Report on the February 1, 2005 rehearsal

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.

February 2005 schedule and plans

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.

Three’s a crowd (January 21, 2005 rehearsal)

  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”

A List rehearsal, January 11, 2005

We did enough stuff that we wanted to remember doing that we decided I
would keep a log of A-list rehearsals, as well as the regular
rehearsals.

We started with a review of the French drinking songs at the back of
the book. “Changeons Propos” went so badly the first time that we
were surprised at how well the others went. “Vive la Serpe” is still
problematic. In my opinion, it’s because so many people are off the
beat so much of the time that it’s hard to count during the rests. It
got easier, but I think this one’s a real test of rhythmic precision.
Hence, one worth working on.

Anne had identified a Campian that might be a suitable part of a May
group. It was fun, but should probably be orchestrated with at least
some of the four verses sung by a soloist.

We finished with a bunch of Dowlands.

  • Go, crystall teares,
  • Weep you no more sad fountains
  • Me, me and none but me
  • The retirement party group, both “His golden locks time hath to
    silver turned” from the first group, and the three part one starting
    with “Time’s Eldest Son” from the Second Book.

Both “Go, crystall teares” and “Weep you no more sad fountains”
were worth working on some more.