Category: Cantabile

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.

We’ll have at least one new Dowland. The next one is a
through-composed, 3-verse one, so it’s as much work as setting three,
and I probably can’t do that much (I have about half the work done for
the first one as of 9 AM this morning). But we’ll see.

I’ve changed two things in the Drinking Songs book, which I’m
gearing up to sell at . So we’ll
do “Vive la Serpe” (new key and some English underlay fixes) and “O
Portsmouth”.

People should be prepared to decide whether they want to sing in
Fall River next Monday, and if several of us want to, we’ll go over
what we want to sing. I would expect “Now is the Month of Maying” if
there’s a quorum, and a selection of drinking songs, although anything
we did at the Walk for Hunger should be still an option.

We’re meeting as usual tomorrow, Tuesday, May 17, at 7:45 PM at
my place.

We’ll have another Dowland.

We may have English words to “Vive la Serpe”, although they still
need a little work.

If we have 5 parts, there are a bunch of things I’d like to do,
including a bunch of Holborne’s that I’ve been transcribing for John
Tyson.

If we have only three parts, we can work on some more Morley
canzonets.

I didn’t hear back from my sister about singing at her Memorial Day
cookout, so I have pinged her. I said we needed to know if she hated
the idea, so that we could practice “Praise the Lord and pass the
ammunition” instead of “Dona Nobis Pacem” and crash someone else’s
Memorial Day event. If she sounds interested, we’ll discuss what to
play, and with what instruments. I think it might make sense to try a
vocals only with no music stands or instruments. It could be short.

We played:

• Lassus, Fantasia 25
• Morley, Good morrow, Fair Ladies of the May
• Vive la Serpe, with the new English words
• Dowland, If that a sinner’s sighs be angel’s food (no cake to go
  with it)
• Holborne group
  • Fairie round
  • Last Will and Testament
  • Galliard 40
  • As it fell on a holie Eve

It looks like at least some of us will do a short group of drinking
songs at the Memorial Day cookout in Fall River. If we have enough
people, I think we should include “Now is the month of Maying”.

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.