Final program, notes and translations for our season finale French Cantatas Mixed With Symphonies, 8PM, Apr. 27th 2013 at Heliconian Hall.

French Cantatas Mixed with Symphonies

Musette Jean-Baptiste de Bousset (1662-1725)

Piéces en Mi Mineur Marin Marais (1656–1728)
Prelude-Le Tableau de l'Operation de la Taille-Les Relevailles

Factum est silentium Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)

Piéces en Sol Mineur Louis Couperin (c.1626-1661)
Prelude-Allemande-Courante-Sarabande-Passacaille

Sonate a la Maresienne Marais
Un peu grave-Legerement-Un peu gay-Sarabande-Tres vivement-Gravement-Gigue

Intermission

Piéces en Sol Majeur Robert de Visée (c.1655-1732/3)
Prelude-Menuet-Entrée Des Espagnols de M De Lully-Les Sylvains de M Couperin 

Semelé-Cantate Avec Simphonie Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729)

The Musicians In Ordinary
Named after the singers and lutenists who performed in the most intimate quarters of the Stuart monarchs’ palace, The Musicians In Ordinary for the Lutes and Voices dedicate themselves to the performance of early solo song and vocal chamber music. Soprano Hallie Fishel and lutenist John Edwards have been described as ‘winning performers of winning music’. A fixture on the Toronto early music scene for over 10 years, this year MIO became Ensemble in Residence at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and next month they have been invited to give lectures and a concert at University of California, San Diego. They have concertized across North America and lecture regularly at universities and museums. Institutions where MIO have performed range from the scholarly to those for a more general public and include the Renaissance Society of America, Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, Grinnell College, the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, Syracuse, Trent and York Universities and the Bata Shoe Museum. They have been Ensemble in Residence at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Their CD of Elizabethan and Jacobean songs on the topic of sleep, Sleep Wayward Thoughts, is available at intermission.

Christopher Verrette has been a member of the violin section of Tafelmusik since 1993 and is a frequent soloist and leader with the orchestra. He holds a Bachelor of Music and a Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University and contributed to the development of early music in the American Midwest as a founding member of the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and Ensemble Voltaire, and as a guest director with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. He collaborates with many ensembles around North America, performing music from seven centuries on violin, viola, rebec, vielle and viola d’amore. He was concertmaster for a recording of rarely heard classical symphonies for a recently released anthology by Indiana University Press, and most recently collaborated with Sylvia Tyson on the companion recording to her novel, Joyner’s Dream.

Philip Fournier is Titular Organist of the Toronto Oratory, Director of the Chant Schola & Oratory Children’s Choir. He specializes in Gregorian Chant, which he studied at Solesmes with Dom Saulnier. He gives solo organ recitals regularly at the Oratory, is guest organist of the Toronto Tallis Choir, artistic director and continuo player of the St. Vincent’s Baroque Soloists, and is active as a composer. His organ and harpsichord teachers have included James David Christie at the College of the Holy Cross, Russell Saunders, Paul O’Dette & Arthur Haas at the Eastman School of Music, and Robert Clark & John Metz at Arizona State. Mr. Fournier was the first Organ Scholar of the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester USA, and was subsequently named a Fenwick Scholar, the highest academic honour given by the College. He was one of the recitalists of the Chapel Artists Series there in 2011. He won the Historical Organ in America competition in 1992 and performed at Arizona State University on the Paul Fritts organ, and was awarded a recital on the Flentrop instrument at Duke University. Mr. Fournier was Organist & Director of Music at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Portland Maine, from 2000-2007, during which time he founded the Cathedral Schola Cantorum for the restoration of Gregorian Chant and Renaissance Polyphony to the Stational Masses of the Diocese of Portland.

Justin Haynes studied cello and viola da gamba at Harvard and the Royal Dutch Conservatory under Philippe Pierlot, Anneke Pols and Reiner Zipperling. Currently based in Toronto, he has performed with Folia, Scaramella, Tafelmusik and Opera Atelier, as well as with the Boston-based Arcturus Chamber Ensemble and Les Bostonades. He is also a founding member of the baroque chamber ensemble, L’Indiscrete. Justin’s interest in the viol includes the history and construction of the instrument itself. After making the viol he currently plays on, he was awarded a Shaw traveling fellowship to study instrument making in London and explore the great Northern European viol collections. He maintains an atelier in Boston, where he is curator of Harvard’s historical instrument collection.

At the beginning of the 18th century, books with titles like ‘Cantates Françoises Melées de Symphonies’ started coming from French music presses. André Campra boasted that in his book of cantatas he had ‘mixed with the delicacy of French music, the vivacity of Italian.’ Many pamphlets on whether the elegant, even precious French style or the direct, dramatic Italian was ‘better’ were printed in this period and melding the styles became a goal for composers. François Couperin even published a book of chamber music callled Les Goûts réunis. This Couperin is the composer of Les Sylvains, arranged from the keyboard original for theorbo by de Visée. Couperin and de Visée played together with the viol player Forqueray, the violinist Rebel and the flute player Descôteaux in 1701 at a salon. De Visée’s main job, however, was playing a nightly concert for the king in his bedchamber.

In the middle of the 17th century, lute players like the Gautiers had set the trend for depictive music by applying titles like ‘The Beautiful Murderess’ or ‘Cleopatra in Love’ to dance pieces. The opera composer Lully found this useful for Tempest and Sleep movements in his works and this was one of the French traits that, as we will hear tonight, the style reuniters retained. The thunder and lightning of Jupiter’s approach is painted in Lullian style in Semelé. Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was a musical prodigy at the French court at the tender age of five performing on the harpsichord. Later, she played public concerts in Paris and was the first to bring the exotic Italian cantata to France.

We hear the bagpipes of the shepherd in Bousset’s Musette. Pastoralism was having a last hurrah in 18th century France. Bousset was a minor nobleman who worked as the maître de musique in the chapel of the Louvre and published several books of Airs. The Bibliothèque nationale de France has begun digitizing their collections of music and making it available online. After poring through dozens of the books of airs, we made an edition from the original print (which is rather difficult to read in its pixelated form) so it may be that you are hearing the North American premier of this little piece tonight.

We procured the motet for St. Michael the Archangel the same way, and again there seems to be no other modern edition but ours. We are less confident about this being the first modern performance though, since Clérambault is one of the best known French composers of the period.  He worked as organist at a large Parisian church and as a household musician for the secret wife of Louis XIV, Madame de Maintenon.

In perhaps the most famous of French Baroque depictive pieces, Marais paints us an all too vivid tableau of the bladder stone operation he endured. This piece is often said to depict a gall bladder operation, but that procedure was not performed until the 19th century. The unsqueamish can find the Traite de Lithomie (the frontispiece of which is reproduced above) on Google books. Marais has the distinction of being played by Gérard Depardieu in the movie Tous les matins du monde where he is depicted as something of a social climber. Indeed he did rise from humble origins. The Sonate a la Maresienne sees Marais in a more Italianate mood.

Louis Couperin was uncle of the forementioned François. He also worked as a church organist and may have been the first ‘reuniter of the styles’ as he absorbed the Italian style through his musical mentor Froberger, who, curiously, was a German, into his suites of dances.

Hallie and I were rehearsing the other day and checking the editions we'd made of a Musette by Jean-Baptiste de Bousset for voice and a treble instrument and continuo and a motet on St. Michael beating the dragon in a fight. But we got bogged down.

Here's the probable repertoire for the Apr. 27th concert French Cantatas Mixed with Symphonies with 8PM, Apr. 27th 2013.
In his book of ‘Cantates Françoises Melées de Symphonies’ published in 1708, André Campra tells us he has “mixed with the delicacy of French music, the vivacity of Italian.” All composers of French cantata sought to meld the elegance of the Sun King’s court with the, well, flashiness of the Italian Baroque in both the vocal and instrumental (that is the ‘symphonies’ of the title) sections. Hallie Fishel, soprano and John Edwards, theorbo are joined by Christopher Verrette, violin, Philip Fournier, harpsichord and Justin Haynes, viola da gamba

Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave. (near Bay Subway)
Single tickets $25/$20 students & seniors, available at the door which opens a 1/2 hour before concert time.


Musette Jean-Baptiste de Bousset 1662-1725

Piéces en Mi Mineur Marin Marais (1656–1728)
Prelude-Le Tableau de l'Operation de la Taille-Les Relevailles

Factum est silentium Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)

Piéces en Sol Mineur Louis Couperin (c.1626-1661)
Prelude-Allemande-Courante-Sarabande-Passacaille

Sonate a la Maresienne Marais

Louis XIV and his musicians, a big theorbo and a guitar.

Intermission

Piéces en Sol Majeur Robert de Visée (c.1655-1732/3)
Prelude-Menuet-Entrée Des Espagnols de M De Lully-Les Sylvains de M Couperin 

Semelé-Cantate Avec Simphonie    Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729)

The program and notes from the concert we just did for the The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies and the conference of Shakespeare Association of America. Katie Larson was special guest star as the Ariel in the Eccho song, singing from the hallway.

The 2013 William R. Bowen Concert

The Musicians In Ordinary for the Lutes 

and Voices

A Thousand Times Better and More Glorious

Emmanuel College Chapel

Mar. 30th 2013

Music from The Tempest
First Musick - Introduction-Galliard-Gavot Matthew Locke (c.1621-1677)
Dear, pritty youth Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Second Musick - Sarabrand-Lilk Locke
Come unto these yellow Sands John Banister (c.1630-1679)
Curtain Tune Locke
Dry those Eyes Banister
The First Act Tune-Rustick Air Locke
Full Fathom five Banister
The Second Act Tune-Minoit Locke
Where the Bee sucks Pelham Humphrey (1647-1674)
The Third Act Tune - Corant Locke
Adieu to the Pleasures James Hart (1647-1718)
The Fourth Act Tune - A Martial Jigge Locke
Eccho song Banister
The Conclusion - A Canon 4 in 2 Locke

Curtain Tune from Timon of Athens Purcell

Music from The Fairy Queen
If love’s a sweet passion Purcell
The Plaint Purcell
Chaccone Purcell
See, see even Night Purcell
Thus happy and free Purcell

Much of the music heard tonight comes from a 1674 adaptation of The Tempest by Thomas Shadwell. The play as adapted by Shadwell, an eyewitness tells us, was ‘made into an opera’. Well, opera starved 1670s Londoners might have thought that, but it was by no means a continuous music-drama such as we have come to understand the word. Certain attributes of Locke’s instrumental music, though, are depictive in the way that shows a familiarity with, and an eagerness to imitate the French opera of Lully. The Curtain Tune, especially, imitates the obligatory tempest movement of French Baroque opera with its smooth opening which moves into disquieting harmonies Locke had found left over from the English viol repertoire of the early 17th century. With directions in the score like ‘lowder by degrees’ ‘soft and slow by degrees’ and even ‘Violent’ we can say that this is not just instrumental music for the theatre, but fully ‘incidental music.’ Locke does give us plenty of dances, though, because as much as Charles II loved actresses, he hated ‘fancy music…to which he could not tap his foot’. A masque was added towards the end of the play with songs by Humphrey, who had studied in France, Bannister, who had led the king’s violin band, and the less notable James Hart. Songs for Caliban and other instrumental music by Giovanni Battista Draghi is lost. Purcell’s Dear pritty youth appears to be from a 1695 revival and led to the music for a very operatic 1712 production, complete with the added masque songs, being attributed to him from 1786 when ‘Purcell’s’ Tempest score was printed to the second half of the last century. Indeed many recordings of ‘Purcell’s’ Tempest are available and many undergraduate bass voice recitals include ‘his’ Handelian Arise ye subterranean winds’, though Dear pritty seems to have been all Purcell composed for the play. Poor John Weldon, the real composer. We know that at Dryden and Davenant’s Tempest there were members of the King’s Four and Twenty Fiddlers and ‘harpsicals and theorboes to accompany the voices placed between the pit and the stage’ which seems to imply that the string band and the ‘continuo’ instruments did not play together. Additionally, in manuscripts and printed sources of theatre instrumental music there are no figures in the bass part to tell the theorbist or harpsichordist what chords to play.

Though we present only the Curtain Tune for Timon of Athens, or The Man Hater adapted by Shadwell, Purcell composed the music for a masque complete with Cupids and lovers and ‘a Symphony of Pipes imitating the chirping of birds’ inserted into this play. The opera-buffication of Shakespeare seems to have been increasing.

With The Fairy Queen though, we see Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream dwarfed by the contribution of Purcell and the anonymous ‘adapter’. As if there were not enough scope for musical display with the fairies and country bumpkins, Purcell and the librettist add characters such as a Chinese Man and Lady, Green Men and a Drunken Poet. This character’s stammer and bibulousness might identify him as playwright Thomas D’Urfey so that slander can probably rule him out as author. In Purcell’s score for The Fairy Queen we see the strings becoming more integrated with the voices and their accompanying theorbist, even taking that role themselves in See see even night.

While out for a drink with Samuel Pepys, impresario and actor Tom Killigrew boasted that ‘the stage is now by his pains a thousand times better and more glorious than ever heretofore.’ Might we think Restoration theatre ‘more glorious’ than we presently give it credit for being if we heard more of the original music played in those entertainments?

The Musicians In Ordinary
Named after the singers and lutenists who performed in the most intimate quarters of the Stuart monarchs’ palace, The Musicians In Ordinary for the Lutes and Voices dedicate themselves to the performance of early solo song and vocal chamber music. Soprano Hallie Fishel and lutenist John Edwards have been described as ‘winning performers of winning music’. A fixture on the Toronto early music scene for over 10 years, in 2012 MIO became Ensemble in Residence at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. They have concertized across North America and lecture regularly at universities and museums. Institutions where MIO have performed range from the scholarly to those for a more general public and include the Renaissance Society of America, Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, Grinnell College, the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, the Kingston Opera Guild, Syracuse, Trent and York Universities and the Bata Shoe Museum. They have been Ensemble in Residence at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Christopher Verrette has been a member of the violin section of Tafelmusik since 1993 and is a frequent soloist and leader with the orchestra. He holds a Bachelor of Music and a Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University and contributed to the development of early music in the American Midwest as a founding member of the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and Ensemble Voltaire, and as a guest director with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. He collaborates with many ensembles around North America, performing music from seven centuries on violin, viola, rebec, vielle and viola d’amore. He was concertmaster for a recording of rarely heard classical symphonies for a recently released anthology by Indiana University Press, and most recently collaborated with Sylvia Tyson on the companion recording to her novel, Joyner’s Dream.

Patricia Ahern has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University, a Master of Music from Indiana University, and performer’s diploma from the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland. She taught baroque violin at the Freiburg Conservatory in Germany and Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and has given masterclasses at McGill, York University, Wilfrid Laurier, University of Windsor, Western, University of Wisconsin, Grand Valley State University, and University of Toronto. She has concertized throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia and South America and performed with Milwaukee Baroque, Ars Antigua, Chicago Opera Theater, Kingsbury Ensemble, Aradia, I Furiosi, Newberry Consort, Musica Pacifica, and the Carmel Bach Festival. Tricia has recorded for Sony, Naxos, and Analekta, and joined Tafelmusik in 2002.

Eleanor Verrette studied violin in Toronto with Gretchen Paxson and Aisslinn Nosky, then viola in Montréal with Pemi Paull and Anna-Belle Marcotte. She graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Music in viola performance from McGill; she was a member of the McGill Baroque Orchestra for several years, including their performance in the Young Performers' Festival at the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival.  In addition to appearing with the Musicians In Ordinary in Toronto, she has recently been featured on the newest album releases by Montréal folk-pop artists Corinna Rose and Lakes Of Canada.

The new Artistic Director of the Academy Concert Series and a recipient of the Margarita Heron Pine String Prize and the Beryl Barns Graduate Scholarship, cellist Kerri McGonigle graduated with a Masters of Music degree in cello performance from the University of Alberta. While studying in Paris, she won Premier Prix with unanimous distinction in violoncello and chamber music from the Gennevilliers Conservatory. Having completed an Advanced Certificate in Baroque Performance with Tafelmusik through the University of Toronto, Kerri is based in Toronto and performs regularly as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral cellist.

The CRRS Annual William R. Bowen Concert
During the Directorship of Renaissance music historian Professor Bowen, the CRRS expanded its operations in many new directions. The William R. Bowen Fund was established in his honour to create an endowment earmarked for an annual concert of early modern music.

The Musicians In Ordinary would like to extend their sincere thanks to the following:
Mike Schreiner for lute construction and maintenance
Alexandra Guerson for the MIO website design
Katie Larson for liasing
Lisa Wang for transportation.

The Musicians In Ordinary are supported by the Spem In Alium Fund of the Toronto Community Foundation.  

The Musicians In Ordinary are Ensemble-in-Residence at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto, which generously supports MIO’s research and performance.

The program, translations and notes for the next concert 7:30PM St. Basil’s Church, 50 St. Joseph St., St. Michael’s College, Mar. 25th 2013. (Map here)

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE PRESENTS

Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater
The Musicians In Ordinary
Hallie Fishel-Soprano, Charlotte Burrage-Mezzo-Soprano
Led by Christopher Verrette

Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories
St. Michael’s Schola Cantorum
Directed by Michael O’Connor

St. Basil’s Church, Mar. 25th 2013

Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 3 Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Largo-Allegro-Grave-Vivace-Allegro

Tenebrae Responsories Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611)
Eram quasi agnus-Animam meam dilectam-Caligaverunt oculi mei-Recessit pastor noster

Stabat Mater Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)

The Musicians In Ordinary
Named after the singers and lutenists who performed in the most intimate quarters of the Stuart monarchs’ palace, The Musicians In Ordinary for the Lutes and Voices dedicate themselves to the performance of early solo song and vocal chamber music. Soprano Hallie Fishel and lutenist John Edwards have been described as ‘winning performers of winning music’. A fixture on the Toronto early music scene for over 10 years, this year MIO became Ensemble in Residence at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto They have concertized across North America and lecture regularly at universities and museums. Institutions where MIO have performed range from the scholarly to those for a more general public and include the Renaissance Society of America, Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, Grinnell College, the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, the Kingston Opera Guild, Syracuse, Trent and York Universities and the Bata Shoe Museum. They have been Ensemble in Residence at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Christopher Verrette has been a member of the violin section of Tafelmusik since 1993 and is a frequent soloist and leader with the orchestra. He holds a Bachelor of Music and a Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University and contributed to the development of early music in the American Midwest as a founding member of the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and Ensemble Voltaire, and as a guest director with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. He collaborates with many ensembles around North America, performing music from seven centuries on violin, viola, rebec, vielle and viola d’amore. He was concertmaster for a recording of rarely heard classical symphonies for a recently released anthology by Indiana University Press, and most recently collaborated with Sylvia Tyson on the companion recording to her novel, Joyner’s Dream.

Mezzo-Soprano Charlotte Burrage is a graduate of the University of Toronto with her Masters in Voice performance as well as the University of British Columbia’s Opera Diploma program. In 2011/2012, Charlotte toured with Vancouver Opera in Schools as Hansel in their production of Hansel and Gretel. In July she performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Italy with Kevin Mallon. Other operatic credits include Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte) with David Agler in the Opera as Theatre program in Banff, Alberta, Principessa (Suor Angelica) and Cendrillon (Cendrillon) with University of British Columbia, and the Old Maid (The Old Maid and the Thief) with Triptych Opera. Charlotte performed with Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in their traditional Christmas concert series, was a soloist with VSO and Conductor Arnie Roth in Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy and was the alto soloist in the Bach Magnificat BWV 243 with Graeme Langager at the University of British Columbia. In the fall of 2012 Charlotte toured as Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte with Jeunesses Musicales Canada. Most recently she has been accepted into the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble studio.

1st Violins

Christopher Verrette, Elizabeth Loewen Andrews, Michelle Odorico

2nd Violins 

Kathleen Kajioka, Rezan Onen Lapointe

Violas

Emily Eng, Eleanor Verrette

Violoncello 

Laura Jones

Contrabass

Calum MacLeod

Organ

Lysianne Boulva

St Michael’s Schola Cantorum is an ad hoc group drawn from staff, graduate and undergraduate students, faculty at the University of St Michael’s College, and members of St Basil’s parish choir.

Michael O’Connor has been Director of Music at St Basil’s Church since 2010, and is an Associate of the Royal School of Church Music. He teaches in the college programs at St Michael’s and runs a weekly singing club on campus. His academic scholarship and practical music-making overlap in the theory and practice of liturgical music.

Soprano

Bernadette Domingo, Kara Dymond, Laurel-Ann Finn, Anna Lubinsky

Alto

Irene Chan, Brigid Elson, Irene Gaspar

Tenor

Adam Miceli, Marcos Ramos

Bass

Eric Charron, Christian McConnell

Arcangelo Corelli was born in Fusignano, spent his early career in Bologna, but spent most of his mature years, from at least 1675, in Rome. Here he was in the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, and later was engaged by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili as his music master at a monthly salary of ten Florentine piastres, plus room and board for him, Matteo Fornari, his companion and violin student, and a servant at cardinal's palace. When Pamphili moved to Bologna in 1690 Corelli moved into the household of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the 22-year-old nephew of Pope Alexander VIII (‘Nipote’, the root of our word ‘nepotism’, means ‘nephew.’) and great friend to artists. During this period Corelli also directed operatic performances in Naples. 

Though his output was fairly small, it is impossible to overstate the influence Corelli’s music had on his contemporaries. Roger North, writing in the early 18th century said Corelli’s sonatas, at least ‘cleared the ground of all other sorts of musick whatsoever’ and ‘are to the musitians like the bread of life’ and helped ‘convert the English Musick intirely over from the French to the Italian taste’. The Twelve Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 were revised by Corelli in his last years and published in Amsterdam in 1714, the remuneration for the print going to the forementioned Fornari. The collection contains eight concerti da chiesa and four concerti da camera, which have dance movements and all have a small ‘concertino’ group of first and second violins, violoncello and a chordal instrument, alternating with the ‘grosso’ group ‘redoubling’ the parts. 

Tomás Luis de Victoria was born in Avila, a younger contemporary of St Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582). He received his early musical education at the local cathedral before moving to Rome, where he was ordained priest and established himself as a foremost church musician. After twenty years serving a variety of Roman churches, he was called back to Spain to be chaplain to the Emperor’s sister. Victoria composed his Tenebrae Responsories in Rome for a series of Holy Week evening liturgies. Of the set of eighteen (published 1585), four will be sung in tonight’s concert. Drawn mainly from the prophets and psalms, the biblical words are placed in the mouth of Christ and his enemies, telling of his betrayal, suffering, and death. The final responsory, assigned for Holy Saturday, speaks of his descent into hell, breaking down the doors of the underworld, overthrowing Satan, and freeing Adam and Eve. Each responsory follows the same form: ABCB, where C is a trio for solo voices. Victoria’s music is spare, intense, and deeply felt. Responding to the drama of the Passion story, he paints pictures of innocence, desolation, tragedy, and treachery with a restrained palate and with the subtlest gestures.

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born in the Papal States and moved to Naples, by then an important centre of opera, at the tender age of 15. Here he became famous particularly as a composer of opera buffa, though he also wrote church music including a Mass, a Magnificat and, most famously in the 18th century, as well as now, his Stabat Mater. 

Traditionally it has been said that the Stabat Mater was commissioned by the Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo to replace, or ‘soup up’ a similar setting by Alessandro Scarlatti, their former maestro di capella, which uses only two violins, soprano and alto soloists, and continuo. Scarlatti’s setting was performed on every Friday in Lent. Pergolesi wrote the Stabat in the spa town of Pozzuoli where he was trying, unsuccessfully, to recover from tuberculosis. 

It is hard to tell how much the romantic tale of the young genius struggling to complete his masterwork as he coughed out his last breath played a part in the astonishing popularity the Stabat Mater had in the following decades. Bach adapted it for a German cantata, Alexander Pope wrote an ode to fit the music, versions for solo keyboard and even violin solo versions of the fugal movements were adapted. Perhaps it was the decline of castrato singers, particularly in church, in the early 19th century that inspired an arrangement for four-part male chorus. Certainly the 19th century operas on and a ‘biography’ of Pergolesi’s life contain much fiction. 

The Stabat Mater imports from the opera a direct and dramatic harmonic vocabulary which had a great influence on the Classical style of Mozart and Haydn.

It is hard to know what forces would have been deployed for the Baroque music you hear tonight. The prefatory material for the Corelli and information from eyewitness Georg Muffat tells us that we could even do the ‘orchestral’ Concerti Grossi as a ‘perfect little trio’ with two violins and a bass, as long as the violins played loud when in the sections when the orchestra was supposed to be there. But Corelli also directed an orchestra as big as 80 players. The vocal parts would probably have been performed by castrati in church in the 18th century but none is cut out to be a singer of that kind today. Pergolesi specifies  ‘primo choro organo contrabasso, secondo coro violoncello, leuto, contrabasso’ for the continuo of a Mass, and the archlute (arcileuto) was very popular in Rome and was used in the small concertino group.

Eram quasi agnus 

I was like an innocent lamb. I was led to sacrifice, and did not know. My enemies plotted against me, saying: “Come, let us put wood into his bread, and drive him from the land of the living.” All my enemies plotted evil against me. Cruel words they spoke against me, saying: “Come...”

Animam meam dilectam  

The life that I held dear I put into the hands of the unrighteous, and my inheritance has become for me like a lion in the forest. My enemy spoke out against me: “Come, gather together and hasten to devour him.” They placed me in a desolate wilderness, and all the earth mourned for me. For there was no one to acknowledge me or give me help. They rose up against me without mercy and did not spare my life.

Caligaverunt oculi mei  

My eyes were blind with weeping; for he that consoled me is far from me. Consider, all you people, if there is any sorrow like my sorrow. All you who pass along this way, take heed and consider.

Recessit pastor noster 

Our shepherd, the fount of living water, is gone, at his passing the sun grew dark: For even he is taken, who held the first mortal captive. Today our Saviour has burst the gates and bolts of death. The bounds of hell he has destroyed and overthrown the devil’s power. 

Stabat Mater

Duet

Stood the Mother grieving 

beside the cross, weeping 

while on it hung her Son.

Soprano Aria

He whose soul, sighing,

saddened and suffering, 

was pierced by the sword.

Duet

O, how sad and afflicted 

was that blessed 

Mother of an only Son!

Alto Aria

Who mourned and grieved, 

the pious Mother, looking at 

her glorious Child’s torment.

Duet

Who is he that would not weep 

if he saw the Mother of Christ

in such torment?

Who would not be saddened 

contemplating the Mother of Christ 

suffering with her Son?

For the sins of his people

she saw Jesus in torment 

and to the scourge subjected.

Soprano Aria

She saw her sweet offspring 

dying forsaken, 

while He gave up his spirit.

Alto Aria

O Mother, fountain of love, 

make me feel the power of sorrow,

that I may grieve with you.

Duet

Cause my heart to burn 

in loving Christ the God, 

that I may please Him.

Duet

Holy Mother, may you do this: 

of the Crucified one fix the wounds 

in my heart securely. 

Of your wounded offspring, 

who deigned to suffer so much for me, 

his pains with me share.

Let me sincerely weep with you

bemoan the Crucified, for as long as I live

for as long as I live.

Beside the cross with you to stand

and to join you in your weeping, 

this I desire.

Virgin of virgins most exalted, 

to me be not now bitter, 

make me with you to lament. 

Alto Aria

Cause me to bear Christ’s death, 

of passion make me to be a partner

and the injuries to recollect.

Let me be wounded with his wounds, 

let me by the cross be inebriated 

and your Son's blood.

Duet

Lest I burn, set afire by flames, 

by you, Virgin, may I be defended

on the day of judgment.

Let me by the cross be guarded 

by Christ's death armed  

and by His grace nurtured.

Duet

When my body dies, 

grant that to my soul is given 

the glory of paradise. Amen.

Here's the program for the last concert in our Principal's Concert Series at St. Michael's College for the season, Ladies That are Most Rare with Justin Haynes, viola da gamba, and Katie Larson doing the pre-concert talk.

Charbonnel Lounge, University of St. Michael’s College, 81 St. Mary Street, 7:30 PM, Mar. 19th 2013.

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. One verse of the first song thinks it's dreadful to be turned into a weather beaten tree for  the sake of chastity, one thinks it's great to be forever green. 

Coy Daphne fled/Chast Daphne fled John Danyel (1564-c1626)
Eies looke no more Danyel
From depth of grief (Ps. 130) Anon.
Lyke as the Lute delights Danyel

Delacourt Pavan Anon.
Lachrimae Pavan John Dowland (1563-1626)
The Turtle Dove John Coprario (c. 1570-1626)

Go lovely Rose  Henry Lawes (1595-1622)
Sweet stay awhile Lawes

Comus with his Revellers, by William Blake

From the heav’ns now I fly Lawes
The Queenes Masque. the first Anon.
Sweet Eccho Lawes
Cuperaree or Grayes inn Coprario
The first of the Temple Robert Johnson (1583-c.1634)
Sabrina Lawes
Countrey Dance John Jenkins (1592-1678)
Country Dance Davis Mell (1604-62)
Now my taske Lawes

Hero’s Complaint to Leander Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666)

Oh mee the time has come to part Anon.

Program Notes
‘Into a most delicate and pleasant garden they came, lead by the King, who ther with true curiosities had Crowned himself in making that place the Crowne of all pleasure…Music ther was of all sorts… “Certainly,” sayd Amphilanthus, “voices resemble the heavenly music most, soe they bee rare and perfect voices.”
“Stronge voices you seeme to like the best,” sayd the King, “and such are heer (I can assure you) in all parfection, and Ladys that are most rare in that faculty.”’
- from Lady Mary Wroth’s Urania

John Danyel was the brother of the poet and playwright Samuel, who is the author of the lyrics ‘Lyke as the Lute’ and probably ‘Eies look no more.’ John Danyel’s Songs for the Lute, Viol and Voice of 1606 is dedicated to Mistress Anne Greene, the daughter of a wealthy if not particularly well-pedigreed knight, Sir William Greene.  Danyel worked as a household musician for the Greene family.  A few lines from his verse dedication will make clear the function of the songs in the collection.  ‘To Mrs. Anne Grene… That which was onely privately composed,/For your delight, Faire Ornament of Worth,/Is here, come to bee publikely disclosed:/And to an universall view put forth.’ These songs, then, were written for Anne to enjoy, and probably sing in her lessons with Danyel.

Before he was engaged at court, Henry Lawes also worked as a household musician, for the more illustrious Egerton family.  His duties included teaching the daughters of John Egerton, the Earl of Bridgewater, to sing.  Lawes dedicated his Ayres and Dialogues of 1653 is to Alice and Mary Egerton, by then Countess of Carbery and Lady Herbert of Cherbury. The dedication says of the songs ‘most of them were composed when I was employed to attend to your Ladishipp’s education in musick’,  that is, some 30 years earlier.  Lady Alice performed and sang in Milton’s Comus, for which Lawes wrote the music, and in which he also sang. We perform some dances from other Stuart masques between the Comus songs, since the dances have not survived, and some contemporary ‘Country Dances’ called for in the text. Since ‘Sweet stay awhile’ precedes the Comus songs in Lawes’ autograph songbook, we can presume it was written when he was still teaching the girls.

Who would have sung Lanier’s Hero’s Complaint? We know that Lanier did himself, but the song is in soprano clef. Might Lady Mary Wroth (author of ‘Oh mee’) be depicting herself as one of the strong voiced ladies by having herself depicted with her theorbo, the accompanying instrument? (See front of the program.) There is much in her Urania that is autobiographical. Her aunt was Lady Mary Sidney (author of the Psalm), and the Lanier family, the Sidneys and the Herberts were bound up in complicated bonds of loves and patronage.

Here's the program and notes Mar. 2nd concert, 8PM Heliconian Hall 35 Hazelton Ave. Toronto called You Who Hear in These Scattered Rhymes...

A manuscript of the first poem in Petrarch's  Canzoniere
'Voi che ascoltate... ' You who hear...

You Who Hear in these Scattered Rhymes…
Preludio Terzo Giovanni Kapsberger (c.1580-1651)
Voi ch’ascoltate Sigismondo d’India (c.1582-1629)/Petrarch
Amarilli mia bella Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)/(A. or G.B.) Guarini
Tutto il dì piango Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)/Petrarch
Aria di Fiorenza Kapsberger

Vedrò’l mio sol Caccini/Giovanni Battista Guarini
Torna, deh torna Caccini/Ottavio Rinuccini
O miei giorni fugaci Peri/Rinuccini

Laura Soave Fabritio Caroso (c.1530-after 1605)
Passamezzo Michelagnolo Galilei (1575-1631)

Cantata Sopra la Ciaccona Giovanni Felice Sances (c.1600-79)/Anon.

Donna, I’ vorrei dir molto d’India/Giambattista Marino
Tempesta di dolcezza Giovanni Nauwach (c.1595-c.1630)/Marino

Intermission

Lamento d’Arianna Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)/Rinuccini

Corrente detta la Brava/ Pietro Paolo Melli (1579-after 1623)
Corrente detta la Sansona/Alemana detta la Gentile
Saravanda in Varie partite Alessandro Piccinini (1566-c.1638)

O bella destra d’India/Torquato Tasso
Giunto a la tomba d’India/Tasso

Ho visto al mio dolore Biagio Marini (1594-1665)/Alessandro Striggio
Odi Euterpe Caccini/Anon.

The Harmony of the Planets and the Monochord, which Vincenzo Galilei, and his sons Galileo and Michelagnolo all worked on. 

Vincenzo Galilei would have done enough for history if he had only been the sire of Galileo the astronomer, but with Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini he was a key member of the group that theorized the development of ‘The New Music’. Galilei prescribes, following the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the way the composer should work; he should observe the speech of ‘the man infuriated or excited, the married woman, the clever harlot, the lover speaking to his mistress as he seeks to persuade her to grant his wishes, the man who laments…’ and follow the diction, pitch and rhythm of their speech when setting the affections of the poetry since ‘the most important and principal part of music is the imitation of the concepts of the words’. The composer for solo voice becomes a partner with the poet in the exhibition of the Classical rhetoric which permeates all the texts of the Renaissance. He almost inhabits a position between musician and drama director, telling the performer where the speech is agitated and quick, where the exclamations of the voice rise or fall into despair and below the musical clef. Peri and Caccini were the leading composers in this style. A contemporary of theirs opines that Peri’s ‘solo madrigals’ as they called them, were more true to the texts, while Caccini’s had more grace.

Claudio Monteverdi famously set his own Orfeo, with a libretto by Striggio, soon after opera's debut as Peri and Caccini's pasticcio. Though he could charm the ear as well as anyone Monteverdi was primarily an intellectual composer. When later in life he was given a text to set which was to be sung by the wind, Monteverdi said ‘Ariadne moved the audience because she was a woman.’ Indeed we are told that in the audience at the first performance of his opera L’Arianna (1608) we are told that ‘not one lady failed to shed a tear.’ Poor Ariadne has been dumped on a beach by her lover and the storms of her shifting emotions are captured by Monteverdi in an inventive tour de force.

Sigismondo d’India was a minor nobleman from Sicily who worked with the poet Marino at the Savoy court. His solo songs match the power of Monteverdi at his best, as evidenced in his setting of Petrarch’s Voi che ascoltate. This setting is almost a microcosm of all the techniques of the new music and the sonnet is carefully divided into its parts and the 'turns' of emotional gestures set by sometimes drastic key changes. Marini, Sances and Nauwach all represent the movement of the new music north of the Alps. Marini worked in Neuberg and Dusseldorf, Sances in Vienna and Giovanni Nauwach was in fact, Johann.

The organization of the music around the hyper-impassioned poetry leads, of course, to rather 'expressionistic' music. Another organizing principal the Baroque used was ground basses. Caccini's Torna uses the Romanesca, or its close relative the Passamezzo Antico. Another famous ground, often heard with its original tune, was taken from a tiny part of huge entertainment for the wedding of Caccini and Peri’s patron, Grand Duke Ferdiniand de’Medici, to Christina of Lorraine in 1589. This tune is sometimes called ‘Ballo della Gran Duca’ or ‘Laura Soave’ or, as in Kapsberger’s version, Aria di Fiorenza.

Petrarch

Voi ch’ascoltate - Petrarch
You who hear in scattered rhymes the sound
of those sighs with which I nourished my heart
at the time of my first youthful error,
when I was in part another man from what I am now,
for the varied style in which I weep and speak
between vain hopes and vain sorrow,
where there is anyone who understands love by experience,
I hope to find pity, and not only pardon.

But now I well see how for a long time
I was the talk of the crowd,
for which I often am ashamed within;
and for my raving, shame is the fruit,
and repentance, and the clear knowledge
that whatever pleases in the world is a brief dream.

Amarilli mia bella - Guarini
Amaryllis, my love, do you not believe
you are my heart's desire?
Believe it, and if doubt assails you,
take my arrow, open my breast
and you will find written in my heart:
Amaryllis is my love.

Tutto ’l dí piango - Petrarch
All day I weep: and then in the night
when wretched mortals take their rest,
I find myself weeping, redoubling my ills:
so I spend the time that’s mine in tears.
My eyes are drowned in sad moisture,
the heart with pain: and I am the worst
of creatures, the arrows of love pierce me
so all over, now that peace is exiled.

Alas, with one sun following on another,
one shadow after another, I’ve already passed
the greater part of this death, that they call life.
Another’s failing grieves me more than my own:
that living Pity, and solace of my faith,
sees the fire burning, and will not help me.

Vedrò’l mio sol - Guarini
I will see my sun; I will see, before I die,
That longed for day
That makes your ray come back to me.
O my light, o my joy.

It is sweeter to be in torment for you
Than to be in delight for another.
But without death I will not be able to suffer
Such a long martyrdom
And if I die, so will die my hope ever
To see the dawn of such a beautiful day.

Torna, deh Torna - Rinuccini
Return my little one,
Return, for without you I am without my heart!
Where do you hide, alas?  What have I done
That I neither see nor hear you Love?
Fly now to my arms; dissolve that bitter pain
Which consumes my heart.
Hear the plaintive sound of my voice,
Begging forgiveness with tears and sighs.
If I see not, I die not,
But seeing not, I live not;
Therefore I am dead, though not deprived of life.
O, miracle if love, ah, what a strange fate,
That living should be not life or dying death.

St. Jerome gets blasted by the Trumpet of Doom by Ribera

O miei giorni fugaci - Rinuccini
O my fleeting days,
O brief life, alas, you have already disappeared.
Now I hear, or seem to hear, the inexorable trumpet
calling me before you,
O just Lord. Already the awesome sound
resounds in my heart:
Lord have mercy on me and forgive me.

Cantata Sopra la Ciacona - Anon.
O pretty warbling birds
upon the breeze disperse
your querulous sounds
and tell of how I grieve,
of how from deep within my breast
sighs heartfelt I send forth.
Go, my languid plaintive sighs,
go to my Lydia with the wind
and tell her that in pain
I waste away without respite.
Perhaps she will now yield,
she who was then unmoved
by my sobbing and my tears.
Perhaps she'll give me peace,
perhaps she'll give me life.
Perhaps, hostile no more,
she'll say that she will grant
both peace and life
to him who was in love so bold.
A cold glance indeed reveals
angelic beauties of the soul.
He drew the dart and tore the veil.
He stole the honour with guileful zeal.
My honour, oh my honour.
Torn is now my veil,
cries out the hapless maiden
with woeful anguished wails.
And you, my sighs, reply to her
Lydia, Lydia, hush down your cries
and a virgin you are still,
for when on you my ardor I did vent
no one was there to see
no one but Lydia, my love, and me.

Marino

Donna, I’ vorrei dir molto - Marino
Woman, I would say so much
but my hesitating tongue is held by Love.
Though my tongue is silent, my glance is begging.
I am as foolish as I am miserable
not knowing what I want.
But you, who are in my heart and mind,
you certainly can read my thoughts
and see in my heart what I might want.

Tempesta di dolcezza - Marino
A tempest of sweetness
is what Love pours out upon my soul
while I kiss you, oh my treasure.
Languishing, I die.
A flood of kisses has submerged my soul.
Already from your lip,
at the sweet sonorous thunder
behind the lightning of your laughter
the thunderbolt of your tooth
has killed me.

Ariadne got married to Bacchus later and lived happily ever after.

Lamento d’Arianna - Rinuccini
Let me die, Let me die!
Whom would you wish to comfort me
In such a hard fate,
In such a great suffering?
Let me die!

O Theseus, my Theseus!
For I want to call on you, since you are mine.
Though, alas, cruel man, you flee from my sight.
Turn back my Theseus,
Oh God, turn back and look once more upon her
Who abandoned her country and her kingdom for your sake.
And who now on these shores,
A prey to pitiless wild beasts,
Will leave her bare bones!

O Theseus, my Theseus!
If you knew, Oh God, alas the torment
Of miserable Ariadne, Perhaps, in remorse,
Even now you would turn back your prow to shore.
But with gentle breezes you go happily on,
While I remain, weeping,
Athens prepares you greet you with joyful festivities,
While I remain, weeping, a prey to the wild beats of these lonely shores.
Both your aged parents will embrace you with joy
But I will see you no more, O mother, O  my father.

Where, where is the faith you so often swore to me?
Is this how you restore me to my ancestor’s ancient throne?
Are these the crowns with which you adorn my hair?
Are these the sceptres, are these the jewels and the gold?
To leave me  abandoned,
To be torn by and devoured by wild beasts?
Ah, Theseus, O my Theseus,
Will you leave me to die and weep in vain crying for help,
Poor wretched Ariadne, who gave you her trust, glory and life?

Oh! you don’t even reply! To my lament his ears are as deaf as a serpent’s
O, storms, O hurricanes, O Gales
Push him down beneath the waves!
Hurry sea-monsters and whales
Fill the bottomless deep with his foul limbs.
What am I saying? Why an I raving?
Alas! Wretch that I am, what do I want?

O Theseus, O my Theseus,
It was not I who uttered those savage words.
My grief spoke, my anguish spoke,
My tongue spoke, yes, but not my heart!

Unhappy woman, I still give way
To my betrayed hope, and still
After so much scorn, the fires of love are not quenched!
O death, now extinguish the worthless flames!
O mother, O father, O proud homes of the ancient kingdom where my golden cradle rested.
O servants, O faithful friends (Ah unworthy fate)
See where wicked fate has led me.
See the grief I have inherited from my love, my trust and his deceit.
One who loves too well and trusts too much such a fate endures.

Tasso

O bella destra - Tasso
O beautiful right hand that offered me
sweet assurance of friendship and of peace,
look at you now...how can you suffer me?
And how, you loveliest limbs...are not these
the evidence of my beastlike enmity,
and sad and deadly signs of wickedness?
O my eyes, wicked as my hands, to gaze
upon the wounds that they have made.

Giunto ala tomba - Tasso
He reached the tomb, the prison house where heaven
had ordained for his living soul to dwell,
and on the stone he fixed his eyes, cold, wan,
speechless and still as if insensible.
At last he broke into a languid sigh,
Alas, as a river of weeping broke the spell.
‘O stone to highly loved, and honoured, keeping
my spirit’s flames within, without, my weeping.’

Ho visto al mio dolore - Striggio
I saw, to my grief,
shedding thousands by thousands,
from her pitiful eyes, dewy drops,
the gentle Silvia;
such as never shed before
when stung by pain to the heart
over the dead Adonis
was the love goddess.
And miserable me, who
from such water my fire takes strength,
and it inflames me all the more.

St. Cecilia with Alabaster Apple and Theorbo

Odi Euterpe - Anon.
Hear, Euterpe, the lovely song
that Love urges me to compose
and help me attune to these sweet accents
the strings of my golden lyre.
Sweet Love whispers to me verses
and compels me to sing sweetly.

 My  fair Lydia covered her bosom
with the chaste veil of night
but the moon high in the sky
uncovered it and I beheld
a wondrous treasure
brightly lit by golden flames.

Your fair bosom thus unveiled
cast out radiant flames asparkle.
While your bosom I admired
with its golden fire ablazing
I beheld in so much splendour
other treasures to desire.

Oh my Lydia, your bright eyes
shine more splendid than the sun.
They cast light upon your bosom
for my own eyes to delight,
the serene glow of your gaze
ever brightening your graces.

My heart was burning sweetly.
Every flame in Lydia's breast
made my eyes rejoice the greater,
and my heart, already wounded,
wanted wounding ever more.

Then my eager gaze was blinded
by the light of many a beauty,
sated it was not by any
restless on it searched for others,
so my eyes... they died of pleasure
on two alabaster apples.

Here's the program for the Hail Bishop Valentine Concert, 7:30PM, Feb. 12, 2013, Charbonnel Lounge, St. Michael’s College, 81 St. Mary Street. Come one, come all. 

Preludium John Dowland (1563-1626)
Excerpt from 'The life and death of our late most incomparable and heroique prince, Henry Prince of Wales by Sir Charles Cornwallis
So parted you John Coprario (c. 1570-1626)
The Prince his Almayne Robert Johnson (c.1583-1634)

John Donne

An Epithalamion, or Mariage Song on the Lady Elizabeth, and Count Palatine being married on St. Valentines Day by John Donne, Stanza 1
Come away, come sweet love Dowland
The Lady Elyza: her masque Johnson

Epithalamion Stanza 2
When Laura smiles Philip Rosseter (1567-1623)
Solus cum Sola Dowland

Epithalamion Stanza 3
Sweet stay awhile Dowland
Delyght Pavan John Johnson (c1545-94)

Epithalamion Stanza 4
Deare, if you change Dowland
Delyght Gallyard John Johnson

Epithalamion Stanza 5
Cleare of cloudie Dowland
Nowe to bed Anon.

Epithalamion Stanza 6
Time stands still Dowland
My Hart is Surely Sett Anon.

Epithalamion Stanza 7
Faine would I wed Campion
Greensleeves Francis Cutting (c.1550-1596)

Epithalamion Stanza 8
There is a Garden in her face Robert Jones (1577-1617)

George V,  grandad of Elizabeth II,  from the House of Windsor, and Charles I, brother of 

Princess Elizabeth of the House of Stuart. Family resemblance?

Program Notes
‘I may be uninspiring, but I’ll be damned if I’m alien!’ British King George V is supposed to have said in response to H.G. Wells’s criticism of the royal lack of charisma and excess of Germanness. The charisma problem was all George’s own, but we can pinpoint the source of the latter.

The first ‘British’ king, James VI of Scotland, inherited the English Tudor crown and soon set about marrying off his children to various continental dynasties to cement his ‘prince of peace’ policy. As you will hear in the reading from the Cornwallis letter, James’s daughter Elizabeth was matched with various princes, but public opinion, and particularly that of her brother Henry, Prince of Wales, settled on Frederick, Elector Palatine, who Cornwallis calls by another of his titles ‘The Palsgrave’. The sickly Henry died after a vigorous game of tennis with Frederick in October 1612. We present a song, words by Campion, music by Coprario, from the point of view of Elizabeth on that tragedy.

The official commemorative poem of the Royal Wedding of Valentine’s Day, 1613 was by John Donne, which you hear tonight read in the pronunciation of the time. Donne and Campion (his texts are heard here set by Jones, Rosseter and himself as well) seem to have competed as the official court mouthpieces. Between the verses of Donne’s wedding poem we sing some love songs of the period untouched by the cruel disdain of the harsh mistresses that breaks the hearts of so many poets and songwriters in that age of melancholy, along with some lute pieces the titles of which might allude to the delights of new love.

And about the Germanness: Frederick and Elizabeth’s grandson came to the British throne, not speaking a word of English, as George I, of the House of Hanover and his great-great-granddaughter Victoria still spoke German around the house. Public opinion in WWI forced George V to adopt the last name Windsor and lose the German sounding ‘House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha’ handle. God Save the Queen.