h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm putting on a concert tomorrow night (Sat 2 July) in St Nahi's, a tiny (capacity about 40) church in Dundrum, Dublin. It's called "High Summer" and here (for the record) is the programme:

An evening of Renaissance domestic music with Laoise O’Brien and Jenny Robinson (recorders), and The Dublin Viols: Lucy Robinson, Anne Robinson, Andrew Robinson (Recumbentman).

1. Fyer, Fyer! (Balletto): Thomas Morley 1597
2. Sir Henry Umpton’s Funeral; M. Bucton’s; Susanne (Pavan & Galliards): John Dowland 1607
3. Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Hymn): Guillaume Dufay c1400-1474
4. Vestiva i Colli (Madrigal): Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina 1566
5. Go From My Window (Variations): William Cranford fl. c1625
6. In Nomine: Thomas Weelkes c1575-1623
7. Ah Robin, Gentle Robin (Round): William Cornysh c1468-1523
8. Fantazia "two parts in one": William Byrd 1543-1623
9. Browning (Variations): Elway Bevin 1554-1639 & Henry Stoning fl. c1600
10. Recorder solo by Laoise; to be announced
11. Bergamasca Anglica (Canzona): Samuel Scheidt 1621
12. The Fruit of Love; The Honie-suckle; Heigh-ho Holiday; The Fairie Rounde (Almains & Corrantos): Anthony Holborne 1599
13. Hackney (Consort): Clement Woodcock fl c1575

Laoise O’Brien studied recorder in Amsterdam under Paul Leenhouts. She now teaches in the Cork School of Music and the DIT Conservatory of Music, Dublin. She began her studies with Mrs. Recumbentman, Jenny Robinson, and returned to the recorder after graduating with great distinction on the flute from the DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology).

Jenny Robinson teaches the recorder in Dublin and performs in various groups including the Baroque ensemble Trio Quattro.

Lucy Robinson (tenor viol) and Anne Robinson (bass viol and tenor recorder) perform Mediæval music in the group Seanma, who last year released their second CD "Sweet Companions".

Andrew Robinson (bass viol) teaches the viol in the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the DIT Conservatory of Music, and the Orpheon Summer Academy in the Czech Republic http://www.mdw.ac.at/I105/orpheon/Seiten/Courses/JH2005-Kurs.htm

Admission €12, concessions €6, family ticket €20. The concert will be given in aid of the St Nahi’s Early Music Fund which helps Irish students specialising in early music abroad. I wanted to make it a short concert for a long evening; there's about an hour of music; there's no interval, and the audience are given glasses of wine or a soft drink at the end. Good value or what?

I wanted to keep it to one example of each kind of piece, but ended up with three sets of variations, one on "Go From My Window" and two on "Browning". Still, keeping to one pavan and one fantazia shows great restraint

Sorry - can't come this time either. Will you be recording it?

Sounds like my kind of thing. Has played the recorder since I was 10 years - with a longish (20 years) break. But alas, I'm in Denmark - and am playing myself tomorrow. Ballads from the 1960es end 70es Beatles's and Paul Simon's music is very nice for recorder and acoustic guitar

A great combination for improvising, recorder + guitar

Apparently someone will be recording the concert with good quality gear, just for the hell of it. Might post an MP3 on http://www.Andrew.Robinson.net if there's a good track to be had.

I'm not sure whether I'll be at the concert, Andrew.

Is the family ticket really cheaper than two adult tickets?

Yes that was my publicity coup: a family got in for less than two adults. Thanks for coming along, Gnomon; it was only after getting home around midnight that I realised what everyone who came was dragging themselves away from. We were rehearsing all afternoon and hadn't caught any of Live8.

I'll keep this conversation posted about whether the recording came out usable or not; though there may be a delay of three weeks as I'm off to Kerry tomorrow.

We still got back in time to see the "old bands" playing on Live 8: Disaster Area and Pink Floyd.

It'll be interesting to see if my daughter's supressed guffaws come out on the recording when you started talking Scheidt.

I'm so used to it now I don't notice it any more. I've been talking Scheidt for most of my life. I do rememeber when I first came across him; a music teacher in school said "I have a piece of Scheidt here, I'll show it to you."

I think he's a marvellous composer, a true precursor of Bach (Scheidt was almost exactly a century earlier). Schütz I find overrated by comparison.

I really enjoyed all the music. But I have to admit that I find a certain sameness to it all, which as a performer you probably don't notice so much.

Did you have a cittern or a bandora for the Holborne?



Is the surname Robinson near Dublin, like Morgan in Wales; or are all the other Robinsons kin?



Is there much in the way of extant Irish music from early Rennaissance, or just this late R, English stuff?

Hello SC

I have a bandora but didn't use it in this concert; just recorders & viols.

Robinson is not a very common surname in Ireland, but there are many here we are not consciously related to.

Irish music was flourishing at the Renaissance but not written down (hardly at all) until the 18th century, so it only survives in the oral tradition. Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I all employed Irish harpers at the English court, and Francis Bacon praised the sweetness of the Irish harp.

Hi there, R'man.

Just dropped into hootoo briefly because OEDILF seems to be having server problems. When do you get back from Kerry? Soonish, methinks. How did the recording of the St.Nahi's concert come out? Sounds like a fine programme.

BTW, have now made it into the top twenty on OEDILF, at around 300 lims. No wonder I feel legless most nights, having put all my lims into OEDILF!

Cheers,

C

Although that last post was Greek to me, I can't resist:

Chaiwallah is now short of lims
and his server is succumbing to whims
So he's not hootooed
As much as he would
But the quality of his posts never dims

OEDILF is the Oxford English Dictionary In Limerick Form, as far as I know, which should help to translate the Greek.

Aaah! I got as far as OED but then was stumped. Oh dear, if someone has written a whole dictionary, I don't think I'll bother with any more limericks. How about this gem from a non-English-speaker:

F19585?thread=680460&show=20&skip=180#pi197

(post 193)

It sums up the subject of the thread, in which Malabrista who shares a flat with some others, was looking for help on how to deal with a chap who was not paying his rent and was generally being disagreeable, and who was christened, for the purposes of the thread, "Mr Yolk" as he considered himself "das Gelbe vom Ei" - the eggyolk, which is the German equivalent of the bee's knees.

(As to the German figure of speech, "das gelbe vom Ei", Malabrista pointed out that at least an egg did have a yolk, whereas bees do not have knees, nor do cats have pyjamas. However, I think the point of the English expression "cat's pyjamas" would be lost if cats did have pyjamas, then they'd be nothing special. Bees knees is simply just for the fun of the assonance. Although "fleas' knees" are far less poetic, although they sound almost the same.)

I always thought "the bees knees" was just "the business" spoken while wearing a sombrero.

O sheet got it wrong again.

Hi guys, back again from sunny Kerry. See you Chai, if you're around the big shmoak. And congratulations on making the top 20. What a splendid record of enthusiasm and energy, not to mention dogged determination and loyalty to a cause.

OEDILF http://www.oedilf.com/ had to change from "Oxford" to "the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form" because they ran into copyright problems (or anticipated doing so if and when they publish on paper).

They now have 16653 Limericks, of which 5740 have been approved for their equivalent of The Edited Guide, and are still on words beginning with A to Ba.