Reviews

On Saturday July 4th thirty six of us gathered in the W.I. Hall in Backwell for an excellent day of music studying works by J.D.Heinichen and J.D.Zelenka.

The orchestra comprised 3 violins, viola, cello, theorbo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes and a chamber organ. The choir of 25 provided some good soloists when these were needed. The hall was an excellent venue. Under Ralph?s direction we worked hard and his sense of humour and general encouragement helped us to end the day with a lively performance of three of the pieces. He had brought a bag of sweets and threatened to throw one at anyone who went wrong, but after the first piece seemed surprised not to have thrown any! He was a very good conductor who created a relaxed atmosphere.

Ralph is in demand nationally as a conductor and tutor and is the musical director at Norvis. The Heinichen pieces were retrieved from manuscripts held in Dresden as part of the Ph.D studies of Margaret Williams at Bristol University. Margaret very kindly gave a short talk on the composers, the background to the pieces and the difficulties of working with old manuscripts. Ralph had already conducted some of Margaret?s Heinichen pieces at Norvis.

During the first half of the 18th century the court of Dresden was one of the richest and most powerful in Europe. The musical establishments of the court were very important. Heinichen (1683-1729), the son of a Lutheran pastor, was Kapellmeister there from 1717-1729 and wrote works in the Catholic tradition as a result of a politically motivated change of religious allegiance by the Dresden court.

Not a great deal is known about Zelenka (1679-1745) who studied in Prague, was a gifted composer and often acted as Heinichen?s deputy at court. Our thanks go to Sylvia Davies for organising the day, to Margaret Williams for providing all the music and to Ralph Woodward for his patient encouragement.

Sue Young

Peter Leech, the new Chair of SWEMF conducted a day of French choral music, at the beautiful priory church of Edington, combining musical direction with a series of informative and amusing anecdotes. The day was attended by 35 singers, accompanied at various points by baroque strings, recorders, oboe and theorbo. Continuo was played by two bass viols, complemented by Peter on organ.

It was a glorious day with hardly a cloud in the sky. The choir warmed up on plainsong, which sounded wonderful in the resonant acoustic and gave the strings a chance to acclimatise to A-440 pitch. Peter went on to tell us something of the context in which the works he had chosen were composed, at the court of the Sun King, Louis X1V of France. Some musicologists have argued that they were always played and sung one to a part but there is also evidence that, on ceremonial occasions at least, much larger forces were employed. We began with a Charpentier Messe des Morts and worked on several movements. Peter explained the difference between French and Italian pronunciation of Latin, and some characteristics of the French style. There was no time to go into detail about French ornamentation – ten or twelve different types of trill, for example – but Peter encouraged the singers to attempt the characteristic extended cadential trill, which went well after a bit of practice.

Edington Priory Church	Peter Leech conducting Charpentier Workshop

We then moved on to a motet, Regina Caeli Laetare by Paolo Lorenzani, an Italian who worked in the Queen?s private chapel for many years. After the death of his patron, Queen Marie Therese, he was dismissed along with his fellow Italians by the all-powerful Lully, who was in denial of his own Italian origins. The story had a happy ending as Lorenzano went on to a successful career in Rome.

The main work for the day was Charpentier's Messe pour les Trépassés in a new edition by John S. Powell. We worked on a number of movements, some with instrumental preludes or "symphonies". This is a transitional work, sometimes very "modern" for its time and sometimes looking back to the past. The different sections are strongly contrasted, the dramatic Dies irae followed by the insistent repeated quavers of the Tuba mirum and the creepily rising scales of the Mors stupebit, concluding with a peaceful Agnus Dei.

After the lunch break, either a picnic in the sun or a visit to the local pub, we reassembled and returned to Lorenzani. This work includes a virtuosic solo originally composed for a castrato. It was beautifully sung by our guest soloist, Sarah Best, whose performance was much appreciated. The day ended with a play-through of eight movements of the Charpentier mass and we went home with a considerable sense of achievement.

Many thanks to Peter Leech for an inspiring musical experience and to Stella Worrall for organising a most enjoyable event.

Sonia Jackson with photographs by Mary Yates

(NB: The Lorenzani motet is available on a Naxos recording and there is a good recording of the Charpentier Requiem by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.)

NORVIS (the Northumbria Recorder and Viol Society) is an annual summer school for playing early music. This can be from the Renaissance to Baroque, and this year we even had some Mendelssohn because of the composer's bicentenary.

The course has a beautiful riverside setting in the College of Hild and Bede in Durham, the college being right next to the river.

You're free to choose the lessons you want according to your ability, whether you're starting out or have been playing for years! You have the opportunity to play recorders, viols, crumhorns, baroque flutes, lutes, singing, dance, and much, much more.

The friendly atmosphere is ever present, as you meet people of all ages, countries, and abilities at the course. This year I was the youngest member of the course (aged 12) and there were some first-time participants who are in their seventies! Each year we get to meet players and singers from around the world, like from France, Switzerland, Israel, and Germany.

You'll be able to play in a consort, you can be part of the choir or the orchestra (who will give a big performance at the end of the week), see others play in the lunchtime proms and evening concerts (as well as perform yourself), enjoy a drink at the bar at night with others, take part in master classes, as well as the Choice of Delights – one-off lessons in the afternoon, which can include having a try of a new instrument, like a viol or a lute. There's also plenty of free time that can be spent walking, shopping, talking – even rowing!

I have been going to NORVIS for three years, and I have enjoyed every moment of it. In the courses I have discovered new composers (in one of this year's Choice of Delights – the Young Player's Day, I discovered Boismortier, who composed a beautiful piece for four treble recorders which we played the following evening), and made new friends. This year, on Friday night at the bar, we swapped readings of novels and stories we'd written. (Being a keen Anti-Twilighter, I asked if my extract was better than Stephanie Meyer's writing. And the answer was yes! So I was very happy.)

The tutors are really nice, and are fantastic musicians. They help you if you're stuck and give you constructive criticism and compliments.

This year, there was a recorder taster day for younger (very much younger – one was only five!) students – and they played in a concert as well!

NORVIS is great fun, and I?m already looking forward to 2010?s course. Hope to see you there!

Jessica Weisser

“The Christian Year”

Leaving home at 7.30am to make the two and a half hour journey to West Bay in Dorset, I was expecting holiday traffic on the A303, but with sunshine and clear roads, joined Ann's annual workshop for early music on time. As a bass viol I was greeted warmly, the participants being mainly voices and recorders of all pitches – and what a lovely sound they made!

Ann's workshops are known for her painstaking preparation – all one's music is clearly labelled and numbered and her role is well prepared in advance – such a benefit to her humble students! We worked on motets of different periods and a variety of composers from the Renaissance period:

Nunc Dimittis – Lumen ad revelation – Byrd

Music for Compline - Te lucis anti terminum – Tallis

Introit for the Mass of the Blessed virgin during Advent – Rorate caeli – Handl

Psalm 32 vv1-5 – Exultate Justi – Hakenberger

Trinity Sunday – Due Seraphim – Handl

Penitential Motet sung in Lent – Emendemus in melius – Morales

Christmas Motet – In natali Domini – M Praetorius

Whitsun – Hodie completi sunt - Croce

The lunch break gave us all a chance to enjoy glorious late summer sunshine and as it was the annual church bike ride, quite a few walkers, visitors and cyclists dropped in to St John's Church to sign in and some stayed to listen to the music – what an incentive to us all!! They even stayed to applaud. I am thinking of trying to organise something similar for our own local church if Ann will come armed with Handl, Byrd and the rest.

Well done everybody and special thanks to Ann – it is a day not to be missed.

Ann Kirkbride

This workshop on choral masterpieces from Vivaldi's Venice, with Peter Leech's choir “Harmonia Sacra” and supported by The Churches Conservation Trust and SWEMF, took place in the magnificent interior depicted on the front cover of this Diary. The church in St. Thomas Street remains consecrated, although services are no longer regularly held there.

Peter shared his vast knowledge of the history of the period, describing how these works would have been sung by young women concealed behind a screen, and carried us along with his enthusiasm for the wonderful acoustics of this church, whose classical proportions, atmosphere and stillness seemed to lend itself perfectly to the music being sung.

Heather Gibbard

This event celebrated the anniversary of the birth of Purcell (1659-1695) and was in the form of a Workshop studying some of his anthems and instrumental pieces. The weekend was in fact a veritable feast of Purcell -- with a delicious starter on Friday night comprising two anthems, finishing up on the Sunday morning with a Purcell three-layer sandwich we made ourselves (for explanation, see later).

Our venue was Dillington House, set in the heart of the Somerset countryside. We enjoyed high-quality accommodation, delightful meals and friendly staff. We were also provided with good facilities that included a spacious theatre to perform in with a generous, warm acoustic. The music tutoring came courtesy of Ralph Allwood who impressed us with his focused and scholarly approach but was friendly, gently humorous and endlessly encouraging. For instance, he addressed the problems that singers sometimes face in singing a little flat. After an analysis and review of various techniques that are available, he offered the priceless exhortation "just try to sing a little sharper". Additional tutoring was provided by Lynn Selwood (strings) and Sophie Middleditch (recorders). So during the weekend there were three groups of musicians being tutored on Purcell's music simultaneously.

We were also joined by two singers, Wilf and James, who are currently in their sixth form at school. The addition of their voices ensured there was a good balance between the different registers. We trust they enjoyed and benefited from the workshop -- it was certainly good having them amongst us. Although the focus of the weekend was of course the music, there was also the renewing of friendships and the varied and stimulating discussions over meals. Some of the topics covered included... who makes the best recorders, why bananas come in so many different sizes, the inventive and surprisingly chromatic harmonies used by Purcell, the evolution of lichen and what can happen when you try to buy popcorn in Peckham, South London (thanks Lynn).

In another impromptu mini talk, Ralph explained that for the funeral of Queen Mary II, thanks to a painting of the time, it was known that trumpets and drums had been deployed. However the precise use of these instruments on such occasions, and even the question of whether they were necessarily being played, is debated. Similarly the actual keys that were used are not necessarily those that appear in the editions we have available. After full consideration of such scholarly matters, and bearing in mind the uncertainties, we felt fully justified in substituting our own wind instruments, namely recorders, and at a pitch of our choice. The recorder ensemble had prepared a March and Canzona (originally for brass). The two anthems "Man that is born of woman" and "Thou knowest, Lord, the Secrets of Our Hearts" were dovetailed between these. This made what was referred to earlier as the "Purcell three-layer sandwich" (delicious) -- sadly not available on your local high street, but exclusively produced at Dillington House, Somerset.

In the final performance, as well as the above anthems, we performed "My Heart Is Inditing" for voices and strings, written in 1685 for the Coronation of James II in Westminster Abbey. The recorder ensemble also played for us a Hornpipe and the intriguingly entitled "Hole- in-the-Wall". There was also some intense and dramatic recitative for Saul, Samuel and the Witch of Endor (characters in the story not members of SWEMF) in the setting of "In Guilty Night". All in all, there were opportunities for singers and instrumentalists in various ways in what amounted to an hour and a half of varied music.

And last but not least, our thanks to Heather Gibbard for her thorough preparation for the weekend and for her calm and unflustered approach that helped things run so smoothly.

Malcolm Field

Programmes for this event were enclosed with the September SWEMF Diary and at least five SWEMF members attended, some for the whole weekend and three of us just for the Orchestral Workshop which took place on Saturday 14th. Severe weather warnings had been issued, which deterred an additional SWEMF instrumentalist, but the rest of us braved the storm.

The workshop was intended for students, amateurs, teachers/professionals – anyone with sight-reading ability, but not necessarily experience of baroque style, and string players were told they could tune down their „modern? instruments. There was a surfeit of applications from cellists as often seems to be the case these days, but they played with reasonable delicacy and did not dominate the sound, although the majority were playing with modern instruments and bows.

A large number of children from about the age of nine or ten attended, but all seemed very competent players and they were very enthusiastic. They had been given the music to study in advance, which was beneficial as far as playing the notes was concerned, but some players had had bowings put in by their teacher – which didn?t go down so well with the director, although she remained tactful about it. Some good advice was offered about bowing style and about listening to one?s desk partner and both playing at the same volume. Maggie lent some of her bows to violinists, but those without a baroque bow were unable to perform the bow strokes suggested. She took the music at a very lively tempo, which may have proved difficult for the people who had not been sent music in advance. The young people belonged to an organisation called South West Music School whose aim is to nurture instrumental and vocal talent in all areas of music, and there were certainly some talented players among them.

I understand that some participants who had not booked meals in advance were forced to travel some distance to find somewhere to eat, having not been made aware of the limited number of places in the restaurant on the site. Maggie recommended that we visit the Exhibition of Handel memorabilia, which we did before heading for the Cider Press for lunch. The items were poor relations of those to be seen at the Handel House Museum, being replicas of scores and reproductions of paintings. However, the shop at the Cider Press provided a good source of rather up-market Christmas presents and interesting foodstuffs for the season.

Heather Gibbard

This event is a wonderful opportunity to meet up with old friends in the most awe-inspiring surroundings of the old Royal Naval College right on the Thames. There are makers from all over the world selling early instruments of many types, with an emphasis on recorders, including many second-hand instruments on offer. Concerts are put on at intervals, many in the magnificent chapel. I went on Sunday 15th and enjoyed a concert by Alison Crum and friends on Renaissance viols by Richard Jones, and a recital of Bach?s 6th Cello Suite by Susan Sheppard on her 5-string cello. In between I manned the TVEMF stand where information from all the early music forums was available; at about 4 pm on the Sunday, just as I started to browse the vast offerings of music, there was a bomb alert because someone had left unclaimed items with Reception, so everyone was shepherded away from the buildings. After shivering for about twenty minutes my friends and I decided to beat a retreat, feeling extremely sorry for the exhibitors who had the stress of not only abandoning their exhibits but also losing potential sales; my bank balance was all the healthier however!

Heather Gibbard

I had no idea what to expect and was just a bit apprehensive: I usually play music rather later in origin than the (east European) contemporaries of the Gabrielis who were the main composers for the ’09 course – and sometimes I get into trouble with my violone playing (Too loud!; Lighten up, or you will have to play from outside the door!). But in actual fact in polychoral works, against a choir of about 30 and a band including NINE sackbuts, I had no need to hold back - indeed was encouraged (once or twice) to be even louder. But that does not imply that we were just belters. There were some much more delicate pieces including an exquisite Christmas piece “Beati immaculati” (by a Polish gentleman whose name I forget but I think it ended in –zewski), a really lovely thing moving gently over a ground bass. Violins and viols starred in this.

The tutors Alan Lumsden & Philip Thorby, supported by Clifford Bartlett, were enthusiastic and enthusing, with a deep understanding of the music, and especially Philip’s wit kept us really on our toes (Ladies and gentlemen: I am aware that there are renaissance works where the bass moves in canon: this is not one of them).

For those musicians specialising in renaissance music, but wanting to look forward a bit, or those barockies looking back a bit, this was the perfect week. I had a great time, and playing the violone more or less non-stop for a week must be some sort of record: it brought my playing on no end!

Top grade!

Alan Morris

Travelling to Glastonbury we looked forward to an enjoyable afternoon studying and singing one of the several Magnificat settings by Sebastian Vivanco (c1551-1622), a composer rather less known than his contemporary Victoria. And that enjoyable afternoon is what we got.

In the comfort of St Mary’s church hall, Anthony Bevan inspired a keen and comfortably-sized choir with his knowledge of the music and his ability to project its intensity and fervour.

A little sagging in intonation here and there was quickly and kindly adjusted; Anthony’s careful attention to vowel production and to pitch, his own being perfect (or Perfect?) wove the eight-part verses into a rich and sonorous whole, contrasting with the simplicity of the alternatim plainsong.

And it’s always a joy to be handed a Mapa Mundi edition with its clear type and attractive and helpful style. (A thought - it’s good for us non-playing singers to ponder now and again how we’d get on with the single-part copies that ensemble instrumental players have to cope with. The nearest we get to this is perhaps at the other end of the scale, when trying to work out where we belong and what cues to watch for from within the monster page when tackling Spem in Alium).

Our only reservation is that we’d like to have a longer time, to sing and learn more, especially since the group is now a pretty competent assembly, with its talent for sight-singing leaving little need for “note-bashing”.

Our thanks to Anthony for once more choosing and illuminating an enjoyable work unfamiliar to most of us and very agreeable in its considerate demands in the way of vocal ranges. Thanks too to those who organise this pleasant way of spending an afternoon in congenial company and surroundings, and those who see to our refreshment.

We’ll be back next year!

Barbara and Michael Baumann

Venice has long been a magnet for visitors. By the 18th century it was firmly established as a major stopping point on the Grand Tour, but it had reached the height of its commercial prosperity by the 16th. Immense wealth had enabled it to indulge itself richly in the arts and architecture, in sumptuousness and pomp, and music had a supremely important part in the various celebrations and spectacles. Musical establishments were maintained on a scale that was the envy of courts elsewhere in Europe, and these naturally attracted composers and musicians from beyond Italy, eager to gain experience and advancement. It was the work of a few of the composers active in 16th-century Venice, both native-born and Northern European, that about forty of us (singers, recorder and viol-players) explored with Ann Lyall at West Bay on 27th March.

The earliest of these was Adrian Willaert, a Netherlander who became head of music at St. Mark's in 1527. We looked at his five-part Marian motet Regina Coeli, but sang only part two in our “public performance” at the end of the afternoon. Willaert's pupil Andrea Gabrieli, composer and organist at St. Mark's, was adept at exploiting the spaciousness of that basilica and its design. Although it was not exclusive to Venice, he developed the device of splitting the singers into separate groups in different galleries, producing a form of “all round sound”. The Venetians loved such effects! So did we when we tried the splendid Jubilate Deo, even though the layout of St. John's at West Bay did not allow us to separate physically.

Hans Leo Hassler was a pupil of Andrea Gabrieli, one of the first German composers to go to Italy. We sang his four-part Agnus Dei. Lesser-known composers in our programme were Giovanni Croce, chorister and later maestro di cappella at St. Mark's (Hodie Completi Sunt and O sacrum Convivium); and Finetti, who wrote for smaller Venetian churches, and whose Passiontide motet O Crux Ave Spes Unica was particularly appropriate for the liturgical season.

Ann had brought along Claudio Monteverdi?s Laudate Dominum, a splendid double choir work, almost thinking it would be too tricky for us to reach performance standard in the time available. She was perhaps a little surprised when we pleaded to include it at the end of the afternoon, but gave in graciously. We trust our performance justified our hopes – we enjoyed it anyway.

Our very grateful thanks are due to Ann for her planning and hard work in taking us through the day. As always it was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion. Thanks also to Paula Biss for her usual very efficient organisation of the event.

Clavell Tripp

Thorverton Parish Church became host to the sonorous grandeur of 16th century Venetian music on Saturday 24th April. Under the patient direction of Margaret Westlake we were soon immersed in the rich vocal and instrumental harmonic tapestry of the Gabrielis and Willaert.

The church was filled with soul uplifting music – a shadow of what St Mark's Basilica must have reverberated to. Viols, recorders and loud wind were partnered by a small but very competent choir. One piece kept us on our musical toes with its complex rhythms – plenty of furious counting for some – but otherwise the remaining pieces allowed us to wallow in their enveloping beauty. A very rewarding day.

Thank you Margaret.

Christopher Ainslie