Category: Cantabile

We played:

• Morley, Cruel you pull away too soon
• Dowland, My heart and tongue were twinnes
• Vive la Serpe
• Slaves are they that heap up mountains
• Washington Post March
• Il Bianco e dolce Cigno, Arcadelt and Vecchi

We decided to not meet on Tuesday, July 12, as several people had
other commitments, and those who don’t can see some of the people who
do if they want to by going to the MIT contra dance.

We will also not be meeting on Tuesday, July 26, because of the
West Gallery workshop with Francis Roads.

So the next meetings will be July 19 and August 2, at 7:45 PM at
the usual place.

We’ll have a new Dowland (Where sinne sore wounding daily doth
oppresse me), and the people who missed the picnic (you missed a good
one, pictures) should
have a chance to play the Bransle set we did there. Maybe in a 4-foot
and 8-foot version if there are enough of us.

I’m feeling like it’s a good week for carousing in Bacchus’
fountains, so we’ll do “Slaves are they” even though it isn’t a good
week for heaping up mountains.

We need to discuss the problem of getting usable copies of
“finished” work again (see the
previous inconclusive discussion).

We played:

• Gervaise, Dix Bransles de Champaigne
• Morley, Farewell, disdainful
• Dowland, Where Sinne sore wounding
• Slaves are they that heap up mountains
• Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce Cigno
• Vecchi, Il bianco e dolce Cigno
• Let us drink and be merry

The discussion about how to get copies of “finished” works took
place after several people had left. But Anne would prefer xeroxing
to paying for xeroxing, and can get it free if she supplies paper.
So she has a ream of my paper, and will be doing 5 or 6 copies of the
latest Drinking Songs over the next couple of weeks. I will be
checking and correcting the Dowland Third Book over that time, and
will then look for a volunteer to xerox that. Those who feel they
should be contributing more to the group should consider how they could
assist that effort. Unlike many groups, this group doesn’t require a
financial contribution very often, but like all groups, it does need
everyone to be aware of the work that goes into making it work, and to
contribute to the work as well as they can.

It occurred to me while compiling the list of pieces we did that
someone raised a question about finding the pitches on the
“More…Fill…More…Fill” section of “Slaves are they” which we
didn’t answer, so we’ll try to work on that better the next time.

Another issue that’s come up recently is whether we should be doing
more dance music. It works better for background music gigs, and
Ishmael thinks that with some work on the style we could even get gigs
playing for real dancers. But of course if people are more interested
in the vocal music, it doesn’t make sense to take time from that. So
let me know what you think.

It was restricted to people playing the Picnic on June 25, so it was
just Laura, Bonnie, and Barney.

We played:

• Flute duets, Opus 1, by Johan Mattheson.
• Dix
  Bransles de Champagne, by
  Claude
  Gervaise
• Americana Suite by Andrew Charlton

At the picnic, we may also play “Piper’s Fancy”, which is some trio
arrangements of Playford tunes, which we have played many times
before.

We’ll be having a regular rehearsal on Tuesday, June 14.
Unfortunately, it’s too early in the Boston Early Music Festival for
putting out flyers to bring in very many people, but I will
post an invitation to the relevant mailing lists. Please let anyone
who’s in town for the Festival know that they’re welcome to come play
with us.

Tuesday, June 21 will be limited to the people playing the Boston Wort Processors summer picnic on
Saturday, July 25.

After that, we resume our regularly scheduled drop-in sessions,
(almost) every Tuesday at 7:45 PM at 233 Broadway.

Publicity

I have rewritten the flyer, with help from
Ishmael, Anne, and Hope. Please take a look at it, print it out, and
bring it anywhere you think people would be interested. I’d still
like to find or manufacture a good graphic instead of the two serpents
that I used in desperation in June of 2000.

We did:

• Morley:
  • Good Morrow, fair Ladies of the May
  • Whether away so fast
  • Hold out my heart

  Dowland:

  • When the poore Cripple
  • O mighty God
  • When Davids life by Saul was often sought
• Vive la Serpe
• Slaves are they that heap up mountains

Decisions

• We will meet next week, on Tuesday, June 14. Some people will
  have BEMF commitments, but there might be other people in town for the
  festival who would be fun to play with.
• Ishmael can do some double-sided printing for us, so we haven’t
  yet made an order for the drinking songs.
• Anne and Ishmael both have other commitments on the 25th. So I
  will check with Paul, and if he can’t come, maybe Bonnie, Barney, and
  I will resurrect some of the old recorder trio repertoire.
• I got some feedback on the new version of the flyer. Check out the
  current version and see what you think.

We have the third part of the three-part Dowland we’ve been working
on, so we’ll probably spend the bulk of the meeting trying to make the
whole thing sound like music. In addition we’ll continue working on
the two drinking songs we’re trying to get performable.

In addition, we have several things to decide:

• I have the first copy of the Cafepress edition of the Drinking
  Songs book Since I no longer
  have double-sided printing capability, we have to decide how we’re
  going to deal with acquiring multiple copies of “finished” books. The
  possibilities include:
  • Buying in bulk from Cafepress. In this case, they would cost in
    the vicinity of $6 each if I order a few, and can probably be brought
    under $5 if I order as many as 15. It’s close to $10 to order an
    individual copy with shipping.
  • Copying double-sided at Kinko’s or somewhere and me binding with
    my comb binding machine. I’m not sure how much this costs, but I
    think it’s comparable to the bulk pricing at Cafepress, which also
    includes a nice color cover.
  • Someone with “free” xeroxing copying double sided, and me binding
    with my comb binding machine. This is obviously the cheapest way to
    get new books, if there’s someone with a good setup for doing this.
  • For this book, we have almost up-to-date copies which we can paste
    in edited versions of the pages that have changed. This might be the
    right solution for this book, but won’t work for the Dowland third
    book or the Pilgrim’s Solace.
• Do we meet next week? I don’t have a conflict, and it might be
  fun to invite people who are in town for the early music festival to
  come join us. But I understand if people are overscheduled that week
  without this meeting.
• I want to put out a flyer describing our group on the flyers table
  at BEMF. I’m about to take a crack at editing the current flyer,
  which no longer really describes the group very well. But if anyone
  else has ideas, let me know. In any case, I’ll have a trial version
  for proofreading, editing, etc. tonight.
• I’ve sent information to at least some of you about the Wort
  Processors’ Summer picnic on June 25. We need to decide whether we’re
  playing, and if so, what. We might make the June 21
  meeting “performers only” if we decide to play.

I believe both Anne and Ishmael will be coming from another
commitment and will be a bit late, so maybe the official start time
for this one should be 8 PM.

We did:

• Morley:
  • Good Morrow, fair ladies of the May
  • Whether away so fast
• Vive la serpe
• Dowland:
  • When David’s life by Saul was often Sought
  • O Mighty God
• Isaac, Benedictus
• Slaves are they that heap up mountains

Plans are underway for the Boston
Wort Processors Summer Picnic. If we want to play, we need some
people to sign up. I’ll send the official information to the usual
suspects; if you aren’t one of them and want it, let me know.

We’ll have the next Dowland. It’s the second part of that
three-parter we started last week, so we’ll attempt that one again as
well.

If we have 5 parts, there’s a Holborne that we didn’t do two weeks
ago, and it might be fun to do some of the others again.

I’m committed to setting the three pieces from the Odhecaton that
I’m playing Saturday with John and Miyuki (BRS
calendar listing)
so we might do whatever I’ve finished of those, if people are
interested.

I’d like to continue working on Vive la Serpe and Slaves are they
that heap up mountains.

Report from the Memorial Day performance

I thought we played pretty well, considering. Unfortunately, it
wasn’t really quite a big enough party to justify background music,
and I don’t think we were holding the audience well enough to be
foreground music. The demo was written up in the Fall River Herald; I
can forward the writeup to anyone interested.

We did:

• O Portsmouth
• Vive la serpe
• Dowland, Thou Mighty God
• Slaves are they that heap up mountains
• Now is the month of Maying

It looks like the Memorial Day cookout in Fall River will include
Laura, Bonnie, Anne, Barney, and Paul, but Ishmael is a maybe.

I propose for a program:

• Now is the Month of Maying (Anne on Altus and Laura on Quintus,
  unless Ishmael shows up. Paul should bring the Rackett.)
• Changeons Propos
• Vignons, vignons
• Quand je Bois. All these with the “old” route of 4-foot, French,
  English. Paul, you’re playing and singing bassus; use your judgement
  about whether to do it on recorder or cornetto.
• After that, pass out the drinking songs books to any audience and
  invite participation in some of the rounds. Based on last night, we
  do “Slaves are they” only if the audience is very friendly and
  supportive, but we can do “Anacreon in heaven” in honor of Memorial
  Day in any case.

We’ll be working out schedules and rides when we know more about
the schedule in Fall River. Please remember that it’s a pot-luck
event.