December 9–11, 2016
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
December 9–11, 2016 2016-2017 Season Sponsor Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor St. West With sincere appreciation and gratitude salutes Al and Jane Forest for their leadership and generous support of this production Be a part of our next CD Recording! The Consort will be heading into the studio to record The Italian Queen of France For your generous support, you will receive the following benefits: Amount You will receive $10 – $124 advance access to purchase the new CD when it is released in the Fall of 2017 $125 – $499 a copy of the new CD $500 or more two copies of the new CD All project donors will receive a tax receipt and will be listed in the house programs for our 2017-18 season Join us in the gymnasium to offer your support today! Magi videntes stellam Chant for the Feast of the Epiphany Nova stella apparita Florence Laudario, ca 1325 Salutiam divotamente Cortona Laudario, ca 1260 Ave regina caelorum Walter Frye (d. 1474) Gabriel fram hevene-King England, late mid-14th century Estampie Gabriel fram hevene-King arr. Toronto Consort Veni veni Emanuel France, ca 1300 O frondens virga Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) Nicolaus pontifex Paris, ca 1250 Nicolai sollempnia Das Glogauer Liederbuch, ca 1480 Wynter Tours, 14th century Deh tristo mi topinello northern Italy, ca 1400 Farwel Advent Selden MS, England, ca 1450 INTERMISSION Please join us for refreshments and the CD Boutique in the Gymnasium. Hodie aperuit nobis Hildegard von Bingen Nowel! Owt of your slepe aryse and wake Selden MS In dulci jubilo Liederbuch Anna van Coeln, ca 1500 Gloria Micinella Antonio Zacara da Teramo (ca 1350 - ca 1413) Verbum caro factum est Tuscany, ca 1400 Lullay lullay England, mid-14th century Ther is no rose Cambridge, ca 1400 Puer natus in Bethlehem Liederbuch Anna van Coeln Miri it is while sumer ilast Rawlinson MS, England, ca 1225 La vida de Culin Cancionero de Montecassino, ca 1480 Gloria in cielo Cortona Laudario Hodie Christus natus est Chant for Christmas Day TONIGHT’S PERFORMERS ARE: STAFF & ADMINISTRATION David Fallis, Artistic Director Michele DeBoer, voice Michelle Knight, Managing Director Adam Thomas Smith, David Fallis, voice, percussion Marketing Director Nellie Austin, Bookkeeper Ben Grossman, hurdy-gurdy, Kiran Hacker, Graphic Designer Yara Jakymiw, percussion, laouto Season Brochure Graphic Designer Martin Reis, Derek Haukenfreres Katherine Hill, voice, nyckelharpa, fiddle & Ruth Denton, Box Office Peter Smurlick, Database Consultant Paul Jenkins, voice, harp Gordon Baker, Stage Manager Cecilia Booth, Front of House Alison Melville, flute, recorder, voice & Volunteer Coordinator Gordon Peck, Technical Director John Pepper, voice Sam Elliott, Intermissions & Receptions Margaret Matian, CD Sales and Event Assistant WITH Heather Engli, Touring Kirk Elliott, harp, bagpipes, fiddle, psaltery BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jessica Wright, voice Heather Turnbull, President Ann Posen, Past President Laura Warren, Presentation Designer John Ison, Treasurer & Projectionist Kim Condon, Secretary Harry Deeg Trini Mitra Sara Morgan Tiffany Grace Tobias Under 35? FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK! Do you love music? Are you 16-35 or 427 Bloor Street West Toronto ON M5S 1X7 a full-time student? Box Office 416-964-6337 Admin 416-966-1045 Join Club Consort and pay only [email protected] $15 for the best available seats. Sign up online, then call or visit the box office! TORONTOCONSORT.ORG ABOUT US Top Row: David Fallis, Alison Melville, Michele DeBoer, John Pepper, Paul Jenkins Bottom Row: Katherine Hill, Terry McKenna, Laura Pudwell, Ben Grossman Photo Credit: Paul Orenstein Since its founding in 1972, The Toronto The Toronto Consort has made recordings for Consort has become internationally recognized the CBC Collection, Berandol, SRI, Dorian, for its excellence in the performance of and currently Marquis Classics, with 10 CDs to medieval, renaissance and early baroque music. its credit, two of which have been nominated Led by Artistic Director David Fallis, nine of for Juno awards. The most recent recording Canada’s leading early music specialists have (Navidad) was released in 2012; in 2014, come together to form The Toronto Consort, the group re-released its popular Christmas whose members include both singers and recording The Little Barley-Corne. instrumentalists (lute, recorder, guitar, flute, early keyboards and percussion). Recently, the ensemble has been called upon to produce music for historical-drama TV series, Each year The Toronto Consort offers a including The Tudors, The Borgias and The subscription series in Toronto, presented in the Vikings, all produced by the cable network, beautiful acoustic of the recently-renovated 700- Showtime. The Toronto Consort recorded the seat Jeanne Lamon Hall, at the Trinity-St. Paul’s soundtrack for Atom Egoyan’s award-winning Centre in downtown Toronto. The ensemble filmThe Sweet Hereafter. also tours regularly, having been to Europe and Great Britain four times, and frequently across Canada and into the US. PROGRAM NOTES Medieval Music of the Annunciation, a feast taking place for Midwinter and Christmas on March 25th (i.e., nine months before by Katherine Hill, Guest Artistic Director Christmas Day), but re-told at Christmas time, featuring Gabriel fram hevene-King As winter weather and decreasing daylight (also known as Angelus ad Virginem), hours are setting in, we know that we are a song still sung in carol services in the experiencing the approach of midwinter just present day. The popularity of this melody as the people of western Europe did in the in 14th-century England means we have the middle ages: we lament the early setting of luxury of mixing and matching from among the sun, we look forward to the brightness several extant versions of this enduringly of a holiday celebration, and we bundle up appealing song. against the cold. The rest of the music in the first half The passage of time and the turning of the of the programme traces the season of seasons in the middle ages would have been Advent itself, the four weeks leading up to viewed through overlapping lenses, related Christmas. While we experience the month to the natural world (the agricultural cycle, of December now as a time of concert- weather, daylight hours), vestiges of the going, parties and get-togethers (and time- pre-Christian year (most notably the winter sensitive shopping!), in the middle ages solstice, or the shortest day of the year), these weeks formed a penitential season that and the church calendar (tracing events in required strict fasting. The last two pieces in the life of Christ, as well as the sequence of the first half of the programme, the 14th- saints’ feast days). This evening’s programme century Italian Deh tristo mi topinello (Ah, draws together texts, music and images from sad little mouse that I am) and the English western Europe that reflect just a few of the Farwel Advent, highlight the sad state of artistic, recreational and ritual responses affairs at the dinner table during this season. of medieval people to the approach of We will also acknowledge the feast day of midwinter and Christmas. St Nicholas (also known as Sinterklaas and Santa Claus) on December 6th by including We begin with the star in the east, the two pieces in his honour: one solemn supernatural sign foretelling the birth of melody from 13th-century Paris, featuring Christ. The lauda (praise song) Nova stella the hurdy-gurdy, and a jaunty three-part apparita from 14th-century Florence tells setting from the Glogau Songbook, a the story of the Magi, reflecting a virtuosic German manuscript compiled in Głogów, and “pop” style of singing from the time. Poland, around the year 1480. We will also hear music relating to the story No collection of Advent music would be (ca 1350 - ca 1413). The English Nowel! complete without referencing the mystical Owt of your slepe aryse and wake describes “O Antiphons”, sung at Vespers for the the same moment; the glorious and seven days leading up to Christmas. Each tuneful English carol repertoire is further piece invokes a longed-for aspect of Christ, represented by another beloved Christmas missing from the world but soon to appear. piece, Ther is no rose of swych vertu. Many of these attributes are listed in the Although we cannot understand every word familiar carol Veni veni Emanuel (O come, of middle English at first hearing, these O come, Emmanuel), sung here in a 13th- texts (and their music) allow us, a little more century setting for two voices. The Advent directly, to find that human connection mood of expectation is also expressed in with the people who first created and 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen’s enjoyed them. antiphon O frondens virga, which describes Mary as the leafy branch bearing the flower The latest source for this programme is the of Christ, bending down to offer help and songbook of Beguine nun Anna of Cologne, comfort to a fallen world. compiled around the year 1500. The Beguines lived in communities within urban While a significant majority of extant centres, and many of the songs from Anna’s medieval music was generated and pocket-sized book display this contact with recorded by the church, secular material the secular world in their popular character, for midwinter has survived to our time, including a charming refrain-song Puer sometimes hidden away in sacred musical natus in Bethlehem (A Child is born in works. One such example is the lively Bethlehem) and an early, two-part setting English dance “Wynter”, surviving as of In dulci jubilo (In sweet rejoicing). one line of a 13th-century three-voice sacred French motet from Tours. From the We end our programme with another Aragonese court of Alfonso V at Naples, Italian lauda, Gloria in cielo, echoing the the 15th-century song La vida de Culin Angels’ cry of “peace on earth, and good describes a trip to the tavern for a warming will towards men”, as well as a mesmerizing drink, complete with nonsensical syllables chant for Christmas Day, as we return to and a “pop” refrain, the text of which is the image of single star in a winter night simply “O, o, o, o”; easy enough to join in sky.