T h e Mouthpiece

A Publication of the East Bay Recorder Society Volume 20, Number 3

November 2016

November Conductor

David Morris

Monthly Chapter David Morris has made a specialty of performing 17th- and 18th-century music on a variety of historical bass instruments. Dubbed a “basso continuo

Meeting wizard” by Gramophone (UK), he has performed in the U.S. and abroad Friday, November 4, with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Tafelmusik, the Boston 2016 Symphony Orchestra and the Mark Morris Dance Group. He has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Drag City Records (’s double-CD, 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm Have One on Me), CBC/ Radio- and New Line Cinema (as viola da gamba soloist for The Nativity Story). He is a frequent coach for VdGSA and Zion Lutheran Church ARS events and coached at the Amherst, Madison and SFEMS early music workshops. 5201 Park Blvd.

Oakland, CA.

If your last name begins with C-L, please bring a snack for break, if possible. Everyone, bring a music stand, a pencil, and instruments (SATB and lower if you have them). Please arrive in time to set up and be ready to play at 7:30 pm.

H David Morris, continued.

I will be bringing a nice sampler of In Nomines for us to explore on November 4. The In Nomine was an exclusively English genre from the 16th and 17th centuries in which the Sarum antiphon Gloria tibi Trinitas was used as a cantus firmus; it was the most conspicuous single form in the early development of English consort music, with over 150 examples surviving. Notable In Nomine composers include Hi everyone, Parsons, A. Ferrabosco, Gibbons, Osbert Parsley, John Bull, John Milton (father of the author), Wm I do not know if you experience the same thing I do Cranford, Jenkins, Tomkins and about 30 others. but I feel that time is just zipping by. It is almost Inspired by this rich legacy, modern composers are November and the holiday season is looming. I am still giving it a go, including the British composer/ particularly looking forward to Thanksgiving because conductor Peter Maxwell Davies, who has used it in I will have a lot of family here visiting. As I write this, several works. Viol players know this genre well, but I am also looking forward to our one-day workshop it is less well known amongst recorder players, so I with Tish Berlin. It will be old news by the time you thought I would share the wealth! read this but signups have been good and I think it will have been a thoroughly entertaining day. It will I will explain the history of the genre, and we will play also benefit our checkbook balance and cover the several different examples that demonstrate several shortfall of expenses that membership dues do not different creative approaches to the inherent cover. constraint of the form. I love this music and hope you all will, too. Circle Sunday, March 26, 2017, on your calendars. That is the day for our annual Member's Recital at Hillside Church in El Cerrito. It is not too early to think about what you want to play and with whom

you would like to play it. Solos are encouraged as well as ensembles. Any group where at least one person is a member of EBRS is welcome. If you are new to performing, this event is a great place to get positive feedback. We are all very supportive of those who are brave enough to get up in front of us and play. n

Happy playing everyone.

Susan Jaffe

omine President

~Suzanne Siebert Travel Update –

Last month, The Mouthpiece published a story I told about my having met and played with a harpsichordist Recorder Players Jean-Michel) in Montpellier, in 2015. The new beginners' group had its first meeting on October 21. We had a great time playing duets. The group is still open to new players--just phone or email Kathy to sign up. Upcoming sessions are scheduled for October 28; November 17 and 26; and December 9 and 16.

Beginning in February, Kathy will lead an ad hoc ensemble to prepare for the March Members' Recital. All EBRS members are welcome.

Kathy Cochran [email protected] or call 510-326-4674 I recounted that he regularly played with a traverso player, and this may be true. However, when I travelled again to the south of France in late

September and early October, Jean-Michel had arranged for us to play with a recorder player. His name was Alain, and here is a photo of him.

He was quite a good player, but like Jean-Michel until last year, he had never before played with a baroque oboe. We three played a chaconne from Purcell’s Fairy Queen (not originally written for oboe, and quite a Conductors for 2016/2017 “blow” for me) as well as a trio sonata by Telemann for recorder, oboe and continuo. November 4 David Morris Alain said he very much liked the blend of the December 2 Frances Blaker recorder and oboe, especially in the Telemann piece. Neither Alain nor Jean-Michel seemed to be well January 7 (@3:30) Shira Kammen acquainted with Telemann’s chamber music for two February 3 Frances Feldon or more melody instruments. I wish I had explored March 3 Tish Berlin what music they usually played, but my brain was beginning to fry at the end of 2 1/2 hours trying to April 7 Andrew Levy speak French. They both spoke some English, but we May 5 Louise Carslake communicated primarily in French. June 2 Rebecca Molinari

The Devil's in the Details: Tone is among the trickiest things to improve on the recorder. The best way to improve your tone is to Tuning Tips from Recorder work with a teacher -- learning to blow and breathe Professional Anne Timberlake properly is a complex process that benefits from expert advice and consistent feedback. You can find a teacher on the American Recorder Society website. If

One of the questions I am you don't have access to a teacher, the ARS website asked most frequently as a has a series of instructional videos by recorder teacher is how to play in professional Vicki Boeckman.

tune on the recorder.

There is, unfortunately, no magic tuning fork. The recorder may be relatively easy to pick up and make noise on, but as many have discovered, it is an instrumental honey trap, keeping its difficulties in

reserve until you are Anne Timberlake

hooked! Photo by Jennifer Carpenter

It is possible to play in tune on the recorder, and Learn your instrument some intelligent work can help you move closer to The recorder is a sensitive -- and particular! -- your goal. instrument. Every recorder is different, and each note

on the recorder wants to be blown in a specific way. Change your mindset Spend time with each of your recorders, learning their The ability to play in tune is a skill. It is not a talent, tendencies. Is your recorder particularly sharp? Is this something a person possesses or not. Nor is it a particular note unusually low? A tuner with a needle discrete piece of knowledge that can be absorbed and can be useful for this task. implemented in one go. Whether or not you can play in tune does not speak to your musicianship, intelligence, or value If the recorder is generally out of tune, it can be as a person. Be kind to yourself, and to others! "pulled out" or "pushed in." In other words, the head Skills require practice, but are ultimately accessible to joint can be slightly pulled away from the body, everyone. It is true that, due to innate predisposition lengthening the instrument and lowering its pitch, or or prior experience, some of us pick up particular pushed back in, raising its pitch back up. Make sure skills more quickly than others. However, with your recorder is warmed up before you assess its focused practice over time, anyone can improve a tuning, since a warm recorder will be a different pitch skill. Viewing tuning as a learnable skill, just like than a cold one. Make sure you do not pull out very moving your fingers between notes, is the first step to far -- more than a few millimeters and you will have playing better in tune. disrupted the relationships between individual notes.

Improve your tone Step away from the needle Recorders are designed to play in tune when they are Tuning comprises two separate, yet interlocking, being blown correctly. If you are not producing a skills: the ability to hear whether something is in tune, clear, open, resonant, and steady tone on the and the ability to adjust your playing according to recorder, there is a very small chance that you are what you hear. playing in tune. In contrast, if you are breathing efficiently and producing an excellent tone, you have A tuner that provides you with visual feedback, like a fought at least half the battle already. needle or lights, is very useful when you are working on the first of these skills. Many people still rely on the needle when it comes time to practice adjusting Trust their own tuning. This is a mistake. You do not need If you have put in sufficient time with your to learn how to adjust your tuning to visual feedback. instrument and a drone, you have likely developed a You need to learn to adjust to a note you hear, subconscious feel for playing in tune. Often, your whether that note be in tune, sharp, or flat. subconscious tuning-master is faster and more accurate than your conscious brain. Try "hearing" a Instead of the needle, use a drone. Most good note in your head before you play it: Ten to one, that tuners or tuning apps have a drone function, the note will be better in tune than if you had approached ability to produce a sustained note. Practice playing it with no forethought. along with the drone. Can you hear when you are sharp or flat? If not, use the needle as a spot checker Verify to help you learn to hear what it sounds like when Our hearing changes as we age. This is particularly you're in tune -- or not -- with the drone. true of our high frequency hearing, the kind that allows us to hear some of the overtones that tell us Once you can whether or not we are in tune. If you know, your ear hear if you are for tuning is no longer as reliable as it once was, or if off, practice you are in the learning stages and feel you could use beginning the extra help, one way to keep playing pleasurable is your note to make an arrangement with a buddy, someone who deliberately can tell you if, in ensemble, you need to adjust your sharp or flat - pitch. Formalizing this relationship can help to take - and then some of the angst out of it -- and who among us, in adjusting to our musical journeys, doesn't need a little help along match your the way! pitch to the drone. - Anne Timberlake, ARS Board Member Practice

intervals --

thirds and fifths, Click here for our archives, with articles on many particularly, topics ranging from how to care for your recorders, so you can to useful apps, to scholarship and grant opportunities hear what Photo by Jennifer Carpenter though ARS. good intervals sound like. Practice matching pitches in the same octave, as well as the octaves above and below you. If

you have a tuner that offers different temperaments, use the opportunity to practice tuning to slightly different pitches. How to Join the ARS

You can use a physical tuner, an app, or even a CD. I Take advantage of our 1/2 price rate for first-time use a Korg OT-120 -- it is on the bulkier side, but members! Get immediate access to all the information produces a nice, loud drone in various available on our website, as well as other member temperaments. Clear Tune and other tuning apps benefits including the quarterly American Recorder offer drones and even more temperament flexibility, magazine. though sometimes a drone from a phone can be a little soft for initial practice. My colleague Jody Miller, USA: First year $25, regularly who directs Lauda Musicam in Atlanta, asks his $50 ($30 for students). ensemble members to work with a product called Canada: First year $30, regularly $60 Tuning CD. (I have never used it, but I have met a ($40 for students). number of Atlanta recorder players who play remarkably well in tune!) Click here for info and registration form.

MUSICA PACIFICA with

Ryland Angel—Chiesa and

Camera, 1650-1700 San Francisco Early Music Society

Draw on Sweet Night

a concert of mainly recorder music from ars subtilior to contemporary presented by members, alumni and friends of the San Francisco Recorder Society

Sunday, November 20 at 2:00 pm

Grammy-nominated countertenor Ryland Angel joins Christ Church Lutheran Musica Pacifica in a stunning program highlighting the connections between the sacred and the secular 1090 Quintara Street (at 20th Avenue), during the Italian Middle Baroque. The program features appealing sacred motets of Alessandro San Francisco Scarlatti and Alessandro Stradella, as well as complementary instrumental works by these Light refreshments provided composers and their contemporaries. The music of this era is not as well known today as it should be, but Free, donations appreciated! its characteristic marriage of virtuosic agility and sustained lyricism was a major inspiration to the composers of the next generations—Corelli, Vivaldi, Handel and Bach. San Francisco Recorder Society

 Venue: St. John's Presbyterian Church is a chapter of  Date: Saturday, November 12, 2016, 7:30pm  City: Berkeley the American Recorder Society  Email: [email protected]  Price Range: $34 to $40. Students $12 at Box Office.  Tickets: (510) 528-1725

BUY TICKETS EARLY MUSIC SUNDAYS AT CJC UPCOMING MPRO WORKSHOP

The California Conservatory (CJC), formerly the Saturday, January 28, 2017, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm – JAZZSCHOOL, and The San Francisco Early Music MPRO Fall Workshop - Director to be announced – Society have established an exciting affiliation that details coming soon. Save the Date! delights both our audience and our local musicians. Early music lovers and jazz music lovers join together Trinity Church to celebrate the improvisational kinship of the two 330 Ravenswood Avenue, genres. CJC offers a casual and intimate environment Menlo Park where the audience can enjoy a light meal and sip a glass of wine or a cup of coffee while enjoying the concert. All concerts begin at 4:30 pm at the

California Jazz Conservatory, 2087 Addison Street, Berkeley. Tickets are $20 (general admission) and go on sale for each concert approximately one month in advance. Their box office can be reached at 510-845- 5373 or www.cjc.edu/concerts. COLUMBIA GORGE EARLY MUSIC January 15, 2017 RETREAT Flauti Diversi—Espanoleta: Music from a The 2017 Columbia Gorge Early Music Retreat is Garden of Mediterranean Delights March 17-20th, 2017 at the Menucha Retreat Center, in Corbett, Oregon. A multicultural program of music from the Imagine a long weekend filled with music-making, Mediterranean: lively camaraderie, good food, and a beautiful setting in medieval dance, nature and you are already having dreams of attending Renaissance ostinato the Columbia Gorge Early Music Retreat. Located just 20 miles east of Portland, and perched on a bluff bass improvisations, overlooking the spectacular Columbia River, tantalizing Arabic tunes, Menucha is an idyllic retreat center. and a complete song Ensemble classes for intermediate to advanced Frances Feldon cycle by the 13th-c. recorder players will range from renaissance consort Galician composer music and baroque to contemporary works and music Martim Codax, performed by Karen Clark, contralto; for double reeds and percussion. Violas da gamba Frances Feldon, recorders/flute; Sarah Michael, are also welcome. SIX faculty members ensure small kanun; and Peter Maund, percussion. class sizes with personalized attention. Evening FLAUTI DIVERSI: Karen Clark, contralto; Frances events will include a faculty concert, English Country Feldon, recorders/transverse flutes; Peter Maund, Dance, and informal consort playing. percussion; Sarah Michael, qanun. Our outstanding faculty includes Vicki Boeckman, Gayle and Philip Neuman, and Laura Kuhlman. For our 2017 Retreat, we are very pleased to welcome Alison Melville from Toronto, Canada and Miyo Aoki from , WA. For more information and registration, please click on http://portlandrecordersociety.org/?page_id=137

2016 – 2017 Want to Join the ARS?

EBRS Board of East Bay Recorder Teachers Take advantage of a 1/2 price rate for first-time members! Get immediate access to all the information Directors available on the ARS website, as well as other

President: Susan Jaffe member Davidbenefits Barnett including the quarterly American Recorder magazine.

Treasurer and Electronic Distribution: Letitia Berlin USA: First year $25, regularly Susan Merrill $50 ($30www.tibiaduo.com for students).

Conductor Locator: Rachel Bradley Canada: First year $30, regularly $60 ($40 for students).Tom Bickley

Newsletter Editors and Producers: www.metatro npress.com/artists/tbickley/ Click here for info and registration form. Carol Coon and Suzanne Siebert Frances Blaker Chapter Meeting Music: Linda Skory www.tibiaduo.com

Webmaster: Suzanne Siebert Louise Carslake Headlands Committee: Glen Shannon www.sfems.org/musicsre-creation (Coordinator); Merlyn Katechis (Registration), Bill Stewart (Contract), Frances Feldon

Patricia Wheeler (Publicity), Carol Coon (Music) Judy Linsenberg www.linsenberg.com Composer-in-Residence http://www.musicapacifica.org/ /Secretary/Publicity/Librarian/: Glen

Shannon Rebecca Molinari Member Performances: Cindy Keune Hanneke van Proosdij One-day Workshop: Cindy Keune www.hannekevanproosdij.com and Jody Harcourt

Hospitality: Anna Lisa Kronman, Ray

White, Brenda Bailey

Members at Large: Britt Ascher, Kathy Cochran, Brenda Bailey

The East Bay Recorder Society publishes The Mouthpiece. EBRS is a chapter of the American Recorder Society and an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society.

Please send information and photos for newsletter consideration to

mailto:[email protected]