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The next rehearsal of the Cantabile Renaissance band will be on
Tuesday, September 6 at 7:45 PM at my place.

We need to start getting a playlist (and group list) for the
October and November gigs, so we’ll run some drinking songs, pastoral
songs, Playford and Babylon. We said last week that we’d run the last
two Dowland’s which are sort of a group, but we may postpone that
depending on who shows up.

Parking

The whole block is posted with emergency parking bans because the
water department is digging up the street. These only
last until 3 PM today and tomorrow, so if they haven’t left the whole
street dug up, you should find it easier to park than usual.

We played:

• Playford Group
  1. Daphne
  2. The Bonnie, Bonnie Broome
  3. All in a garden green
• Drinking songs
  • O Portsmouth
  • Vive la Serpe
  • Vignons, vignons
• Gabrielli, Canzon á 4
• Holborne, Muy Linda
• He that will an alehouse keep

We still need to get more commitments from performers before we can
set up playlists for either the October 15 or the
November 11-13 and 17-19 gigs. But I’ll do my best to set up
tentative ones next week after I’ve talked to the Theatre First people.

We played:

• Dowland group:
  • Flow my tears
  • A shepherd in a shade
  • Cease these false sports
  • Burst forth my tears
  • It was a time when silly bees could speake
• Fair Phyllis
• Drinking songs:
  • Vive la serpe
  • Vignons vignons
  • Let us drink and be merry

The Wort Processor’s Ciderfest will be on October 15 at Russell
Orchards in Ipswich. We will be deciding what to play over the next
couple of weeks, and to do that we need to know who will be playing.
Let me know as soon as you can if you’d like to play. There will be
at least one and possibly as many as three compulsory rehearsals for
this performance.

There is also a strong possibility of a gig in November playing in
conjunction with a production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” at Theatre First in Davis
Square. I’ll be talking to them about repertoire, etc. next week.
The easy thing would be some drinking songs and Playford dances, but
if we wanted to get fancy, there’d be a possibility of a “rivers of
Babylon” and/or a Susannah group, since both of those are referred to
in the play. In any case, start thinking about whether you would want
to do a gig on November 11-13 and 17-19.

The next rehearsal of the Cantabile Renaissance band will be on
Tuesday, August 30 at 7:45 PM at my place.

Last week Hope found us a Rameau drinking song that looks fun to
learn. It should help bridge the Purcell drinking songs into the 16th
century French ones, as well as giving us some practice on chromatic
harmonies that will help with the later Dowlands.

We also have postponed the last “Pilgrim’s Solace” piece for long
enough, so we’ll do it, regardless.

Requests are welcome. I’m thinking of a drinking group and a
shepherd/pastoral group for the Ciderfest performance, but we may want
to work in some dance music as well.

We had a local maximum for recent years of 10 people attending. So
we were able to do some 5-part stuff with both 4-foot and 8-foot
choirs.

We did:

• Farmer, Fair Phyllis
• Holborne group:
  • Hermoza
  • Muy Linda
  • Fairie Round
• Rameau, Avec du vin, endormons nous
• Drinking songs:
  • Let us drink and be merry
  • He that drinks is immortal

I don’t know of any upcoming events to disrupt our normal weekly
schedule for the next few weeks. When we have a date for the
ciderfest, we’ll probably schedule a few meetings to prepare for that,
some of which will be open only to people who want to play there.

Other events

Judith Conrad is playing a clavichord concert on Sunday. Details
on the
BRS calendar.

We have the new Dowland, Cease these False Sports.

Anne is not going to be there, so we may not have anyone who only
sings, so it might be a good time to do some of our instrumental
repertoire. There’s at least one Holborne that we haven’t done;
there’s all the Dowland Pavannes, there’s been a recent request for
Gabrielli…

In addition, several people who aren’t regulars are planning to
come, so if they all actually make it, we’ll be able to do five and
six part stuff. Requests are welcome.

We don’t yet have a date for the Wort Processors Ciderfest, but it
will likely be in late October. I’m thinking about the sheep group,
so we may run some of those (Fair Phyllis, Burst forth my tears…).