Category: Cantabile

The Cantabile Renaissance Band

Report on the July 14 meeting

We played:

Schedule

We will be having our usual dropin meetings on Tuesdays at
7:45 PM at my
place.

We’ll probably skip August 11, so that people can go to the
special West Gallery
Quire workshop with Francis Rhodes.

La Marseillaise, and other unpalatable words

If you want to think more about the words than you could last
night while
trying to fit them to the music at speed, my research for my blog entry
yesterday turned up a page with several translations, as well
as a Bible site with all the well known translations of Psalm 137.

Report on the July 7 meeting

We played:

Schedule

We will be having our usual dropin meetings on Tuesdays at
7:45 PM at my
place.

We’ll probably skip August 11, so that people can go to the
special West Gallery
Quire workshop with Francis Rhodes.

Other Events

The Wakefield Summer Band (Laura Conrad, tuba) will be giving
concerts this summer on the banks of Lake Quannapowitt. The first
one will be this Friday, July 10, at 7 PM. You can get directions
to the park from the First
Parish Congregational Church site.

Report on the June 30, 2009 meeting

We played:

Schedule

We will be having our usual dropin meetings on Tuesdays at
7:45 PM at my
place.

We’ll probably skip August 11, so that people can go to the
special West Gallery
Quire workshop with Francis Rhodes.

Report on the June 23 meeting

We played:

Schedule

We’ll be meeting as a dropin group for the next few weeks, at
7:45 PM every Tuesday, at my place.

We probably won’t meet on Tuesday, August 11, so that we can go
play with Francis Rhodes and the West Gallery Quire.

Schedule reminder

This is to remind you that we will be meeting as usual this
evening, Tuesday, June 16, at 7:45 PM at my place. I
don’t remember when we’ve had a two-week hiatus before; we’re back
now.

Also, remember that we’re having a party on Sunday, June 21,
starting at 4 PM. If the weather’s decent, we’ll be in the back
yard with the grill going, so you can bring grillables, or salads
or desserts. You could let me know when you know what you’re
bringing so that I can coordinate.

Please invite anyone
you feel would enjoy the party.

Report on the May 26 meeting

We played:

Sermisy
Amy souffrez (2 voice)
Aupres de vous (2 voice)
Anonymous
Duet 113
Bicinia (ed. Phalese)
Fantasia 25
Fantasia 1
Fantasia 2
Sermisy
Amy souffrez (3 voice, with ornaments from the Attaignant
keyboard tablature)
Aupres de vous (3 voice)
Changeons propos
Vignons, vignons
Heurteur
Quand je bois
Purcell
He that drinks is immortal
Down with Bacchus

Schedule

We will not be meeting either next week or the week after,
because of the West
Gallery Quire rehearsal and the
Boston Early Music Festival.

After that, it will be Summer time, and the livin’ is
easy for lots of us, so we should get lots of people coming
and be able to do polychoral Gabrielli and other things with lots
of parts.

So here’s the schedule:

Tuesday, June 2
No meeting
Tuesday, June 9
No meeting
Tuesday, June 16, and subsequent Tuesdays
Meetings resume at 7:45 PM at my
place.
Sunday, June 21

Party at 4 PM at my place.

Party

From time to time, the Cantabile Band has parties, so that we
can invite all our friends to have as much fun as we do. The big
difference between the parties and the meetings is that we eat and
drink before as well as after singing and playing. Also because
we have friends we like to sing and play with who have trouble
making it on Tuesdays. And in this case, because the Walk for
Hunger wasn’t really the best environment for some of the music we
played there. I was very impressed that we didn’t get lost when
the helicopter went over, but the audience probably wasn’t able
to hear how impressive it was. So we might get together and burst into song from that program from time to time.

Since the party will be held shortly after BEMF, I’ll be
printing the invitation on the back of the flyers, so that people
can check us out by coming either to a meeting or to a party.

If you want to print either flyers or invitations, you can
download them. The invitation
includes the flyer as a second
page, so if you don’t have a double-sided printer, you may want to
print them separately.

Assuming the weather is at all friendly to such things, we’ll
be doing the eating and drinking in the backyard, and will have
the grill going, so you’re welcome to bring food contributions
that need grilling.

Cantabile at BEMF

At BEMF, I will be attempting to keep the flyer table at the
exhibition stocked with our flyers, in the version with the
invitation on the back. If you’re going to be hanging around the
exhibition, it would be good if you could help with that, at least
to the extent of letting me know if we seem to have run out.

If you’re going to fringe events of interest to the same
population we recruit from, it would be good if you could take
some flyers, either to leave on a table or to hand to likely
suspects.

BEMF events of interest

I have tickets to several of the BEMF concerts: all the 11PM
ones, all the recorder ones, and the Renaissance music ones. So
that’s Tuesday evening, Wednesday through Saturday at 11PM, Friday
evening, and Sunday afternoon.

There are fringe events where our friends will be playing or
singing:

Monday, June 8
12:30pm Seven Hills Renaissance Wind Ensemble (Elizabeth
Hardy, Cathy Stein & Matthew Stein, shawms & dulcians; Rigel
Lustwerk, cornetto; Daniel Meyers, sackbut; Daniel Stillman,
shawm, dulcian & sackbut). Musicians of the Golden Fleece: Wind
Band Music from the Hapsburg Courts of the 16th Century. Program
featuring sacred and secular works by Thomas Stolzer and Orlande
de Lassus, Kappellmeisters to Louis II of Hungary and Albrecht V
of Bavaria. First Church in Boston. $15 donation. 617-388-2363
or 7hillsband@gmail.com.

Tuesday, June 9
12:30pm Harmonious Blacksmith (Ah Young Hong, soprano;
Justin Godoy, recorder; William Simms, lute, theorbo, guitar;
Nika Zlataric, viola da gamba; Joseph Gascho,
harpsichord). Phantasticke Spirites. Inspired by the bawdy and
joyous spirit of English songs, Harmonious Blacksmith improvises
and ornaments the music of Byrd, Morley, and their
contemporaries. Named after Thomas Weelkes’s fourth book of
madrigals, this program also draws from the keyboard music in
the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. First Church in Boston. $20/$10
st, sr, BEMF, EMA, ARS. 781-507-4160 or
info@HarmoniousBlacksmith.com.
4pm Seven Times Salt (Karen Burciaga, violin; Daniel Myers,
recorders; Josh Schreiber Shalem, bass viol; Matthew Wright,
lute; with guests Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano; Michael Barrett,
tenor; Kyle Parrish, narrator). A Brave Barrel of Oysters: Music
of Samuel Pepys’ London. Sample the delights of Restoration
England, as described in Samuel Pepys’ diaries. Music of Lawes,
Locke, Matteis, and Pepys himself! Beacon Hill Friends
House. $10 suggested donation. 508-878-7028 or
Karen@seventimessalt.com.
Wednesday, June 10
3:30pm Judith Conrad, clavichord. The Labyrinthine Keyboard
Music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621). Sweelinck’s
Fantasias are among the monuments of early Baroque music. They
require a different sort of listening from the classical forms
of music, in much the way that the walk of a cathedral labyrinth
is so different from a standard religious service. Performing on
a triple-fretted clavichord by Andreas Hermert of Berlin,
2003. The Paulist Center Library. $20 donation to benefit the
Iraq Family Relief Fund. 508-674-6128 or
judithconrad@mindspring.com
Thursday, June 11
9am Viola da Gamba Society of America. The Gamba Gamut. A
series of five mini-programs, spanning the repertoire of the
viola da gamba, performed by emerging and established artists of
the VdGSA. 9am: Empire Viols present The State of Gambo, a
program of accompanied duo viols, with music by Young, Jenkins,
Hume, and Simpson; 9:45am: Brady Lanier, viola da gamba & Molly
Hammond, harpsichord, present a program of Marais and Forqueray;
10:15am: Brandeis University Viol Collegium, directed by Sarah
Mead, presents a program of works drawn from manuscripts from
the Gorham Collection at Brandeis (includes Lasso, Willaert,
Vecchi, and others); 11am: Brook Green presents a program of
solo music for treble viol, including works by Bassano and Hume;
11:30am: Long and Away presents Ye Sacred Muses, a program of
English consort songs and dances. Cathedral Church of
St. Paul. FREE, donations welcome. 239-994-3924 or
scf@cwru.edu.
12:30pm Boston Recorder Quartet (Roxane Layton, Judith
Linsenberg, Roy Sansom & Tom Zajac, recorders). Recorder Music
from Seven Centuries. Works for recorder quartet by Byrd, Bach,
Rore, Merula, Sansom, Shannon, and Anon. Emmanuel Church. $15
donation/ $10 donation for st, sr, BEMF, EMA. 617-489-3906 or
dellalsansom@earthlink.net.
2pm Saltarello (Sarah Cantor, recorders; Angus Lansing,
viola da gamba; Andrus Madsen, harpsichord). Handel’s Italian
Passion and English Charm. Handel’s solo sonatas, most of them
written during the first two decades of the 18th century,
exhibit him at his best. At once tuneful and inventive, fiery
and tender, Handel was so fond of these pieces that returned to
them again and again, borrowing bits and pieces for use in other
works. Come hear what made these sonatas so irresistible! The
College Club of Boston. $15/$10 st, sr, BEMF, EMA,
ARS. 617-669-4292 or sarah@cantornote.com.
Friday, June 12
3:30pm Judith Conrad, clavichord. Tangled Mysteries:
Clavichord Music of Renaissance Poland. Music from 16th-century
tablature books from Lublin, Warsaw, and Gdansk, performed on
early clavichords, after original instruments from Silesia
(ca. 1470 & ca. 1600). The Paulist Center Library. $20 donation
to benefit the Iraq Family Relief Fund. 508-674-6128 or
judithconrad@mindspring.com.
Saturday, June 13
10:30am WIP Series (Works in Progress). Mini-recitals by
fabulous folk: featuring Judith Conrad, Sylvia Berry, Gail
Olszewski, Larry Wallach, and Mariken Palmboom. Harpsichord
Clearing House, Radisson Hotel Dartmouth Room, 6th floor. $5 or
FREE with BEMF Pass.
12:30pm Convivium Musicum, directed by Michael
Barrett. Going for Baroque. The Electors of Saxony made the
court at Dresden a haven for Protestant composers including
Hassler, Praetorius, and Schütz, shapers of the emerging Baroque
idiom. This concert will feature sacred works for voices by
these German masters. Church of St. John the Evangelist. $10/$5
st, sr, BEMF, EMA. 609-457-8573 or info@convivium.org.

If I’ve missed anything, you can leave a comment here, or email me and I’ll add you.

Other events

If you’re interested in the West Gallery Quire, come to either
the June 3 concert or the June 7 meeting.

The concert has the merit of having been rehearsed, and being a
selection of a lot of the better music. It will be at 8 PM on
June 3, at the Brighton-Allston Congregational Church, at 404
Washington St. in Brighton.

The meeting has the advantage that you too can play or sing.
It’s probably the best opportunity for several hundred or even
thousand miles for singing with a serpent.

Renaissance Band Flyer

I said recently that I wasn’t sure the
current Cantabile
Band flyer was the best flyer for our current purposes, and
also that I wanted to do the redesign before BEMF.

Since tonight is our last meeting before BEMF, I should get a
draft done now, so that people can comment on it.

The only obvious thing from the flyer of two years ago that’s
not really true any more is the statement:

Except for occasional meetings just before performances, we
welcome drop-in members who are not able to come regularly.

We do still welcome drop-in members when we aren’t preparing
for a performance, but we are performing more frequently and
preparing longer. So of the five months so far this year, three have
been closed to droppers in.

So I have a flyer with some minimal changes (new picture,
better description of the performing we do) up now at renband.pdf, and
I’ll see if the rest of the band thinks there need to be bigger
changes.

Report on the May 19 meeting

We played:

  • Sermisy, Aupres de vous (2 voices)
  • Campian:
    • When the god of merrie love
    • I care not for these ladies
    • Fain would I love a fair young man
    • When Laura Smiles
  • Sermisy:
    • Aupres de vous (3 voices)
    • C’est une dure despartie
    • Changeons propos

Schedule

Next week, May 26, we will have our usual dropin meeting at
7:45 PM at my place.

The following week, June 2, that meeting would conflict with a
rehearsal for a West
Gallery Quire performance on June 3. All the people who’ve
been coming to this group regularly are also singing in that
performance, so we may decide to rehearse instead of meeting that
night.

The week after that, June 9, is BEMF, and that meeting would
conflict with a Renaissance concert, so we’ll probably not meet
then.

But after that, we should go back to our usual dropin
meetings.

We’re also thinking about having a party on Sunday, June 21, to
celebrate the Summer Solstice.

Report on the May 5 meeting

We played:

  • Barnes (ed.), English Country Dance Tunes
    • Prince William of Gloucester’s Waltz
    • A Trip to Tunbridge
    • Bath Carnival
    • Fandango
  • Morley, Miraculous love’s wounding
  • Phalese (ed.), Motets from Bicinia
    • Beatus vir
    • Beatus homo}
    • O Maria mater pia,
    • Per illud ave prolatum
    • Oculus non vidit
    • Justus cor suum
    • Expectatio justorum laetitia
    • Qui sequitur me
    • Justi tulerunt spolia
    • Sancti mei
    • Qui vult venire post me
    • Serve bone
    • Fulgebunt justi sicut lilium
    • Sicut rosa
  • Glogauer LIederbuch:
    • Du lenze gut
    • Die Katzenpfote
  • Morley, Say, Deere, will you not have mee?
  • Harrison, Give me the sweet delights of love

Schedule

We’ll be having our usual Tuesday drop in meetings at 7:45 PM
at my place
for most of the forseeable future.

We will skip the meeting on June 9
during the week of BEMF.

We’re thinking about a cookout to celebrate the Summer Solstice
on June 21.

Other events

John Tyson’s student recital will take place on Saturday, June
9 starting at 6 PM. If you’re interested in coming, let me know
and I’ll send you directions.

Lots of people we know will be playing at the BEMF fringe
concerts. More details later.

Another picture from the Walk for Hunger

It’s far too late to do a real post, so here’s another picture
from the Walk for Hunger:

[Sunny, Ishmael, Laura, Paul, Anne]

The photographer was Ishmael Stefanov (left) by time delay.

One of the performers, who didn’t read any preliminary play
lists, and still didn’t really have his notebook in
order at the actual performance, told me yesterday that we should have done a
completely different kind of program.

This is probably why the great conductors never socialize with
the orchestra.