Theatre - Concert Hall Tanglewood

EIGHT CONCERTS OF CHAMBER MUSIC

Tuesday Evenings at 8:00

June 30 The New York Pro Musica

i&H

59 BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ERICH LEINSDORF Music Director

BERKSHIRE FESTIVAL 1964 FIRST CONCERT OF THE CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

The New York Pro Musica Noah Greenberg, Musical Director

Sheila Schonbrun, Soprano LaNoue Davenport, Recorder, Krummborn, Cornett Elizabeth Humes, Soprano Shelley Gruskin, Flute, Recorder, Krummborn, Earnest Murphy, Countertenor Rauscbpfeife Ray DeVoll, Tenor Judith Davddoff, Viola da gamba Arthur Burrows, Baritone Edward Smith, Harpsichord, Portative Organ, Regal Brayton Lewis Bass The instrumental consort rehearses under the direction of LaNoue Davenport. PROGRAM AN ELIZABETHAN CONCERT

Honoring the 400th Birthday of William Shakespeare

"Hop as light as bird from brier; And this ditty, after me, Sing, and dance it tripplingly, First rehearse your song by rote, To each word a warbling note. Hand in hand, with fairy grace Will we sing, and bless this place" —Midsummer Night's Dream, V.i. 401-407

WILLIAM BYRD This sweet and merry month Ensemble (1543-1623) Come woeful Opheus Voices

JOHN WILBYE Flora gave me fairest flowers Ensemble (1574-1638) Draw on sweet night Voices

THOMAS MORLEY Phyllis, I fain would die now Ensemble (1557-1602)

II

tn'For Orpheus* lute was strung with poets' sinews, Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones, Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands." —The Two Gentlemen of Verona, III.ii.78-81

THOMAS MORLEY II doloroso LaNoue Davenport, recorder La caccia and Shelley Gruskin, flute

JOHN DOWLAND Weep you no more Sheila Schonbrun (1562-1626) with continuo

TOBIAS HUME Touch me lightly Judith Davidoff (d. 1645) Captain Hume's Galliard viola da gamba ROBERT JONES Dreams and imaginations Earnest Murphy (fl. 1600) with harpsichord

WILLIAM BYRD Barley-break Edward Smith, harpsichord .

III

"All things that we ordained festival Turn from their office to black funeral — Our instruments to melancholy bells, Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast; Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change; Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse; And all things change them to the contrary" —Romeo and Juliet, IV.v.84-90 ROBERT WHITE Lamentations of Jeremiah voices (ca. 1530-1574) INTERMISSION IV "A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd. Love's feeling is more soft and sensible Than are the tender horns of cockled snails.

• • • Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair. And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods Make heaven drowsy with the harmony." —Love's Labour's Lost, IV.iv.335-345 JOHN DOWLAND Shall I strive with words Brayton Lewis with instruments ANONYMOUS The poor soul sat sighing Elizabeth Humes (The Willow Song) with harpsichord THOMAS MORLEY Thyrsis and Milla Ray DeVoll with continuo

TOBIAS HUME Tobacco is like love Arthur Burrows with continuo

THOMAS MORLEY It was a lover and his lass Sheila Schonbrun and Ray DeVoll with continuo

"How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st The wiry concord that mine ear confounds, Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap

To kiss the tender inward of thy hand. . . —Sonnet CXXVIII WILLIAM BYRD In nomine instruments JOHN DOWLAND M. George Whitehead his Almand Semper Dowland Semper Dolens (Pavan) M. Nicholas Gryffith his Galliard VI

"My masters, are you mad? . . . Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night? Do you make an alehouse of my lady's house, that ye squeak out your cozier' s catches without any mitigation or remorse of voice? —Twelfth Night, Il.iii. 93-98 THOMAS RAVENSCROFT We be three poor mariners ensemble (ca. 1590-ca. 1633) ORLANDO GIBBONS London Street Cries ensemble ((1583-1625) ABOUT THE INSTRUMENTS Music written for a specific instrumental ensemble was a rarity in the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. But it is untrue to infer from this that the art of orchestration was unknown or that a variety of instruments did not exist in these periods. Contemporary accounts relate that the striking characteristic of orchestral sound was an infinite variety of instrumental colors. The musical sources do not indicate specific instrumentation until the beginning of the 17th Century and not always even then. The scoring used by New York Pro Musica is as close as possible to the performance practice contemporary with the compositions. The CORNETT combines characteristics of both the brass and wood- wind families. The sound is produced via a cup mouthpiece, somewhat like that of the modern trumpet; but the instrument is made of wood and is fingered after the manner of a recorder. The RAUSCHPFEIFE is a loud wind instrument, with a capped double reed. Having a most piercing sound, it was made in families for use in out- door performances. Parts for PERCUSSION instruments were not indicated in early music. However, the countless paintings, sculpture and prints depicting percussion of every variety attest to its use in medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque music. RECORDERS are members of the flute family and were made in con- sorts, or families. Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum of 1619 shows eleven sizes but states that the higher voices were seldom used ". . . as they shriek so. VIOLE DA GAMBA of all sizes, even the smallest, were held between the legs. In general they have six strings and sloping shoulders in contrast to the straight shoulders of the violin family. The body is thicker than that of the violin, the strings more loosely strung, and the fingerboard is fretted. The VIELLE is a medieval fiddle and, unlike the viol, was not fretted. It is normally tuned in fifths, as is the violin, and built in various sizes. The KRUMMHORN, a soft wind instrument, derives its name from its curved body. Its double reed is encased in a wooden cap, the cap having a hole at the top through which the player blows. The PORTATIVE is a small organ consisting of one rank of stopped flue pipes. The REGAL is also a one rank organ whose tones are produced by reed pipes with wooden resonators. Both were widely used as ensemble instruments during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. LaNue Davenport CONCERTS TO FOLLOW: July 7 Joseph Silverstein, Violin Ralph Berkowitz, Piano

July 14 Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society Elliot Forbes, Director

July 21 Claudio Arrau, Piano July 28 Beaux Arts Trio of New York August 4 Jorge Bolet, Piano August 11 Lenox String Quartet

August 18 Phyllis Curtin, Soprano