Bringing Live Music back into the Living Room

Meeting Report

We played:

• DUNDEE (God moves in a mysterious way)
• CAITHNESS (O for a closer walk with god)
• Ruffo, Trinitas in Unitate, a canon
• Cavendish, Come, gentle Swains
• Mundy, Lightly she whipped o're the dales,
• Byrd, This sweet and merry month of May,
• Ravenscroft, Now God be with old Simeon
• Hey ho, to the greenwood

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Other events

There are several concerts of Renaissance music this weekend:

• Convivium Musicum is playing works of Orlandus Lassus on Saturday, January 28 at 7 PM in the Cambridge Friends Meeting house and on Sunday, January 29 at at 4 PM at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Brookline.
• Music for Viols and Friends presents "The Tudor Consort," music from the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, performed by mezzosoprano Pamela Dellal, El Dorado Ensemble (Carol Lewis, Mai-Lan Broekman, Paul Johnson, Janet Haas and Alice Mroszczyk, viols; Olav Chris Henriksen, lute & renaissance guitar) and special guest Wendy Gillespie, viol. The concert features songs, dances, fantasies & solos by Henry VIII himself, van Wilder, Ferrabosco I, Tallis, Byrd, Johnson, Morley & others. It will be Friday, January 27, 2012 at 8 pm in Lindsay Chapel, First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, Cambridge MA, and also Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 3 pm at the Somerville Museum.
• Exultemus is playing double choir music for voices and brass on Saturday, January 28 at 8pm in the University Lutheran Church, Harvard Square, and on Sunday, January 29, at 3pm at the First Lutheran Church of Boston.

Meeting report

We played:

• Morley, Il Grillo
• From the hymnal:
  • Mon Dieu, prete-moi l'oreille; from the Geneva Psalter
  • FARRANT
  • Ainsworth 97
• Byrd, From virgin's womb, (Part I)
• Arcadelt, Je ne suis pas si sot
• Sermisy, Jouissance vous donnerai
• Sermisy, Tant que Vivray
• Josquin, Faute d'Argent
• Purcell, Cakes and Ale

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Other event

Trium, literally "of three," is a trio of superb sopranos who have dedicated themselves to the exploration and performance of music of three equal voices. On January 22, 2012, they will present Portraits in Miniature.  In the tradition of the Renaissance miniature portrait, a tiny detailed devotion to a beloved subject, Trium will explore, luxuriate and celebrate bite-size portions of a variety of periods and styles, from the Notre Dame school in medieval Paris to the sixteenth century Flemish motet, to the English Madrigal style, with a soupcon of turn of the century and contemporary.  The concert will take place at the historic Loring-Greenough House, 12 South Street, Jamaica Plain MA, as part of the Sunday Afternoon at the Greenough House parlor concert series.
Trium was founded in 1997 to perform a benefit concert at Emmanuel Church in Boston, but Shannon Larkin, Margaret Johnson, and Susan Trout are well known individually for their work with Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and Emmanuel Music. Each of the voices has a distinctly unique quality, and when they come together they make a gloriously blended sound that is even greater than the sum of its parts. Margaret's pure sweet tone and stratospheric range surround each piece with a halo of brilliance. Shannon's clarion soprano weaves in with a shimmer and dips down into mezzo warmth. Susan's brilliantly radiant and richly warm tone adds depth and beauty before carrying its strength to the top of the staff. Whether they are singing a finely tuned dissonant chord in a Renaissance motet or an exquisitely blended unison in a contemporary art song, Trium makes music "of three" sound like so much more.

Meeting Report

We played:

• Warmups (I wasn't there, so I don't know what.)
• Music from Dowland's First Book
• Byrd, From virgin's womb, (Part I) and Rejoyce, (Part II)
• Rore, Tanto me piacque,
• Purcell, Down with Bacchus

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Meeting Report

We played:

• Lots of Christmas stuff, including Byrd, From virgin's womb/Rejoyce
• Rore, Strane Ruppi,
• Entre vous qui aymés
• da Rore: Ancor che col partire
• Laura's Band

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Meeting Report

We played:

• Lots of Christmas stuff, including:
  • Praetorius, En! Natus est Emanuel
  • Praetorius, Psallite,
  • Agricola, Crions Nouel,
• Lots of Holborne
• Auld Lang Syne

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Meeting Report

We played:

• Lots of Christmas stuff, including:
  • Praetorius, Psallite,
  • Agricola, Crions Nouel,
  • Pygot, Quid petis, o fili?

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Meeting report

I think they did Christmas hymns and Holborne before I got there. Then we played:

• Weelkes, Death hath deprived me of my dearest friend
• Rore, Mia benigna fortuna,
• Ravenscroft, To Portsmouth

Schedule

For the near future, we will be having our regular dropin meetings on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Other events

The Delight Consort Christmas Concert is on Sunday at the Loring-Greenough House at 3 PM. Their schedule also includes several other holiday events farther away from here.

Meeting report

We played:

• Hymns celebrating the spring weather we've been enjoying
• Holborne
• Cavendish, Come, gentle swains
• Rore, Mia benigna fortuna
• Ravenscroft, To Portsmouth

Schedule

We have resumed our every week dropin meetings on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place. Anne has kindly volunteered to arrive on time and let people in next week, December 13, when I'll be running a special primary to replace Warren Tolman in the state senate.

Party

This year's Christmas party is on Sunday, December 11, at 4 PM at my place.

If you know that you're coming and what you're bringing, let me know, so I can coordinate. But please come at the last minute even if you haven't told me, and don't have time to cook anything. Potato chips and bottles are good contributions to a potluck, and don't need coordination since if more people bring them than eat them, we just won't open them all.

Invite your friends, especially if you know people who might be interested in joining our group. There's a printable invitation if you want hard copy to give them.

Meeting report

We played:

• Thou God of all, whose spirit moves to Old 22nd from the Anglo-Genevan Psalter
• Jouissance je vous donnerai
• Je ne suis pas si sot bergere
• Entre vous qui aimez
• Ne l'aria in questi di fatt'ho un si forte Castel,
• Tanto mi piacque
• Cider Round

Report on November 1 meeting

We played:

• Farrant
• Nun Danket
• Jouissance je vous donnerai
• Wilbye, Flora gave me fairest flowers,
• Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone
• Lots of Rore
• He that will an alehouse keep

Schedule

The good news is that we're going back to a weekly schedule, except for a few interruptions. The Morley rehearsals, which have been preempting these rehearsals have now moved to Thursdays, except when someone can't make Thursday, in which case they will still preempt the Tuesday dropin rehearsal.

The bad news is that two of the interruptions are in the next two weeks.

So we will not be meeting next week, November 22, when we can't meet on Thursday because it's Thanksgiving.

We can't meet on Tuesday, November 29, because one of the Morley performers can't make the Thursday rehearsal that week. However, if there's interest, we could hold a dropin meeting on Thursday. Let me know if you'd come if we did that.

The two weeks after that, December 6 and 13, are fine for rehearsals, except that someone else will have to get them started because they're having a special election in part of Cambridge, and I'll be working at the polls.