The 20th Galway Early Music Festival

TIME WARP!

SUNDAY, MAY 17, 201516:00

CONNACHT PRINT WORKS, MARKET STGALWAY

May 14 - 17, 2015

ALPHABET BAROQUE CLUBJudiyaba - treble viol • Maria Caswell - violin • Gwyneth Davis - viola da gamba •

Phebe Craig - harpsichord • Adrian Tinniswood - reader

Galway Early Music would like to thank its sponsors and friends, without whose support the

Festival would not happen.

Michael & Clare CuddyTom Grealy

Kimberly LoPrete

MEDIA SPONSORS

SILVER PATRONS

SUPPORTED BY

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TOSt Nicholas Collegiate Church

Connacht Tribune for The Print WorksThe Loft @ Seven

Charlie Byrnes BookshopCentre for Ancient, Medieval & Pre-Modern Studies, NUI Galway

Il Vicolo Restaurant

Galway Early Music is a member ofREMA - The European Early Music Network

Galway Early Music @gwy_earlymusic

PRINT PARTNER

Riana & Pat O’DwyerSeán & Lois Tobin

Janet Vinnell

INTERACTIVE PROGRAMMEwith puzzles and problems for you to solve

The Time Machine! or name that backward tune:a) I am the Walrus b) Yes, we have no bananas c) Hallelujah Lednah G. ( )

fill in the dates (clues on next page)

☟

Sonata Settima G. B. Fontana ( )

Too Clever by Half or playing with time.In Nomine “Trust”What Strikes the ClockCanone InversoMa fin est mon commencement

G. Machaut (1300-1377)Christopher Tye (c 1500-c 1573Edward Gibbons (1568-c 1650)J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

match each piece to its composer!

☟

Sonata OttavaSoavementeCanzone VivaceGraveBizzariaAdagioAllegro

Carolus Hacquart ( )

Draw a picture of a bizzaria here ☞

Partita VSonataAriaTerza Ciacona

Joh. Pachelbel ( )

Seventh Inning StretchWhat kind of exercise do you think this is? Try it out now!

Messing with your mind or “Don’t try this at home!”Sit Fast Christopher Tye

Royal Good Times The Time of YouthPastime with Good CompanyTime to pass with Goodly Sport

Henry VIII (1491-1547)Henry VIIIAnonymous

Write your favorite pastime here ☞

Time is shortThomas-Town (Words: Dr. Biles)Cobham (Words: Dr. Watts)Broad Cove (Words: Dr. Biles)

Wm. Billings ( )

Draw an inch or two of time here☞

Some things never change or union organising in 18th c. ParisLes Fastes des la grandes et anciennes MxnxstrxnxdxsxPremier Acte. Marche-Sans LenteurSecond Acte. 1er Air de Vièle; Second Air de VièleTroisième Acte. Lé gérementQuatrième Acte. Les Disloqués; Les BoiteuxCinquième Acte. Tres vîte

François Couperin ( )

Clues to Composers’ Dates

1580/89-c. 16301640-17011653-17061668-17331746-18001759-1685

PROGRAMME NOTES

Time Warp: A hypothetical discontinuity or distortion occurring inthe flow of time that would move events from one time period toanother or suspend the passage of time.”-The Free Dictionary

The Time Machine!What better way to go back in time than playing a beloved piece of musicbackwards! Our Time Warped concert has many beautiful pieces representativeof the times and tastes of the baroque, as well as several pieces more directly onthe subject of Time.

Music is the organization of sound and time.Elliott Schwartz (composer)

A piece of music is simply a chunk of time you are paying attentionto with your ears.

Barney Childs, quote in Ewen, American Composers (1982)

Time is of the utmost importance in music. One might say time in music isorganized in two basic ways: rhythm (duration), and meter (groupings).Stretching the idea slightly, one could include direction! Composers love toplay with these concepts.

In our first grouping, Too Clever by Half, two of the pieces, Canone Inversoand Ma fin est mon commencement, play music backward and forward at the sametime. Metric convention was broken by the composer of the In Nomine“Trust” ,which is written in 5 parts with 5 beats to the bar, an almost un-known meter at the time. The lovely viol piece What Strikes the Clock has thealto voice striking the hours (1; 1,2; 1,2,3;...) as the basis for a carillon of notesin the outer parts pealing around the hours.

Messing with your mind!Tye was an influential and innovative English composer, organist and teacher.Sit Fast is a tour de force in proportion, wherein the players play rhythmsagainst each other such as 3 against 2, 3 against 4, and even 7 against 9! It mayhave been written as a teaching device.

Royal Good TimesTime is also important in texts and contexts. Henry VIII and contemporariesat his 16th century English court were interested in good times, as long asthey were relatively pleasing to God.

Time is shortOn the other hand, Wm. Billings' texts are more interested in the moral implications of our time on earth. Billings, an exclusively 18th century American composer, is considered the father of American Choral music, and isbelieved to be the first to use the 'cello in the church, paving the way for theintroduction of the organ.

Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilised into time and tune. Thomas Fuller, History of the Worthies ofEngland (1662), ‘Musicians’

Four of our pieces are longer instrumental works which, while not beingspecifically about “Time”, are beautiful examples of the musical style at thetime each was written.

The first is a trio sonata by GB Fontana, an early 17th century Italian composer. Fontana was among the first composers writing specifically for violins. In the 17th century the violin family's more brilliant qualities beganto supplant the 16th century's preferred and sweeter viol family. The music iswritten in an episodic style, short movements following one on the other withlittle or no break.

Somewhat later in the century C. Hacquart, a Belgian viol player and composer working in Amsterdam, wrote inventive trios and quartets for violins and viols combined in a similar style to Fontana.

J. Pachelbel, despite being a near contemporary of Hacquart, wrote in themuch different style of the German High Baroque. The Partia V has distinctmovements, the last of which is the dance form of the Ciacona, which uses aneight bar bass line repeated 13 times. You may recognize this device from hisfamous Canon in D, which you may also have heard at the last wedding youattended!

Some things never change!François Couperin, appointed by Louis XIV Organiste de Roi, was rather af-fronted when the ancient Confrérie de St. Julien-des-Ménétriers, the guild ofpublic musicians which included theater and circus musicians, attempted togain control of composers and keyboardists, so he wrote this satirical harpsi-chord piece in response. We have taken the liberty of orchestrating it.

Music is the best means we have of digesting time. W. H. Auden, quoted in Craft, Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship (1972)

Now we've finished playing, let's go eat!

Alphabet Baroque Club

The ABC is an outgrowth of Judiyaba's A to Zed Concert series in whicheach month a concert was presented using only composers whose namesbegan with a certain letter of the alphabet, starting with “A”. We four hadsuch fun working on the baroque concerts of this series that we decided tocontinue working together as the ABC. Last June we performed at the Berkeley Early Music Festival Fringe, doing our “All Over the Map” program.The ABC not only actually enjoys rehearsing together, we also enjoy eatingtogether as an integral part of our rehearsal process. The ABC is not a comedygroup, but we do like to have fun with our programs!

Judiyaba, treble gamba, in her Clark Kent persona, has spent most of her career to date playing cello with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and SanFrancisco Symphony. She has been a character in the SF Bay Area music scenesince concerts were “happenings.” She took up the treble gamba so she couldplay melody lines and boss the basso continuo around, like those diva violinplayers! She is also an avid quilter, water colorist, and concert impresaria. Sheand partner Gwyneth Davis keep a few sheep in order to fill the freezer withlamb to feed the ABC!

Gwyneth Davis, bass viola da gamba, plays cello for The Lamplighters, SF'sGilbert and Sullivan theater company, and with the Eloquence String Quartetand various small opera companies. She fills those awkward morning hoursworking as a professional dessert chef. She is the chief reason why we usuallyrehearse at her and Judiyaba's house. The food is best there, you see! She tookup gamba to play all the interesting French music, but ends up playing violalines all too often.

Phebe Craig teaches harpsichord, music theory, and whatever else they ropeher into at the University of California at Davis, the premier agricultureschool in the UC system! As a continuo harpsichordist she has played withnearly every early music ensemble ever in the SF Bay Area. She now lives inabout four or so places, including Utah. Luckily she is able to move her harpsichords in and out of her car by herself. She is further fortunate to havefound this ABClub: she eats well, laughs a lot, plays a lot,and has finally learnedher ABCs.

Maria Caswell, violin, is a founding member of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the “premier baroque orchestra” (New York Times) of the UnitedStates. She also plays violin and viola with other early music groups in the SFBay Area including Live Oak Baroque Orchestra and Voices of Music. You cansee her playing viola on Voices of Music’s beautiful Brandenburg 3 video onYoutube. It has been suggested she take up tenor viol, but she is too much of aprima donna to do that. When at home she teaches violin and takes walkswith her useless but entertaining goats.

We welcome your feedback! In person or atmariacaswell@sbcglobal.net

And, believe it or not, you can even “Like” us and seeworking photos of us and our animals

on our Facebook page:

Alphabet Baroque Club

www.galwayearlymusic.comtel. +353-(0)83-461 9039

e-mail: info@galwayearlymusic.com

Galway Early Music @gwy_earlymusic

Galway Early Music