TENET by night
Bring the New Year In Medieval & Traditional Music for the Turning of the Calendar
Allison Zelles Lloyd, voice & medieval harp Shira Kammen, v ielle, medieval harp, voice
DECEMBER 31, 2020
PROGRAM
Christmas Day in the Morning, Shetland traditional tune Hac in Die Salutari, Anon., Florence MS, 13th c. Da Day Dawn, Shetland traditional tune. Ce jour de l’an, Baude Cordier (1380-1440) Holly and His Merry Men, text- Anon, 15th c. English, music - John Fleagle (1952-1999), Ispariz, based on melodies of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), arr. S. Kammen Bonjour Bon Mois, Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474) Festa Januaria, Anon., 13th c. conductus, 2nd verse by Christopher Page Bring the New Year In, English Mummers’ Play song, learned from the singing of Nowell Sing We Clear, with John Roberts & Tony Barrand
NOTES
Our program celebrates the arrival of the New Year, with compositions hearkening from the 12th - 15th centuries, and that mysterious, unpegable era often called ‘traditional’, The Shetland Island tunes are particular to two days of the year - Christmas Day in the Morning is self-explanatory, and Da Day Dawn is meant to be fiddled house-to-house on New Year’s morning. The Dufay and Cordier pieces represent a gift-giving tradition, with hope for good fortune for New Year’s Day and beyond. Also represented is a song from a Mummer’s Play (Bring the New Year In), introducing the characters that will appear in the play. Holly and His Merry Men is a text describing the traditional contest between Holly and Ivy, (the imagery which has many varied interpretations, secular/pagan and religious), and was set to music by John Fleagle. The instrumental piece Ispariz is based on melodies by Hildegard von Bingen, and that word is from the language she created, and means ‘spirit’. Festa Januaria and Hac in die Salutari also celebrate the New Year and the coming of January. We wish you all a good one!
-Shira Kammen and Allison Zelles Lloyd
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Hac in die Salutari On this auspicious day The New Year calls for renewal With applause, and thus renewed, To be led in a circular dance. The year, reborn, Inspires joy:
In this year.
May the sonorous voice Bring forth singing Without delay,
In this year.
Ce jour de l'an This New Year’s day, when each must give a gift joyfully to his fair and sweet love, As for me, I wish for my part to give my heart and body entirely.
To my lady, who is so worthy of praise, all that I have, I bestow upon her This New Year’s day, when each must give a gift joyfully to his fair and sweet love.
My heart compels me to love faithfully on this day, and for all of my life; mirth and laughter, joy and cheerfulness, are the gifts I may fittingly give to her.
This New Year’s day...
Holly and His Merry Men Nay, Ivy, Nay, It shall not be y-wis; Let Holly have the maistry, As the maner is.
Holly stand within the hall, so fair to behold; Ivy stand without the door, she is sore a-cold. Holly and his merry men, they daunsen and they sing; Ivy sand her maidens, they weep and their hands a-wring.
Nay, Ivy, Nay….
Holly, he hath berries as red as any rose; the foresters, the hunters keep them from the does. Ivy, she has berries as black as any sloe; There come the owls, and eat them as they go.
Nay, Ivy, Nay….
Holly, he hath birds and a fair full flock; The nightengale, the popinjay, the gentle laverock; Good Ivy, say to us, what birds hast thou? None but the owelet that cries: How! How!
Nay, Ivy, Nay…. It shall not be y-wis; Let Holly have the maistry, As the maner is.
Bon jour, bon mois A good day, a good month, a good year and good gifts; May he who holds everything in his power, grant you, Riches, honour, holiness, endless joy, Good renown, a beautiful lady, good wine, To keep his creation healthy.
Further, may he grant that you should remain happy And that sometimes we may bring you happiness; So you may have, evening and morning, A good day, a good month, a good year and good gifts; May he who holds everything in his power, grant you, Riches, honour, holiness, endless joy.
And then may he grant you certain hope Without sadness, without traitorous thoughts, To accomplish all your desires with a keen heart. Without question you should in the end be Living lazily in regal glory.
A good day, a good month, a good year and good gifts May he grant you, who holds everything in his power, Riches, honour, holiness, endless joy, Good renown, a beautiful lady, good wine, To keep his creation healthy.
Festa Januaria The feasts of January are the festivities of all feasts, true symbols and the most significant of signs. This offering of lights is an illumination in which there is a declaration and a true understanding of things.
[Let us therefore join musical phrases together, syllable by syllable, all of them equally polyphonic; we proclaim in an ornamented fashion that the door is unbarred and that the steep places have been levelled. Let us therefore sing honeyed things throughout the feasts of January!]
[second verse added by Christopher Page]
Bring the New Year In In comes Old King Christmas, all dressed in green and gold, and may he never be forgot, his story left untold, for it’s once a year he makes good cheer, our spirits to engage, the like was never seen before on any common stage,
Refrain: For we are not of the ragged sort but some of noble trim, we’ll sweep away the old year, and bring the new year in.
In then comes St.George, that noble champion bold, who fought the fiery dragon, made the tyrant’s blood run cold, and it’s through this world he wanders to fulfill his destiny, Well, they must die, he’ll dare to try and challenge a liberty.
Refrain: For we are not of the ragged sort…
In comes a valiant soldier, Prince Paradise by name, with sword and shield he will not yield and hopes to win more fame. So it’s of these noble champions, both born of high renown, And they have made a solemn vow to pull the order down.
Refrain: For we are not of the ragged sort…
And in then comes a doctor, as plainly doth appear, with bitter pill to sure all ills, he travels far and near, with his notions and his potions, to ease us of our pain, and by his art, he’ll play his part, make heroes rise again.
Refrain: For we are not of the ragged sort…
In there comes a working man, they call him Common Jack, he puts food inside our bellies, and clothes upon our back. Hard labour is his destiny, from the moment of his birth, and the Rich take all the money, for the Poor will take the earth.
Refrain: For we are not of the ragged sort but some of noble trim, we’ll sweep away the old year, and bring the new year in.
PERFORMER BIOS
ALLISON ZELLES LLOYD (soprano/medieval harp) has recorded and performed in the United States and Europe with Bimbetta [d’Note label], medieval ensemble Altramar [Dorian], Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices [Harmonia Mundi], Jeffrey Thomas’ American Bach Soloists [Delos], minimalist composer Steve Reich [Nonesuch] and Vajra Voices [Music & Arts]. She holds a Masters of Music degree in vocal performance from the Early Music Institute of Indiana University. Allison currently performs with the medieval ensemble Vajra Voices, the American Bach Soloists Choir, and Calextone with Shira Kammen. She has used her vocal and medieval harp skills in music education leading Music Together™ and Orff Schulwerk programs in the San Francisco East Bay Area since 2001. Allison was a college lecturer on Early Childhood Music Education for seven years. Her love of language and education helped her transition to the role of reading support specialist at Eagle Peak Montessori School in Walnut Creek, CA.
Multi-instrumentalist S hira Kammen has spent much of her life exploring the multi- faceted worlds of early and traditional music.. A member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, singers Azam Ali and Joanna Newsom, the Balkan group Kitka, Anonymous IV, Tenet, the King's Noyse, the Newberry and Folger Consorts, The Compass of the Rose, Vajra Voices, Calextone, the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to providing music on river rafting trips. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music in such schools as Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. Shira directs a chamber chorus called Gallimaufry, co-directs a women's vocal ensemble, WAVE, and currently directs the music for the California Revels. She has played on a number of movie and television soundtracks, when weird medieval instruments are needed.