Bud Roach, tenor and theorbo
Gotham Early Music Scene
First question, class. Do we all remember what a theorbo is? Yes! A lute on steroids. It is plucked/strummed like a lute but has a much longer neck with much longer strings.
Now, on to the music. There were seventeen pieces—no, I'm not naming them all. I'm not even naming all of the composers. Ah, the composers. They were born between 1567 (Claudio Monteverdi) and fl. 1695 (William Thomson). What's fl. you ask? I had to look it up, too. It denotes a date or period during which a person was known to be alive or active (flourished). Other composers were Maurizio Cazzati, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Henry Purcell, John Blow, William Lawes, et al.
OK, we've all learned something. The end.
I'm kidding.
Here's the thing. The first half of the program was sung entirely in Italian, though translations of the texts were provided. The second half was sung in English, with texts provided, though one had a strong Scottish flair to it. I really did learn some new things, as I only recognized the names of two of the Italian composers and four of the English composers.
OK, finally, now on to the music. It was all very much the same. Songs of lamented love. There were a (very) few tempo changes. There was one piece that was strophic with a repeated refrain. At least the repeated refrain was an anchor we could recognize and cling to (the refrain, not the anchor).
Two were dialogues, which made them more effective. In the Merry Month of May (John Wilson (1595–1674)) gave us the story of Phillida and Corydon. In Johnny and Nelly (William Thomson (fl. 1695–1753)), we had Johnny and Nelly trading dialogue with that distinct Scottish flair—"To fields where cannons rair, thou need nae grieve thee", etc.
Mr. Roach sang with a clear sound (little to no vibrato), and the theorbo accompaniments were simple yet effective. And that's the closest I'll get to an actual review, which is not my intent of writing these blogposts.
ConcertMeister
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