NEWSLETTER: 28 June 2020 Hi Everyone,

This should have been the day of our joint concert!

Have a look at this link!:

Dre https://youtu.be/yYBAAEY77sM

The Dream of Gerontius Rehearsal Links & Warm Up

Video 1 https://youtu.be/T8yhEVv-lRE

Video 2 https://youtu.be/nLhI6QUHUBY

Video 3 https://youtu.be/_mRy-GzIxC4

These links are easily available in the Member Area of our web site https://mkchorale.org.uk alongside a downloadable copy of the full score.

Jokes To Make You Groan! Why couldn't the string quartet find their composer? He was Haydn

What is Beethoven's favourite fruit? "Ba-na-na-naaaaa"

Why was the former conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic always first off the plane? Because he only had Karajan luggage.

Why did JS Bach have so many children? Because he didn't have any organ stops

Why didn't the bouncer let the quavers into the bar? Because they were slurring.

Courtesy of Classic FM

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Alex Aitken's Potted History of Music

Part IV: The Late Renaissance (c.1500-1600)

Petrucci begins publishing music anthologies, and musical education in churches and cathedrals becomes more widespread, training singers, instrumentalists and composers. Elizabeth of York (Henry VII’s Queen) takes delivery of a clavichord and is most pleasèd that she now has an excuse not to watch her husband joust peasants in the cold. Intermedio (‘between half’ spectacles of music and dance) begin to appear in between acts of plays; later becoming the intermezzo. Composers begin to set the Lamentations of Jeremiah to superb effect (Tallis, Lobo, Morales, Byrd, Mouton, Palestrina and Victoria all win at various points over the 16th century). The first John Taverner rocks up (but with an r), writing hits including Dum Transisset Sabbatum. Gaffurius writes his theory treatise, with such profound statements as ‘the tactus, the tempo of the semibreve, is equal to the pulse of a man who is breathing quietly’ (i.e. at around 72 per minute). And hence, music begins to be aligned more closely to the heartbeat (fast forward and that’s the same tempo that God Save our Gracious Queen will be performed at). Hampton Court Palace begins to be built as Da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa breaking wind, whilst several countries away Luther writes his 95 theses, allegedly nailing them to a church door to begin the Lutheran reformation. Lutheran Chorales and chorale- infused compositions (chorale fantasias, preludes and motets) follow, many inspired by parodies of Catholic chant or popular songs. Calvinism simultaneously gains traction but funnels music into the psalter, just as the Allemande (from the basse danse), Pavane, Branle, and Sarabande (from Mexico) appear. Most pleasing.

In Spain, Morales starts writing stunning polyphony (including his versions of the Lamentations of Jeremiah) and, as Michelangelo holds in a sneeze whilst finishing the Sistine Chapel, Italian madrigals and balletta finally reach England thanks to Alfonso Ferrabosco. Composers including the Johns (Bull, Dowland, Jenkins) and Thomases (Campion, Morley, Greaves) go wild for the madrigal,

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writing fa la las mostly to do with April, May or June, or their sisters Phyllis, Bonny and Vesta. Hey-nonny-no and raised eyebrows indeed. They adopt the nonsense ‘fa la la’ of the Italian balletta to represent double entendre. Henry VIII starts absorbing calories and wives and starts dissolving monasteries in 1536, destroying large amounts of English music manuscripts in the process of setting fire to monks. In Spain, Cabezón manages to compose brilliant music despite being blind, and the English reformation gets underway, leading to elaborate full anthems and verse anthems in English ( which sprung up to meet the same requirements of the Latin motet), complete with soloists, instrumentalists and a choir split across the two sides of the cathedral (cantoris and decani).

Tallis gets appointed to the Chapel Royal and successfully navigates the alternating and exacting demands of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I over the coming years. He’s great. Gold stars to him. The Council of Trent meet from 1545 and, with their pointy hats, kick off the Counter-Reformation. 15-all second serve. Henry VIII goes pop in 1547, leaving behind Christ Church Oxford, Trinity College Cambridge, King’s College Chapel, as well as a mess. Cambridge award their first honorary doctorate in music to Christopher Tye in recognition of his superb music, and Thomas Cranmer finishes his Book of Common Prayer in 1549 under Edward VI (but not literally). English church services are now said and sung in English (but Cranmer recommends syllabic singing); cue a furious rubbing out of Latin words by Tallis, Shepherd, Parsons et al. in their compositions lest they lose their heads. Mary Tudor then plonks herself on the throne and announces that all English music should now be in Latin again. Cue swearing and the second convening of the Council of Rubbingout. Elizabeth I thrones herself in 1558, and demands English music in English. New swear words are invented and sharp things thrown, but in return she grants Tallis and his student Byrd permission to publish their music and a twenty-year monopoly on English polyphony, so that’s ok. Sheppard produces some stunning new English polyphony, culminating in his exquisite Media vita that takes everyone by surprise and manages to stop musical time. Glorious.

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Meanwhile the Venetian School at St Mark’s Venice becomes more progressive thanks to Messrs Gabrielli, Gabrieli (nephew), Willaert, Rore, and Zarlino, but the Roman School preserves the traditional with Palestrina in Rome and Tomás Luis de Victoria in Madrid (who had taken up the Spanish music baton from Morales). In Venice Andrea Gabrieli and later Giovanni Gabrieli have been experimenting with polychoral music achieved through coro spezzati or ‘spaced out choirs’ (as in far apart not confused) – a solution to the ridiculous time delay encountered between the choirs singing from different balconies in the ostentatiously huge St Mark’s Basilica. The Giovannii slam together choirs and ceremonial brass ensembles with antiphonal writing to mesmerising effect, all merrily bouncing around St Mark’s Venice in one happy sonorous kaleidoscope (antiphonal = ‘against sound’ in Greek). This new trend spread throughout Italy into Germany, France , Spain and England, particularly as more cathedrals pop up.

In France, Gombert makes polyphony more elaborate and more dense, mixing counterpoint with false relations, whilst Guerrero composes some beautifully expressive music in Seville, and Clemens non Papa writes some excellent Franco-Flemish music. It’s all going super well. Then Lassus turns up and writes HUGE amounts of glorious music (over 2000 vocal pieces) in Italian, Latin, French and German, ranging from the sublime sacred choral to the raucous Super flumina Babylonis which mocks rubbish singers by mimicking restarts, wrong notes and general confusion. Lassus also sets the Passion to music as if that wasn’t enough. Zarlino attempts to codify the current Renaissance polyphonic composition technique in a treatise based on the styles of Willaert and des Prez. Luther has by now created the Deutsche Messe, complete with chorales accompanied by lute or organ. Meanwhile in Europe music becomes increasingly elegant, with text painted into the music with extra chromaticism and ornamentation (musica reservata). Christopher Columbus arrives in South America, having explored and got bored of North America, and kicks off an exchange of music manuscripts between Mexico and Spain, once each realises the other exists.

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The raunchy English madrigal had by now got back to Spain and Italy, setting down the gauntlet for Luzzaschi, Marenzio and Gesualdo, who adapt pastoral play texts to make their madrigals even more dramatic, sophisticated and racy. Church modes start to be seen as old-fashioned, and are gradually replaced by scales

(scalus = ‘steps’ in Latin) built on the semitones and tones of the most-used modes (Ionian and Dorian). Zarlino begins writing about meantone temperament (where the tuning of fifths is compromised in order to improve the tuning of the now prevalent third in music). The toccata (from the Italian for ‘touched’) and fantasia begin to appear, both improvisatory and freely structured with sections of contrasting texture, and the motet absorbs chorale melodies. Imaginatively this becomes the chorale motet. Back in England, Tudor services are now described as either Great (special occasions), Short (simple and efficient for certain Kings who get bored easily) or Verse (which alternated solos with polyphony). Tallis composes his Archbishop Parker’s Psalter tunes in 1567, before acing 40-part choral polyphony in Spem in Alium in 1570. Zarlino then scores another theoretical hit by proposing that harmony is thought of in triads and not just intervals; he follows this by writing his contrapuntal treatise, quoting much of Josquin’s music as the perfect example. Robert Parsons (of Ave Maria fame) tragically drowns in the River Trent in 1572, just as Byrd gains attention at The

Chapel Royal, and FINALLY some more English music appears in print across the land, and throughout Europe.

The Florentine Camerata then appears around 1575, aiming to revive the Ancient Greek drama accompanied by music, and starts experimenting with intoned text punctuated by occasional chords (the first instance of what would become recitative in opera). They need instruments to play a greater range of notes for dramatic purposes, so along comes the theorbo and chitarrone, both modelled on the giant turnip. The women singers of Ferrara astound with their virtuosity from 1580, just as the Italian style becomes popular in England, thanks to Nicholas Yonge’s volume of Italian madrigals (Musica Transalpina). As the last Armada ship sinks in 1588, tudor poetry flowers, particularly in terms of the Virgin Mary, and Byrd agrees to teach Tomkins. English music now has a

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proper heritage and standing in Europe, helped by the publication of Byrd’s Cantiones sacrae (sacred songs) in 1589 after Tallis’s death (sad). Byrd’s sacred music adopts the madrigal’s word painting (in Haec Dies, etc.), and his keyboard fantasias, consort songs and masses for the ordinary (for 3, 4 and 5 voices) are hailed as masterpieces (still). English music is now at its most refined and sophisticated, revered across Europe for the first time since Dunstable (hooray), and madrigals are popping up like daffodils thanks to the English Madrigal School.

In Spain, Lobo is appointed to assist Guerrero at Seville Cathedral; both tonk out stunning music, with Lobo in particular combining beautiful counterpoint with intensity of expression. Shakespeare finishes Romeo and Juliet as composers get mad for crunchy false relations for extra expression (two versions of the same pitch used in counterpoint one after the other in different parts). They also simultaneously use the seventh of a minor scale and the middle note of chord V together at a cadence; known as, surprisingly, an English cadence. The French then start making their music simpler, matching long and short syllables of their language to long and short notes (musique mesurée), and creating the air de coeur (the song of the heart) and vau de vire (satirical and whimsical, and later conflated and developed into vaudeville). Musique mesurée creates the hemiola (Greek for ‘of the ratio of one and a half to one) as ends of phrases are stretched by the ratio 3:2:, creating three rhythmic units instead of two: 12 | 31 | 23 vs. 123 | 123. Time for a celebratory vino.

Zarlino then proposes that there are in fact twelve modes, based on Glarean’s earlier proposals in his Dodecachordon, and Claude le Jeune ignores counterpoint principles by freely using the major sixth and crossing voices in his chansons and psalms; some of the most chromatic music composed so far. But he is called Claude so that’s ok. The Spinet is invented (pygmy harpsichord) and Tomkins is appointed Organist at Worcester Cathedral, where he would churn out many full and verse anthems. Monteverdi has by now

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been busy writing many raunchy and dramatic madrigals, and experimenting with madrigal comedy (a precursor to the drama per musica which then became opera). The trombone (or ‘big trumpet’ in Italian) appears in town and court bands, mostly relegated to the top of towers or different postcodes (an excellent idea), and Sweelinck begins writing down his keyboard improvisations and honing the principles of fugue (subject, answer, countersubject, stretto, etc.). Meanwhile Dowland’s lute pieces begin to be published, Morley writes his Now Is the Month of Maying (fa la la la wink wink), and Oliver Cromwell is born (well done to him). Organ parts are now written as basslines only, with the organist being expected to make everything else up, guided by numbers (this becomes figured bass). And then we reach a rather novel period of some vague stability in music. Phew.

Next up: A shiny new era is tip-toeing nearer…

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