade CSS
on top of a theme than hasn’t been maintained for several years,
so I decided to just go to the latest offically approved theme
and customize it.

I think what I have is inoffensive, and some time when I need a
Friday afternoon art project, I may make it better.

Meanwhile, if there’s anything from the old theme that isn’t
there that you miss, let me know, and I can probably put it back.

News of the week of December 8, 2015

Meeting report

We played:

Giovanni de Antiquis: Fantasia, Fantasia 2 and Fantasia 18
Willaert: Baisez moi, tant, tant and Ricercar IV
Palestrina, Adoramus te
Byrd:
From Virgin’s Womb and Rejoice, Rejoice
Praetorius,
Psallite

Schedule

We continue to meet on Tuesdays at 7:45pm at 233 Broadway,
Cambridge. As long as there’s a quorum, this will include
December 22 and 29.

Remember to invite all your friends to the party
on January 1, and to let me know whether you’re coming and what
you’d like to bring.

Participatory Budgeting choices

As a resident of Cambridge, I get to vote this week for up to 6
projects out of a list of 23. You can see the list at the Participatory Budgeting. site.

Right now, I could tell you a few that I won’t vote for, but I
don’t have strong feeling about voting for very many.

So let me know what you think I should vote for.