Category: Cantabile

The 5 of us playing the concert this Spring are working hard,
but I wanted to update the rest of you about the concert and the
Cantabile Band’s future plans.

Concert Dates

In addition to the previously announced performance on March 1
at 3 PM at the Loring-Greenough house, we will also be performing
at the ALL (Arts League of Lowell) Art Gallery on Sunday, February
22 at 1 PM.

Please try to make it to one or the other performance. In
addition, here’s the flyer, which has
more information about when and where, and has the program on the
back. It would be helpful if you could distribute it and post
it, especially if you live or work anywhere near the venues.

Future plans

In March, we will resume our dropin meetings on Tuesdays at
7:45 at my place. I hope to see
some of you then.

On May 3, we will be playing our usual Walk for Hunger
performance, for 40,000 or so people on Greenough Boulevard.
Please consider playing with us then, or at least coming by to
listen. Some or all of the April meetings will be reserved for
rehearsing that performance.

This is mostly to remind you that we will be taking a rare
Tuesday off meeting tomorrow, December 23.

Please come next Tuesday, December 30, as it will be our last
dropin meeting for a couple of months.

Tuesdays between January 6 and February 24 are restricted to
and compulsory for the performers on the March 1 concert.

Other events

If you’re anywhere near Fall River on New Year’s Eve, there
will be an Early Music Venue from 7:30 to 10:00 PM at the Fall River First Night
celebration: program.

There seems to be an epidemic of plague running through the
Cantabile Band. I hope everybody recovers soon.

We played:

• Van Eyck recorder solos related to Elizabethan tunes:
  • Daphne
  • Pavaene Lachrimae
  • Comagain
  • Excusemoy
• Charlton Christmas duets
• DeLoach Christmas duets
• Chedeville Christmas duets
• Praetorius Christmas duets
• Goldstein Christmas duets

Schedule

The meetings, rehearsals and the party are at my place. The
meetings and rehearsals start at 7:45 PM.

• Tuesday, December 9, regular meeting
• Saturday, December 13, 4 PM, Christmas party
• Tuesday, December 16, regular meeting
• Tuesday, December 23, no meeting.
• Tuesday, December 30, regular meeting, unless we end up with
  a New Year’s Eve gig, in which case this will be a rehearsal for
  that.
• Tuesday, January 6 — Tuesday, February 27, rehearsals for
  March 1 concert, limited to and compulsary for performers in
  that concert.
• Sunday, March 1, 3 PM, Concert at Loring-Greenough House in
  Jamaica Plain. Please come and bring all your friends and
  relations. It’s a beautiful 18th century house, and in addition
  to the music there will be an elegant
  tea reception following the concert.

Party

I have asked for “consideration” for parking for the party, so
don’t worry about parking in permit only areas on Broadway,
Windsor, and Clark Streets. I haven’t done this in the past, but
we’ve usually had it on a Sunday, when the permit only parking
restrictions don’t apply, and I have the impression they may have
stepped up Saturday enforcement recently.

There will be a vegetarian and a carnivorous main course; side
dishes, appetizers, and deserts are welcome.

Please invite anyone you think would enjoy the party.

Come to the Cantabile Renaissance
Band Christmas Party
on December 13, 2008, starting at 4 PM, at Laura
Conrad’s place, 233
Broadway, Cambridge.

Bring any food or drink you want to share, any instruments you
want to play, and a cheerful voice. If there’s music you
want to do, bring 10 copies or so.

This is a tell everybody you know to bring everybody they know
party. Here are some invitations to print and give
the people you want to invite.

The pictures on the invitation are by Hans
Baldung, a contemporary of Durer. The Christmas carol snippet
in the heading is from the West Gallery tune, Shepherds
Rejoice which represents the opposite tradition in
Christmas art:

No gold nor purple royal shining things

Baldung drew lots of gold and purple royal shining things.

I’ve asked for “consideration” for parking, so don’t worry about parking in the permit only spaces on Broadway, Clark St, and Windsor St.

We played:

• Duets from Thesaurus Musicus
• Weelkes:
  • Come, sirrah Jack, ho
  • The Nightingale, the organ of delight
  • O now weep now sing
  • Some men desire spouses
• Dowland:
  • Thinkst thou then by thy fayning
  • Come away, come sweet love
  • Rest awhile, you cruel cares
  • Sleep, wayward thoughts
  • All ye, whom love or fortune hath
    betraid;
  • Wilt thou unkind thus reave me of my heart,}
• Purcell, Down with Bacchus

Schedule

Our regularly scheduled dropin sessions at my place will
happen on Tuesdays starting at 7:45 PM from now until Christmas.
We’ll have to discuss
December 23; I normally leave town then.

At some point after that, meetings will be restricted to the
people performing on the March 1 concert at the Loring-Greenough
House.

Party

Based on the small number of people who responded to my
request for feedback about when to have the party, it looks like Saturday,
December 13 will be the best date. If that isn’t good for you
and you want to come, complain soon, or I’ll start
sending out invitations for then.

I’m now open to feedback
about when it should start. In general, I prefer later, which
gives me more time for cooking and cleaning, but of
course the people who turn into pumpkins at 8:30 want to start
in the middle of the afternoon. So tell me your preferred time,
and I’ll decide something based on consensus.

West Gallery music in context

The West Gallery
Quire, whose membership overlaps heavily with this group,
will be performing at St. Mary’s Church in Newton Lower Falls
this Sunday, in the context of their 10 AM service. If you’re
interested in this music and haven’t gotten to the monthly
workshops where you could play and sing it yourself, this would be a good way to find out
what it’s about. It’s also one of the better ways to hear the
way voices sound with a serpent.

The Cambridge Revels is
using a West Gallery theme this year, and has the Mellstock band
(including Phil Humphries on serpent)
performing with them. Bruce Randall and Renni Boy are also
performing. Tickets will probably sell out soon, so if you want
to go, order your tickets now.

We played:

• Morley, Arise, get up my deere
• Cavendish, Come, gentle swains,
• Dowland:
  • Unquiet thoughts your civil slaughter
    stint
  • My thoughts are winged with hopes
  • If my complaints
  • Can she excuse my wrongs
  • Now, o now, I needs must part
  • Burst forth my tears
  • Go, crystall teares
  • Thinkst thou then by thy fayning
  • Come away, come sweet love
• Rounds:
  • In praise of white wine
  • To Portsmouth

Schedule

Our regularly scheduled dropin sessions at my place will
happen on Tuesdays starting at 7:45 PM from now until Christmas.
We’ll have to discuss
December 23; I normally leave town then.

At some point after that, meetings will be restricted to the
people performing on the March 1 concert at the Loring-Greenough
House.

Party

If you have opinions on the date the Christmas party should be
held, let me know. For me, Saturday December 13, Saturday
December 20, and Sunday December 21 are all possibilities. If
there aren’t lots of conflicts on December 13, I would think it
might result in a bigger turnout of people who leave town to
celebrate Christmas somewhere else.

We played:

• Métoyen, Serpent duet
• Goldstein (arr.), Chester
• The Dark is my delight
• Farmer:
  • Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone
  • A little, pretty, bonnie Lass
  • You’ll never leave still tossing to and fro
• When Daphne from fair PhÅ“bus did fly
• Gibbon, The silver swan
• Vecchi, Il bianco e dolce cigno
• Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno
• Ravenscroft, Well fare the nightingale
• Ravenscroft, To Portsmouth

Schedule

Next Tuesday, October 21st, the meeting is
restricted to and compulsory for the people who will be performing
on October 26 at the Boston Wort
Processors Ciderfest. At the moment, the performers are me,
Ishmael, Barney, and Sue. If you aren’t on that list and want to perform, let me know immediately.

Tuesday, October 28 will be a regular dropin meeting, except
that I will have to be late, so someone will have to volunteer to
arrive on time and let people in.

Tuesday, November 4, is Election Day, so I
won’t be available for a meeting. So there will be one only if
someone else organizes it.

After that, we will continue our regularly scheduled dropin meetings on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

We played:

• Susato group:
  • La Morisque
  • Entre du fol
  • Danse du Roy
• Sermisy, Martin menait son porceau au marché
• Dowland:
  • Burst forth, my tears
  • Come, ye heavy states of night
  • All ye whom love or fortune hath betrayed
• Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno
• Vecchi, Il bianco e dolce cigno

Schedule

We will continue our regularly scheduled dropin meetings on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

The known exception to that is that the October 21st meeting is
restricted to and compulsory for the people who will be performing
on October 26 at the Boston Wort
Processors Ciderfest. At the moment, the performers are me,
Ishmael and Sue. If you aren’t on that list and want to perform, let me know immediately.

Tuesday, November 4, is Election Day, so it’s likely that I
won’t be available for a meeting. So there will be one only if
someone else organizes it.

We played:

• Sermisy, Je ne mange point du porc
• Sermisy, Vignons, Vignons
• Josquin, Deploration on the death of
  Ockheghem
• Dowland, Shepherd in a shade
• Berg, Let us drink and be merry
• Purcell, Sir Walter, enjoying his damsel one night

Schedule

On September 16, there’s a state primary election, and I’ll be
serving as Warden in Ward 10, Precinct 3. There will be a meeting
at Stuart Soloway’s place in Somerville. This meeting will
probably focus on the music for the September 27 performance, but
people who like that music (most of what we did last week) are
welcome to come and help out to substitute for the performer(s)
who are missing.

The Bonnie Rogers Memorial Party will be on
Saturday, September 27, so the September 23 meeting will be limited to the
people who want to play at that event.

After that, we resume our regularly scheduled dropin meetings
at the usual time (7:45 PM) and place.

Other events

The Boston
Recorder Society will be having its first meeting of the year
on Sunday, September 28.

Look at the blog
from last month for information about the Fall River Arts
around the Block festival.

We played:

• Métoyen, Serpent Duets
• Willaert, Ricercar X
• Anonymous, When Daphne from Fair PhÅ“bus did fly
• Josquin, Deploration on the death of
  Ockheghem
• Ravenscroft, O my fearful Dreams

Schedule

We will be having our usual dropin meetings on Tuesdays at
7:45 PM at my
place for the next 2 weeks.

On September 16, there’s a state primary election, and I’ll be
serving as Warden in Ward 10, Precinct 3. So we won’t have a
meeting unless someone else wants to organize.

The Bonnie Rogers Memorial Party will be on
Saturday, September 27, so the September 23 meeting will be limited to the
people who want to play at that event. If you’re one of those
people, let me know soon, and start coming regularly, because
we’ll be playing the Josquin, and it’s pretty hard.

Remember that we’re going to be working on a concert for March
1. I’m thinking fairly hard about what to put on the program, so
if you want to play with us, you should let me know soon.

Other events

Look at the blog from two weeks ago
for information about the Wakefield Summer Band final concert
on Friday.