England’s Glory: Country Dances, Songs and Consorts of the Golden Age
Caroline Nicolas ~ treble viol; Charlie Reed & Lisa Terry ~ tenor viol; Patricia Neely & Sarah Stone ~ bass viol; Gene Murrow ~ concertina & recorders; Ruth Cunningham ~ voice, flute & recorders
English Country Dances – Musical Arrangements by Marshall Barron from The Dancing Master, John Playford
Indian Queen (1701) ~ Beggar Boy (1651) ~ Beaux of Oak Hill – Traditional
Fantasia a 6, No. 2 – William Byrd (1540‒1623)
Come Again – John Dowland (1563‒1626)
Fantasia a 6, No. 2 – Orlando Gibbons (1583‒1625)
From Pavans, Galliards, Almains and other short Aeirs – (1599) Anthony Holborne (ca.1550‒1602)
The Cradle ~ The Honie-suckle ~ The Widowes myte
Pavan Passamezzo a 6 – Peter Philips (1560‒1628)
Awake Sweet Love – John Dowland
English Ballads and Country Dances – John Playford
Greensleeves ~ Greensleeves and Yellow Lace (1721); Broom of the Cowdenknows ~ Broom, the Bonny, Bonny Broom (1651); The Joviall Broom Man ~ Jamaica (1670)
What is a viol? At this concert, I learned that it is a viola da gamba, a six-stringed, bowed instrument with frets on the fingerboard; hence, it is in the guitar family, not the cello family, even though it is played vertically, like a cello.
On to the music. First up was a set of three dances. The first was jolly and included the concertina and a recorder. The concertina is a free-reed and bellows instrument similar to, but smaller than, an accordion and plays in the range of the violin. The second dance was slightly subdued and had a flute introduction, then all five viols joined in. The third dance had two recorders, five viols, and it was slightly sprightly.
The Byrd Fantasia seemed strophic and fugue-like, sort of like an instrumental song. The first Dowland piece, Come Again, was very familiar to me, and was scored for viols (two or three, I couldn’t see the hands of some of the viol players) and soprano. Vocal verse, instrumental repeat, second vocal verse, instrumental repeat with a bit of vocals added to round out the piece.
The Gibbons Fantasia had very dense writing for the viols, richly textured, and then had the concertina join in. The Holborne was another set of three dances—a somber, but not a downer, Pavan for four viols and concertina, then an Almain that was jaunty and dance-like in a sedate way, with a recorder added into the mix, while the third was a Galliard that was also jaunty with interesting shifting rhythms.
The Pavan Passamezzo a 6 was essentially several sections that were all tied together by a repetitive bass line. The bass line was played solo before the piece as a demo, but with the richly textured writing for the five viols, I wasn’t as aware of the bass line as I thought I would be.
Awake Sweet Love (Dowland) was scored for soprano and four viols and was sweet and almost simple, though not truly simple.
The last piece looked like six pieces but wasn’t. It was a set of three songs, each in two parts. Each tune was introduced, and then the piece that followed was based on its preceding tune. For instance, Greensleeves was performed by the soprano and a single viol; Greensleeves and Yellow Lace began with concertina with two viols and then the other viols joined in. The same format was followed for the Broom pair of songs, though the first tune was not familiar to me. The final pair started with soprano, concertina and three viols. The second version was tutti—jolly and full bodied, with a recorder added to the fun. It was a great ending to the concert.
ConcertMeister
I hope to add a photo; that may need to wait for my Facebook posts.
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