Report on the March 14 meeting

[cantabile] Report on the March 14 meeting

We played:

• Christian Harmony group:
  • Experience
  • Hope
  • Judgement hymn
  • Haverhill
  • Night thought
• Gibbons, What is our life
• Dowland group:
  • Clear or cloudy
  • Come heavy sleep
  • O sweet woods
• Let us drink and be merry

We’re continuing to meet on a drop-in basis, but it’s time to be
thinking about the program for the Walk for Hunger. In broad
outline, I’m thinking:

• Spring group (some subset of the spring music we know,
  certainly including “Now is the month of Maying”. “Clear or
  Cloudy” sounded shaky last night, but it’s probably
  salvageable.

`

• Elizabethan life group. Mostly Dowland,
  but we could use “My prime of youth” and/or “Daintie fine bird”
  if we learn them in time. I was thinking of including as many
  of the Essex Dowlands as we know well enough (certainly silly
  bees), and maybe some of the sleep or retirement Dowlands.

• Shape note group. Certainly including Lamentation over
  Boston and some of the Ingalls. Probably Haverhill. Maybe try
  to limit it to songs that include a river, but that’s not much
  of a limitation in that repertoire.

Comments or suggestions are welcome. As we have the last couple of
years, we want to keep the program
under an hour, and perform it twice with some other group in
between.

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Wed Mar 15 14:56:58 EST 2006

Report on the March 7 meeting

[cantabile] Report on the March 7 meeting

We played:

• Ingalls group:
  • Judgement hymn
  • Night Thought
• Gibbons, Daintie fine bird
• Munday, My prime of youth
• Dowland group:
  • Unquiet thoughts
  • Can she excuse my wrongs
  • Deare, if you change
  • Now, o now, I needs must part

It was fun seeing how far the group has come, both by how much more
easily we can sightread difficult pieces like the Gibbons and
how much better we play some of the Dowland we haven’t done in 5
years or so.

I was inspired by those reminiscences to dig through the old email
and find the exact date of when the band started — it was
Wednesday, June 28, 2000. Maybe we should have an anniversary
party or something.

We’ll be putting together a program for the Walk for hunger in the
next two or three weeks, so be sure and let me know if there’s
something you particularly want included.

I have no reason to expect anything other than the normal drop-in
meetings until we decide to have just the Walk for Hunger
people, probably early-to-mid-April. So:

• March 14
• March 21
• March 28
• April 4

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Fri Mar 10 17:15:19 EST 2006

Report on February 28 meeting

[cantabile] Report on February 28 meeting

We played:

• Ingalls group:
  • Judgement Hymn
  • Experience
  • Millennium
  • Friendship
  • Night Thought
  • Haverhill
• Certon, J’ai le rebours
• Gardane group
  • Amour, amour, tu es par torp cruelle
  • La loy d’amours est tant iniue et dure
  • Sermisy, Contre reison vous m’estes fort estrange
• Quand je bois du vin claret

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Fri Mar 3 09:35:29 EST 2006

Report on Feb. 21 meeting

[cantabile] Report on Feb. 21 meeting

We played:

• Ingalls group
  • Fellowship
  • Millennium
  • Friendship
  • Harmony
• Dowland group
  • Come heavy sleep
  • Awake sweet love
  • Can she excuse my wrongs
  • Earl of Essex Galliard
  • John Langton’s Pavanne
  • Lachrimae Antiquae
  • Lachrimae Antiquae Novae

I’m still expecting the drop-in meetings to happen every Tuesday
for the next month or so, at which point we will start
restricting the meetings to people who want to play the Walk for
Hunger.

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Thu Feb 23 11:07:45 EST 2006

Plans for the February 14 meeting

[cantabile] Plans for the February 14 meeting

We’ve now sung all the suggested Ingalls at least once. There are
still a few more that should be transposed before we start
working on them, but there’s no hurry. I’m doing
Fellowship for this week; anyone who gets ABC
transcription energy is welcome to do Millennium,
Judgement, or Experience. So we’ll be
doing two or three of those a week until we get our program
decided on.

We pretty much proved last week that this group as currently
constituted can’t just bomb through the Dowland
Lacrimae. I think we should learn Flow my tears
and Lachrimae Antiquae for the June gig, and try
the others again in a year or so.

Another Dowland group I’d like to put together is the Essex group.
We have the silly bees, and didn’t do too badly on O sweet
woods last week, so we’ll be trying Can she excuse
my wrongs The Earl of Essex Galliard.

We can do any Valentine’s Day requests tomorrow. I understand
that some people do things as a couple on Valentine’s Day, so if
you’re one of them, either convince your partner that this is
what you want to do as a couple, or we’ll understand if you miss
this week. There are enough of us who aren’t in couples that
I’m sure we’ll have a good time.

We will also be trying out other dream music and spring music.

Schedule

I don’t know of anything to interrupt the normal Tuesday drop-in
for the next month or so, so:

• February 14
• February 21
• February 28
• March 7

The performances we have scheduled are:

• May 7, Walk for Hunger. If it’s the way it’s been the last
  few years, the group will be playing from noon to about 3 (with
  breaks), and people who want to do solo or small group sets in
  the morning will be welcome
• June 21, Dream music at Bridgewater State College.
• July 22, Ingalls music in Vermont

There’s also tentatively a Boston Recorder Society Play the
Recorder Month event sometime this spring, but as far as I know,
nobody’s found a time and place for it.

We will be aiming to put together a program for the Walk for Hunger
by the end of March. Then I expect that the April rehearsals
will be limited to the people who want to play that program.
I’d like to include as much music from the dream program and the
Ingalls program as we can, without completely crowding out the
spring music and the Rivers of Watertown.

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Mon Feb 13 11:27:35 EST 2006

Report on February 14 meeting

[cantabile] Report on February 14 meeting

We played:

• Heurteur, Grace et vertu
• Ingalls group:
  • Fellowship
  • Channel of Mercy
• Mundy, My prime of youth (see wikipedia
  for the rest of the poem, and a brief biography of the lyricist.)
• Dowland:
  • Silly bees
  • O sweet woods
  • Can she excuse my wrongs
  • Earl of Essex Galliard

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Fri Feb 17 11:38:12 EST 2006

Report on January 24 meeting

[Cantabile] Report on January 24 meeting

We played:

• Thomas Morley
  • I should for grief and anguish
  • Rondinella
  • Il Grillo
• Jeremiah Ingalls
  • Friendship
  • Channel of Mercy
  • The Weary Traveler
  • Danville
  • Experience
• Morley, April is in my mistress’ face
• Holborne
  • Fairie Round, with words
  • Galliard, Hermoze
• Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno
• Vecchi, Il bianco e dolce cigno

Schedule

We’ll be doing our usual drop-in sessions every Tuesday until late
March/early April, when we’ll have a play list for the Walk for
Hunger and will be restricting meetings to people planning to
perform.

So:

• January 31
• February 7
• February 14

In spite of all the work we’ve been doing, we still have
eight Ingalls
pieces to try, as well as several that we’ve already tried and
need to do in different keys or with different arrangements of
parts. But we do have both Friendship and
Hope in the form we’ll probably sing and play them
in.

In addition, everyone’s welcome to suggest spring music for the Walk
for Hunger or dream music for the June performance.

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Wed Jan 25 09:19:11 EST 2006

Report on the January 17 meeting

[cantabile] Report on the January 17 meeting

We played:

• Ingalls
  • Hope
  • Harmony
• Bruce Randall’s Haverhill
• Morley April is in my mistress’ face
• Holborne Fairie Round, with Daffodil words
• Dowland
  • Come Heavy Sleep
  • Come, ye heavy states of night
  • It was a time when silly bees could speak
• Purcell, I gave her cakes and I gave her ale

Schedule

Regular drop-in meetings until further notice. So:

• January 24
• January 31
• February 7

We’ll be continuing to read through the Ingalls that Tom Malone has
suggested we try, so those who have the book are encouraged to
bring it. Anyone who doesn’t have one and would like one should
talk to me or Ishmael. They cost $16.

We’ll also be working on Spring music for the Walk for Hunger and
Dream music for the June 21 gig; suggestions are welcome.

In
addition to the already announced performances, the Boston Recorder
Society is planning a Play the Recorder Month event sometime
in March or early April.

Meeting announcements

I had been sending regular announcements only to people who were
coming, or at least telling me why they weren’t coming. But
we’re getting better attendance the last couple of meetings when
I was sending them to the whole list, so I’m going to resume
doing that. If it’s a problem, let me know, and we’ll work
something out.

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Wed Jan 25 10:33:59 EST 2006

Report on January 10 meeting

[cantabile] Report on January 10 meeting

We played:

• Gervaise, 14 bransle de Champaigne
• Ingalls, Hope
• Gabrielli, Canzon septimi toni a 8, from Sacrae Symphoniae (1597)
• Dowland
  • Come, heavy sleep
  • Burst forth my tears
  • Awake sweet love

Schedule

I don’t know of anything getting in the way of weekly dropin
meetings. So:

• January 17
• January 24
• January 31

We will continue trying out the Jeremiah Ingalls pieces that Tom
Malone suggested, and working on Dowlands and Ravenscrofts that
might fit our June gig. And requests are welcome.

Other events

Anne Kazlauskas,
assisted by Ishmael Stefanov on fiddle, will be singing 4 Scottish
ballads as part of the annual MIT Library Staff concert, sometime
during the 2-3PM hour on Wednesday, 18 January. This is at Killian
Hall, the small concert/meeting hall on ground floor of Building 14
(the main library building on Memorial Drive).

---

Laura Conrad

We have a number of people planning to come to the meeting tonight,
and a bunch of new stuff to try out. Of course, be sure to think
about whether there’s something you’d particularly like to request.

• Since there should be an unusually large number of people, I’ll
  print a couple of copies of the two-choir Gabrielli Bonnie
  transcribed.
• I have transcribed and transposed one of the Jeremiah Ingalls
  pieces that Tom Malone recommended. I also tried out the
  lilypond shape note printing; I don’t like it much, but be
  prepared to offer specific criticisms so that I can pass them on
  to the developers.
• We should wrap up this year’s addendum to the Christmas book.
  So far we have two pieces Bonnie has transcribed, and she’s
  working on a third. So we may run those.
• I have a new transcription of the Dunstable “O Rosa Bella”, and
  a set of Bransles that we haven’t done yet.
• And we can continue working on the Ravenscroft rounds and the
  Dowland pieces about sleeping and dreaming.

---

Laura Conrad

Last modified: Tue Jan 10 12:34:42 EST 2006