Author: Laura Conrad

News of the week of July 8, 2014

Meeting report

We played:

Schedule

There doesn’t seem to be a critical mass of people who want to
meet on July 15, so there won’t be a meeting.

Regular meetings will resume on July 22 and 29, starting at
7:45pm at 233 Broadway, Cambridge.

August 5 we will not meet so that people can go to Francis
Roads’ West Gallery workshop.

On August 12, I will be in Spain, but if people want to meet at
Stuart’s in Somerville, it can be arranged. But you do have to
express your interest before I leave so that appropriate music can
get there.

After that, normal meetings resume.

First post about the Amherst Early Music Festival in 2014

Why?

You would think that after what happened last
time, I wouldn’t be anxious to go back. I did have a long
conversation with Marilyn before
signing up. It seems that what I want this year is something
they’re probably set up for. I’ve been working hard on the
cornetto, and need a teacher, and one has heard of people who have
learned something about cornetto playing from Doug Kirk,
who will be the cornetto teacher this year. Marilyn thinks the
chorus director will like the idea of a serpent playing with the
chorus, and I think I can probably handle three cornetto classes,
and if not I can sing or dance or something for one of them.

What?

Here’s what I told them on the class selections form:

Early Morning 1st Choice: Cornetto (Kirk)
Early Morning 1 Comment: I’m at the point in my cornetto playing where a
teacher would be helpful, so this class is one of my reasons for coming.
Early Morning 2nd Choice: Shawm & Dulcian (Stillman, Verschuren)
Early Morning 2 Comment: I suppose if you cancelled cornetto, I could borrow
a shawm and make noises come out of it.
Early Morning 3rd Choice: Brass Tacks (Ramsey)
Early Morning 3 Comment: Again, if you cancelled cornetto and wanted to teach
a sackbut beginner, I could borrow an instrument and make noises.
Late Morning 1st Choice: All-Workshop Collegium for Reeds and Brass: Compere
and Beyond Compere (Eisenstein)
Late Morning 1 Comment: I’m expecting to play serpent here.
Late Morning 2nd Choice: All-Workshop Collegium for Reeds and Brass: Compere
and Beyond Compere (Eisenstein)
Late Morning 2 Comment: I could play cornetto if the faculty were
serpent-hostile.
Early Afternoon 1st Choice: Regensburg Manuscript (Kirk, Stillman)
Early Afternoon 1 Comment:
Early Afternoon 2nd Choice: Bassus (Verschuren)
Early Afternoon 2 Comment: This would require Verschuren to be
non-serpent-hostile, and I expect he’d rather have all dulcians.
Early Afternoon 3rd Choice: Mouton adn Gombert (Boenau)
Early Afternoon 3 Comment: This is third choice only because I work with
Marilyn all the time.
Late Afternoon 1st Choice: The Vermeer Project (Verschuren)
Late Afternoon 1 Comment: This is first choice because it’s probably where
the cool kids will be; I’m not really an advanced cornetto player.
Late Afternoon 2nd Choice: Pevernags (Stillman)
Late Afternoon 2 Comment:
Late Afternoon 3rd Choice: New London Assembly: English Country Dance…
(Marsh)
Late Afternoon 3 Comment:

Since starting to write this, I’ve had a phone conversation
with Marilyn, and it looks like I’ll have my first choices in the
morning, and work with Marilyn and Dan in the afternoon. Marilyn
claims to be happy to have me play serpent some of the time; Dan
would want cornetto.

When?

I’m leaving tomorrow, and will take the laptop so I should be
able to post from my dorm room the way I did last time. I don’t
know how much time I’ll have for writing, with all the playing and
singing and dancing I’ll be doing, but I’ll certainly let you know
how it works out.

News of the week of July 1, 2014

Meeting report

We played:

Schedule

We will meet as usual tomorrow, July 8, at 7:45 PM at 233
Broadway, Cambridge.

Next week, July 15, I will be at the Amherst Early Music
Festival. Stuart has kindly offered to host the meeting in
Somerville, with air conditioning. Since the obvious way to get a
suitable portion of the music library to his place is for him to
take it tomorrow night, let me know by then if you’re interested
in going.

Longer term, we will meet as usual on July 22 and 29. We will probably
not meet at all on August 5, so that people can go to the Francis
Roads West Gallery workshop. On August 12, I will be in Spain,
but Stuart has offered to host again. And then we resume our
normal every Tuesday in Cambridge schedule.

News of the week of June 24, 2014

At the meeting of June 17, we played the
Picforth,In
Nomine à 5 for our new piece.

Meeting report, June 24

We played:

Schedule

Being dogless at the moment, I’m doing some traveling this
summer. So we will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45pm at
233 Broadway, Cambridge, except maybe when I’m not here.

The Tuesdays I won’t be here are July 15, August 5 and August
12. If there’s a critical mass of people who want to meet, the
meetings will happen. We can arrange for them at my place, or
possibly some other group member will want to host.

I’ll be surprised if there’s a critical mass on August 5, when
Francis Roads will be leading a West Gallery Quire
Workshop at 7:30 that day. But if you want to come to a
Cantabile meeting any of those days, let me know, and I’ll try to
set something up.

Other events

The 7 Hills
Renaissance Wind Band will be playing on the SOHIP Concert Series next
week.

News of the week of June 3, 2014

Meeting Report

We played:

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at 233
Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please remember that with as few regular attenders as we have
right now, we especially appreciate dropin members, but we also
really appreciate them letting us know by Tuesday morning if
they’re dropping in.

Other events

David Fillingham will be singing with the Cambridge Chamber
Singers on Saturday, June 7 at 8PM at First Church Cambridge,
11 Garden St.

On Sunday, June 15, I’ll be playing in John Tyson’s student
recital at 2pm in the Carr Organ Room at New England
Conservatory.

On Saturday, June 21, the Wort
processors will be having their annual Pig Roast in
Somerville. If I brought a few people as guests, we could eat and
drink and play some music. Let me know if you want to come.

News of the week of May 27, 2014

Meeting report

We played:

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at 233
Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please remember that with as few regular attenders as we have
right now, we especially appreciate dropin members, but we also
really appreciate them letting us know by Tuesday morning if
they’re dropping in.

News of the week of May 20, 2014

Meeting report, May 13, 2014

We played:

Meeting report, May 20, 2014

We played:

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at 233
Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please remember that with as few regular attenders as we have
right now, we especially appreciate dropin members, but we also
really appreciate them letting us know by Tuesday morning if
they’re dropping in.

News of the week of May 6, 2014

Meeting report

We played:

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at 233
Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please remember that with as few regular attenders as we have
right now, we especially appreciate dropin members, but we also
really appreciate them letting us know by Tuesday morning if
they’re dropping in.

Other news

I did get the pictures from the Walk for Hunger, and have put
them up on the blog.

News of the week of May 4, 2014

Report on the performance at the Walk for Hunger

Considering, I think we did well.

There were a lot of things to consider:

  • Gale force winds
  • One performer with a high fever
  • Two performers with very little rehearsal on some of the music

Of course, even under the best of conditions, the standards for
this kind of performance are different from the ones for a concert
performance — stamina is more important than purity of tone and
general knowledge of the shape of the music is better than ability
to play note-perfect.

We did quite well on the stamina part, and for most things
pretty well on knowing the shape of the music.

There will be pictures, but the camera that took them belongs
to the performer with the high fever, so I’m sure he’ll send them
when he’s feeling better.

Schedule

We return to our regularly scheduled drop-in meetings on
Tuesdays at 7:45 pm at 233 Broadway, Cambridge.