Tamesis Issue 214 September 2009
Editorial
First, apologies to anyone who sent us emails and had them bounced back. You�ll be
glad to know that the problem has now been resolved.
David has asked me to point out to those of you who send advertisements in PDF
format that we print on a laser printer and it is best to avoid large areas of black,
which result in striations in the solid black areas, and subtle shades of grey, which
again don't work very well on a laser printer and slow down the printing. Also of
course large black areas are a terrible waste of �ink�!
Don�t forget the Renaissance recorder day on Sunday 4th October. The form appeared
in July but if you�ve lost it you can find one on the web site. This should be a really
fascinating and informative event. I�ve already had a taster of what Philip plans to do
and can thoroughly recommend it.
David and I seem to be spending an awful lot of time on Tamesis so we�ve decided to
experiment with only producing it every other month from December onwards � in
January, March, May, July, September and November. This is only four less than
usual, and still more than many of the other forums have. Next month�s October
issue will appear as usual.
Victoria Helby
Chairman�s Chat
It's not often that I attend a wedding where I know both bride and groom well, but
last month I was delighted to be present at the wedding of two of my best musical
friends. Kevin Brown has been a member of TVEMF as long as I can remember and is
a keen and skilful curtal player and singer, attending many of our events. Maria Jos�
Pinilla Paz-Pe�uelas made a big impact when she came to this country from Spain a
few years ago. She plays the violin, the sackbut and sings beautifully but it is her
enthusiasm for life that marks her out, and I have encountered her at events in at
least seven different counties. The wedding featured music played by several
members of TVEMF and EEMF, and the bride and groom joined in during the reception.
Maria's full name caused some pronunciation problems during the ceremony, though
not for the couple themselves, but I can confirm that she has no intention of being
known as Mrs. Brown!
The Thames Valley Early Music Forum can claim a little credit (or blame) for these two
getting together, in that they met at our Oxford event in 2006. On this subject I
should mention that at least one other couple has met through TVEMF: Phil Sharples
and Claire Hale met at the TVEMF Christmas event in Marlow in December 1996 and
married in July 1997.
Advancing years sometimes deal cruelly with musicians and I was very sad to hear
that former member Nigel Nathan can no longer play his sackbut, which is offered for
sale elsewhere in Tamesis. We have lost another sackbut player in our committee
member Jeff Gill who has elected to switch to the viol. Once he has mastered the
embouchure I'm sure he will be welcomed into the mysterious world of the viol
consort. Meanwhile he is continuing to do plenty of singing, which does mean he has
both hands free to carry the tea and coffee!
David Fletcher
Croce in Kilburn
It is inevitable, if one is regularly reviewing Michael Procter�s week-end in Kilburn,
that, to some extent, the same things are going to be said. Thus, the opening always
seems to announce that on such and such a date, 25 (or 24 or 26) singers gathered
at St Augustine�s to participate in Michael�s liturgical week-end. Your reviewer hopes
that, given the attractive music which Michael always selects, and the adept manner
in which he combines instruction with entertainment, more members might in future
years be tempted to take advantage of his annual visit.
One can always rely on Michael to introduce some slightly bizarre concept into his
discourse and, while we were warming up on Saturday morning, he told us about a
recent conference in York which he had attended, at which the sheep were sorted
from the goats by magnetic resonance imaging scans taken while they were singing
the vowel �ee�. Your reviewer was instantly transported back to the days of George
Bernard Shaw�s musical criticism and his enthusiasm for the laryngoscope. In the
second volume of Music in London 1890-94 he says, at p.190, in the course of a
vigorous polemic about singing teachers and their �scientific� methods:-
�Yet do not suppose that I am an advocate of old-fashioned ignorance. No. I
admit that a young teacher of singing, if he cannot handle the laryngoscope,
and knows nothing of anatomy or physics, deserves to be mistrusted as an
uneducated person, likely to offer fantastic and ambiguous suggestions instead
of exact instructions�
I did, however, lose track of Michael�s explication at the point where the warming-up
of the voice was in some way likened to the heat generated during the process of
compressing a gas.
However, turning to the music, 2009, as can be seen from Michael�s web-site, is Croce
year. In his 14-volume edition of the collected works of Giovanni Croce, volume 1
contains the 5- and 6-part Masses. Michael chose Croce�s only 6-part mass (SSATTB)
for us and it is impossible to quarrel with his description of it as �bright and grateful to
sing�. As he did last year, he provided an edition of the week-end music in one
volume; as well as the Mass, it contained three motets, Audi Domine Hymnum
(SATTB) and O sacrum convivium I (SATB) by Croce, and one, Benedicite spiritus
(SSATTB) by Claudio Merulo. Both composers were associated with St Mark�s, Venice,
Merulo having been the chief organist from 1557-84 (when he was succeeded by
Andrea Gabrieli, who had been the second organist since 1566), while Croce was
maestro di cappella from 1603 until his death in 1609.
Curiously, perhaps, recent books on Renaissance music pay little attention to either
Croce or Merulo as composers of liturgical music. For instance, Allan W Atlas, in
Renaissance Music, (Norton, 1998) devotes some space to Merulo�s arrangement of
Lassus� Susanne un jour, and gives a passing mention to the �toccatas of Merulo
[which] live on mainly in scholarly editions�, while he mentions Croce only as maestro
di cappella at St Mark�s, Venice. Leeman Perkins, in Music of the Age of the
Renaissance (Norton, 1999) refers to Merulo only as a composer of instrumental
music, while Croce is mentioned as the composer of the madrigal Ove tra l�herbe e i
fiori in Il trionfo Dori (published 1592) which (says Perkins) was apparently the source
of Morley�s inspiration to produce The Triumphs of Oriana (1601).
On the Saturday we rehearsed the Mass (except for the Credo) and the two Croce
anthems, Audi Domine Hymnum which we sang at the offertory and O sacrum
convivium at Communion. The Mass is less highly charged and dramatic than many
which we have sung, and Michael was meticulous in ensuring that we kept the
deceptively simple music moving. It was highly gratifying to be told by him, in effect,
that we were doing so well that it was worth while trying to make it even better.
Audivi Domine hymnum was, perhaps, near the other end of the Croce spectrum.
There are tremendous contrasts in its 60 bars, with impassioned pleading until the
sudden quietness of �die ac nocte� which gradually builds up to a massive climax in
which the tenors attacked the final cadence with great vigour. O sacrum convivium
was, as one would expect, intense but quiet until it culminates in the final, joyful
Alleluia.
The performance on Sunday went off very well, Canon Yates being kind enough to
compare the effect produced by our singing favourably with San Marco, though, as
Michael had told us the day before, the regular choir at San Marco is fairly appalling,
that was not quite the unqualified encomium that it might appear to be at first sight.
Our singing had one slight hiatus when the whole choir was feeling relieved and so
pleased to be celebrating the �peace�, with the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and offertory
motet having all been safely negotiated, that we had scarcely girded our loins for the
Agnus Dei when the time came; but all in all it was a very creditable effort. Michael
professed himself more than satisfied, and Canon Yates was as enthusiastic as the
congregation were welcoming.
In the afternoon a somewhat diminished group sang the Credo, which struck your
reviewer as having the quietest and gentlest depiction of the resurrection of the dead
imaginable. We then tackled the Merulo Benedicite spiritus, which is a fine penitential
motet for six voices; but the singers were in such a Croce �mind-set� (and in three
flats!) that it took time, quite unconnected with the long lunch at the Old Bell, to
accommodate successfully to Merulo (in two sharps). Michael also treated us to an
informative disquisition on the way in which the structures of the hexachords based
on C, G and F militated against the use of any key signatures containing sharps; he
has not come across anything originally written in G major earlier than 1640.
Returning, as at the start of this review, to familiar themes, it was a most rewarding
and enjoyable week-end under Michael�s direction, and our warmest thanks go to Neil
for organising the event, to Penny Vinson and Jenny Robinson for all their work in
ensuring that all went smoothly in the church, and to Jenny, Penny and to Mary
Reynor for providing yet another batch of admirable cakes.
Sidney Ross
Neil Edington, who organised the event, received a thank-you letter from the
Reverend Canon Anthony H Yates, the vicar of St. Augustine's Kilburn. He wrote:
We are indeed grateful for your support and the interest that the Thames Valley Music
Forum takes in the church. Please thank Michael Procter and members of the choir for
the superb Mass last week - a little bit of Venice in NW6! I look forward to your visit
next year. We shall then be celebrating the 130th Anniversary of Consecration of the
Church and 140th of the foundation of the parish and hope soon to have a programme
for the year available. I am awaiting a reply from the Archbishop of Canterbury and
we shall be able to plan better when we know whether or not he is able to come.
Festa Workshop
Nobody admitted to offering to write a review, but David received the following email
from Wendy Steyn:
I thought it was a good day today � lovely music, Festa is a real find as far as I�m
concerned! I personally prefer workshops on one composer because the day builds up
a reasonable idea of the composer�s particular style, aided of course by our expert and
knowledgeable leader! Also, with an add-hoc group of singers, it seems to help us gel
and begin to respond more quickly to the way the music evolves and there seem to be
far fewer mistakes. What a lovely surprise to see 14 basses! The double-choir piece
was a wonderful challenge and Peter�s blithe expectation that we�d just read it seemed
to inspire us all to really get stuck in � I thought we did remarkably well with a
complicated piece.
The venue was a triumph � large, airy spaces to counteract the humidity � very well
done, organisers.