Editorial
Madeline Seviour’s suggestion of a limerick competition has produced a wonderful response from just a select few. If a few more people had a go we could produce The TVEMF Book of Limericks! It was very difficult to choose a winner.
I was impressed that people managed to find rhymes for crumhorn, viol, gamba, lyre, flute, violin and even cornett. I particularly liked Diana’s concert in West Aberdeen, Kathy’s sad (and true) story about her attempt to get her viol bow repaired by the Early Music Shop and Don Gill’s fretted blasthorn, but in the end I decided (supported by the independent opinion of Elizabeth Heritage, a rather eminent English teacher) that the winners should be Geoff and Jackie Huntingford for their Scheidt and Schein trilogy (trimerick?) which made me laugh aloud when I read it. Many thanks to all who took part - Kathy Edmonds, Hazel Fenton, David Fletcher, Don Gill, Geoff and Jackie Huntingford, Elaine Mordaunt and Diana Porteus. Having changed my email address (see below) I think some emails may have failed to arrive, so I hope no entries have been lost. If yours didn’t arrive or you are inspired by these, do send them in time for the next Tamesis (February).
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
Victoria
Chairman's Chat
TVEMF subscriptions run from January to December so there should be a membership renewal form for all but those who paid recently (who should find an acknowledgment instead).
Our Christmas event is embarrassingly well-supported - I apologise to those turned away but both the musical considerations and room size prevent us from accepting any more applications. The January event is also going well but there are still places available, especially for tenors!
There are other workshops coming up so I look forward to seeing most of you at an event before long.
Our
sympathy goes to Robin Woodbridge whose wife, Ann, died suddenly on the 16th
November from an unusual strain of meningitis. Ann used to
bring and play her harpsichord at Baroque days at Burnham. Her funeral at St.
Albans was attended by many of her friends and relatives, and four of her fellow
musicians played trio sonatas before and during the service. This made the
ceremony very personal and special to Ann. We hope we shall continue to see
Robin at Forum events
Change of email address
My personal e-mail address has changed to victoria.helby
ntlworld.com
but I am continuing to look at the old one. If you are sending anything relating
to TVEMF please go on using secretarytvemf.org or
tamesistvemf.org as appropriate.
Limerick Competition
Said Vicky to Hazel one day
Let's get our recorders and play
A trio-sonata
A fugue or toccata
By Telemann, Bach or Marais.
MS
Some people when playing the viol
Choose always to play with a smile
If you want to know why
They don't want to cry
It's because they're at peace for a while
DG
People who play on the sackbut
Can be told not to come back but
With dogged persistence
Against this resistance
They practice all night in a black hut
DG
A pupil of Alison Crum
Kept holding his bow with his thumb.
He played a suspension
With far too much tension
And found that his finger went numb.
G&JH;
After driving to MEMF with a gamba
(The road had a very strong camber)
I played in�gale
With an accel for rall
And an allemande more like a samba.
G&JH;
Cried Philip, rehearsing Lalande,
"Why on earth don't the gambas respond?
They should play it more fully
As if it were Lully:
Are we still in the back of beyond?"
G&JH;
I must be going right round the bend!
I've think I've more bars than my friend
At whatever my speed,
And however I read,
I've too many notes at the end!
G&JH;
With my viol I've a long way to climb:
I'm aiming to be quite sublime.
I'm hoping quite soon
I can keep it in tune,
But then what shall I do with my time?
G&JH;
There was a new comer of Marlow
Very soon he'd acquired a cello
Every forum he attended
Made the players more offended
For he demanded to be picked for a solo
(It's just for the rhyme - I don't know any cello players in Marlow)
EM
If I say I'm soprano, you'll see,
They'll make me sing up to a G.
But if I put "alto"
They'll make me sing so low
The tenors sound higher than me!
G&JH;
Why is it the tutors all lie
When they tell us the meaning of "die"?
If it's all about sex
Then we'd be nervous wreck
Though we'd end every course on a high!
G&JH;
There once was a buxom young lassie
Who attempted to trill like Ganassi.
Her ornamentation
O'erstrained her foundation
Revealing a rather fine chassis.
G&JH;
I cannot get on with these bricks-
I really need barlines to fix.
When I see a square rest
What to do for the best?
To read it as two, four or six?
G&JH;
There was a sweet lady from Kent
Who said sorry wherever she went.
She never perceived
What her friends all believed,
That her playing was quite heaven-sent!
G&JH;
There was a conductor from Beccles
Who introduced Israel to Eccles.
He said "You know me!
I shall take it in three!"
And thus earned himself three thousand shekels.
G&JH;
These three need to be taken together, as you will see!
A German composer named Scheidt
Found himself in a corner queidt teidt.
Refusing some wein
From his old friend Joe Schein,
He ended up picking a feidt.
G&JH;
A German composer named Schein
Once offered Sam Scheidt a fein wein.
On refusal by Scheidt,
Schein cried "Out of my seidt!
How dare you my fein wein declein!"
G&JH;
An old judge in majesty deidt
Had to sit on the case Schein v Scheidt
He sent down Joe Schein
With a rather large fein,
And gave Samuel Scheidt a suspended sentence�..
G&JH;
How about playing the flute,
The viol, recorder, or lute?
The music is pretty,
The people are witty,
(It could be worth using a mute).
HF
I've always wanted a lyre,
To lounge and sing by the fire,
But my fingers are podgy,
My voice rather dodgy,
The outcome is bound to be dire.
HF
Three cheers for T V E M F
With members like Jackie and Geoff.
So let's sing a ditty
To thank our committee
We'll cheer till we're quite out of breath.
KE
A rather tall person called Wynne
Tried to purchase a large violin
Said a helpful young fellow
A quarter-sized cello
Would surely fit under your chin.
KE
I arranged for my bow to be sent
To Bradford with every intent
Of replacing the hair.
It came back, I declare
Exactly the same as it went!
KE
A viol is not easy to play,
Your knee seems to get in the way.
Your bow doesn't grip
So it squeaks when you slip;
More pressure would help it to stay.
KE
There was a young laddy called Miles,
Who's music just sat in great piles.
He came to his senses,
And jumped over fences,
When music had hidden his viols.
HF
I played in a Masque on my crumhorn,
In a short garden scene where a dumb faun
Leapt out from the trees;
And I then took my ease
And hung up my crum in a plum-thorn.
(True story, though actually it was a judas-tree, and the faun was rather loquacious!)
DP
An Editor known as Chris Thorn
Felt it his duty to warn
If you wake up at night
In a terrible fright
Its the sound of the fretted blasthorn
DG
In a concert in West Aberdeen
The choir sang at A415,
But the bass, feeling naughty,
Performed at 440,
And the audience all left the scene.
DP
The child's first attempt on the crumhorn
Elicited brother's and Mum's scorn:
"What a horrible row -
It sounds just like a cow!"
While Granny looked on with a glum yawn.
DP
Some liken the oboe and cornett
To a pair of glasses and lorgnette,
But for others the crumhorn
Sounds much like the lovelorn
buzz of a newly jilted hornett.
Apologies, but there only seem to be two rhymes for cornett!
DF
David also sent a haiku (idea for a future competition perhaps?)
The most telling rest
in early music is one
that's played on a shawm.
DF
MEDIVA STORM THE SOUTH BANK
I have just returned from
Mediva's triumphant concert in the Purcell Room, part of the Fresh Young Artists
Platform, which was a sell-out, with people queuing for returns - apparently
almost unheard-of for a South Bank d�but - and was very enthusiastically
received by the audience. They performed their Spanish programme, which ranges
from very intense, deeply-felt pieces, performed by a one or two singers, or
instruments such as recorder or flute, over a minimal accompaniment on fiddle,
harp or gittern, to lively, dance-based numbers, with lots of percussion, and
refrains in which everybody joined, most of the instrumentalists singing as well
as playing.
Like all performers of mediaeval music, they
have to create something acceptable to present-day audiences from sources which
are often pretty sketchy and difficult to interpret, and they do this in the
most imaginative way, using varied instrumentation, improvisation, and
"build-up" effects to put over music which on paper is often quite a simple
melody which goes on for verses and verses, telling a long story. Some purists
may pick holes, but we cannot know exactly how this music was performed, and
often have to experiment to find a way that works. Mediva's way certainly works
for me, and, judging by tonight's applause, for others as well. (Though of
course, there are limits - one draws the line at Mediaeval Baebes, as I believe
they spell themselves, for example...)
I was doubtful whether the group
would be able to create their special atmosphere in the rather clinical acoustic
of the Purcell Room, which is much harder work than the churches they usually
perform in, and they were much more limited in the way they were able to use the
space, but they produced their characteristic magic, and although I had heard
them perform much of the programme before, I found it completely absorbing. The
two
vocalists, Clare Norburn and Ariane Pr�ssner, about whom I have enthused
in these pages on previous occasions, produced some magnificent singing, much of
which was terrifyingly exposed, and held the audience in a vice-like grip in the
intense pieces, while getting everybody swinging in the livelier ones - the
group uses a lot of movement, which some may find a bit fidgety, but since so
much of this music is dance-based I think it is as well not to be too po-faced
about it, and the movement helps to communicate to the audience their enjoyment
in performing it. (Andrew Lawrence-King's Harp Consort used movement in a
similar way - they even had a dancer for some items - in their delightful Missa
Mexicana concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall during the Early Music weekend in
September).
Several cantigas were given purely
instrumentally, and the players, performing on recorders, shawms, mediaeval
fiddles, gitterns, harp and percussion, achieved some wonderful effects, both in
the introspective pieces - the mediaeval fiddle is particularly expressive in
the hands of Rebecca Austen-Brown - and the lively ones, when the percussion
went to town, often with very syncopated rhythms - everyone got a chance to
star, and made the most of it. They had dreamed up an unusual opening to the
second half of the programme - Ann Allen and Sarah Humphrys marched onto the
stage without warning, playing canons on shawms,
an excellent way of
regaining the attention of the audience.
I hope this concert is just the
start of the group's becoming known to a wider audience - they really do put on
the most enjoyable performances, covering a considerable range of material in
the mediaeval field. Third Voice, consisting of the two singers and the lutenist
(playing gitterns in this concert) Arngeir Hauksson, will be giving a Christmas
concert in Highgate on December 15th (see concerts list) - which will be well
worth going to; I went to their Christmas concert last year, and found it
riveting. Keep an eye open for future concerts of theirs, as well as of
Mediva's.
Ruth Harris
[There was an interview with
Third
Voice on Woman's Hour on the 16th
Dec]
More poor luck for the Early Music
Shop
There must be some optimistic souls up in Bradford. A few years back an Early Music Exhibition was overshadowed by funeral of a famous royal. This year a new venue was tried - the Royal Hospital at Greenwich. Apart from some problems with signing which should be improved in the light of experience, all seemed well: a good number of public, and, although it was too cramped in places, some excellent showing conditions in others: I especially liked the stalls around the restaurant area. Then the poor luck. What were the odds of a ten-year gale blowing up on the Saturday night? It wouldn't have mattered much were half the exhibits in buildings covered in scaffolding, but on the Sunday this half of the show, including the TVEMF stand, was put out of commission. (I should think the other half did quite well.) I think Greenwich is a good site for the show: better luck next time?
Chris Thorn
Renaissance Big Band
For his concert in the Queen
Elizabeth Hall on 18 November Philip Pickett assembled what must be one of the
biggest groups of professional early (ie pre-baroque!) musicians to be seen to
play a concert of dance music lollipops (mostly Susato, Mainerio, Holborne,
Praetorius). The hall was nearly full and the concert
well-received.
Pickett's orchestra was a series of subgroups which he
used like stops on an organ:
Continuo: 3 keyboards, 3 plucked
strings
Violin band (not a viol in sight)
Recorders: 3 small ones
sometimes augmented by doubling from the reed players
Reeds: 3 rauschpfeiffs
(I thought that term died the death yonks ago) often changing to other nasties,
and a bass curtal.
Brass: up to 7 players of combinations of trumpets,
cornetti and assorted trombones.
Percussion: 2 players enjoyed themselves.
Most of the drums had yet-to-be-invented counterhoops: why do I pay extra to
find the real thing?
I liked the sense of fun, the quality of playing,
the pace of the concert.
I liked less crumhorns used for pieces published
after they had fallen out of use - Philip had after all plenty of choices of
instrumentation. Also the uninformative brochure. Many in the audience would
have liked to know what the odd sights were: I was able to tell my neighbours
about crumhorns and chittaroni: my wife wondered if they had been
expecting
something like Benny Goodman, from the title of the concert. The
blank pages could have had pictures of the instruments used, at the very
least
Chris
Thorn
Non-TVEMF information
Aynsley Shilston has sent me details of the next
Tallis 9 performance weekend from 7th to 9th
February. She writes: "Rehearsals will be at Imperial College, London SW7 (the
Friday night rehearsal is not obligatory but is very useful) and the concert
will be at St Giles Cripplegate (Barbican). Besides Spem in alium the
programme will also include Constant Lambert's Brazilian Psalm and a 'requiem'
by Giles Swayne also for 40 parts, eight choirs - The Silent Land. While the
rest of the programme is obviously not 'Early', I am sure that many people have
fairly catholic tastes and would be interested nonetheless. It is quite an
experience (I've done three Tallis weekends so far). The contact is Anna Moses,
93 Stradella Road, London SE24 9HL (020 7274 5314)
anna.mosesukonline.co.uk and the cost of the weekend is �45 (there are
concessions) plus music, which can be bought or hired."
William Vine has
sent me information about The British Harpsichord Society which has been
formed to promote the awareness, enjoyment, study, performance and ownership of
harpsichords and related plucked keyboard instruments in Britain. The website
www.harpsichord.org.uk contains a wealth of links to harpsichord related
information, including teachers, concerts, makers etc. It is entirely email and
web based and is free to join. You can contact them on
infoharpsichord.org.uk
The Broadwood Harpsichord Competition for players under 28 will take place at Fenton House, with auditions on 12th and 13th May and the prize winner’s recital on 21st August. The closing date is 28th February and entry forms can be obtained from Susan Alcock (020 7372 3206).