New .... The Early Music Network!

Subject: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Ptarmigan
Date: 30 Aug 09 - 04:07 PM

I don't know if there are many folks here interested in Early Music, but for those who are, I thought you might like to know that The Early Music Network was launched today, to provide a place for early music enthusiasts to network & share their early music related Photos, MP3s & Videos.

Cheers,
Dick

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Aug 09 - 06:11 PM

There already is one.

http://earlymusic.org.uk

You need a new name immediately if not sooner.

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Nick E
Date: 30 Aug 09 - 06:20 PM

Methinks there shall be a an Early Music Throwdown!

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Café!
From: Ptarmigan
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 01:04 AM

Aye Nick, maybe ..... Racketts at Dawn! :-)

Hmmmmm so instead of the Dawn Chorus ..... the Dawn Rackett!

The site's just a few hours old, so it's easy to change that word.

Must admit, I didn't really like that word Network anyway, it sounded far too pompous for my purpose!

Cheers
Dick

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 04:36 AM

Early Musicians Anonymous? ("My name is Dave and I'm a gambist...")

The First Church of Christ the Countertenor?

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 05:10 AM

Oh I see - that sort of Early Music. I did a fancy-dress gig with Misericordia for English Heritage once and vowed never to do it again - though I do appear on two of their CDs and regard them both as amongst the finest musicians I've ever worked with. The fancy-dress, IMO, detracts from both the music and its immediate relevance to the 21st century; imagine if trad. singers dressed up grubby in cast-offs from Larkrise! But hey - each to their own, eh? And it's thrown up a thriving scene of bands & musicians who whilst being far from the cutting edge of Early Music research, are busy adding festive colour to Heritage Sites & Events up & down the country. Best of the bunch IMO has to be the amazing Wulffengrimm who I fetched up beside on a storytelling gig in Chopwell woods a few years back. We fell in love instantly and tearfully realised we'd been living within two miles of one another for the last two years - sad to say, within the month we'd be leaving rural County Durham for the Lancastrian Fylde. Over here there's any amount of music but little evidence of Early Music so far, real or fancy-dress. That said in Blackpool on Saturday I bought terrific ox-horn horn with a beautifully carved integral mouthpiece for a mere £7. I will add it to the various accessories on my storytelling costume, itself based on a notion that many of the so-called Green Men we find in churches and cathedrals are in fact depictions of medieval carnival masks. Click HERE if you dare!

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Ptarmigan
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 05:37 AM

Interesting to hear you say the costume detracts from the music & yet you obviously dress up for telling stories!

.... there's a difference?

I know a lot of musicians wouldn't be seen dead playing in a costume, but the way I think about it, lots of us wear a costume for Church, a costume for Weddings & funerals another for digging the garden, another for jogging etc etc So if I'm playing at a Medieval joust, I'd feel a bit of a prat, in a suit, or even a jumper & jeans.

That said, I can have just as much fun sitting around in everyday clothes, playing these earlier tunes down the pub. In fact, at our Saturday night Ballad Session, songs like The Black Velvet Band & Wild Rover are often played to the strains of a Crumhorn or Shawm!

Oh & yes, it's early music but looking at it from the Folk, Traditional side of the fence. :-)

Cheers
Dick

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 06:02 AM

yet you obviously dress up for telling stories!

Not as a rule, alas. I made the costume specifically for the Morpeth Gathering Procession this year, which is a rare sort of carnival in which other years I've felt a bit out of place in civvies (HERE for example). For my efforts I was awarded a prize - didn't even know there was a competition! The Gilly Coat came in handy against the cold though...

The forum looks jolly good fun though, I'll have a browse and might well join - Venereum Arvum have a few medieval songs in our repertoire...

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Ptarmigan
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 07:17 AM

RE: Venereum Arvum

'Friend Request' on it's way! :-)

Cheers
Dick

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 07:50 AM

We 'Do' Medieval banquets in Costume (As well as other Costume Theme events) and thoroughly enjoy it ! We DONT play Medieval Music (The nearest would be Greensleeves) but provide an entertainment based on the 'Idea' of a Medieval banquet , with Audience participation as a major part of the show . As we dont play 'Authentic' instruments or play the Real music , the site may not be of any use , but I WILL have a look .

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Weasel
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 08:41 AM

I used to run a mediaeval/renaissance group and we used to do banquets in costume. Banquets were always a frighening area - organisers were often unclear as to what they wanted - a folk night style entertainment or a period music exeperience.

For example, one banquet we did was for a local village fete - they wanted us dancing on tables and performing stuff that people could join in with (yes, we wheeled greensleeves out). It was a terrific night.

The following week we played for a banquet which had been nearly three years in the planning (all the crockery and and cutlery was made especially for the event and all the food was authentic and prepared as it would have been at the time - the vegetables were grown for the event). For this one we were told what period of music we had to play and had a meeting with the organisers beforehand to make sure that we conformed to their standards of authenticity.

A classical singer of renaissance music with one of my groups was booked for an event not far from Manchester. As he prepared to sing some Dowland with his lutenist the compere stood up and, to the bellowing drunken mob, introduced him as "a singer of dirty songs!"

I suppose the lesson is to make sure what you are going to and what is expected of you!

Cheers,

Weasel

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 01:57 PM

Well?

Are there any dirty Dowland songs? I think we should be told.

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Weasel
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 02:11 PM

errmm...not that I know of. That was the problem - I couldn't think of any and neither could the singer or lutenist.

I'd gone along to listen but finished up saving the evening by getting the lutenist to hammer out an ostinato and I improvised some dance music on the sop recorder I had in my pocket and got everyone up for that (as best they could in the limited space of the pub) whilst the singer tried to scribble down the words of as many bawdy street songs as he could think of. These he then performed (ermm...bawled) to an improvised lute accompaniment with a set of increasingly wild recorder divisions.

Still, a good evening was had by all (or was that just the beer?)

Cheers

Weasel

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 03:00 PM

Are there any dirty Dowland songs? I think we should be told.

I used to drool over Emma Kirbky singing of In this Trembling Shadow.

In this trembling shadow, cast
from those boughes which thy winds shake,
Farre from humane troubles plac'd,
Songs to the Lord would I make,
Darknesse from my minde then take,
For thy rites none may begin,
Till they feele thy light within.

As I sing, sweete flowers Ile strow,
from the fruitfull vallies brought:
Praising him by whom they grow,
him that heaven and earth hath wrought,
him that all things framde of nought,
Him that all for man did make,
But made man for his owne sake.

Musicke all thy sweetnesse lend,
while of his high power I speake,
On whom all powers else depend,
but my brest is now too weake,
trumpets shrill the ayre should breake,
All in vaine my sounds I raise,
Boundlesse power askes boundlesse praise.

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 03:15 PM

On one occasion , we were informed that the Audience were all college students , so we were geared for a LOT of Double Entendre and innuendo (We dont actually 'Do' 'dirty) until the leader of the party started the evening with a very Religious Grace !
Turned out it was a Religious College ! Instant change of plan and rapid re working of Songlist !!

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 04:15 PM

What's that song that has the refrain With a dildo, dildo, dildo...? OF COURSE that's the only bit of it I can remember...

Tried googling it, but you can guess where that got me.

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Weasel
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 04:44 PM

And don't forget that anthem of voyeurism, "The Crossed Couple" (Admirably performed by the City Waites on one of their albums)

Nor must you forget the many rounds of Henry Purcell whose lyrics are innocent as a spring morning (until the other voices join in).

Cheers,

Weasel

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Tootler
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 05:29 PM

Get hold of a copy of Lucie Skeaping's book of 17th Century Broadside Ballads. There's some beauties in there.

Details

Broadside Ballads
Selected and Edited by Lucie Skeaping
Published by Faber Music
ISBN 0-571-52223-8

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 05:40 PM

> Henry Purcell whose lyrics are innocent as a spring morning

Remember Tom Making A Mantle For A Lady Of Leisure and (my fave) When Celia Was Learning The Spinet To Play ? There's a whole book of Purcell catches, which has been around for quite awhile - if it's still in print.

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 08:17 PM

If I brought my wife ( who is a gamba player) to the UK for a few months What town has the most early music .???. London??? . Chatham Baroque are centered were ? . You would think there would be a ton of early music around Oxford or Cambridge York   Bath ??.. Any thoughts . I come to Briton to talk to other traditional potters and play banjo with anyone I can find but if I could find some Viols for Erica to play with life would be easier !! I love these fancies of thought . ! All the best , Guy

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 08:43 PM

At the local Renaissance fair a group I used to sing with would do Dowland's "Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite". Particularly the first verse: "...To see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to die with thee again in sweetest sympathy". We figured it was about "le petit mort". And interpreted as such, it was a hit at the fair.

Then in the second verse, of course, he returns to his customary gloom.

Maybe Dowland wasn't "semper dolens"--just the overwhelming majority of the time.

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 08:44 PM

Might be worth looking on the new site Guy - or maybe This one

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Ptarmigan
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 06:19 AM

Thanks for that Link Tootler.

Broadside Ballads

Cheers
Dick

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 12:05 PM

Guy, you might want to check out the National Centre for Early Music at York (The real one in England not the New one... ;0).
Most of the year it is a concert venue, but they organise an Early Music Festival around July and something in December with a Christmas theme.
Don't know if they include any opportunity to turn up and play though.
Quack!
Geoff.

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 09:07 PM

Thanks to both Leadfingers and Geoff . I will show both of these sites to her .

After putting a reference to Catham Baroque here the other day Erica told me they were from America. I was thinking of "Fretwork " another group erica is always listening to . I thought there was something in York .. Good on you Geoff . I do want an excuse to meet Banjo Ray banks as well . Ha

Subject: RE: New .... The Early Music Network!
From: Tootler
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 07:08 PM

There are a number of Early Music Fora (correct sp!) round the country. They organise workships and like events. You can find a list of them here

They are a good bet for participation events. Viols will definitely be welcome.

Enjoy your trip.