Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend

Subject: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Sep 14 - 04:36 PM

Yesterday the Dear Husband and I saw the HD file of the Globe Theatre's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. We really enjoyed it. In the production, as in S's time, the actors acted upon a stage, while above them, in a gallery, musicians played music.

Most of the music was original, but to start the second half, they played one of my favorite pieces, Courante 93, a piece I first heard and liked 45 years ago. How my heart lifted when I realized that they were going to play it on the early instruments.

This courante was collected and printed by Michael Praetorius in the 17th C., and is now one of early music's most popular pieces. It was played at our wedding, as the DH reminded me when the movie was over.

You can hear it and download it here:

http://www.kunstderfuge.com/praetorius.htm

(I recommend the movie, although for me the men-playing-women got a little creepy after a while.)

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Sep 14 - 04:44 PM

Maybe it's not 93. My roman numerals are rusty. It's the first piece on the page, and it ends in III.

Here it is with a spanish flavor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0EbkVUe0lk

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Sep 14 - 08:37 PM

83. The complete score is on IMSLP, also keyboard arrangements of that particular piece.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Special:ImagefromIndex/342801

It's pretty much in period for Shakespeare, which is remarkable for a theatrical production. Usually the rule is that Greensleeves is obligatory.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Sep 14 - 10:20 AM

Hello, Jack. The production I saw tried very much to be in period, except for one thing. Sometimes, for comic effect, the countess Olivia and her servant Maria would glide across the floor so smoothly, I think they were hiding shoes with wheels on them under their long gowns. It always got a laugh.

I've seen young boys of today gliding along on shoes with wheels, but I didn't think the shoes could take the weight of an adult. However, I can't picture any other way the actors could have done it.

Back to Shakespeare: I have read that the only tune we know from his plays is "It was a lover and his lass." The other songs in the play had original music composed by a modern composer, whose name I forget. (We did the miss the first few minutes, where the gallery is playing something. It could have been Greensleeves, but I hope not. Too obvious.)

Back to Courante 83. I play it on dulcimer now, and my husband plays it on the harp, minus a few accidentals. It still sounds good.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Sep 14 - 01:06 PM

I just looked it up. It's number 183, attributed to that prolific composer Incerti.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Sep 14 - 08:07 PM

Prompted by this thread I noticed that it would work for an ocarina quartet (pitches high to low: G, C, G, C). Those normally use transposed notation so I edited it that way.

http://theocarinanetwork.com/topic/7795153/

ABC source, PDF score and parts, multitrack MIDI, YouTube links.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Sep 14 - 10:20 AM

Yes, ocarina quartet would be delightful.

Can an elf change the number of the courante from 93 to 183?

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 23 Sep 14 - 10:51 AM

Before you change that number, did anyone else open this thread thinking David Tibet & chums had got into Early Music? That would bode for well with their ongoing relationship with Shirley Collins...

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Sep 14 - 10:31 AM

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Sep 14 - 01:55 PM

I'd never heard of David Tibet either, but Google will explain.

He's part of a large network of aggressively pretentious performers none of whom has ever done anything I found interesting.

Google will also tell you about Genesis P-Orridge's penis.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Courante 93 - hello old friend
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 24 Sep 14 - 02:30 PM

Oh - piffle! Current 93 have done some amazing stuff on the darker fringes of folk these past - 30 years?? And have long lasting respectful relationships with mainstream musicians from Shirley Collins to Tony (T.S) McPhee of the Groundhogs.

Current 93 feat. Shirley Collins - All The Pretty Little Horses

As unwitting puns go, the title of this thread is spot on and too good to miss.