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Concert for St George's Day
and to commemorate the Birth of Shakespeare

Anytime, Thursday 23rd April 2020

MoT-O

Artistes: various

Listening position:

Relax with your personal choice(s) of beverage,
in a place of your choosing, alone, or with members of your household

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Kenneth J Alford (1881-1945)
Standard of St George
Massed Bands of the Household Division

Traditional
Greensleeves
The King's Singers (BBC Proms May 2009)

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) Le Mozart Noir
 Symphony in G, Op. 11 No. 1: I. Allegro  Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

Apolytikion of St George
Hymns of Saint George & Bright Monday
Dynamis Byzantine Ensemble

Mykola Leontovych (1877-1921)
Carol of the Bells at Windsor
St George's Chapel Choir, Windsor
St George is also a patron saint of Russia

Traditional
The Song of the Staffordshire Men
folk singer Jon Raven (1940-2016)

And let's not forget the other event we celebrate today - the Birth of Shakespeare

Anthony Holbourne (1545-1602)
Heart's Ease, or the Honie-Suckle
Voices of Music, San Francisco, 2016

Music Shakespeare heard:

Anthony Holborne's setting of Hearts-Ease, also known as the Honie-Suckle, from Romeo & Juliet.

Mention of the tune occurs during an exchange with the musicians in Act IV, Scene V. It includes numerous puns on musical terms and the notes of the hexachord:

PETER Musicians, O, musicians, "Heart's ease," "Heart's ease:"
O, an you will have me live, play "Heart's ease."

FIRST MUSICIAN Why "Heart's ease?"

PETER O, musicians, because my heart itself plays "My heart is full of woe:" O, play me some merry dump, to comfort me.

FIRST MUSICIAN Not a dump we; 'tis no time to play now.

PETER You will not, then?

FIRST MUSICIAN No.

PETER I will then give it you soundly.

FIRST MUSICIAN What will you give us?

PETER No money, on my faith, but the gleek;
I will give you the minstrel.

FIRST MUSICIAN Then I will give you the serving-creature.

PETER Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate.
I will carry no crotchets: I'll re you, I'll fa you; do you note me?

FIRST MUSICIAN An you re us and fa us, you note us.

continued. . .

SECOND MUSICIAN Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit.

PETER Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men:
        "When griping grief the heart doth wound,
          And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
          Then music with her silver sound"--
why "silver sound"? why "music with her silver sound"? What say you, Simon Catling?

SECOND MUSICIAN Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

PETER Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck?

SECOND MUSICIAN I say 'silver sound,' because musicians sound for silver.

PETER Pretty too! What say you, James Soundpost?

THIRD MUSICIAN Faith, I know not what to say.

A stage direction in the 2nd Quarto suggests that the scene may have been written to include the Elizabethan actor and dancer Will Kempe, a popular figure in the theatre.

Glossary & Punning:

Peter
gleek: jibe
give you the minstrel: call you rogues

First Musician
give you the serving-creature: call you a lowly servant

Peter
crotchets: whims
I'll re you, I'll fa you: I'll make you sing another tune
do you note me? do you heed me/mark my words

First Musician
If you re us and fa us you set us to music

Second Musician
put out your wit: display your wit
Peter
dry-beat: beat without drawing blood
griping = gripping
doleful dumps: sad dejection
Catling: catgut of the lute string, Simon Catling = lutenist
Second Musician
Peter
Pretty! = Well done!
Rebeck: or rebec, 3-stringed fiddle, hence another musical nickname Hugh Rebeck
Second Musician    ... musicians play for money
Peter
James Soundpost: soundpost = a structural part of stringed instruments, another musical nickname

Music Shakespeare Heard: Sonnet cxxviii

The Carman's Whistle, William Byrd (1542-1623)
Ernst Stoltz, virginals

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 jack, that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood´s boldness by thee blushing stand!
To be so t i c k l e d, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O´er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more bless´d than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me the lips to kiss.

Music Shakespeare heard:

Musicians play authentic Tudor music with Tudor instruments at Mary Arden's Farm.

Mary Arden was William Shakespeare's mother.

. . . and a setting Shakespeare certainly did not hear:

William Matthias (1934-1992)
Blow, Blow Thou wintry wind,

Westlake Girls' & Boys' High Schools
Choralation
(what a great name for a combined choir)
conductor: Rowan Johnston

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
   Thou art not so unkind
      As man’s ingratitude;
   Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
      Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
   Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
      This life is most jolly.

   Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
   That dost not bite so nigh
      As benefits forgot:
   Though thou the waters warp,
      Thy sting is not so sharp
      As friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly...

Traditional
Scarborough Fair
singer Alison Medini

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Five English Folk Songs
      I   The Dark-Eyed Sailor
      II  The Spring Time of the Year
      III Just as the Tide Was Flowing
      IV The Lover's Ghost
                (or Well met, my own true love)
      V Wassail Song

Stockholms universitetskörs, in the English Church, Stockholm

Ralph Vaughan Williams
arr Gordon Jacob (1895-1984)
English Folk Song Suite
     1. March: Seventeen Come Sunday
     2. Intermezzo: My Bonny Boy
     3. March: Folk Songs from Somerset

Lucca Philharmonic Orchestra
from Queen's Jubilee Concert,
Chiesa di San Giovanni, Lucca, June 2012

We hope you have enjoyed your  St George's Day Concert Online

Watch your email and this website for our next Online event

comments welcome: [email protected]

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Concert Selections Still Available on this Website:

Friday
1st
May
2020

anytime

Music on May Day - Online

video recordings of May Day Morning in Oxford, folk & traditional tunes, Lei Day, The Beatles, Soloviov-Sedoï, Scarlatti, and Vaughan Williams

to access the concert webpage: please click on the Date or the Maypole and Dancers
Venue: this website and a place of your choosing

Thursday
27th February 2020

recordings
still avalable

3pm: AGM Piano Concert - Guest pianist: Marina Kan

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No 14, Moonlight
Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No 1 in D minor
Grieg: Lyric Pieces

to access the concert webpage: please click on the Date or on Marin Kan's photo
Venue: this website and a place of your choosing

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