Category: Cantabile

We did:

• Quand je Bois
• Vive la Serpe
• Dowland, In this trembling shadow
• Dowland, Come Again
• Dona Nobis Pacem

There’s a possibility for playing at a cookout/demonstration in
Fall River on Memorial Day, which I’m looking into.

The next meeting of the Cantabile Renaissance Band will be on Tuesday,
May 10, at 7:45 PM at my place.

We have pretty much abandoned the twice a month idea, and just
meet every week, being aware that there are some people who want to
come regularly who can’t make it that often.

Rather than send out these announcements and the reports on what
we’ve done at the meetings to the whole list, I will send them to
people coming regularly or semi-regularly, and post them on the blog
for anyone interested to read. I will continue to post announcements
on an intermittent basis to the list. And I will
post any irregularity in the schedule, although it might make sense
to check before coming if you haven’t been in a while.

In any case, for this meeting, we’ll get back to our Dowland of the
week. The next one is “In this trembling, trembling shadow”.

We may also do some of the things that fell off the playlist at the
Walk for Hunger, like the Vecchi “Il Bianco e Dolce Cigno” if we have
enough people for a five-part piece, and “Vive la Serpe”.

I think the DSL problem is finally fixed, so everybody should get
this one.

Then next meeting of the Cantabile Renaissance Band will be on
Tuesday, May 3, at 7:45 PM and my place.

We resume our regularly scheduled drop-in group at this meeting.
Come if you can even if you don’t feel like performing on any
particular date, or know whether you ever want to come again, or aren’t able
to make it on time.

Many thanks to those who performed yesterday at the Walk for
Hunger. The weather made it more of a challenge than usual, but I
think we made some good music anyway.

Plans

We have lots of things we can play tomorrow, and we’ll work on what
the people who come want to do.

• We can continue chugging through the Dowland Passionate Pilgrim.
  We bogged down on those very difficult three-part ones, but my guess
  is that the four-part ones after that are only normally difficult.
• John Tyson brought a drinking round from Ravenscroft to the last
  recorder society meeting; we can do that.
• There were some things that fell off the Walk for Hunger program
  because of lack of time, and it would be good to work them up so that
  they could be on future programs.
  • Vive la Serpe
  • The Vecchi Il Bianco e dolce Cigno
  • A couple of drinking rounds
• If anyone wants to bring something completely different, that has
  nothing to do with anything we’ve worked on before, that might be fun.

Email contact

My DSL line is down; at the moment the ball is in the phone
company’s court, and they claim to have a 24-hour response time,
starting this morning. I have managed to get dialup email access, but
it isn’t going to be as easy as usual, so if there’s something you
really need to reach me about, you might want to phone as well.
(Since I’ll be on dialup for the email, that won’t be as easy as
usual, either, but the voice mail should work.)

Also, until the DSL line is working again, anything you need to get
off of serpent.laymusic.org is going to be inaccessible.

Here’s the play list with some possible part assignments. All of
this is open to discussion.

Note that you should keep the things that have fallen off the play
list for May, such as “April is in my mistress’ face”, and “Vive la
serpe” with your music, as we’ll be working on them after the
performance.

Please let me know if you don’t have the chance to print everything
before the first rehearsal you come to (I’m assuming Tuesday the 12
for everyone but Paul, and Tuesday the 19th for Paul). I’m quite
happy to print things for you, but not to take up rehearsal time
finding people music.

• May music
  • Now is the month of maying: Cantus, Anne and
    Bonnie and Patricia; Altus, Laura; Quintus, Ishmael; Tenor, Barney; Bassus, Paul
    (voice and racket). Route is instrumental between verses two and
    three. We may also do a four-foot instrumental with cornetto (or
    possibly fiddle) on the bass and everyone else on recorders. Update: we rehearsed this with the viol on bass, so
    we’ll perform it that way.
    

  • God morrow, fair ladies of the may: Cantus, Anne on vocal, Bonnie on
    instrumental; Altus, Laura; Bassus, Ishmael. Route: Instrumental then
    vocal. Update: This and My love hath vowed
    will not be part of the 12:30 set. They may be included in the Morley
    set at 11:30. They will happen in the 1:45 set.
  • My love hath vowed she will forsake me: Bonnie on Bass all
    through; First verse: Anne solo on A section, all on B. Second verse:
    Laura solo on A section, all on B. Third verse: Ishmael solo on A
    section, all on B. Fourth verse: all. Instrumental accompaniments to be
    determined.
  • Clear or cloudy: Cantus, Bonnie, Patricia and Paul; Altus, Anne;
    Tenor, Ishmael; Quintus, Barney; Bassus, Paul and Laura. Last year we did
    instrumental and then three verses vocal.
• Drinking Songs
  • Rounds as necessary to fill in the time. Based on the April 5
    rehearsal, Cakes and Ale and Slaves are they that heap up mountains
    would both take some work and we may not have time for it. Otherwise,
    we can take suggestions, and even do different selections for the two
    sets. If we have time, we’ll work out some simple-minded
    orchestration; for instance, If I hold up a recorder, we all
    switch to recorders on the next time for one time through, etc.
  • Changeons propos
    
    Vocal: Cantus, Anne and Patricia; Tenor, Laura; Bassus, Paul,
    Barney, Ishmael.
    
    4-foot instrumental: Cantus, Bonnie; Tenor, Laura; Bassus, Ishmael
    
    8-foot instrumental: Cantus, Paul (cornetto); Tenor, Ishmael
    (fiddle); Bassus, Bonnie. Laura and Patricia may join the Cantus and
    Tenor.
    
    The route will be 4-foot instrumental, French vocal, 8-foot
    instrumental, English vocal.
  • Vignons, vignons: Same as Changeons propos
  • Quand je bois: Same as Changeons propos
• Swan songs
  • Silver Swan: Vocal — Cantus, Patricia and Paul; Quintus, Anne and
    Laura; Altus,
    Ishmael; Tenor, Barney; Bassus, Bonnie.
    
    Route: vocal, instrumental, vocal.
  • Me, me and none but me: Cantus, Anne and Patricia; Altus, Laura;
    Tenor, Ishmael and Barney; Bassus, Paul and Bonnie.
    
    Route: Instrumental, two verses vocal.
  • Il Bianco e dolce cigno: Part assignments, same as Me, me and none
    but me.
    
    Route: Instrumental, vocal. Paul should play soprano recorder on
    the instrumental, so that there will be a top-line instrument at the
    4-foot pitch the second line is going to be at.
    Update: We decided it sounds ok with the cornetto on top, so Paul
    should use his own judgement about which to play.
    

• Babylon songs
  • Babylon Streams: Cantus, Anne, Patricia and Paul; Altus, Laura; Tenor,
    Ishmael; Bassus, Barney and Bonnie. Route: Instrumental, two verses vocal.
  • Estans assis: Cantus, Bonnie, Patricia and Paul; Altus, Anne and Barney on the
    instrumental; Tenor, Ishmael and Barney on the vocal; Bassus, Laura.
    Route: instrumental, vocal. Ishmael will
    intone the opening phrase solo.
    
  • Watertown: Soprano, Anne, Patricia and Paul; Alto, Laura; Tenor, Ishmael;
    Bass, Bonnie and Barney.

We’re signed up to cover 10:30 to 3.

• 10:30 – 10:45 Laura solo
• 10:45 – 11:30 Ishmael dance music, including others as he
  considers appropriate. Let him know if you want to be included
• 11:30 – 12 Laura and Bonnie, Morley duos
• 12 – 12:30 Quilisma Consort
• 12:30 – 1:15 Cantabile Renaissance Band
• 1:15 – 1:45 Quilisma Consort
• 1:45 – 2:30 Cantabile Renaissance Band

I haven’t in the past
scheduled the last half hour — we assume that things will run over a
bit, and we’ll repeat the big hits from both the solo and the group sets.

As in the past, we should set up so as to avoid down time as much
as possible. That is, Cantabile will set up (quietly) next to
Quilisma while they’re playing their first set, and start playing as
soon as they stop.

As always, if it rains we don’t bring the expensive wooden
instruments, but the singing and plastic recorder playing can procede
as scheduled. If there were a complete deluge with very few walkers,
we might feel justified in quitting early, but in general, if the
walkers are out there, their support staff (which includes us) should
be there too.

And anyone who doesn’t have to run off should plan on joining us at
the Bugaboo Creek Steak House after the performance.

Finally, we played through the whole program.

We made some decisions:

• We rehearsed “Now is the month of Maying” with viol instead of
  rackett on the bottom line, so we’ll play it that way.
• We’ll perform the two “small-group” May songs with the Morley set
  instead of with the 12:30 set. They will be part of the 1:45 set.
• We decided not to worry about the places where Laura’s playing
  recorder on the second line and Paul and/or Patricia is plaing
  cornetto or fiddle on the top line.
• Ishmael will be playing and singing the first line of Estans Assis
  solo, and then be joined by Barney when the rest of us come in.
• Ishmael will be conducting the start of “By the rivers of
  Watertown”, as well as the tempo change on the repeat of the last
  section. He will also be starting us on “Clear or Cloudy”, where I
  play serpent.

Comfort

The weather prediction at the moment is for partly cloudy, with
temperatures in the low 60’s. Which is pretty comfortable, but
remember that standing around gets colder than brisk walking, the wind
comes up along the river in the afternoon, and of course their ability
to predict how fast weather patterns move is limited, and they are
predicting showers for Saturday. So bring layers.

I’ll bring my keg of carbonated water and some paper cups. If
you’re going to need food between breakfast and 3:30 when Bugaboo
Creek will feed us, bring a snack.

If you’re not driving and would like a chair to sit on, ask one of
the people who is driving to bring an extra.

For my comfort, please arrive in plenty of time. I suggest that
anyone not playing the morning session be there by noon. If you are
playing in the morning, get there at least 15 minutes before you want
to be playing.

Again, this is not a dropin group. This meeting is limited to and
compulsory for the people performing on May 1 at the Walk for Hunger.
We resume our regularly scheduled dropin group next week.

We have a lot of work to do at this rehearsal. Please come in time so
that we can be set up and tuned and ready to start playing at 7:45 PM.

Play list

The play order is as follows. Please have your music in order:

• May music
  • Now is the month of Maying.
  • My love hath vowed she will forsake me.
  • Good Morrow, fair ladies of the May
  • Clear or Cloudy.
• Swan songs
  • Silver Swan
  • Me, me and none but me
  • Il Bianco e dolce Cigno
• Drinking Songs
  • Changeons propos
  • Vignons, vignons
  • Quand je Bois
  • Rounds
• Babylon
  • Campian, Babylon Streams
  • Estans Assis
  • Billings, Lamentation over Boston

Recording

Ishmael recorded a lot of last week’s coaching session, and I found
it very helpful to listen to it. He dumped his recording to a
(1-track, 77 minute) CD, and Bonnie and I listened to it yesterday.

For those with good internet access, the track is a (humongous)
.wav file and a (large) .ogg file at
serpent.laymusic.org/~lconrad/audio/cantabile-0405. If
anyone would be helped by there being a .mp3 file, I can make one of
those.

If there’s someone without good internet access who would like to
borrow the CD, let me know. If there’s more than one person, making
copies of the CD before tomorrow’s meeting would be pretty easy.

Some random thoughts on listening to the CD:

• The diction on “Clear or Cloudy” was indeed difficult to understand
  on the first time through, and less difficult after John’s coaching
  but still has a lot of room for improvement. If you’re driving or
  showering or walking along the street with nothing better on your
  mind, try speaking the words aloud as a “public speaker”.
• At least with that recording equipment, I don’t think my voice is
  overpowered, so I withdraw my remarks about the group being top-heavy
  with cornettos and multiple soprano voices on the top line.
• The startup of every verse of Changeons propos was
  embarrassing. We don’t have time to work on things like that
  tomorrow, so if there’s anything that seems to be working that way it
  gets cancelled. With all those rounds that we’re used to doing and do
  pretty well, we have the luxury of cancelling anything that we don’t
  sound pretty good on the first time through.

Our coaching session with John Tyson tonight will begin at 8:00 PM
promptly. We will be playing at his house at 310 1/2 Pearl St. His
phone number is (617) 661-3353.

I have explained to him that this group doesn’t drink beer for only
10 minutes, and he shouldn’t invite us for beer unless he expects to
spend at least an hour on it. He has a lot of practicing and
rehearsing to do early in the morning these days, so it is likely that
the beer-drinking part of the rehearsal will move to my place.

Please bring all the music for the Walk for Hunger. We will be
concentrating on the three French drinking songs, but John would like
to start with one of the things we did last time so that he can see
whether what he said made any difference. We have cancelled “April is
in my mistress’ face” since then, but it might be any of:

• Me, me and none but me
• Il bianco e dolce Cigno
• Clear or Cloudy

Even more than usual, since we won’t be where I have lots of copies
of lots of things, please let me know in advance if you need me to
print anything for you.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but for the next two
weeks, we are not a drop-in group. Please come on time, or
earlier if your instrument needs setup and tuning time. Please have
your music with you and in order (I haven’t yet sent out a performance
order, but have it in some kind of order where you can find things).
Please use rehearsal time for rehearsal and not for social life. In
other words, treat this group, for the next two weeks, the way you
treat any other serious performing group you may belong to.

The May third meeting goes back to being a drop-in group with lots
of sightreading and social life.

We’re expecting the following people:

1. Laura Conrad (voice, brass, recorder)
2. Barney Gage (voice, recorder)
3. Patricia Hawkins (voice, fiddle)
4. Anne Kazlauskas (voice)
5. Bonnie Rogers (voice, bass viol, recorder)
6. Ishmael Stefanov-Wagner (voice, fiddle, recorder)
7. Paul Ukleja (voice, cornetto, rackett, recorder)

Let me know if that list is wrong in any respect.

We’d like to work mainly on the French drinking songs:

• Changeons Propos
• Vignons, vignons
• Quand je bois

Depending on how time works out, we can add (probably at most one of):

• Estans Assis
• Good Morrow, fair ladies of the May
• My love hath vowed he will forsake me
• Now is the Month of Maying
• A round

We plan to start promptly at 8 PM. John’s address is 310 1/2 Pearl
St., which is behind 308 Pearl St. His phone number is (617)
661-8097. Let me know if you need more directions than that. I will
discuss scheduling the beer-drinking portion of the meeting a little
more gracefully than we did last time.

Rehearsal log

A very productive evening. We did:

• Clear or Cloudy
• Changeons Propos
• Now is the month of Maying
• My love hath vowed he will forsake me
• The Silver Swan

Decision log

We made some decisions:

• Dynamics in Now is the Month of Maying: Second verse, loud on “and
  to the bagpipes sound” and soft on “the nymphs tread out the ground”;
  Third verse: soft on “say dainty nymphs and speak”; crescendo through
  “shall we play barley break”.
• Parts on Silver Swan — Paul will not play cornetto the first time
  through.
• Key on Silver Swan will be D rather than Eb. This means that if
  you’re playing on the instrumental, you should print out your part
  from
  http://www.laymusic.org/music/gibbons/swan/thirddown/allparts.pdf
  especially if you’re playing quintus or altus, which had errors in
  them when I looked. (The errors had been fixed in the source, but the
  fixes hadn’t made it to the pdf.)

More decisions

We have some more decisions to make; input is welcomed.

Program order.

I’ve listed the sets as:

• May music
• Drinking music
• river music
  • Swans
  • Babylon

This gives us our typical “Begin with Morley and end with Billings”,
but means that there’s a lot of pretty serious music at the end. Also,
if I mistime the program, we may play the wrong number of rounds in
the Drinking songs set.

So I think it might make more sense to do:

• May music
• Swans
• Drinking songs
• Babylon

Let me know what you think.

Orchestration

I think we were starting to be a bit top-heavy last night. Some of
this is that people weren’t really looking at their part assignments,
and I had other things to do than policing them. I’m sure I attempted
to move either Patricia or Anne to the second line whenever there would
otherwise have been Patricia, Anne, and Paul on top and only me on
second.

I don’t want to make anyone do a part they aren’t comfortable with,
and the balance will be so different outdoors that it’s hard for us to
make reasonable decisions anyway. But if you’re ok with the move, I
think it would be better to at least try the decisions I made on
paper.

On “My love hath vowed”, I was expecting everybody to sing the B
section and the fourth verse A section (not just the people listed for
vocal solos). I was also thinking we might have instrumental support
on the top line. I’m assuming the people who weren’t singing or
playing had neglected to print the music out. Please do so (or ask me
to) by Tuesday, so we can play with this a little.

I will be posting a final order with updated part assignments
before the Tuesday meeting, so let me know what you think about any of
this by Sunday.

Schedule

Remember that the rehearsal on April 26 starts at 7:45 PM, and
people who need to do setup and tuning should arrive in time to do it
before the start time.

The May 1 schedule is:

• 10:30 – 10:45 Laura solo
• 10:45 – 11:30 Ishmael dance music, including others as he
  considers appropriate. Let him know if you want to be included
• 11:30 – 12 Laura and Bonnie, Morley duos
• 12 – 12:30 Quilisma Consort
• 12:30 – 1:15 Cantabile Renaissance Band
• 1:15 – 1:45 Quilisma Consort
• 1:45 – 2:30 Cantabile Renaissance Band
• 2:30 – 3:00 Greatest hits from previous sets whose performers
  are still there

If you aren’t playing the morning sessions, arrive as soon after
noon as possible, so that we can be set up and ready to go as soon as
Qulisma finishes their set.