Karnatic Lab Records, Postbox 2595, 1000 CN Amsterdam Dapper’s Delight Indoors [email protected], www.karnaticlabrecords.com
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:
CAMILLA, ANKE, ROY, LOTTA, MARCO, RAPHAELA AND PASCAL FOR BABYSITTING DUTIES KRIS AND THOMAS FOR THEIR HELPFUL CRITICISM AND LAST MINUTE TWEAKING LIKEWISE PETER, FOR KAA THE SNAKE AND HIS UNFLINCHING LOYALTY MALCOLM FOR GARDEN GREEN AND FOR THE ERICA IN 1976 JONATHAN FOR EDITING THE TEXTS MARK FOR HELP WITH TEXTS, SOURCES AND HIS CONTINUOUS ENCOURAGEMENT AND ENTHUSIASM JOHN FOR HELP SEARCHING FOR THE ELUSIVE BOUNCE STEPHANIE FOR TRYING TO FIND THE VOICE JÜRGEN FOR HIS WONDERFUL INSTRU- MENT "SOOTY" CHRIS FOR THE NICEST TUCK SHOP IN THE WORLD NED, GIJS AND THE REST OF THE BACKROOM STAFF AT KARNATIC LAB RECORDS CARST FOR HELP WITH THE COVER PHOTO- GRAPHS ROBIN, ANNABEL AND MICHA FOR DOING ALL THE WORK OUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS FOR THEIR UNDERSTANDING AND ANYBODY WHO STOPPED TO LISTEN ON THE STREET
FINALLY TO RUFUS FOR PUTTING UP WITH US SO COURAGEOUSLY
Susanna Borsch recorder & voice Dapper’s Delight Adrian Brown anglo concertina & voice programme notes and artwork: Dapper’s Delight; booklet photographs: Robin Bigwood 17th century broadsides reproduced with kind permission of the Pepys library
www.dappersdelight.com
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 Dapper’s Delight is a duo formed to ex- comprising an unusual combination of plore the dance music and songs of the period 1550 – 1750, particularly pieces to perform composed pieces drawing on found in both high and low cultural sources. Their current interest lies with Electra, an all-female modern music en- the rich repertoire of 17th century English semble combining the latest music with tune books and broadside ballads, visual and theatrical elements. Dapper’s which form a bridge between ‘art’ and Delight provides Susanna with the space ‘folk’ music—modern categorisations to explore improvisation in, and a freer that would never have been applied at approach to, performing a repertoire full that time. Dapper’s Delight use small- of beautiful melodies and invigorating scale, highly portable instrumentation, dances. repertoire. A musical instrument maker by calling, Adrian Brown has conducted extensive Susanna Borsch is one of the few research into the history of the recorder, instrumentalists able to interpret both measuring many original instruments contemporary and early music with and making reconstructions. He has also complete ease. She studied at the taken classes in 16th and 17th century Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium performance practice with Peter van Heyghen, with whom he has had a col- solo examination in the year 2000 featur- laborative relationship for many years, ing many new works written especially and has written several organological for her combining the recorder with live studies. He has played various free-reed instruments since his teenage years and ensembles: Mezzaluna, a recorder en- has subsequently specialized on the semble committed to exploring the depth anglo concertina. He took concertina les- of 16th century renaissance vocal po- sons with John Watcham, the renowned lyphony; Hexnut, a band formed in 2004 English morris musician, and has given
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 courses himself, both privately and under outside Holland, published several THE FOLLOWING INSTRUMENTS WERE USED IN THIS RECORDING: the umbrella of the German Concertina geographical tomes, amongst which Meeting. Description of Africa (1668) is still a key » 38 button anglo concertina in C/G (treble register) number 244 made by text for Africanists. A famous Amsterdam Jürgen Suttner (Siegen, Germany) in 2004. Tuned in a=440Hz, ¼ comma The name “Dapper’s Delight” is a refer- street market is named after him, and it meantone temperament with both eb and d#. (tracks 2, 4, 5, 11, 12) ence to the Dutch humanist and armchair » 38 button anglo concertina in Bb explorer Olfert Dapper (ca. 1635 – 1689) 2009. who, despite never having travelled Tuned in a=440Hz, equal temperament. (tracks 3, 6, 13)
» a=452Hz, ¼ comma meantone temperament with a#. (tracks 1, 7, 8, 9, 10)
The recorders were made by Adrian Brown between 2004 and 2011 to suit the concer- tinas. They are based on late 16th century models in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inventory numbers SAM 130 (soprano), 140 (alto) and 148 (tenor) all marked with a brand stamp resembling two apples. They are the only known instruments by this maker, and presumed to be of north Italian or south German origin.
» Sopranino recorder in g”, a=440Hz, made in boxwood (tracks 2, 5, 11) » Sopranino recorder in f”, a=440Hz, made in olivewood (track 13) » Soprano recorder in d”, a=452Hz, made in plumwood (tracks 1, 8, 9, 10) » Alto recorder in g’, a=440Hz, made in plumwood (tracks 4, 12) » Alto recorder in f’, a=440Hz, made in almondwood (tracks 3, 6) » Tenor recorder in d’, a=452Hz, made in maple (track 7)
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 INDOORS: BACKGROUND tively, the church, theatre and chamber. the odd trio sonata) were played by oboe Even in Morley’s dismissive remark on the lowest musical form (villanelle) in his popular amateur instrument until around Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall the middle of the 18th century and many During the period 1560 – 1750, England Musicke (1597), his concern is not with books of popular tunes were edited had an enormously popular musical the “ditty” (or: simple song) itself, which expressly for these players. There was a culture overlapping all strata of society. huge renewal of interest in the recorder In studies of music and social history, with its careless harmonisation: “…they in the 20th century when it became the the tendency to compartmentalise and take those disallowances as being good most important instrument for teaching categorise has often overlooked the enough for plough and cart”. Many tunes music to children. This interest came as thus appear in both high and low cultural a by-product of the general interest in mid-18th century, musical styles were sources; tunes from country-dance historical performance practice. It has collections for example, can often also subsequently resulted in a large reper- Terms such as ‘art’ music or ‘folk’ music be found as composed instrumental ver- toire of modern music from around 1930 would have been foreign to people who sions for the elite. to the present day. Conversely, music written for an elite rather than of the origin or the composer audience – an opera, for example – of any given melody. Composers were might be later used in the composition of prized more for their skill in counterpoint a popular ditty and sold as a broadside. and arranging techniques, rather than The broadside ballads were a particu- for their melodic originality. We might larly British phenomenon from the early think of them today more as craftsmen 16th through to the 19th century. These than artists; never too haughty to dip into single song sheets were sold on the the common melody pot. Mattheson in streets and markets of cities and towns, Der Vollkommene Kapellmeister (1739) and to a certain extent parodied (and describes ‘high’, ‘middle’ and ‘low’ styles subsequently popularised) the music of music as ‘noble’, ‘moderate’ and ‘tri- of the elite. They can be seen as an - early popular music movement, for in
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 an age with no recorded music and a more on an oral recollection of a particu- able the playing of melodic lines in either THE RECORDER growing literacy among the population lar tune, rather than a written source. bellows direction. it was a unique way of spreading the The earliest surviving recorders were latest popular songs. The large market The pinnacle of the broadside style is The anglo concertina is perhaps one of found during archaeological digs and probably John Gay’s, The Beggar’s the most portable and versatile keyboard have been dated to the 14th century. of audiences to whom they would have Opera of 1728. It was both hugely popu- instruments ever invented, and has been Around 1400, inventorial and musicolo- lar and a great commercial success with used for a great variety of musical styles gical evidence suggests the instrument salons of the elite to the poorest inhabit- its use of popular tunes to accompany a from Irish traditional music, where it is started to be made in sets, or families ants of London’s streets. Records show succession of ballads forming a coherent played in a mostly monophonic style, to that vendors themselves often performed and satirical plot. It was said at the time South African boerenmuziek, with its fully popularity that lasted until the beginning them; William Brown wrote in 1616 that a ‘to have made Gay rich and the rich gay’ chorded accompaniments. Historically of the 17th century. The instrument’s ballad monger’s singing was “as harsh a and almost brought down Prime Minister the anglo concertina was made in several primary repertoire was vocal polyphony, noyce as ever Cart-wheele made”. Walpole’s scandal-prone and corrupt - where the intention was always to make administration. It even seems to have the instruments sound like the human The tunes to which the ballads were outmoded Handel and Italian opera in ranges. The most common was probably voice—a task that the recorder seems written were rarely printed on the broad- London, ushering in a decade of ballad C/G the model (C and G denoting the to have been very successful in. Around sheets themselves, and were often only operas to the London stage. keys of the main two rows of buttons), 1500, the recorder was in the unique cited in subtitles (as for example: “to the but instruments were also common in tune of…”). This implies both that the Another musical form of the 17th and Bb/F, Ab/Eb as well as G/D and F/C in the instrument of the town waits – the 18th centuries that crossed cultural tenor register. Larger instruments in the sackbut and shawm “loud” ensembles population at large, and that they were boundaries was the country-dance, seen baritone and bass registers were also playing primarily, but not exclusively, probably transmitted orally, rather than in the popularity of The Dancing Master made, but are rare today. The instrument outdoors, as well as the court, string- by notated sheet music. However, many publications by John Playford (1623 - was very popular in the late 19th and based “soft” consorts, of lutes and later, of these tunes do survive in more formal, 1686/7) and his successors. These ran early decades of the 20th century, but violas da gamba. Over the course of the notated sources such as operas, tune declined in popularity around the 1930s, 17th century, the recorder lost ground books, songbooks with both texts and and the only one actually titled The until a revival of interest, primarily from songs and in manuscripts. Concordant English Dancing Master) to around 1728. folk musicians, in the 1960s. musical repertoire. Very few professional sources often show a degree of variation, Many broadside tunes are found in these players remained by this point, and the as though the editors were also relying volumes and Playford’s other publica- small parts for the instrument (such as
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 THE INSTRUMENTS the bellows.This tends to give a natural tions, such as Apollo’s Banquet for the for more authentic or ‘earthy’ values. bounce to melodies, rendering the instru- Treble Violin, as well as publications by ment particularly successful for dance his successors: his son Henry (1657 - ca. where the popularity of country dancing music. Anglo concertinas can have as 1706) and John Walsh (1665/6 - 1736). amongst the elite could be seen as an THE ANGLO-GERMAN CONCERTINA few as 20 buttons, but these instruments are diatonic and can only be played in a processional dance forms that made up The Anglo-German concertina was de- few keys. With 30 buttons the instrument sources written by those of the lower so- 17th century court dances. The concerns veloped in London during the 1850s as is chromatic over most of its 3½-octave cial classes has always been a problem and values of the elite: suitable partners, a cross between the English concertina range, although the lack of alternative in the research of social history. In the public behaviour and decorum could be invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone notes in opposite bellows direction set aside during country dancing, while (1802 – 1875) and the German concertina means melodies have to be accom- the high and low cultural classes was the attraction of more direct physical modated by the in/out keyboard layout, understood to be a “sedimentary” model contact with the opposite sex could be where any movement was passed down conveniently hidden behind the idea that It has a bisonoric keyboard, which legato fashion. Instruments having 38 (or through the class structure, ending up they were merely indulging in play-act- means that the same button produces more) buttons get around this limitation as a debased form within the lowest, ing. For example, in Francis Beaumont’s by having enough duplicate notes to en- peasant classes. Thus, a court violinist’s Masque of the inner Temple and Gray’s embellishments could eventually pass to Inn – performed in 1613 as part of the elaborate wedding festivities surrounding ballet to a morris troupe. the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and the German Frederick V – the ‘anti- However, in recent times this model has masques’ mirror a dance of the gods changed to admit cultural movement in both directions between the social sports”. Here the rustic dances can be seen to represent the natural and instinc- points in history, elite culture borrowed tive attraction between man and woman, heavily from the lower classes. Here, often following a rich period of develop- role of the gentry as symbolised by gods ment, elite cultural forms seem to have and nymphs. This idea was evidently become decadent, leading to a search quite persistent, as the same scene was
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 repeated later in the play The Two Noble the modernisation of modal tunes over Frog’s Galliard was his only composi- to borrow tunes on occasion, a practice Kinsmen, attributed to John Fletcher and the course of The Dancing Master’s many tion which seems to have been used for that continues to this day. However, few William Shakespeare. editions). This, together with the lack of broadsides. The tune of Now oh now I of the tunes can be dated with any cer- notated harmonisation, confounds ideas needs must part, as it was known in his The continued success of the numerous - First Booke of Songes or Ayres (1597), Wells in an interview with Peter Kennedy editions of The (English) Dancing Master tions of authenticity and, we feel, allows was used in two subsequent broadsides, in 1952 had the following story: us a certain freedom in our arrangements one of which The true lovers knot un- of some 77 years is proof of a vibrant, and instrumentation. tied, enjoyed great success towards the Old Tom of Oxford, he was a forester. end of the 17th century. It tells the story He took up with this lad, see - his old- cultural pool long before questions of of the tragic life, love and death of the est sister’s oldest son - and they lived authorship, origin and ultimately national- one-time heiress to the English throne, and dwelled in a caravan. And they ism began to dominate musical society. Lady Arabella Stuart (1575 – 1615). Hav- was ’awkers - they used to ’awk all ing eloped with her lover, William Sey- sorts of things, mats and brushes and It is the depths of this common cultural mour, she obtained a marriage without brooms, O, dozens of things. Well, he pool that Dapper’s Delight seeks to the consent of her cousin, King James I. picked up with a girl in Oxford. Well, explore, imagining a musical ‘anti-cham- She was subsequently imprisoned, went as the song went: ‘Old Tom of Oxford ber’ positioned somewhere between on a hunger strike and died in the Tower and young Jim Kent’ - that was his Mattheson’s theatre and chamber, using of London. nephew – ‘They married Old Moll and the striking instrumentarium of the anglo off they went.’ And she lived in the concertina and the recorder. Our aim was caravan with ’em. And while they was out doing their ’awking, I suppose, - 13. OLD MOLLY OXFORD she used to look after the caravan ing primarily at material that could have and do the cooking and all that sort been performed on the street, existing in of thing. And I’ve yeared it said they both high and low cultural sources. Many from the morris dancing tradition and lived together for years. And they of the tunes exist in multiple sources, this beautiful example comes from the never quarrelled, nor they never had although they are seldom consistent with no disagreement, nor never fell out, each other, and often show signs of be- in Gloucestershire. Morris dancing has a the two men with the one woman. rich history, but has never been too shy
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0003_PRO_BK4P, booklet 4p 242x120, © Promese 05-2009 the late 16th century Jan Pieterszoon 12. THE TRUE LOVERS KNOT UNTIED INDOORS: THE PIECES 2. ITALIAN DANCES: BALLO FRAN- Sweelinck (1562-1621) used it for a CESE - SALTERELLO, BALLO ANGLESE keyboard composition with the title The lutenist, composer and singer John - SALTERELLO Onder een linde groen (SwWV 325). Dowland (1563 – 1626) was one of the We have used this piece as the basis best-known English composers of the 1. ROAST BEEF - AYE ME OR THE SYM- Sitting somewhat obtusely in our pro- of our arrangement. PHONY - I LOVE YOU MORE AND MORE EACH gramme, Ballo Anglese and Ballo Fran- felt far from the shores of England both DAY - GRIM, KING OF GHOSTS - JACK cese come from the collection of dance during and after his lifetime. Despite the PUDDING tunes Il primo libro de balli (Venice 1578), popularity of his melancholic music, The composed by Giorgio Mainerio (ca. 1535 Roast Beef comes from Daniel Wright’s - 1582). Italy is thought to have been the An Extraordinary Collection of Pleasant and Merry Humour’s, never before published, which emerged during the second half of containing Hornpipe’s, Jigg’s, North Cun- the 16th century. These dance move- try Frisk’s, Morris’s, Bagpipe Hornpipe’s ments subsequently passed into elite and Round’s with Severall Additional fan- country-dances and still survive today in . (1713) “I love you more and more each is therefore perhaps ironic that Mainerio day should name one of his dances Ballo The Constant Lover’s Lamentation, to Anglese. The other tune, Ballo Francese, a new tune dating from around 1690. is the earliest known example of a dance The tune Grim, King of Ghosts comes tune set with two variations, and there is from a single sheet song (ca. 1710) with a distinctive harmonic structure to both pieces, which seems at times to con- stream”, and was subsequently used in found established harmonic theory. The Beggar’s Opera (1728). The dance tunes Aye Me or The Symphony and Jack Pudding are from John Playford’s English Dancing Master (1651).