Category: Cantabile

I’ve been promising lists of sets to work on for the Walk for
Hunger and other possible performances next summer. Comments and
suggestions are welcome.

River set

• Billings, By the rivers of Watertown
• Estans assis, aux rives aquatiques
• Gibbons, Silver Swan
• Silver Swan round?
• Dowland, “Me, me and none but me”
• Arcadelt “Il bianco e dolce cigno”
• Possibly the 5-part “Il bianco e dolce cigno”
• Possibly other “Rivers of Babylon settings”. I particularly like
  the one we sing in West Gallery to the Walter Scott “Dies Irae”
  translation, which was originally published to a Thomas Campian
  “Rivers of Babylon”

May set

• Morley, Now is the Month of Maying
• Morley, April is in my Mistress Face
• Dowland, “Clear or Cloudy”
• Maybe Campian, “My love hath vowd hee will forsake mee”
• Possibly Morley “Good Morrow fair ladies of the May”
• I have the impression we’ve run into other stuff about spring and
  May celebrations lately — do other people remember better?

Drinking Songs

• Rounds
  • He that will and Alehouse keep
  • Let us drink and be merry
  • 5 reasons
  • He that drinks is immortal
  • Tis Women
  • I gave her cakes and I gave her ale
  • Slaves are they that heap up mountains
• To Anacreon in Heaven
• Quant je boy du vin claret tout tourne
• Vignon, Vignon
• Changeons propos
• Vive la serpe

I have ommitted several rounds that we could pretty easily work up,
so if anyone’s favorites aren’t here, let me know and I’ll add them.

I think at any particular performance, we wouldn’t do all of those,
but it’s good to have that many available.

The BRS is going to
have a Play the Recorder Month event at the Cambridge Public Library
on Saturday, April 2, 2005, from 2-4 PM.

We’ll be getting a number of groups to play for 10-15 minutes each,
have a table with literature and information about how to get involved
in playing the recorder, and refreshments at the break and after the
concert.

I think it would be a good chance for our group to try out some of
the May stuff, but I understand that some people might not want to
spend a whole Saturday afternoon in Cambridge for 15 minutes of
playing.

So if you’re interested in playing, let me know.

We did:

• Campian, When Laura Smiles.
• Ding Dong! Merrily on High, testing for inclusion in the 2005
  supplement to “Carols for Parties”
• Dowland, “Tell me true Love”
• Campian, Never Weather-beaten Saile

The next rehearsal will be February 15. Anne will be in Spain, and
Stuart may have to go back to Taiwan. Paul is still coming back and
forth from Chicago.

We will continue chugging through “A Pilgrim’s Solace”, but will
have to stop at some point to start work on the April and May
performances. People who haven’t been coming regularly who would like
to play or sing with us should start coming.

I’m thinking of doing just a drinking songs group, or possibly part
of the River group at the April performance, and the river group, the
drinking songs, and the May group for the Walk for Hunger.

We’ll have to start working on some of the less familiar stuff we
want to do for May. We’ll also have to start doing consistent and
systematic review of the more familiar ones, so I’ll have a better
organized playlist drawn from the setlist soon.

I think if we keep to every other week, we won’t be conflicting
with Roaring Jelly for a while. So:

• February 1
• February 15
• March 1

We only had three people at our last meeting. Given the weather,
it was really, “Wow, we had three people!” But we didn’t get to work
on the four-part music we were planning. So we’ll do “Ding, Dong!
Merrily on high” and “Tell me true Love, where shall I seeke thy
being” next time.

1. Drinking songs
   • Quand je bois
   • Vignons, Vignons
   • Changeons propos
2. Gardane (the collection from which the above three drinking songs
   are taken). We read through about 10, and found one real winner:
   “Grace et vertu, bonté, beaulté, noblesse” by Guillaume Le Heurteur.
3. Morley, “Good Morrow, fair ladies of the May”